Gogura

It is also written as gozo, and is also called shaso or giso. In the Edo period, it was a rice storage warehouse that was set up in each village or in a group of villages. The buildings were owned by the village or the government, and the land was exempt from taxation as it was excluded land. The purpose of the warehouses was to store rice as tax or to save for famine. In some cases, they served both purposes. At that time, taxes were paid in installments, so a place to store them was essential, and in villages far from the castle town, it was also necessary to temporarily store the tax rice before transporting it there. In such cases, villages would assign gozo storekeepers to store the rice securely. On the other hand, in preparation for poor harvests, villages would collect rice and miscellaneous grains according to the amount of the farmers' income on a regular basis, and store them in gozo warehouses for emergency use, to help the poor. Many of them were set up as part of the lord's agricultural promotion policy.

[Akira Yoshinaga]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

郷蔵とも書き、社倉(しゃそう)、義倉(ぎそう)ともいう。江戸時代、各村々、あるいは数か村に1か所設けられた米穀の収蔵倉をいう。建物は村有または官有、敷地は除地(じょち)として課税を免除されていた。設置の目的は、年貢米の保管または備荒(びこう)貯蓄のためであった。場合によっては両者を兼ねた例もある。当時、年貢は分納されていたので、これを収蔵するところがぜひ必要であったし、城下から離れた村では、そこへ運ぶ前に年貢米を一時保管しておくことも必要であった。この場合、村々では郷倉番人を置いて厳重に保管した。他方、凶作に備えて村々では、米、雑穀類を平常から農民の分限に応じて集めておき、非常用として郷倉に保管し、窮民の救済にあてた。その多くは領主による勧農政策の一環として設置された場合が多い。

［吉永　昭］

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