Strong appeal - Gouso

To form a group and forcibly petition. Also written as 'sokuso'. From the mid-Heian to the end of the Muromachi period, this refers to the actions of monks and priests of temples and shrines taking up arms and acting collectively to present their demands to the Imperial Court or important people and demand their approval. The most notable examples of this were the activities of the monks of Kofuku-ji Temple in Nara who held the sacred tree of Kasuga, and the masses of Enryaku-ji Temple on Mount Hiei who carried the mikoshi (portable shrine) of Hiyoshi. Since the Yoro Code, monks had been prohibited from filing lawsuits directly with important authorities without going through the order of their superiors. However, when the breakdown in discipline in the Ritsuryo state began to affect society as a whole, there were frequent instances when mobs of monks would storm into Kyoto and file petitions with the Imperial Court. This movement began in 949 (Tenryaku 3) when a group of priests from Todaiji Temple entered Kyoto to complain about the misconduct of the head priest. In 981 (Tengen 4), more than 180 monks filed a lawsuit against the head priest of Hosshoji Temple in Kyoto. In 1006 (Kanko 3), more than 2,000 members of Kofukuji Temple protested to request the dismissal of Minamoto no Yorichika, the governor of Yamato Province. However, these protesters were driven away by the Imperial Court's soldiers, just as they were when ordinary peasants raised complaints about government scrutiny at the time. On the other hand, when it came to lawsuits brought by Ise Shrine and Usa Hachiman Shrine to enter Kyoto, they negotiated by holding objects that evoked the divine spirits, backed by their respective divine powers, and the noble society, which had a strong belief in curses, was so afraid of this that they often just handled the cases as they requested. Eventually, the temples also followed this method, and taking advantage of the loosening of the Imperial Court's control over temples in the late Heian period, the autonomy of the temple masses expanded significantly, and the background of the prevalence of Shinto-Buddhist syncretism, they began to hold the sacred trees and portable shrines of the shrines they were involved in, and to directly and frequently intimidate important people through resolutions of public meetings. At first, the Imperial Court strictly prohibited this, but as the superstition of the nobles became more and more intense, they had no way of dealing with it, and in order to force the temple to approve the request, they threatened to have all of their monks leave the temple, so that, given the idea at the time that "if Buddhism declines, the royal law will perish," it gradually became impossible to refuse the request. Even the stubborn Emperor Shirakawa famously lamented, "Those who do not comply with my will are like the water of the Kamo River, the dice in a game of Sugoroku, and mountain priests," and pushing through unreasonable demands came to be called "Yamashina reason" (Yamashina Temple is the old name of Kofuku-ji Temple). In this way, the temples, backed by their powerful military force and vast temple lands, came to stand outside the jurisdiction of state law and police power. When Minamoto no Yoritomo took control of the government in the early Kamakura period, he tried to suppress them for a time, but was unsuccessful due to the religious beliefs of the nobles. These strong petitions continued into the Muromachi period, when the power of the nobles remained, but their entry into Kyoto had almost completely ended during the Nanboku-cho period. In the turbulent period at the end of the Middle Ages, large temples supported increasingly large numbers of warrior monks in an attempt to increase their own power, and therefore played an active role in conflicts with the central and local governments of the time, and even between temples themselves, but this finally came to an end with the emergence of the more powerful Shokuho government.

In the Edo period, the shogunate called peasant uprisings "chosan." The "Chosan Chosan Chosan Chosan" (Chosan Notice of the Fleeing of the Chosan ...

[Yoshitomo Hirai]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

徒党を組んで強引に訴願をなすこと。嗷訴とも書く。古くは平安中期から室町末期に至る間に、寺社の衆徒(しゅと)・神人(じにん)らが武器をとり、集団行動によって、朝廷または要路に自己の要求を突きつけ、その裁許を強要する行動をいう。このうち春日(かすが)神木を捧持(ほうじ)する奈良興福寺(こうふくじ)の衆徒と日吉神輿(ひえしんよ)を担ぐ比叡山(ひえいざん)延暦寺(えんりゃくじ)の大衆の活動がもっとも顕著である。僧侶(そうりょ)は本来、所司の順序を経ずに直接要路へ訴訟することは養老令(ようろうりょう)以来禁ぜられていたが、律令国家の諸紀綱の乱れが社会全般に波及してくるころになると、僧侶らが群集して京都に乱入し、朝廷へ愁訴(しゅうそ)することがたびたび起こった。この行動は949年（天暦3）に東大寺の法師団が別当の非違を訴えて入京したことに始まり、981年（天元4）には京都法性寺(ほっしょうじ)座主(ざす)に関して、180余人の僧侶が訴訟し、1006年（寛弘3）には大和(やまと)国司源頼親(よりちか)の罷免を乞(こ)うて興福寺大衆2000余人が行動しているが、これらは当時一般の百姓が秕政(ひせい)を鳴らして愁訴した場合と同様に、朝廷の手兵によって追い返されている。しかし一方、伊勢(いせ)神宮や宇佐八幡宮(うさはちまんぐう)からの入洛(にゅうらく)訴訟については、彼らがそれぞれの神威を背景とし、神霊の拠物を捧持して交渉したため、祟(たた)りの思想の強い公家(くげ)社会では、これを恐れるのあまり、彼らの申請のままに処断する例が多くなった。やがて寺院側もその方式に倣い、平安後期に朝廷の寺院に対する統制力の弛緩(しかん)に乗じて寺院大衆の自治権が著しく伸張したことや、神仏混淆(こんこう)思想の横溢(おういつ)した背景などから、関係ある神社の神木や神輿を捧持し、大衆の集会(しゅうえ)決議によって、要路に向かって直接、かつたびたび威圧を加えることとなった。朝廷でも当初はこれを厳禁してきたが、公家の迷信がますます厚さを加えるなかにあっては、まったくその対策を失い、寺院側では裁許を促すために、さらに僧侶の全員離山をもって脅迫したので、「仏法衰うれば王法亡(ほろ)ぶ」との当時の思想から、しだいにその要求を拒絶できなくなった。かの強直な白河(しらかわ)法皇さえも「朕(ちん)の意にかなわぬ者は、賀茂(かも)川の水、双六(すごろく)の賽(さい)、山法師」と嘆いたのは著名な話であり、また理不尽な要求を押し通すことを「山階(やましな)道理」（山階寺は興福寺の古名）と称することともなった。このようにして寺院は強大な武力と広大な寺領を背景とする権力によって、国家法権、警察権の外にたつようになった。鎌倉初期に至り源頼朝(よりとも)は政権を掌握した際、一時これを弾圧しようとしたが、公家側の信仰思想の存在から成功しなかった。この強訴は公家勢力の残存した室町時代まで続いたが、入洛は南北朝期にほぼ終わっている。中世末期の動乱時代に入ると、大寺院はますます多数の僧兵を養って、自己勢力の増大を図り、ために時の中央政権、地方政権、さらに寺院相互間の軋轢(あつれき)抗争にも活動したが、より強大な織豊(しょくほう)政権の出現によってようやく終焉(しゅうえん)したものである。

　江戸時代、幕府では百姓一揆(いっき)のことを強訴と称した。1770年（明和7）4月の「徒党強訴逃散(ちょうさん)訴人儀高札」によれば、「何事によらずよろしからざる事に百姓大勢申合候を徒党ととなへ、徒党してねがい事企つるを強訴といひ……」と定義している。

［平井良朋］

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