Landlord - Jinushi

A landlord is someone who makes a living mainly from rent earned by leasing farmland or other land. Landlords have existed from ancient times to the present, but the way they exist has changed in each era. In feudal society, feudal lords, who made up the ruling class, held the highest landownership rights and collected rent from their serfs. With the transition from feudalism to capitalism, landlord-style land ownership transformed into modern land ownership, and the existence of landlords also changed in society, but in Japan, a major feature is that landlord-style land ownership developed in modern society after the Meiji Restoration.

Before the war, there were approximately 5 million farmland owners in Japan. Among them, excluding owner-farmers and tenant farmers, landowners who rented out their land in some form formed a pyramid shape, ranging from large landowners owning more than 1,000 cho of land to a huge number of small landowners renting out less than 1 cho of land.

Many farmers and small and medium-sized landowners fell into ruin during the economic changes from the land tax reform to the Matsukata deflation, but among the landowners who accumulated their land, huge landowners who owned more than 1,000 hectares of land emerged. Representative examples are the Homma family of Yamagata, the Saito family of Miyagi, and the Ito and Ichijima families of Niigata. Under these huge landowners were large landowners who owned more than 50 hectares, and according to a survey by the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce in 1924 (Taisho 13), there were 3,163 huge and large landowners in the country. Of these, Hokkaido had the most with 787 households, followed by the Tohoku region with 753 households. These landowners who owned vast tracts of land beyond their own villages appointed small and medium-sized landowners and influential tenant farmers as managers to manage their absentee lands, and sought to collect high and stable rents. In this way, the large landowners and major landlords were at the top of the landowning hierarchy, which was connected to small, medium and micro landowners, and held sway over rural society. They also played a role in supporting the imperial state politically as members of the House of Peers who paid high taxes and the House of Representatives.

Incidentally, to live on rent alone, a minimum of 3 to 5 cho of land was necessary. In 1908 (Meiji 41), there were just under 170,000 households nationwide who owned 5 cho or more, and the vast majority of these were small landowners who could not live on rent alone. Small landowners were divided into cultivated landowners who cultivated the land themselves and non-cultivated landowners who had other occupations, and it is estimated that there were about 1 million households of each type. Of these, cultivated landowners who generally rented out less than 1 cho and engaged in agricultural management themselves were mostly village-based landowners, and played the role of de facto leaders in rural society.

Japanese landlords, structured as they were, gradually lost their status amid tenant disputes and economic changes after World War I. The decline of landlords who were parasitic on rent income was particularly notable, and under wartime agricultural control, restrictions on landlord-like land ownership were strengthened due to the need to increase food production, further worsening the landlords' status. The land reforms that followed after World War II sealed the fate of these landlords.

[Masakatsu Daimon]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

農地などの土地を貸し付けて得た地代を中心に生活する者をいう。地主は、古代以来現在に至るまで存在するが、その存在の仕方は各時代において異なる。封建社会では、支配階級を構成する領主が地主（封建的土地所有者）として最高の領有権をもち、農奴から地代を収取した。封建制から資本主義へ移行するのに伴い、地主的土地所有は近代的土地所有へと転化し、地主の存在も社会のなかで変化するが、日本においては、むしろ明治維新後の近代社会のなかで地主的土地所有が発展したところに大きな特徴がある。

　日本の耕地所有者は、戦前を通じてほぼ500万戸存在したが、そのなかから自作農と自小作農を除き、なんらかの形で土地を貸し付ける地主の構成は、1000町歩以上を所有する巨大地主を筆頭に、1町歩未満を貸し付ける膨大な零細地主に至るまでのピラミッド型をなしていた。

　地租改正から松方デフレへと至る経済変動のなかで多くの農民や中小地主が没落したが、それらの土地を集積した地主のなかからは、1000町歩以上も所有する巨大地主が現れた。山形の本間家、宮城の斎藤家、新潟の伊藤家・市島家などがその代表である。この巨大地主のもとには、さらに50町歩以上を所有する大地主が連なり、1924年（大正13）における農商務省調査によれば巨大地主・大地主が全国に3163戸存在した。このうち北海道が787戸でもっとも多く、ついで東北が753戸であった。自村を越えた広大な土地を所有するこれらの地主は、不在地の管理のために中小地主や有力小作農を支配人として配し、高率高額小作料の安定的な収取を図った。こうして巨大地主・大地主は、中小地主―零細地主と連なる地主的ヒエラルヒーのトップに位置し、農村社会の支配権を掌握していた。彼らはまた、貴族院多額納税議員や衆議院議員として天皇制国家を政治的にも支える役割を担った。

　ところで、小作料収入だけで生活ができるためには、3～5町歩の土地が最低必要であった。1908年（明治41）の5町歩以上所有者を全国でみると17万戸弱であり、そのもとには小作料収入だけでは生活不可能な零細地主が圧倒的に存在していた。零細地主には、自らも耕作をする耕作地主と他の職業を兼ねる不耕作地主とがあり、彼らはそれぞれ約100万戸ずつも存在していたと推定される。なかでも、概して1町歩未満を貸し付け、自らも農業経営に従事する耕作地主は、その多くが在村地主として存在しており、農村社会の実質的リーダーとしての役割を担っていた。

　このような構成をとる日本の地主も、第一次世界大戦後には小作争議や経済変動のなかで徐々にその地位を後退させた。とりわけ小作料収入に寄生する地主の後退が著しく、戦時農業統制のもとでは、食糧増産の必要性から地主的土地所有への制限が強化され、地主の地位の後退がさらに進んだ。第二次大戦後の農地改革は、これらの地主の命運を最終的に閉ざした。

［大門正克］

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