Sojito - Head of the local government

A type of land steward appointed by the Kamakura Shogunate. In the early days, this referred to land stewards placed over a wide area covering a county in the Kanto and Mutsu regions. Later, after the Kenkyu era (1190-1199), when the myoshu class, who were small lords in the Chinzei region, were granted myoshu and jito titles by the Shogunate, powerful vassals from the eastern region were appointed as sojito in the overlapping regions to govern them, and a relationship of sojito and small jito was established (Article 38 of the Goseibai Shikimoku). Sojito in this sense is unique to the Chinzei region.

In addition, there are cases where land stewards appointed on a county basis outside of Chinzei are called soji jito, but they have in common the fact that they controlled small and medium-sized manor land stewards and coordinated them. In addition, land stewards who were the heads of clans of samurai clans were sometimes called soji jito, but their nature is different from that of the above.

[Masahiro Kiuchi]

“Local feudal lord system” by Kunihiro Suzuki (1980, Yuzankaku Publishing)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

鎌倉幕府が補任(ぶにん)した地頭の一形態。初期には関東や陸奥において、郡単位の広域に置かれた地頭をいった。その後、建久年間（1190～1199）以降、鎮西(ちんぜい)で小規模領主である名主(みょうしゅ)層が名主職(しき)や地頭職を幕府から安堵されるようになると、これらを統轄するため、重複する地域に東国の有力御家人が惣地頭として補任され、惣地頭―小地頭(こじとう)という関係が成立した（『御成敗式目』38条）。この意味の惣地頭は鎮西独特のものである。

　なお、鎮西以外で郡単位で任じられた地頭を惣地頭という場合があるが、中小規模の荘郷地頭を統轄し、相互に連合せしめる機能をもつという点では共通している。また、武士団一族内部で惣領を意味する地頭も惣地頭といわれる場合があるが、上記のそれとは性格が異なる。

［木内正広］

『鈴木國弘著『在地領主制』（1980・雄山閣出版）』

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