Sosho

Japanese: 惣荘 - そうしょう

One of the self-governing organizations of medieval rural areas. There are two types of term: the so, which is based on manors and is composed only of the privileged headman class, and the soson, which is composed of a wide range of peasants. The former is an academic concept used by researchers today, and is used to describe the development from sosho to soson, and mainly refers to the sokonkyou of the Kamakura period as opposed to the soson of the Muromachi period. The latter is a term found in historical documents of the time, and when peasants referred to their organization, they often used the word sosho along with "jigechu" (underground village) and "sohyakusho" (peasants).

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

中世の農村の自治組織の一つ。惣が荘園を単位に，特権的な名主層だけによって構成される段階を特定して呼ぶ場合と，広範な諸階層の百姓によって構成される段階の惣村まで含めて呼ぶ場合とがある。前者は今日の研究者の間で用いられる学術上の概念で，惣荘から惣村への発展，というように用いられ，主として室町期の惣村に対して，鎌倉時代の惣結合をさす。後者は当時の史料上に見られる呼称で，百姓が自分たちの組織を自称するときは，〈地下中（じげちゆう）〉〈惣百姓〉などとともに，惣荘の語をよく使った。

出典　株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について　情報

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