Townspeople - Chounin

Japanese: 町人 - ちょうにん

Merchants and industrialists who lived in cities during the Edo period. In terms of official status, they were limited to landowners and householders who owned town houses.

[Mieko Tsuruoka]

Creating townspeople

The origin of the word townspeople is "machibito," which refers to the inhabitants of commercial districts (towns) formed by the increase in permanent storefronts that appeared in place of the decline of the government-established Tozai Market in Kyoto at the end of the Heian period. Later, in the entry for July 1215 in the Azuma Kagami, "It is ordered that the number of merchants in Kamakura below townspeople should be determined," making a distinction between townspeople and merchants. This shows that ordinary merchants at that time did not have townhouses, but were traveling merchants who moved between local markets, and "townspeople" could not be a general term for merchants. Later, with the increase in agricultural productivity and the development of commerce and industry, cities where merchants and industrialists gathered, such as in front of shrines and temples and in port towns, were formed. Furthermore, with the development of overseas trade, wealthy merchants rose to prominence, utilizing their accumulated commercial capital for loan sharking, and became purveyors to warring lords, making their social presence more prominent. Particularly during the Muromachi and Sengoku periods, in representative cities such as Kyoto, Nara, and Sakai, amidst the continuous wars and unstable public order, the towns changed from commercial and industrial districts to towns (cho) as living communities, strengthening local ties, establishing self-governing organizations for self-defense, and forming a townspeople class. However, these urban communities were led by the upper class townspeople (choshu), who were wealthy merchants and landowners such as sake brewers and clay storehouses, and in reality, there was no separation between soldiers, farmers, and merchants, and they used force to counter the frequent peasant uprisings and Ikko Ikki uprisings.

[Mieko Tsuruoka]

The Establishment of Townspeople Status

The so-called samurai, farmers, artisans, and merchants class system in early modern society was established by the policy of separation of soldiers and farmers implemented by the unified government of Toyotomi clan and the Tokugawa government that succeeded it. In other words, the separation of soldiers and farmers, which was developed based on the sword hunt and the land survey at the end of the 16th century, aimed to disarm the local areas and monopolize military power by the ruling class of samurai, while incorporating some of the upper-class farmers who had become detached from agricultural production and turned into local samurai into their vassals, some of them were appointed as merchants for the government, and the rest were tied to the land as farmers and paid tribute. Then, those who lived in towns and scattered merchants and industrialists were gathered in cities and given the status of townspeople. In other words, the separation of samurai and artisans from agricultural production led to the institutionalization of urban concentration, and the solidification of the trinity of status, residence, and occupation was attempted. While this had an aspect of being a class organization corresponding to the social division of labor based on a certain level of economic development, it can be said that, more fundamentally, it was a political class organization aimed at maintaining the reproduction of the feudal lords of the Tokugawa shogunate and feudal domains, which was based on the kokudaka system, which assumed a certain level of commodity circulation.

In the castle towns built by feudal lords in the early modern period, merchants and industrialists gathered to support the military demand and consumption of the feudal lords and samurai. The existence of town names such as artisan towns of blacksmiths, indigo dyers, carpenters, lumberjacks, leather shops, sharpeners, and lacquerers, and merchant towns of stone (grain), kimono (clothing), salt, fish, oil, and tea, shows that in the early days of the city, merchants and industrialists in those trades were given priority in the town planning, lived in the same trade, and were under the control of the feudal lords.

[Mieko Tsuruoka]

Burden and class of townspeople

With the Tokugawa government's unification of the currency system and the development of transportation networks, the development of nationwide commodity distribution linking castle towns with central cities such as Edo, Osaka, and Kyoto led to the prosperity of transit trade cities such as ports. In many cases, townspeople in such cities were exempt from paying land taxes (jishi) (rent) but were instead required to pay town service (buyaku). However, in castle towns, artisan towns in designated occupations involved in the production and repair of weapons, armor, and daily necessities were required to provide skilled labor, and towns with transportation functions served as horse carriers, but other towns were conscripted for labor work such as construction and cleaning of castles and disaster prevention in urban areas. However, these labor services were converted into monetary payments at an early stage. In addition to this, townspeople were required to pay regular and temporary town taxes, but both the town taxes and town taxes were the responsibility of the owner of the land on which the house was located, i.e. the lord of the castle. Therefore, regular townspeople status was limited to those who owned a house, and land and shop tenants who did not bear the burden of town duties or town taxes were not recognized as members of the town community and were therefore distinguished in terms of status.

The development of cities from the second half of the 17th century onwards, symbolised by the expansion of urban areas due to an increase in the influx of population, combined with the decline of military demand, led to the breakdown of the form of settlements of people of the same trade and the change in the composition of city residents. In other words, instead of the aristocratic townspeople who contributed to the development of the town and became town officials, and the privileged merchants of the earlier period who procured special demands for the feudal lords, new wholesalers, middlemen and money changers expanded their businesses, and became official merchants for the feudal lords, who were facing serious financial difficulties, through loans to feudal lords, and were given the privileges of the samurai, such as the right to use a family name, to carry a sword, and to receive a rice allowance, and came to occupy the upper class of townspeople. The accumulation of town land by these upper class townspeople led to an increase in absentee landlords, which led to the town community becoming a mere formality. Instead, professional ties formed through the formation of trade associations that included land and shop tenants became an important component of cities, and the term "townspeople," which originally referred to people who owned their own land for a residence, spread and became common to include the merchant class who rented land and shops and had a certain degree of independent management.

[Mieko Tsuruoka]

"Town People" by Yoshio Sakata (1939, Kobundo / reprinted 1978, Shimizu Kobundo)" ▽ "Town People" by Nobuhiko Nakai (Japanese History 21, 1975, Shogakukan)"

[Reference] | Sword Hunt | Castle Town | Taiko Land Survey | Townspeople

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

Japanese:

江戸時代の都市に居住する商工業者。公的な身分称呼としては、町屋敷を所持する地主・家持(いえもち)層に限定される。

［鶴岡実枝子］

町人の生成

町人の語源は、平安末期の京都において、官設の東西市(いち)の衰微にかわって出現した常設の店棚(みせだな)の増加によって形成された商業地区＝町の住人を指称する「まちびと」であった。下って『吾妻鏡(あづまかがみ)』の建保(けんぽ)3年（1215）7月条に「町人以下鎌倉中諸商人の員数を定むべきの由、仰せ下さる」とあって、町人と諸商人とは区別されている。このことは、当時の一般の諸商人は町屋をもたず、地方の市場を移動遍歴する行商人であり、「町人」が商人の総称になりえなかったことを示している。その後の農業生産力の上昇、商工業の発達によって、社寺の門前や港町など、商工業者の集住する都市の形成が進められた。さらに海外貿易の振興に伴い、蓄積された商業資本を高利貸資本に活用するなど、豪商が台頭し、戦国大名の御用商人になるなど、社会的存在を顕著にしていった。とくに室町・戦国期には、京都・奈良・堺(さかい)などの代表的な都市では、打ち続く戦乱と治安の不安定さのなかで、町は従前の商工業地区から生活共同体としての町(ちょう)へと変質を遂げ、地縁的な結合を強め、自衛のための自治組織をもつに至り、町人階級を形成しつつあった。もっともこれらの都市共同体は、酒屋・土倉(どそう)などの富商地主であった上層町衆(ちょうしゅう)によって主導され、頻発した土一揆(つちいっき)・一向一揆などには武力をもって対抗する、兵農商未分離の実態を備えていた。

［鶴岡実枝子］

町人身分の成立

近世社会における、いわゆる士農工商という身分制度は、統一政権豊臣(とよとみ)氏と、それを引き継いだ徳川政権による兵農分離政策によって編成された。すなわち、16世紀末の刀狩(かたながり)・太閤(たいこう)検地を基軸として展開された兵農分離は、在地の武装を解除して支配階級である武士による武力の独占を図るとともに、農業生産から遊離して地侍(じざむらい)化した上層農民の一部を家臣団に組み入れ、一部を御用商人に登用し、その余を農民身分として土地に緊縛して貢租負担者とした。そして町場に居住する者、および散在の商工業者を都市に集めて町人身分とした。つまり、士と商工の農業生産からの分離による都市集住の制度化によって、身分・居住・職能の三位(さんみ)一体の固定化が図られたのである。それは、一定の経済発展に基づく社会的分業関係に対応した身分編成という側面もあるが、より本質的には、一定度の商品流通を前提とした石高(こくだか)制に基礎を置く幕藩領主の再生産を維持するための政治的身分編成であったといえよう。

　近世初頭に諸大名によって建設された城下町には、領主・武士の軍需と消費を支えるための商工業者が集められた。職人町としての鍛冶(かじ)・紺屋(こんや)・大工・木挽(こびき)・革屋・研(とぎ)屋・塗師(ぬし)町などと、商人町としての石(こく)（穀）・呉服(ごふく)・塩・魚(さかな)・油・茶町などの町名が城下町に一般的に存在することは、成立期にそれらの業種の商工業者が優先的に町割を受け、同業集居の形態をとり、領主に掌握されていたことを示す。

［鶴岡実枝子］

町人の負担と階層

徳川政権による幣制の統一、交通網の整備などを背景に、各城下町と江戸・大坂・京都などの中央都市を結ぶ全国的な商品流通の展開は、港湾などの中継交易都市の繁栄をもたらした。このような都市の町人の負担は、多くの場合、地子(じし)（租）を免除されたかわりに夫役(ぶやく)（町役）が課せられた。ただし、城下町では武器・武具や日用品の生産・修理に携わる指定職種の職人町は技術労働の提供が義務づけられ、また交通機能をもつ町は伝馬(てんま)役を務めたが、その他の町々は城中の普請・掃除、市街地の防災などの人足役に徴用された。もっとも、これらの人足役は早い時期から貨幣納化した。このほか町人は恒常・臨時の町入用を負担したが、町役・町入用とも屋敷地の所持者＝家持の負担であった。したがって正規の町人身分とは家持に限定され、町役・町入用を負担しない地借(じがり)・店借(たながり)は町共同体の構成員とは認められず、身分的に区別された。

　流入人口の増大に伴う都市域の拡大に象徴される17世紀後半以降の都市の発展は、軍需の減退と相まって同業集居の形態を崩し、都市民の構成を変えていった。すなわち、町の開発に貢献して町役人となった門閥町人や、領主の特需の調達にあたった前期の特権商人にかわって、新興の問屋(といや)・仲買や両替商などが経営を伸長させ、大名貸などによって財政窮乏の深刻化した幕藩領主の御用商人となり、苗字(みょうじ)・帯刀御免や扶持米(ふちまい)を受けるなど士分の待遇を得、町人の上層を占めるに至った。そしてこれら上層町人による町地の集積は不在地主の増加をもたらし、町共同体の形骸(けいがい)化に連なった。かわって地借・店借層をも含めた同業組合としての仲間の結成による職縁的結合が都市の重要な構成要素となり、本来屋敷地所持を基本とする町人の称呼は、一定度自立した経営をもつ地借・店借の商人層にまで拡散され、一般化した。

［鶴岡実枝子］

『坂田吉雄著『町人』（1939・弘文堂／再版・1978・清水弘文堂）』▽『中井信彦著『町人』（『日本の歴史21』1975・小学館）』

[参照項目] | 刀狩 | 城下町 | 太閤検地 | 町衆

出典　小学館　日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)について　情報 | 凡例

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