One Country, One Castle Law - Ikkokuichijorei

One of the Edo Shogunate's measures to control daimyo. Based on the principle of one castle per domain, this aimed to destroy all secondary castles except for the daimyo's main castle (residence castle), and was issued in leap June 1615 (Genwa 1) after the Siege of Osaka, one month before the Buke Shohatto (Laws for Various Houses). In the early Edo period, daimyo territories were inherited from those of warring daimyo, and in addition to the daimyo's main castle, secondary castles were established throughout the domain, with the daimyo's family and powerful vassals stationed as castle guards, and tsukeshu (attached retainers) stationed separately under them, but these were organized into a military organization with the castle guards as group leaders and the tsukeshu as group members.

The One Province, One Castle Law aimed to negate the war-ready military system in the feudal lord's territories, and as a result, the organization of the guards was reorganized, and the local control of the feudal domain was placed in the hands of the county magistrates (deputies) of the yakukata class, instead of the castle guards. Thus, the feudal lord's territories shifted from a war-ready system to a feudal domain system based on control of the peasants, and the so-called "Genwa Enbu" (war-ready military system) began.

[Fujino Tamotsu]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

江戸幕府の大名統制策の一つ。一領国一城という趣旨のもとに、大名の本城（居城）を除くすべての支城を破壊することを目的としたもので、大坂の役後の1615年（元和1）閏(うるう)6月、武家諸法度(しょはっと)に1か月先だって発布された。江戸初期の大名領国は、戦国大名の領国を受け継ぎ、大名の本城のほか領内各地に支城が設けられ、大名の一族や有力家臣が城番として配置されるとともに、その下に付衆(つけしゅう)が分駐したが、それがそのまま城番を組頭とし、付衆を組の構成員とする軍事的組織によって編成された。

　一国一城令は、こうした大名領国における臨戦的な軍事体制の否定をねらいとしたもので、それによって、番方(ばんかた)の組織が改組されるとともに、藩の地方(じかた)支配は、城番にかわって役方(やくかた)層の郡奉行(こおりぶぎょう)―代官が担当することになった。ここに大名領国は、臨戦体制より農民支配を基軸とする藩体制に転換し、いわゆる「元和偃武(げんなえんぶ)」が開始された。

［藤野　保］

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