Hikanbyakusho - vassal peasants

Also called hikan or hikan. A term for subordinate peasants from the Sengoku period to the Edo period. Refers to peasants who were subordinate in status and economics to landlord peasants called oie or oyakata, and is thought to have been a survival of medieval farm management into the early modern period, and was widely seen in underdeveloped regions, such as the Ina region of Shinshu (Nagano Prefecture). Hikan provided tenant farmers with annual taxes and various labor services, and were subject to sale and pawning along with the land. From the mid-Edo period onwards, there were cases where peasants became independent from the oyakata by paying ransom or land rent and became small farmers.

[Uesugi Masahiko]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

被官、被管ともいう。戦国時代から江戸時代の隷属農民の一称。御家(おいえ)、御館(おやかた)とよばれる地主的農民に、身分的、経済的に隷属する農民をいい、中世的な農民経営のあり方が近世まで残存したものと考えられ、後進地域、たとえば信州（長野県）伊那(いな)地方などに広くみられた。被官は御館に小作年貢や各種労役を提供し、土地とともに売買・質入(しちいれ)の対象となった。江戸中期以後、身代金(みのしろきん)や地代金を払って御館より自立して小農民となる例もあった。

［上杉允彦］

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