Retirement - Inkyo

The head of the household retires and transfers his/her rights as head of the household, i.e. his/her status and authority, to a son or other successor, and at the same time passes on his/her role as the representative of the "family" in village life to the next generation. In the Meiji Civil Code, this refers to the head of the household transferring his/her rights as head of the household to the heir while he/she is still alive, and various regulations were established. The meaning of the word inkyo was "hiding," but its meaning took on various forms depending on the era, region, and class. In the noble society of the Heian period, inkyo meant retiring from official duties.

It was during the Warring States period that retirement came to refer to the transfer of family headship, when a trend spread among warlords to hand over the family headship to their eldest son, retain some of their own property, and retire. This trend was also carried over to samurai society in the Edo period, where when a eldest son came of age, married, and acquired the status appropriate to be the head of the household, he would both inherit and retire. There were also separate laws that allowed a person to retire after being stripped of their headship due to a crime. There was also a trend among townspeople to make "early retirement" in the prime of life, and then enjoy an elegant lifestyle as the ideal in life. This gave rise to "relaxed retirement," which gradually became the accepted idea of ​​retirement.

Even today, a variety of retirements are found throughout the country in village communities. Retired people's lives vary greatly in terms of their residence, food, and finances. For example, when it comes to where retired people live, they can be broadly divided into three categories: joint residence, separate residence, and separate residence. These categories are based on whether the retired person and the heir live in the same house or building. Separate residence is the majority of retirements, but there are also separate residences, where only the retired couple live in a separate house, and separate residences with other family members besides the heir couple, such as younger siblings, and there are three types of branch retirements, where the eldest son retires with his younger siblings when he comes of age or gets married, and then the retirement house is used as a branch family for the younger siblings. Separate residence is when the father lives in the main family and the mother lives in the branch family when he retires, and then the funerals and anniversaries of the parents are also held separately for the main family and the branch family.

In retirement homes, separate meals and finances are often separate, and multiple households form within a single family. This is based on the idea that the ideal is for families to live separately for different generations, which ultimately leads to a family structure centered on married couples (nuclear families), and can be said to lead to a multiple-household "family." The retirement custom, supported by this idea, is widespread along the Pacific coast south of Fukushima Prefecture, particularly the Izu Islands, southern Mie Prefecture, and the Kii Peninsula, as well as in the Seto Inland Sea region, Shikoku, and Kyushu regions. These regions also overlap in many places with the custom of "youngest child inheritance," and together they give off a unique luster to Japanese family customs.

[Takeda Dan]

"Hozumi Chinju's 'Retirement Theory' (1915, Yuhikaku)" ▽ "Takeda Dan, ed., 'Omachi Tokuzo Collected Works Volume 1' (1975, Miraisha)" ▽ "Takeda Dan's 'Study of Retirement as a Folk Custom' (1964, Miraisha)" ▽ "Takeda Dan's 'Folk Studies on the 'Family'' (1970, Kobundo)"

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

家長が家長権、つまり家長としての地位、権限などを息子など継承者に譲渡して退隠の状態に入り、あわせて村落生活でも「家」の代表を次代に引き継ぐこと。明治民法では、戸主が生前に戸主権を家督相続人に譲ることをさし、諸種の規定を設けていた。隠居の語意は「隠れて居る」ということであったが、その内容は時代、地域や階層によってさまざまな展開を示した。平安時代の公家(くげ)社会では隠居は致仕退官を意味した。

　隠居をもって家督の譲渡をさすようになったのは戦国時代のことで、武将の間では家督を嫡子に譲り、自らは若干の財産を保留して退隠する風潮が広まった。この風は江戸時代の武家社会にも伝えられ、嫡子が成人妻帯して家長たるにふさわしい格式を備えると、相続と隠居をあわせ行った。別に罪科により家長権を剥奪(はくだつ)して隠居させる法もみられた。また町人社会には壮年の間に「若隠居」して、以後風流な生活を楽しむのを人生の理想とする傾向が生じた。それは「楽隠居」を形成し、これがしだいに隠居の一般通念となっていった。

　村落社会では現在も全国にわたり多様な隠居が認められる。とくに隠居者の生活はその居住、食事、経済などをめぐってさまざまである。たとえば隠居者の居所を取り上げても、隠居は同居隠居、別居隠居、分住隠居と3大別される。これは居所について、隠居者と継承者が屋棟(やむね)を同じくするかどうかによる分類である。なかでも別居隠居が隠居の主体をなしているが、これにも、隠居者夫婦だけが別棟の隠居屋に出る単独別居、継承者夫婦以外の家族員、つまり弟妹などを連れて出る家族別居があり、さらに長男の成人、結婚に際して次男以下を伴って隠居別居し、やがて隠居屋をもって次男以下の分家にあてる隠居分家の3種がみられる。ついで分住隠居とは、隠居に際して父親は本家に、母親は分家に分かれ住み、その後父母の葬式や年忌なども本分家別々にするものである。

　別居隠居ではしばしば食事、経済も別になり、一家のなかに複数の世帯を形成する。それは家族をもって世代別の居住を理想とする観念に基づくもので、ひいては夫婦家族（核家族）中心の家族構成をとるに至り、「家」の複世帯制を導くといえる。このような観念に支えられた隠居慣行は、福島県以南の太平洋岸各地、とくに伊豆諸島や三重県南部、紀伊半島、ついで瀬戸内海地方や四国、九州地方の各地に分布している。これらの地域はまた「末子相続」の慣行と重複する所も少なくなく、あわせて日本の家族慣行に独特な光彩を放っている。

［竹田　旦］

『穂積陳重著『隠居論』（1915・有斐閣）』▽『竹田旦編『大間知篤三著作集　第1巻』（1975・未来社）』▽『竹田旦著『民俗慣行としての隠居の研究』（1964・未来社）』▽『竹田旦著『「家」をめぐる民俗研究』（1970・弘文堂）』

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