Main family - Honkan

Also read as "honkan." It means a permanent domicile or a place of permanent residence. Under the Ritsuryo system, it was the land recorded in the family register. In governing citizens, the Ritsuryo state determined a person's original place of residence as their honkan, registered them in the family register of that area (belonging to a province, county, or village), and granted them land on which they could settle. They then collected taxes and labor taxes and imposed forced labor. The Ritsuryo state was based on binding citizens to their honkan, so it was strictly forbidden for citizens to leave their honkan and move on their own. They also established a system of five neighboring households called goho, which allowed them to keep an eye on each other and to inform their honho if they were going on a trip, and took various other measures to prevent escape. However, by the time Heijo-kyo was built in the early 8th century, there were already large numbers of vagrants and fugitives, and these "vagrants" who left their main homes eventually became a major factor in the collapse of the Ritsuryo state's system of control over citizens.

[Koichi Murayama]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

「ほんかん」とも読む。本籍・本籍地のこと。律令(りつりょう)制下では戸籍に記された土地。律令国家は公民を支配するにあたって、その本来の居住地を本貫と定め、その地（いずれかの国・郡・里に属する）の戸籍に登録し、その地で口分田(くぶんでん)を与えて定住させた。そして、そのうえで租庸調(そようちょう)を徴収し、徭役(ようえき)労働を賦課した。律令国家は、公民を本貫に縛り付けておくことによって成り立っていたので、公民が本貫を離れてかってに移動することを厳禁した。また、近隣の五戸をもって構成する五保(ごほ)の制を設けて、相互に監視させ、旅に出る場合には同保に告知させるなど、種々の逃亡防止の対策をも講じた。しかし8世紀初めの平城京造営のころには、早くも浮浪・逃亡が大量に発生しており、この本貫を離れた「浮浪人」が、やがて律令国家の公民支配体制を破綻(はたん)させる大きな要因となった。

［村山光一］

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