Letter of assignment - transfer

A document prepared and issued when transferring land or assets. It is also called a disposition letter. Some exist from the mid-Heian period onwards. Under the Kamakura Shogunate law, parents could revoke a transfer to their descendants, and a later transfer letter denied the validity of the previous one. This was said at the time to be "a later ruling destroys a previous ruling." Based on the transfer letter, the Gokenin (vassal retainers) received a separate letter of assurance for their land from the Shogunate, but in 1303 (Kagen 1), the Shogunate made it a rule to write the wording of assurance directly in the margin of the transfer letter (outer title). This is a transfer letter with outer title assurance. The system of divisional transfer, which was common during the Kamakura period, changed to a system of sole inheritance by the eldest son after the Nanboku-cho period, and the number of transfer letters decreased during the Muromachi period. Transfer letters for temple monks' rooms, sacred teachings, etc. are also called "attached letters."

[Momose Kesao]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

所領や資財を譲与するとき作成交付する証文。処分状ともいう。平安中期以降のものが存する。鎌倉幕府法では、子孫への譲与は親が悔い返しできる規定で、あとで作成した譲状は、以前の譲状の効力を否定した。これを当時「後判は前判を破る」といった。御家人(ごけにん)は譲状をもとに幕府から所領の安堵(あんど)状を別にもらったが、1303年（嘉元1）幕府は譲状の余白（外題(げだい)）に直接安堵の文言を書く定めとした。これが外題安堵のある譲状である。鎌倉時代一般的であった分割譲与制は南北朝時代以後、長子単独相続制に変化したため、室町時代になると譲状は減少した。寺僧による房舎、聖教(しょうぎょう)などの譲状は、とくに付属状ともよぶ。

［百瀬今朝雄］

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