Muromachi bakufu no seiritsu kiban (The Foundations for the Establishment of the Muromachi Shogunate)

In recent years, research on the Muromachi shogunate has advanced considerably. However, compared with the well-documented core structures and institutions of the Kamakura shogunate, those supporting the Muromachi shogunate remain less clearly understood.
 
This book traces the process whereby the Muromachi shogunate built its economic base and organisational framework. By inheriting many of the Kamakura shogunate’s institutional foundations, it modified these structures and introduced new initiatives, thereby establishing a stable basis for governance. The book also examines how the shogunate innovated and adapted prevailing norms to achieve stability, offering fresh insights into its foundations during this period of consolidation.
 
The Kamakura shogunate imposed economic obligations on the gokenin class. The Muromachi shogunate continued this practice, developing it into the jitō-gokenin yaku, although this system failed to provide a stable flow of revenue. The book shows that the jitō-gokenin yaku was reorganised into a system in which shogunal officials known as shugo levied the duties. It also examines the shogunate’s efforts to supplement its basic revenues, among them the shin’onchi nengu and gojūbunichi yaku. Although these new tax systems contributed only modestly to the shogunate’s finances, together with the jitō-gokenin yaku, they remained central to governance.
 
Another important economic foundation was the fief (shoryō) system. The book reveals that the donation system included cases where fiefs were granted while retaining half of their profits. This policy appears to have been applied to lands belonging to the shogun, to close retainers, or to Buddhist temples associated with the shogunate. The book reveals that, in many cases, multiple shogunal stakeholders held overlapping interests in the same fief. The shogunate collaborated with Zen temples and shugo officials to secure their share of the revenue and distribute it among various stakeholders. During the shogunate’s stable period, these fiefs effectively functioned as revenue sources.
 
The book also considers changes over time in the shogunate’s litigation process and the mandokoro, the department responsible for finance. Litigation became organised into a framework centred on the shogun, the head of the Ashikaga clan, and key shogunal retainers, while the mandokoro evolved into a dynastic department headed by a prominent retainer. In this way, dynastic institutions were transformed into shogunal organisations.

Throughout the shogunate’s period of stability, the relationship between the head of the Ashikaga clan (the Muromachi-dono) and his retainers developed into a new hierarchical structure. The shogunate’s personnel were organised around the Muromachi-dono, with officials ranked radially; those closest to the centre held higher status. Within this tiered system, the responsibilities of senior officials close to the Muromachi-dono were not clearly defined. To prevent overlap and interference, the shogunate adopted a uniform approach in which expense managers’ responsibilities were extended to the procurement of funds, while intermediaries oversaw projects from start to finish. This approach is described in historical sources such as honro. The principle embodied in honro was that the shogunate, having established a hierarchical system of ranks during its stable period, regarded uniformity as essential for effective administration.
 

(Written by YANBE Kouki, Professor Emeritus, Historiographical Institute / 2025)