Differences between the Japanese and European feudal systems

European feudal manor: the feudal manor in medieval Europe was the basis of the feudal system in medieval Europe, the feudal manor was the territory of the feudal lords of all sizes, and the people within the territory were politically loyal only to their lords, economically dependent on the lords, and paid rent directly to the lords (in addition to the church seems to have a little taxing power); and then the small lords were loyal only to the feudal lords of the previous level, forming a feudal system of tiers of feudalism and allegiance, which was radically different from the Chinese so-called feudal system. The feudal system was fundamentally different from the so-called feudal system in China.

Japanese feudal estates: The feudal lord system was a form of feudalism. In the countries where feudal lordship was practiced, the economic and political systems showed their own characteristics due to the differences in natural and social conditions. From the 12th to the 16th centuries A.D., Japan's feudal lordship system was very similar to the lordship systems of Western European countries, but it also had its own distinctive features.

[SIZE="5"][CENTER]A feudal hierarchical land tenure system combining parasitism and feudalization[/CENTER][/SIZE]

The feudal hierarchical land tenure system practiced by Japan in the era of feudal lordship and the feudal hierarchical land tenure system of the countries of Western Europe, although generally similar, the process of the formation of the two is very different. The feudal hierarchical land ownership system of the Western European countries was generally established through the feudalization of the country through the feudalization of the country through the feudalization of the country through the feudalization of the country through the feudalization of the country through the feudalization of the country. The feudalization of the land was based on a hierarchical land structure of kings, dukes, counts, barons, and knights through the medium of contracts and in exchange for military service. The hierarchical land ownership system in Japan, on the other hand, was formed by the two routes of bottom-up parasitism and top-down feudalization. This was due to the fact that the feudal hierarchical land ownership system in Japan was preceded by the Banten system of land nationalization.

The Bantian system was established in the 7th century A.D. by the revolutionary forces in the Japanese ruling group, who learned from the equalization of land in the Sui and Tang dynasties of China. On the one hand, it was due to the limited level of productivity at that time, the conditions for independent operation were not yet sufficient, and it had to depend on the agricultural ****some; on the other hand, due to the pressure of the political environment at home and abroad, Japan was in urgent need of getting rid of the crisis. Therefore, the establishment of the bantian system, which was the nationalization of feudal land, became the way out chosen by the reforming forces. The establishment of this system played a great role in the development of Japan's productive forces and social progress. However, as rulers at all levels took advantage of the power to collect rice fields, the burden on the people became heavier and heavier. As productivity increased, people began to cultivate wasteland other than public land to make a living. At the same time, in order to increase revenue, the government enacted the "Law of Three Generations and One Body" in 723, which stipulated that "those who reclaimed land, regardless of the number of generations, would be given three generations, and those who reclaimed old ditches and ponds would be given one body. In 743, the Law of Reclamation of Land for Eternal Private Property was enacted, declaring that "from now on, (reclaimed land) shall be considered as private property, and no matter if it is reclaimed for three generations, it shall not be reclaimed for eternity" (2), in order to prevent the reoccupation of the land. From then on, the powerful families started the process of land privatization by relying on their strengths to reclaim the land. However, the growth of the private lord class was limited for a long time due to the political system of the legal order system based on the bantian system.

While the private land was developing, in order to resist the exploitation by the feudal officials, and because of the destruction of the Bantian system and the difficulty in maintaining the water works, the peasants misrepresented themselves in the household registers, fled to other villages, or offered their land to the powerful families and became their own villagers. The local powerful families also took the opportunity to annex the land, hide the foreign farmers to cultivate and establish the manor. Although they possessed a large amount of land, the local magnates, who held a low position, took the initiative to send their names to the manor in order to seek protection from the nobles, and accepted the appointment to continue to manage the manor as an agent (shogun) of the higher lords. The superior lord then sent his manor to the central nobles and called the central nobles as the head office and himself as the head of the manor, thus forming a hierarchical structure of the head office, the head of the manor, and the shogun. For example, in 1086, Saya Takakata, a lord in Higo Province, offered his domain to Mitsumasa of Daini to escape from the oppression of the Kokuga government, and Saya Takakata and his descendants retained their hereditary shogunships and managed the manor. Saya Takakata paid 400 koku of rice grain to Mitsumasa every year. Later, when the descendants of Dai-II Mitsumasa were unable to prevent Kokuga from intruding into the estate, they adopted the daughter of Toba-in as their head family and paid 200 koku of rice to the head family every year. In this bottom-up system, even though the lower lords were able to survive and develop under the protection of the higher lords, the higher lords were able to enrich themselves with their own power, and all of them were dependent on the state power, exercising their dominance in the capacity of state officials.

The feudal manor in Japan was a product of the full development of the parasitic manor. In 1184, Minamoto no Yoritomo defeated his political rivals and established the Kamakura Shogunate. During the Kamakura period, the shogun held a wide range of territories, such as the Kanto Imperial Domain and the Kanto Imperial Sub-district, and the relationship between the shogun and his retainers was established by granting territories to the retainers in the form of "enchiromotsu", a system in which the shogun would grant territories to the retainers. The shogun, as the lord, granted favors (grants) to his retainers (samurai), mainly in the form of land, guardianships, jidos, prefectures, and shogunships. The samurai who were granted these titles were called goshogans.

The basis of the Gokujin system was the (chief) lord system. It was an organization formed by combining samurai of the same clan, and the chief was the head of the clan, who was succeeded by the first-born son after his death. The chief was the head of the clan and was succeeded by the first-born son after his death. The chief was in fact the lord of the clan, and the land and property of the whole clan were in the hands of the chief, while the sons of the commoner clan had the right to inherit property, but had no power of decision. As a member of the Imperial family, the lord was obliged to serve the Shogun in return for his royal favor. In normal times, the lord would control his entire clan to serve the shogun and participate in the guard duty (called Kyoto Oban), and in times of war, he would lead his entire clan of samurai to accompany the shogun on his campaigns. This system of feudal land ownership was characterized by a strong patriarchal system of ownership by the extended family.

In the early Kamakura period, the shogun still had a certain dependence on the emperor's government, but after the Seikyu Rebellion of 1221, the shogun was completely freed from the emperor's government, and through the implementation of the Bukkai Laws, he extended his power throughout the country, and sent out guardians and jikkai to the areas outside of his domain, and the functions of the kokuji (ministers of state) and shoguns were then taken away from him. As a result, the hierarchical land ownership system of the samurai lords, headed by the Shogun and consisting mainly of the Gokujin, was established throughout the country.

In the late Muromachi Shogunate, the daimyo established daimyo domains based on their respective strengths. The daimyo turned their domains into political and economic unities. The main policies of the daimyo in the land issue were: (1) the daimyo protected the old territories of the lords and rich peasants in their territories and gave them new fiefs; (2) those who were given fiefs were organized into vassal regiments, and the vassals had to be loyal to the daimyo and participate in the military activities as the main service; (3) outside of the territories of the daimyo, the amount of the peasants' yearly tribute and the vassals' service were determined through land inspection (land surveying), so as to guarantee the daimyo's financial income; (4) the vassals were subjected to the daimyo's jurisdiction, but they were not given any rights and responsibilities, so that the daimyo's financial income was guaranteed; (5) they were not required to pay the annual tribute to the peasants and their vassals. (d) The retainers were strictly limited by the daimyo and had no room for independent development. ④ From the above analysis, it is easy to see that this kind of feudal lord hierarchical land ownership system, which was formed by the two routes of sending in and feudalization, determined the dependence of the subordinate lords on the superior lords, and the control of the superior lords over the subordinate lords was inevitably quite firm.