Shoen

shoen (荘園 or 庄園, しょうえん) is a Japanese term – coming from China's Tang Dynasty term szhuangyuan – and means fief or manor.

After the decay of the Ritsuryo system in Japan, a feudal system of manors developed, landowners or nameholders, commended shares of the revenue produced (called shiki) to more powerful leaders often at the court, in order to be spared of taxes and to subvert the Chinese-style Equal Fields system, where land was redistributed after certain periods of time. In the Kamakura period a hierarchy of nameholder, manor stewards (jito), shugo (military provincial gouvernor), and the shogun in Kamakura had evolved.

Until the end of the Heian period virtually all Japanese land became Shoen and this continued through the Onin war until the Sengoku period marked the defeudalization of the Japanese society.

See also

• Ritsuryo system
• Uji system
• Fiefdom

References

• MEDIEVAL JAPAN’S FEUDAL PROCESS (pdf)