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Japanese Shōen System

Type Object Region Asia Time c. 900–1600

The shōen system was a system centered on private landholding in Japan from the Heian period through the medieval era;…

Timeline

  1. c. 900–1100Ōmi Province · Ōmi ProvinceIn the 9th to 11th centuries, temples and courtiers obtained tax exemption and privileges barring provincial intervention through 'fuyu funyū,' detaching shōen land from the equal-field and tax-collection system and forming a private holding structure independent of the provincial offices.
  2. c. 1141–1150Provinces of the Kinai · KinaiUnder the insei (cloistered rule) system in the 1140s, shōen continued to expand into the provinces, further weakening provincial offices' control over land and taxes; shōen lords managed farmland through jitō and gejin, providing institutional soil for the localization of the samurai class.
  3. c. 1145–1150Heian-kyō · Yamashiro ProvinceAlthough the court repeatedly issued shōen regulation edicts attempting to restrict illicit shōen, protection from the insei regime and powerful temples made them difficult to enforce; by the 1140s the contradiction between the shōen system and centralization was irreconcilable.

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