The Muromachi shogunate period was the beginning of the emperor's power and an important historical stage in the rise of Japanese samurai power, and some people believe that the reason why Japan gave birth to such a unique military government on the eve of World War II is closely related to the rise of the logic of strong military forces in this period. During the Muromachi shogunate, Japan's military strength continued to increase, but the logic of advocating force became an important fulcrum of thinking that dominated a head of state.
In this process, the gradual militarization of Japan's economic system is also a very obvious example, and today we will take the semi-economic law promulgated by the Muromachi shogunate in the early years as a brief analysis of the evolution of its logic of strengthening the army.
I. The Rise of the Samurai and the Implementation of the Semi-Ji Method
The spirit of Bushido actually originated in the Heian period, when the lords of the manor began to cultivate samurai in order to protect their private land and personal safety. In addition to the cultivation of samurai, at this stage, fortresses similar to the European Middle Ages also began to appear in the Kanto region of Japan.
These fortresses, although not comparable in scale to the European castles of the medieval period, in fact, their role is particularly similar. In addition to the city walls used for defense, near the fortress, horse farms and school yards are all things that should be done. This trend intensified during the Kamakura period and the Muromachi shogunate period, especially the samurai mansions of the Muromachi shogunate period, which were spread throughout the country.
Their architectural arrangements are also becoming more and more systematic, and the enemy buildings used to observe the enemy situation, the warehouses where military food and weapons can be stored, and the training grounds for soldiers and training are all necessary military buildings for shoguns and samurai under their command. The significance of such a military structure is naturally not only to prevent external troubles, but also to play a great role in the gradual expansion of some generals' territories.
Under such circumstances, the samurai gradually came to the stage of history. In order to win over and secure the interests of the samurai clique, a taxation system called the Banjifa was implemented throughout Japan, beginning with the original shogun Ashikaga Tsunade.
The so-called "Half-Ji Law" is actually a typical system of military and government integration, which clearly stipulates that half of the taxes of the three kingdoms of Omi, Mino, and Owari will be used to provide military food for the samurai. Since then, Omi, Mino, and Owari have become the de facto military food areas of the Japanese samurai, and these three places have historically been known as "military food materials".
It is worth noting that in these three lands, it was not the shogun who was really active before, but the private manor owner, which was bound to stimulate and affect the relationship between the manor owners and the samurai. But this is not the most typical military and political system of this era.
In the middle of the Muromachi shogunate, there were several outbreaks of the "Tokusatsu Ichisuke", the essence of which was the resistance of the peasant class to the tyranny of the rulers, but the first Tokusei Ichigo that broke out in the early days of the Muromachi shogunate was actually caused by the Imperial Family. These imperial family members were also samurai of the shoguns, but because of the force of force, they continued to pay off their debts, and eventually the official shogunate ordered that they directly cancel their debt relationship with the loan sharks. The arrogance and arrogance of the samurai of the Muromachi shogunate era can be seen.
Second, the influence of the semi-economic method
As a political decree, the promulgation process of the "half-economy law" can be called smooth. In this regard, Japanese historians have given a very poignant comment, arguing that "the half-ji method, as the economic policy of the shogunate, is an institutionalization of local precedents." ”
It is also true that in the past, although there was no such decree as the semi-jifa that allowed the samurai to forcibly expropriate land, there were already incidents in some areas where the samurai clique interfered arbitrarily in local finances by virtue of military superiority, and the rise of the samurai began to appear.
However, the promulgation of the semi-economic law allowed these martial artists, who were not legal in themselves, to obtain their own natural correctness from the political level. Although in the beginning, the semi-ji method was only implemented in Omi, Mino, and Owari, but after the system began to deepen, it gradually became popular in Japan. In such a tide, any daimyo who is not willing to accept power and wealth will be betrayed by his subordinates.
The generals, whose strength had increased greatly because of the semi-economic law, gradually began to expand their armaments. In such cases, the rulers of their neighbouring areas had to emulate their system and spread it in their fiefdoms.
In such an arms race, the samurai clique became the only winner. Although the Japanese daimyo had the military and political power to rule a region, the samurai under his command could further expand their power by recruiting their vassals. By the Sengoku period, the legacy of the half-jifa had completely changed the Japanese economy, and in addition to the division of land by the samurai, even commerce began to be controlled by the Japanese samurai clique. For example, Oda Nobunaga, a well-known samurai of Japan during the Sengoku period, had no less than thirty royal merchants to provide him with armaments and supplies.
Imagine how, under such circumstances, the shogun could control and suppress the gradual rise of the samurai and the voyeurism of the center? Odai was not lost, and as such it was the biggest political dilemma of the Muromachi shogunate era.
3. The plight of the Muromachi shogunate and the root causes of the implementation of the half-ji method
From this point of view, the birth of The Half-JiFa as a system promoted by Ashikaga Shoguns was a mistake in itself. Was the Muromachi shogunate unaware of this, and why did the Ashikaga clan personally issue an edict allowing it to be implemented in Japan?
In fact, as the head of the supreme authority, the Ashikaga Clan is not a sake sack rice bag, and its implementation of the semi-economic law is in a state of last resort.
The Muromachi shogunate was established after the decline of the Kamakura shogunate, and its rise was not the result of a new regime swallowing up the whole country, nor was it the result of a certain ambitionist usurping the throne. On the contrary, its birth was actually a compromise of the confrontation between the north and the south of Japan, at this stage, the emperor's power fell by the wayside, and the shogun lost his last reliance because of the centrifugal protection of the daimyo. All in all, at the beginning of the establishment of the Muromachi shogunate, the power of the emperor and the shogun was weaker than ever.
At the beginning of the establishment of the Muromachi shogunate, the shogunate naturally had to endure the situation of the daimyo in various places, but as a nominal ruler, whether out of a desire to regain power or an ambition to further develop his hands, the Ashikaga clan eventually began a crusade against the daimyo.
However, such a crusade did not go smoothly, so that in the eyes of the people at that time, although the general was nominally very noble, his rights had been completely overridden. It is in this context that the "half-ji method" has appeared on the stage of history. It is true that this system brought great military superiority to the shogunate in the early days of its birth, and its power was extended as a result.
Once the daimyo in various places followed suit, this system became a means of "dimensionality reduction", and eventually the samurai clique grew from the military power of the daimyo and the shogun to an important class that could influence the situation in Japan as a whole overnight. In this case, the shogun who originally opened Pandora's box has long lost control.
epilogue
The implementation of the Hanjaku Law was of great significance to the Muromachi shogunate, and after that, both the emperor and the daimyo gradually lost their actual control over the low-level samurai, but they also became more powerful. This seemingly contradictory and paradoxical logic has become an important symbol of the rise of Japanese samurai.
It was also from this moment that the way Japanese society originally relied on kinship to deny its status began to gradually collapse, and only force was the most important factor that warriors could rely on. In such a relationship, the original master-slave relationship begins to fade away, and the family power is no longer the only ultimate force that can influence the fundamentals of a country. The chaotic and turbulent Sengoku period of Japan has since arrived.
bibliography:
1. History of Japanese Political Thought
2. "The Ruling Ideology of the Japanese Samurai - Bushido - A Commentary on the Bushido of Nitodo Inazō No. 4"
3. "The Historical Trajectory of Bushido Tsutomu"
4. "A Brief Discussion of Familial Shogunate Politics"