Jizamurai

{{Short description|Military rulers of small rural domains in medieval Japan}}

The {{Nihongo|jizamurai|地侍||{{ipa|ja|dʑi.(d)zaꜜ.mɯ.ɾai}},{{cite book|script-title=ja:大辞林|publisher=Sanseidō|editor-last=Matsumura|editor-first=Akira|edition=4th|date=5 September 2019|lang=ja}} {{lit|samurai of the land}}{{Cite web |title=About Japan: A Teacher's Resource {{!}} The Three Unifiers of Sengoku Era Japan {{!}} Japan Society |url=https://aboutjapan.japansociety.org/the-three-unifiers-of-sengoku-era-japan#sthash.qOJ0CKMT.dpbs |access-date=2024-07-11 |website=aboutjapan.japansociety.org}}}} were lower-ranking provincial samurai that emerged in 15th-century Japan Muromachi period.{{Cite web |title=Tanoshii Japanese |url=https://www.tanoshiijapanese.com/dictionary/entry_details.cfm?entry_id=135088&element_id=164734&conjugation_type_id=1 |access-date=2024-07-11 |website=Tanoshii Japanese}} The definition was rather broad and the term jizamurai included landholding military aristocracy as well as independent peasant farmers. They alternated between warfare and using their relatively small plots of land for intensive and diversified forms of agriculture.Harold Britho, 'The Han', in John Whitney Hall, ed., The Cambridge History of Japan, volume 4: Early Modern Period (Cambridge UP, 1988), 183–234, They came from the powerful {{nihongo3||名主|myōshu}}, who owned farmland and held leadership positions in their villages, and became vassals of {{nihongo3||守護|shugo}} and later {{nihongo3||戦国大名|sengoku daimyō}}.{{cite web|url=https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%9C%B0%E4%BE%8D-73161|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220909164830/https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%9C%B0%E4%BE%8D-73161|script-title=ja:地侍|language=ja|publisher=Kotobank|date=|archive-date=9 September 2022|access-date=17 May 2024}}

One of the primary causes for the rise in the number of smaller landholders was a decline in the custom of primogeniture. Towards the end of the Kamakura period, inheritance began to be split among a ruler's sons, making each heir's holdings, and thus their power, smaller.{{cn|date=July 2024}} Though many jizamurai were members of the military aristocracy, they were considered to be lower in status compared to the samurai who ruled in castles and cities.

Over time, many of these smaller fiefs came to be dominated by the shugo, constables who were administrators appointed by the shogunate to oversee the provinces. Resentful and mistrustful of the interference of government officials, people under their control banded together into leagues called ikki (一揆). The uprisings that resulted, particularly when the shugo tried to seize control of entire provinces, were also called ikki; some of the largest and most famous took place in Wakasa Province in the 1350s,{{Cite book |last=Sansom |first=George |title=A History of Japan, 1334–1615 |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=1961 |isbn=0804705259 |page=200–202, 207}} Yamashiro Province in 1485, and Kaga Province in 1487–1488. In the latter two, independent confederacies, the Yamashiro and Kaga ikki, respectively, were established. In the late 15th century, jizamurai also formed ikki in Iga and Kōka, the military forces of which became known as ninja and gave name to the ninjutsu styles of Iga-ryū and Kōga-ryū.

These independent jizamurai confederacies were eventually subdued by the Oda clan, who launched large invasions into their territory. The surviving jizamurai were given the option to join loyal samurai retinues in the cities and castles, or forsake their samurai status and become peasant farmers. Despite their defeat, the ninjitsu tradition was secretly preserved by the jizamurai and their descendants, allowing it to survive up to present-day.{{Citation |title=Glossary |date=2010-04-20 |pages=169–174 |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9780804774314-011/pdf?licenseType=restricted |access-date=2024-07-11 |publisher=Stanford University Press |language=en |doi=10.1515/9780804774314-011 |isbn=978-0-8047-7431-4|url-access=subscription }}