Shōen

Shoen (Japanese荘 园or庄园) were fief or estates in ancient Japan. This term comes from the Japanese, the Chinese term comes Zhuangyuan the Tang Dynasty and with the European approach to the basic rule.

After the decline of ritsuryō system in Japan a feudal system of estates developed. ( Shiki called ) Country or registered owner awarded shares of the yield produced at powerful leaders who often lived on the farm, to be spared from taxes and to subvert the Chinese Same -field system, whereby land was redistributed after a certain period of time. During the Kamakura period developed under the rule of the Minamoto a hierarchy of small landowners (名主, myōshū ), large landowners from land Vogten (地头, Jitō ), provincial Militärgoverneuren ( shugo ) and the Shogun.

With the end of the Heian period, all Japanese lands in Shoen were practically converted. This should remain until the Ōnin War during the Sengoku period, which marked the Entfeudalisierung of Japanese society.

The fief system of the subsequent Edo period based instead on the so-called Han.