A tour of Japan's Warring States Period

During the Warring States Period in Japan, all shining figures always had a very common title - Warring States Daimyo.

Some people often interpret it very straightforwardly as a noble family or a powerful samurai family, but when looking at the term daimyo in detail, the explanation is often very difficult to understand, or even far-fetched. Then I will explain it with a very old-fashioned and vulgar story-telling article.

The beginning of the story is ridiculous. In short, a person named Xiao Ming traveled through time. No matter how he traveled through time, he traveled back to the son of a certain official in the middle period of the Muromachi Shogunate. Let’s introduce his family. His father is the General of the Conquerors, Ashikaga Yoshi, the general leader of the Genji sect. He is an old man who works with Yin-ryu, Xian-ryu, and Sha-ryu every day. He is in good health every day. The bed wrestling was also very successful. With your mother and several younger mothers, you gave birth to your eldest brother, your eldest sister, your second brother, yourself, your little sister and a younger sister or brother in the belly.

Well, by this time your dad is in his forties, and at that age, he also starts to think about his funeral. First of all, your brother. There is no doubt that he is a direct descendant and has a stable position as the leader of the world. Moreover, he is practicing the sword every day in his twenties. If he is in good health, he will definitely not take advantage of it in advance. Then there’s your eldest sister. When you just traveled through time, your eldest sister was only fourteen and married a thirteen-year-old Shiba boy. It was said that her life was quite happy. Anyway, she had already gone to Owari Country. She probably would have spent the rest of her life there. I can't see you a few times. It's your second brother again, which makes your father very worried. Your second brother usually has a good head and is a first-class endorser, but he can't make a living with his endorsements, so it's hard to find a way out. Coincidentally, at this time, a certain great monk who presided over the Five Mountains and Five Temples died. Your father immediately shaved your brother's head, then he went into the palace and recited a few scriptures to the emperor, and then he wore purple clothes and was granted the title of monk, and he was happy to be a great monk. The monk went away (we will talk about why he was so happy later).

So it was finally your son's turn. Your father was scratching his head and trying to think of a solution. His first idea was to send people to inquire about the 1,234,56,789 ministers of the Sheguan family in Kyoto. "Is your family missing a son? My son is very cute. How about giving it to you?"

The result is a big disappointment. Those weaklings actually all have sons, and there is no need to adopt you. After going around in circles, your dad was very helpless and finally thought about it. He would just give you some grievances and pick a piece of land for you in the shogunate's imperial palace so that you can make rice worms without worrying about food and clothing. So he started to look through the account books, but unfortunately the general's family didn't have any surplus food. Finally, he saw a piece of land with 3,000 kusen in Tian County, Shinano, so he started to arrange it for you.

First of all, let me help you get started. The name Xiao Ming is naturally not suitable. Let’s give him a more formal name: Ashikaga Yoshiaki. Then I spent ten gold coins to buy you an official position with Shinano Mamoru, one of the top five, so that you can go to the country in good name. At this time, your full name will become Minamoto (family name), courtier (surname), Ashikaga (Miao character), Shinano Mamoru (official title), and Yoshiaki (first name). At the age of fourteen, you came to Shinano accompanied by an uncle from Hosokawa, Kyogoku, or Shiba. When you got there, you learned that your village was called Sangoso (just kidding, it was actually Yamauchi Village).

At this point (heavy fog) the main text begins. In this way, Xiao Ming was thrown into the Shangou Village of Shinano Province by a cheap man. Since this land is called a ravine, in order to show that you are now the boss of this land and you have contracted this land, you will change the word "Miao" accordingly. For Shangou, from now on you will be called Shangou Xiaoming (ok, just kidding, it’s Yamauchi Yoshiaki). Have you experienced anything after seeing this? The name of a field is called the famous land system, and the person who occupies the famous land is also called the owner of the famous land. Since Xiao Ming has a very high status (my father is Kimikata Ashikaga Yoshi) and the territory is not small (three thousand kan can be exchanged for rice for ten thousand or several koku), everyone publicly calls you the daimyo landowner of Shinano Domestic Field County, and then everyone Gradually, I omitted the last two words and started calling you by your name.

In this way, Xiao Ming, a time traveler, has achieved his path to fame. As for what will happen in the future, no matter how great the flood is.

Someone asked where this imaginary Yamauchi family came from, so I posted a story.