The Water Transportation in the Kanto Plain and the "Piracy" there (3)

     In Medieval Kanto, political authority was exercised by a range of quasi-territorial and overlapping agents, such as Kanto Deputy Shogunates, Kanto Deputy Shogunate Regency, Provincial Guardian Samurais, Manorial Steward Samurais, and leftovers of ancient religious institutions.  City-state-like merchant communities, which could be found in Medieval Western Japan, were yet to be seen, though.  If the transition from ancient times to medieval times is characterized with a decentralization of power and authority, the region was really a showcase, with the outcome of blood feuds.

     Then, how the piracy in the region was decentralized?  We can find a good example in the case of the Yanada Family.  Then who were the Yanada Family?  And where did they come from?  To answer those questions, let’s go back to the 11th century, at the end of the ancient aristocracy.

     Minamoto Yoshiie (1039-1106) fought from place to place in Kanto.  In the process, he might have protected the newly cultivated land in Ashikaga County, Shimotsuke Province.  His fourth son, Yoshikuni (1091-1155), contributed the land to Anrakuju-in Temple, which had been built by Emperor Toba (1103-1123), and the land was authorized as Ashikaga Manor.  The manor was actually run by a local powerful family, who called themselves Fujiwara and claimed to be the posterity of Fujiwara Hidesato (?-?), who had suppressed the revolt of Taira Masakado (?-940) in 940.