15th century Japan was a largely agricultural society, with urban population centres like Kyoto being the exception rather than the norm. The previous capital Kamakura in northern Honshu was another exception, but cities like Sakai, Osaka, and Edo (modern-day Tokyo) did not fully emerge until the end of this period. Although the feudal class system was not made explicit or strictly enforced until the Edo Bakufu took power at the end of the next century, under the Muromachi Bakufu there was still a clear distinction between the kuge (aristocratic nobles who served the Imperial family), the buke (warrior clans who increasingly controlled the affairs of state), and the large mass of commoners including peasant farmers, artisans and craftsmen, and merchants and traders.
Peasant society was organised primarily on a village level, and peasants were usually expected to remain in the village they were born into, although in this era it was not uncommon for peasants to migrate en masse in protest at their working conditions. The main agricultural product in most areas was rice, and the economic value of a domain was measured for taxation purposes in terms of rice production (these valuations were not regularly updated, especially during the turmoil of the Ōnin War, which allowed local landlords to evade a certain amount of taxation). As the Muromachi Bakufu began to lose control of Japan, they were increasingly unable to collect the taxes they were owed, which instead lined the pockets of merchants and local warlords. Furthermore, the mass conscription of peasants by both sides of the conflict impoverished the entire country, contributing to the eventual collapse of the bakufu and the rise of new warlord clans.
“Peasants in autumn”, by the famous 19th century painter Hokusai
Towards the end of this period, new towns like Osaka in Settsu province and the future capital Edo (now Tokyo) in the Kantō region began to develop. Some of these towns grew up around autonomous temple complexes (jinaicho) or warlord castles (jōkamachi), while others emerged naturally around ports or other trade hubs. The migration of peasants into towns disrupted the rural economy, and trade offered a way for commoners to establish a degree of economic stability outside of the traditional rice industry. In Kyoto and elsewhere the economy also became dominated by moneylenders who took advantage of desperate peasants to make a profit, and a common demand of peasant revolts was for a “tokusei”, an official declaration of debt relief issued by the shogun. Local landlords also commonly found themselves in debt, and so were surprisingly sympathetic to these kinds of peasant revolt.
Painting of a harbour town
From the very beginning of working on designing this game, it was clear to me that it would be important to capture these economic interactions and incentives. Peasant units therefore lie at the heart of the economic model in The Pure Land. In their inactive state they are little more than resources, providing direct income to the Jizamurai during the Harvest Round, and indirect income to the other factions via Taxation, Confiscating, and Alms, all of which take Resources from the Jizamurai. They can also be Conscripted into Ashigaru (peasant soldiers) by the Hosokawa and Yamana, and Converted into Monks by the Ikkō-ikki. The Jizamurai also gain Harvest Round income from their Towns, which reflects both the increased urbanisation during this period, and the eventual emergence of important trade hubs like modern-day Osaka. The Jizamurai are therefore wealthy but relatively weak, liable to having their Resources stolen by the other factions, and their Peasants conscripted or converted.
The Jizamurai faction primarily represents not the large mass of the working peasantry, but rather a loose coalition of upper-class peasants, minor nobles, and an emerging mercantile middle class, all of whom have a shared interest in resisting centralised rule and provoking peasant rebellions. Part of the Jizamurai victory condition consists in the accumulation of Wealth, representing a combination of liquid assets that are harder to tax or confiscate, investment into local infrastructure and private landholdings, and the development of the military forces of the smaller clans that are not explicitly represented in the game, but would later rise into prominence (such as, most famously, the Oda and Tokugawa clans). In game, the Jizamurai can gain Wealth by using their Towns to Trade, and other factions can remove it by destroying Towns or, in the case of the Ikkō-ikki, by collecting Alms from pious Jizamurai nobles.
The other part of the Jizamurai victory condition is the population of uncontrolled Provinces, reflecting the increased decentralisation and emergence of regional warlords that eventually precipitated the Sengoku (or Warring States) era. The Jizamurai faction can utilise a limited number of yellow Bushi cubes for this purpose, but their main tool to this end is the instigation of peasant revolts or “ikki” leagues, which became increasingly frequent towards the end of the 15th century. These will be introduced in the next article, along with the Ikkō-ikki faction, who were a particularly powerful religious league that began to emerge around the time of the Ōnin War.
Previous Articles:The Chronicles of Ōnin #1: Civil War in Muromachi JapanThe Chronicles of Ōnin #2: Yoshimasa and the Muromachi CourtThe Chronicles of Ōnin #3: Hosokawa Katsumoto and Yamana SÅzen
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