P.D. Shapinsky
Ikki horizontal attachment in medieval Japan
Historians traditionally discussed medieval social organization mainly in terms of hierarchical
structures. Today, however, most acknowledge the extent to which a horizontal organizational
warp complemented the vertical hierarchical woof in the fabric of regional society in late medi-
eval estates, daimyō domains, villages, war bands, and temples. The appearance of “leagues” (ikki,
literally “of one goal” or “in agreement”) composed of peers and near- peers constituted one of
the most consequential examples of this phenomenon.
Studies of medieval ikki carry the burden of dealing with analytical lenses shaped by the early
modern period (during which the term ikki came to signify protest and rebellion), and perpetu-
ated by Marxists and proponents of modernization theory. Marxists highlighted the resistance of
leagues to the feudal authority of warriors. In contrast, John W. Hall saw ikki resistance as no
match for the institutional power of the daimyō, “ephemeral” organizations that “had trouble
perpetuating a lasting order.”^40
Katsumata Shizuo’s seminal analyses have enabled scholars to understand horizontal leagues
as fundamental, lasting structures of medieval society. Katsumata draws on anthropological
insights into festivals (matsuri) and emphasizes the “extraordinary” character of ikki. Emerging
out of Buddhist temples, the league concept and structure swept across medieval Japan. Typic-
ally, Katsumata explains, participants used oaths, the consumption of a “holy elixir of common
cause” (ichimi shinsui), and other ritual practices to synchronize the members of a league in single-
minded devotion (ichimi dōshin) to achieve a goal beyond the ordinary capabilities of
individuals.^41
Katsumata’s insights into the ritual underpinnings to the ikki have helped deepen analyses of
commoner resistance. Estate residents employed ikki to protest the exactions of managers and
warriors in the Kamakura and Muromachi periods.^42 Mary Elizabeth Berry treats the Yamashiro
kuni ikki and tokusei ikki as part of a larger “politics of demonstration” unleashed by a collective
desire for redress (jiriki) on the part of commoners and low- ranking warriors. Such ikki sought
the restoration of old privileges as much as the transformation of the political and economic
orders.^43
In contrast to scholars who see ikki as transient phenomena, Kurushima Noriko argues that
collective action in ikki proved transformative when war bands, corporate villages, and religious
organizations could find ways to institutionalize the leagues and make them permanent.^44
Kurushima and Ike Susumu have identified similarities and symbiotic relationships between the
hierarchical authority of daimyō and various ikki. Kurushima notes that both daimyō and ikki
accepted the existence of a transcendent authority. The ikki depended on oaths to the gods to
ensure their survival, and daimyō could insert themselves into that relationship as the guarantor of
those figures’ survival. “Whole province leagues” (sōkoku ikki) enabled commoners to lay claim
to public authority for a territorial region similar to daimyō domains. Kurushima and Ike also
argue that daimyō embraced ikki as a way to mobilize forces. For Kurushima, kokujin constituents
of the retainer band often exercised considerable power over the shugo and daimyō collectively as
“leagues of retainers” (hikan ikki), at times even determining house succession. For, Ike the
collective ikki made possible the work of the daimyō house head across sengoku society. The case
of the Mōri family has become the paradigmatic example of daimyō house evolving out of a
kokujin ikki.^45
The most powerful of the late medieval leagues was arguably the Ikkō Ikki, which controlled
several provinces, governed a vast network of branch temples, and administered sprawling com-
mercial enterprises during the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Historical scholarship on the
Ikkō phenomenon has varied considerably in presentation of the political, military, economic,