J.R. Goodwin
1318.^54 That order donated the labor of fifteen individuals known as sanjo hōshi to the Kyoto
temple Tōji. They were to clean the temple, especially to remove sources of ritual pollution. The
document has stimulated discussions of the way that special territories called sanjo and their resi-
dents were controlled.
But first, what were the sanjo? The term literally means “scattered places” but sometimes
refers to their residents, who are also called sanjomono and sanjo hinin in addition to sanjo hōshi.^55
Wakita Haruko argues that sanjo were not originally territories where outcasts lived, but that in
the late medieval period, they became directly connected with outcast status. As the earliest
example of such a connection, Wakita cites the 1318 edict. The brief order raises questions about
the parties that controlled the sanjo to begin with, as well as the subsequent authority over the
“donated” hōshi. According to Wakita, the sanjo was not Go- Uda’s personal holding, but a public
holding controlled by the Kebiishi. Although their labor was donated to Tōji, the hōshi continued
to live in the sanjo as members of a group that remained under Kebiishi control.^56 In other words,
the hōshi had two masters. Other scholars provide somewhat different interpretations, but it is
generally agreed that they remained under dual authority, the temple and the retired
monarch.^57
Miura Keiichi argues that a patrimonial system (kasansei) of control over outcast and marginal
people emerged in the late medieval age.^58 Branches of the Fujiwara regents’ family—the Nijō,
Konoe, and Kujō—monopolized the labor of craftsmen, as well as that of kawaramono and kiyome.
The Nara temple Yakushiji also exercised patrimonial authority, and Miura cites cases dating
from the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries in which variously named outcasts apprehended
and punished culprits on behalf of the temple. As payment, the outcasts often received the cloth-
ing of the culprits—dead or alive—just as hinin who participated in burials received the clothing
of the dead. Miura points out that in the sixteenth century, Yakushiji shukumono (residents of
shuku) were distinguished from hinin: the former lived in the town at the temple’s gate and except
for their police powers on behalf of the temple, were not distinguished from other residents.
Their performance of punishment functions on behalf of Yakushiji, however, alienated them
from the rest of the local population.^59
Even if they did not monopolize authority over outcast groups, temples and shrines were
among their most important controlling institutions in the late medieval age. Some of the most
detailed information about outcasts comes from the records of these institutions or the diaries of
their officials. For example, Daijōin jisha zōjiki, the diary of Jinson (1430–1508), the noble abbot
of the Kōfukuji cloister Daijōin, elucidates the structure and duties of shōmonji groups in Nara
affiliated with the temple. Two such groups, the “Ten Guilds” (Jūza) in the northern part of Nara
and the “Five Locations” (Gokasho) in the south, operated under Daijōin auspices. According to
Matsuo Kenji, the shōmonji performed both public and non- public functions; the former included
cleaning Kōfukuji precincts, digging graves, performing construction labor, and carrying out
punishments such as the destruction of a criminal’s house. Non- public functions included sutra
chanting, yin- yang divination, astrology, and fortunetelling; at the new year, for example, they
went from door to door reciting sutras and charms.
Seven types of street performers—people of the “seven roads”—were subordinate to the Five
Locations: actors in a form of popular theater called sarugaku; arukishirabyōshi, itinerant female
singer- dancers; arukimiko, itinerant female shamans; bell- ringers (kanetataki); pot- beaters (hachi-
tataki), who probably recited the nenbutsu while beating on pots and gourds; monkey trainers;
and a group known as arukiōkō, which to my knowledge has never been satisfactorily defined.
The term aruki, which means itinerant, probably applies to this entire set, and the appellation
“seven roads” can have a dual meaning: it can refer to seven artistic pursuits, or to Japan’s tradi-
tional seven- circuit highways. It seems that these performers were regarded as beggars. As Matsuo