Miyaza and the Kinship Group Structure of a Village in the Eastern Part of Tanba Mountains, Kyoto Prefecture

Abstract

Villages often contain some kinship groups within them and still remain Miyaza system, religious service system. Such villages are widely distributed in Tanba mountains. The purpose of this article is to consider the changes of settlement structure at the each level of Ie(_??_ household), Kabu(_??_ kinship group) and Mura(_??_ village community). This paper examines Yashiro district in Keihoku-chô, Kyoto prefecture, which consists of four small settlements: Azae (12 households), Nishi (14), Yashironaka (23) and Urushitan (16).The settlements of Yashiro district are dispersed on the some alluvial cones. And the households of kinship groups in each settlement coincide approximately with small territorial groups of Jô or Jo (_??_). Landscape of those settlements is common, but Yashironaka should be structurally distinguished from other settlements in Yashiro district. The reason is as follows.1. Yashironaka consists only of the three kinship groups Zashû which has a privilege for religious service, whereas Zashû-kabu and Zagai-kabu, which is the kinship group without a privilege for religious service, coexist in other settlements.2. The kinship groups in Yashironaka worship group ancestors and hold a party (_??__??_). Though the kinship groups in other settlements have not such group ancestors, several parties which all houses in each settlement participate are held.3. While the number of houses in other settlements has decreased after Meiji era, that of Yashironaka has been steady.4. The head families of kinship groups in Yashiro district belong generally to upper class farmers. Especially the head families of Zagai-kabu in Azae and Nishi had gotten many arable lands before World War II, and there existed the economic hierarchy among the households of Zagai-kabu in those settlements. But the households of kinship groups in Yashironaka have lacked the differetiation of intra-group hierarchy.Settlements of Azae, Nishi and Urushitan, however, have different forms of social groups, the function of community and the economic structure.Azae: The head family of Zagai-kabu had gotten many arable lands from the middle of Meiji era to the beginning of Shôwa era. Thereafter due to the decay of the head family, Zagai-kabu had diminished the area of arable land and the number of houses. In Azae, therefore, Harada-gumi and Fujino-gumi as smallest administrative unit were integrated in order to keep the function of community in 1970.Nishi: The households of Zagai-kabu have surpassed those of Zashû-kabu in economic power. Since the number of houses of four kinship groups in Nishi is small, all houses participate the parties of Yamanokuchi-kô, Atago-kô and Ise-kô, which are religious cult groups.Urushitan: There is a party of Tôya-kô which all houses participate. But the tie of two small territorial intra-groups, Zashû-kabu and Zagai-kabu, have been firmer than Tôya-kô in settlement community.The structure of settlements in Yashiro district is summerised as follows.1, It is clear that the tie of kinship groups in Yashiro district has been weakened in order of Yashironaka, Urushitan, Azae and Nishi. And Miyaza has maintained the tie of kinship groups.2. It is obvious that the dispositions of kinship groups coincide approximately with the small territorial groups.