ABSTRACT
The Statute of Taiho, which brought about the system of land nationalization after the reformation of Taika, classified the land as official and private. The official land covered shinden, and also other land beside iden, shokuden, shiden, kubunden, etc. Private land covered iden, shokuden, shiden, etc., which were given by the Court to men of merit, and kubunden equally allotted to farmers, and also miscellaneous land of many kinds. Shinden meant that a shrine owned the land and the people living there, and received all the taxes levied on this land and the people, without handing them over to the Imperial Court. Moreover, if the tax levied for building a shrine was insufficient, the Imperial Court made up the shortage with a tax levied from people in general. Such land has been called " free land," which meant that it did not pay taxes to the Imperial Court. Jiden, which is land belonging to a Buddhist temple, is, on the whole, almost the same as shinden and free land. A slight difference between them is that while trade in shinden was strictly prohibited, that in jiden, after being first prohibited, was later permitted. Kanden is the same as the Imperial estate of to-day, and was controlled by the Household Department. This was also untaxable land. Of the private lands, there was land called iden which was given to princes and royal subjects over fifth court rank, according to their ranks and grades, though at one time it was granted to monks and nuns also. There were two kinds of iden in the provinces around Kyoto and one in the other provinces. This kind of land was taxable, as it paid taxes to the Court. Ranks and grades to-day carry nothing but honour, but formerly there were emoluments. Further, the ranks over shonagon were given land in accordance with their grades. This was called shokuden, which means actual service land. In case of dismissal or retirement from office, half the shokuden was given. This was free land even though it was private. Besides this kind of shokuden, the Governor-General of Kyushu and the governors of provinces and other local officials were given a land which was called kugeden, and was also untaxable land. The lower ranks of local officials had taxable land. As we have already seen, in those times there were two kinds of taxable land and free land, according to the nature of the land.
