Gokenin

A gokenin (御家人, gokenin^?) was initially a vassal of the shogunate of the Kamakura and the Muromachi periods. In exchange for protection and the right to become shugo (governor) or jitō (manor's lord), in times of peace a gokenin had the duty to protect the imperial court and Kamakura, in case of war had to fight with his forces under the shogun’s flag. From the middle of the thirteenth century, the fact that gokenin were allowed to become de facto owners of the land they administered, coupled to the custom that all gokenin children could inherit, brought to the parcelization of the land and to a consequent weakening of the shogunate. The gokenin class ceased to be a significant force during the Muromachi period and was supplanted by the figure of the daimyō. During the successive Edo period, the term finally came to indicate a direct vassal of the shogun below an omemie (御目見^?), meaning that they did not have the right to an audience with the shogun.

The terms gokenin and kenin are etymologically related but have very different meanings. Confusion can arise also because in documents sometimes this last word is used together with the honorific -go (御^?) prefix (go + kenin). Under the ritsuryō legal system in use in Japan from the seventh to the tenth century, a kenin ("house person") was a human being who, while legally property of a family, could be inherited but not sold and, unlike a slave, had some rights. For example, the inventory of a temple's wealth mentions thirteen kenin, among them four women, who were in effect servants.

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