<研究ノート>東大寺領越中国新川郡大藪荘・丈部荘をめぐって

Abstract

There were many estates of Todaiji temple in Echizen and Etchu provinces of Hokurikudo region in the eighth century. Many of those estates were drawn on large-scale estate maps of the same period. These estate maps had a dual character being pictorial maps depicting both the landscape and plots within a grid pattern for land registration. Among those extant maps are one of Echizen province and seven of Etchu province, all of which were drawn in the same year--759. The maps of 759 were, generally speaking, relatively accurate compared with other dated examples. Signatures on those maps of temple officials and the central government officers in charge are the same, although the governors of the two provincial governments were, of course, different. Almost all the locations of those estates, including those on maps drawn in other years, have been confirmed, with the exception of the two in Niikawa county of Etchu province. This paper attempts to clarify the location of these two estates. The names of two estates were Oyabu and Hasetsukabe; the location of the former has been presumed to be near what appears to be a tomb mound drawn on the map, and the latter was thought to be associated with the Jobenoma archeological site. As for the former, speculation on the location of the Oyabu estate seems to have no factual grounding apart from this single element on the pictorial map. As for the other, the presumed location of Hasetsukabe estate was based on a newly discovered archeological site. But the pictorial elements on the estate maps include various features in addition to the tomb mound for Oyabu, and the date of the archeological site associated with Hasetsukabe was around one century later than the estate shown on the estate map. The author previously examined the locations of the estates in other counties in Etchu province, referring to the stream pattern drawn on the maps in the eighth century. Almost all of these patterns were very useful in considering the locations. The author then concluded that the same method might be effective in discovering the locations of the two estates whose locations were undetermined. Fortunately, both pictorial maps have drawings of streams. The map of Oyabu shows parallel rivers running from south to north. Another river runs from west to east in the northern part of the map. One of parallel rivers, the one on the western side, also veers to east. The map of Hasetsukabe has three waterways running from southeast to northwest, but these are not rivers but canals or ditches, as are indicated by the names on the map. The author was able to find those patterns of rivers or of canals on the old topographical maps from the end of the 19th century. It is possible to hypothesize that the location of Oyabu may have been on the east bank, in the region downstream from both the Joganji River and the Shiraiwa River, and the location of Hasetsukabe may have been near the mouth of the Kami'ichi River basin. The two areas are not far from one another and were within the core area of Niikawa County in the eighth century. The Jori grid system used for land registration in Niikawa County, which can be restored by the location of those estates seems to be the same pattern used in other counties of the same province as well as those of many other provinces. The starting point of the numbering system of the jori system was to be at the west boundary of the county, which is 5.9 kilometers west of Oyabu. The probability that the locations hypothesized by the new method applied in this paper are correct is high, but there may still need to be more investigation in the field. This is because the Jori grid system drawn on the map consists of numbers and proper nouns, the probability that numbering system can be restored is surely high, but the proper nouns probably need more investigation. Beside such general factors, the estate map of Hasetsukabe includes some written errors as pointed out in this paper.