Goryosho (御料所)

Goryosho, which is also called ryosho or goryo, is the land under the direct control of an official authority such as the Emperor (the Imperial family) or Shogunate. Goryosho is different from a territory (chigyo-chi) feoffed to a feudatory. "Nippo Jisho" (Japanese-Portuguese dictionary) defines goryosho as royal estates, or a king's private demesne and land.

Goryosho includes lands controlled directly by Shugo daimyo (feudal lords) and by Sengoku daimyo (Japanese territorial lords in the Sengoku period) and lands controlled directly by the Edo shogunate (known as tenryo after Meiji era). Also, the Emperor's goryochi (an Imperial estate) is sometimes called Kinrigoryo or Koshitsugoryo.
In many cases Goryosho was actually controlled and run by local governors and was almost like a manor where Imperial Court and Shogunate took the place of honjo (the administrative headquarters of manor) or of Honke, the head family (the owner of the highest-graded patches of land under the stratified land ruling structure of Shoen) or of ryoke (virtual proprietor of manor.)

The Muromachi shogunate, which owned approximately fifty goryosho (kubogoryo), delegated control of goryosho to great vassals, such as hokoshu (the shogunate military guard) or bugyoshu (group of magistrates) and made them pay tax to the shogunate. However, the Muromachi shogunate came to count more and more on tax revenues from the merchants in Kyoto rather than from goryosho, due to the poor and unsteady business performance of goryosho caused by a wave of wars. That was apparently an underlying reason why the word 'ryosho' was used to describe Nosenkata (a tax collector). Also, the Muromachi shogunate delegated, on a short-term basis, the post of the military governor of Yamashiro Province to people who already occupied important roles in government such as Samurai-dokoro Shoshi. In doing so the shogunate was able to restrain them from forming a Shugo-ryogoku system (the system whereby a Shugo dominates a manor), and also secured some economic profit from them.

During the Sengoku period the Mori clan was able to avoid intervention by the ruling clan at that time (namely the Toyotomi clan) by registering Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine officially as "Imperial property."
(As a matter of course, it was necessary for the Mori clan to offer financial support to the Imperial Court.)
The Uesugi clan and the Mori clan were the two largest contributors to the Imperial family in the Sengoku period.)

[Original Japanese]