Za ()

The za, established mainly by merchants, manufacturers and entertainers, refers to the guilds that existed from the Heian period to the Sengoku period (period of warring states). These guilds were granted the privilege of exclusive rights to market and sell in exchange for payment to the Imperial Court, nobles, temples, and/or shrines.

Summary

There are two theories about the origin of the name za: one argues that the name originated from a word which represented a specific seat in an official place or a marketplace, and the other maintains that it came from a word which meant meeting place for people in the same industry. These theories have been discussed over a long period of time (this discussion is called 'the za debate'), and the current dominant theory explains that the word "za" originally indicated a place where certain qualified persons gathered all together and thus the word included both the meanings. Local-based za were sometimes established; for example, village-based za called 'sato-za' and town-based za called 'machi-za' were formed. A za did za-yaku (duties imposed on a za) or offered services to a court noble, a temple or a shrine which was their honjo (a controller and protector of a za), and in exchange for it the honjo granted some status such as Kugonin (purveyors to the Imperial Household), Yoriudo (dependents of powerful nobles, temples or shrines), or Jinin (associates of Shinto shrines) to za-shu (members of a za) of that za.

The oldest za on record was the Yaseri-za (written as 八瀬里座 in Japanese), which was under the control of the Shoren-in Temple and comprised of fellers and palanquin bearers, and the Yaseri-za offered services to the Enryaku-ji Temple, which was the head temple of the sect that the Shoren-in Temple belonged to, and the Imperial Court.It eventually became the origin of the later Yase-doji (palanquin bearers for an emperor in Yase). Once the Kamakura period began, the number of za increased in big cities and in commercial and industrial cities. The major za were the orite-za (guild of weavers) in Otoneri, Kyoto, which became the origin of the later Nishijin brocade (high-quality silk fabrics produced in the Nishijin district of Kyoto), the wata-za (cotton guild) and the nishiki-za (brocade guild) which were under the umbrella of the Gion-sha Shrine, the koji-za (rice malt guild) under the Kitano-sha Shrine, the yu-za (oil guild) in Oyamazaki, Yamashiro Province, the uo-za (fish guild) in Imamiya, Settsu Province, the zaimoku-za (guild of lumber dealers) in Kamakura, and the yu-za (oil guild) in Hakata. The Kofuku-ji Temple in Yamato Province and the Hiyoshi-taisha Shrine in Omi Province were also known to have placed many za under their controls.

A za monopolized the purchase of goods, and they also even monopolized transport routes for those goods and equipment for transportation, if necessary. Additionally, a za received the privilege of exemptions from tolls at sekisho (checking stations) and business taxes in marketplaces backed up with the political power of their honjo. In the market where a za obtained an exclusive right to sell their merchandise, at the same time, they attempted to monopolize the market by prohibiting merchants and artisans who did not participated in that za from engaging in trade, and thus they sustained small traders belonging to the za. Za also actively cooperated with each other; for example, a za in a production area cooperated with another za in a consumption area, and moreover, a za in a big city controlled another za in a local area.

In the Muromachi period, however, the environment surrounding za experienced a gradual change. The power of feudal lords including government offices in Kyoto was increased, which made it possible for them to impose business taxes without the consent of za; further, local merchants and manufacturers tried to destroy the authority of za in cooperation with local lords. Under these circumstances, za were also gradually changed. Some za tried to become a trade group independent of their honjo, or some tried to have closer ties to government offices and feudal lords to have them as their honjo, and some attempted to establish a hereditary privilege by limiting the number of members in their za. In order to cope with these changes, emerging merchants began to establish za called 'shin-za' (literally, "new za") for the sake of the same privileges as existing za had, and some of them even formed the third form of za called 'mago-za' (literally, "grandchild's za").

Nobunaga ODA launched rakuichi-rakuza (free markets and open guilds) in new cities, and Hideyoshi TOYOTOMI ultimately dismantled the za system of the medieval period. As a result of this, privileges of za were denied, but this triggered the establishment of the control of specific goyo-shonin (chartered merchants) tied to feudal lords. This was not to say, however, that all za were dismantled, and in fact some of them remained as commercial communities which did not have to do za-yaku. Additionally, entertainers formed some za as entertainer groups whose headmen were major tayu (the headmaster of a school of performing arts), and people began to add the term "za" to the end of their group names beginning in the Edo period. By further extension, such use of "za" also began to be applied to theater names and movie theater names afterward.

During the Edo period, the kin-za (literally, gold za, or gold mint) and the gin-za (literally, silver za, or silver mint) were established under the control of the Edo bakufu (Japanese feudal government headed by a shogun).

[Original Japanese]