Jizamurai

The jizamurai (地侍) (samurai of the land) were minor landholders that emerged in 15th-century Japan Muromachi period. The term was rather broad and jizamurai were considered to be lower-status provincial samurai, petty nobility, or even independent peasant farmers. They alternated between warfare and using their relatively small plots of land for intensive and diversified forms of agriculture.

One of the primary causes for the rise in the number of smaller landholders was a decline in the custom of primogeniture. Towards the end of the Kamakura period, inheritance began to be split among a lord's sons, making each heir's holdings, and thus their power, smaller.

Over time, many of these smaller fiefs came to be dominated by the shugo, constables who were administrators appointed by the shogunate to oversee the provinces. Resentful and mistrustful of the interference of government officials, people under their control banded together into leagues called ikki. The uprisings that resulted, particularly when the shugo tried to seize control of entire provinces, were also called ikki; some of the largest and most famous took place in Wakasa Province in the 1350s, Yamashiro Province in 1485, and Kaga Province in 1487–1488. In the later two, independent confederacies, the Yamashiro and Kaga ikki, respectively, were established. In the late 15th century, jizamurai also formed ikki in Iga and Kōka, the military forces of which became known as ninja and gave name to the ninjutsu styles of Iga-ryū and Kōga-ryū.

These independent jizamurai confederacies were eventually subdued by the Oda clan, who launched large invasions into their territory. The surviving jizamurai were given the option to join loyal samurai retinues in the cities and castles, or forsake their samurai status and become peasant farmers. Despite their defeat, the ninjitsu tradition was preserved by the jizamurai, allowing it to survive up to present-day.