Nōjōshiin

The Nōjōshiin (Seurian: Farm Wardens) were a historic grouping of semi-hereditary native intermediaries or agricultural middle-managers existent during the course of the Corée Colony. The Nōjōshiin acted as a relay for the orders of a Marquesan noble or economic figure, being provided housing, security, and food in exchange for their subservience to and sending of resources towards this noble figure. Nōjōshiin were raised generally from previously-influential families before the establishment of the colony, with their demotion to this role being intended to further prove the end of the Sabi Republic as a state structure. The majority of Nōjōshiin were located in the agricultural regions of Jungg'o, which lead to enduring tensions between southern Kāichrén communities and northern Jien ones.

The Nōjōshiin were culturally and politically isolated from both their noble suzerains and the farmers they operated amongst and directed, living in separate communities from both groups and generally keeping to social circles consisting only of other Nōjōshiin. Due to these factors, Nōjōshiin became prolific commissioners of independent poets and artists of the period, sponsoring both major works and the reconstruction of historic ones. This would lead, on a historical level, to the loss of many notable works due to the destruction of Nōjōshiin communities in the wake of independence (excluding those who fled the country).

Nōjōshiin as a term has, since the end of the colonial period, been used as shorthand or slang for collaborators or traitors in a general sense, with sympathetic portrayals in Kāichrén media being nigh unheard of. Former Nōjōshiin estates and managed areas were divided into farmer-owned agricultural conglomerates by Kaesong, which gradually privatized and conglomerated over the course of the state's existence until the Kāichrén Democratic State mandated that privatization be carried out rapidly.

Etymology

Nōjōshiin as a term is derived from prison wardens - or Kanshiin, with the term for farm (Nōjō) replacing the Kan portion of Kanshiin. This terminology was standardized by political propaganda of the time, which compared farmers under the direction of Nōjōshiin to slaves, Rōdōtashinkō, or other forms of prisoners, an accusation which greatly resonated amongst the population at large.

History

Pre-Colonial Systems

During the existence of the Sabi Republic, a system of temporary temple-slavery associated with the Kigenist Faith known as the Rōdōtashinkō was notably present, with Seshū-Teksuwa families often employing forced labor for the purposes maintaining major estates and gathering food for the community. It is sometimes assumed that Seno Rokuro copied these systems in his organization of the first Nōjōshiin, although there is no direct historical evidence for this claim that has been found. The Rōdōtashinkō was primarily used as a form of forced conversion, with Enme and worshippers of other non-accepted foreign religions being forced into a state of exhaustion so that they could gradually be broken down and converted through labor.

Origins

The first recorded Nōjōshiin was Seno Rokuro in 1640, a former mercenary who had participated in the subjugation of the Sabi Republic. On behalf of a Marquesan noble whose name was lost during the process of independence due to the burning of the Seno family's estate, Rokuro agreed to suppress dissent in the fields owned by that noble, gathering a small group of other mercenaries to regularly threaten and cajole the agricultural workers of the area into continuing to send what materials they produced to Marquesan. The success of this activity would see Rokuro given a contract to do this on behalf of other nobles in the region as well, eventually leading to the Seno providing this form of security to half of the noble-owned farms in the Shisen region of Jungg'o.

Rokuro would be copied first by other mercenaries, and then by former members of Sabi's ruling class, in order to ensure some level of continued power for their families. Through this desire for power (and the occasional raising of lesser members of Kāichrén communities into the role), a majority of dissent against foreign control of agriculture would be suppressed by 1695, 75 years after the establishment of colonial structures in the region. Rokuro would die in 1670, but his family would continue to be influential in the provision of Nōjōshiin until independence was achieved. The existence of the Nōjōshiin was one of the primary sources for Pan-Hiakemirist, Haneist, and other radical ideological support amongst rural communities - radicalizing the tenant farmers into supporting these ideologies despite a general lack of faith in many of their key tenants. This historical radicalization proved crucial to the development of Pan-Hiakemist views on economic structures in regards to agriculture, with anything perceived as too similar to the Nōjōshiin being advised against, eventually leading to the semi-decentralized structures adopted in the early Kaesong period.

Independence

With the beginning of the Three Black Days, popular dissent against the Nōjōshiin was finally acted upon, with homes of notable families being destroyed and members of such either being executed or forced into exile, the latter eventually being made into official state policy by Hamamoto Jaeon following a period of functionally-allowed-murder. The example of the Nōjōshiin would encourage the unusually decentralized agricultural system of the period, with voluntary farming conglomerates being granted a number of privileges with regards to avoiding state or political management. While the early Iminchebol would eventually begin to acquire property, they were held to standards far stricter than those for other industries.

Nōjōshiin would remain a popular target of derision and negative media portrayals - with comparison to them being one of the most negative accusations one could have levied at them in many of the Jungg'oan communities of Kaesong and the KDS. During the course of the Invasion of Jungg'o and the negative interactions before such, Neo-Korean forces and the state as a whole would often be portrayed in an analogous fashion to the Nōjōshiin - as enslavers and general cultural hostiles. This was used in many works of propaganda.

Cultural and Political Influence

As mentioned above, Nōjōshiin have been commonly used as a means of political critique or comparison to collaborating forces / traitors. They are additionally often portrayed as destroyers of history or otherwise utilized as a means of showing the destruction of history which occurred during the process of independence, one of the most notable (and controversial) works covering such being Kansatsu-sha no Saiban (Observer's Trial), a KDS-era drama covering the fictional trial of Adachi Yuu, a Nōjōshiin who purposefully destroyed several pieces of art immediately before his own capture. Kansatsu-sha was controversial for portraying Adachi in a more human fashion than many proceeding works - going into the details of his life during the course of the trial and asking the moral question of if his reactive destruction of the art was an inevitable result of the isolation he felt from society, although it does still fundamentally portray him as a malevolent figure and end triumphantly with his execution, which has been critiqued by modern reviewers.

Nōjōshiin are often associated with the Kāichrén Enme - sharing a similar cultural status in the Kāichrén mindset as traitors and general betrayers of the entirely of Kāichrén culture. This comparison has sometimes been flipped - with the Nōjōshiin being portrayed favorably in comparison with the Enme due to being perceived as more capable of redemption and general reconciliation with the independent state entity of the era. This perspective has influenced works such as Yasutake Sayuri's 1932 work Usugurai Hoshi (The Dim Star), a work of alternate history which focuses on the "extinguishing" of morality in a hypothetical timeline in which the Enme were accepted as citizens of the KDS. The Point-of-View character (commonly believed to be an insert of Sayuri herself, in regards to their stated beliefs) repeatedly focuses on the fact that the Enme's existence in society has created a society in which the crimes of the Nōjōshiin seem almost quaint through their deranged obsession with blood.