Yugeshima Shōen ruins
The is an archaeological site consisting of the ruins of a Heian to Kamakura period shōen located on the island of Yugeshima in the Seto Inland Sea, Japan. Administratively, the area is now part of the town of Kamijima, Ehime. The site been protected as a National Historic Site since 2021.This manor is particularly famous because salt was the annual tribute, and it provided important materials for the study of the medieval salt industry. Overview Yugejima is a small island in the Geiyo Islands in between Ehime and Hiroshima Prefectures. In the 12th century, a shōen was established on the island by retired Emperor Go-Toba. The estate was later inherited by Emperor Go-Shirakawa and afterwards became the property of the temple of Tō-ji in Kyoto. The shōen or landed estates were private, tax-free, and autonomous feudal manors which arose with the decline of the ritsuryō system. The earliest shōen developed in the Nara period to encourage land reclamation and provided for the succession of the right to cultivate reclaimed fields in perpetuity. Later shōen developed from land tracts assigned to officially sanctioned Shintō shrines or Buddhist temples or granted by the emperor as gifts to the Imperial relatives, nobles, or