onchi

Updated: June 19, 2025

These called onchi* were parcelled out among the families residing in a district, without distinction of age or sex, and were held in perpetuity, never reverting to the Crown unless a family became extinct. It is not to be inferred from the above that all the land throughout the Empire was divided among the people. Considerable tracts were reserved for special purposes.

F. (Frank) Brinkley - A History of the Japanese People : From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era