Kitake Monjo

    Since 2020, the Uehiro Research Division of Historical Materials Study of the Center for Northeast Asian Studies at Tohoku University has been investigating 482 historical documents belonging to the Kita family, a feudal retainer of the Sendai Domain during the Edo period. The project was conducted with the approval of Miyagi Prefecture’s Kami Town Board of Education, which possesses the documents. All items were photographed, and a document catalog was completed. Photographs were taken by Teiji Nomoto and administrative support staff at the Uehiro Research Division of Historical Materials Study. Kenichiro Aratake and Hiroyuki Fujikata created the database. Kamimachi Kitake monjo mokuroku (The catalog of the documents of the Kita family in Kami Town), created by Aratake and Yoshitoki Suzuki, was posted on the website listed at the end of this section.
     The first head of the Kita family, Shigekiyo Kita, became a subject of Masamune Date in the early Edo period, and the family heads thereafter held important posts such as wakadoshiyori as a feudal retainer of the Sendai Domain. The family was given annual stipend of as much as 100 kanmon (1,000 koku). In 1695, the family was bestowed with Jou Village in Kami-Gun, and three surrounding villages. Records confirm the existence of 23 samurai residences and 33 ashigaru residences in Jou Village in the latter half of the 18th century. These were residences of the retainers of Bunjuro Kita.
     Of the 482 items, 370 were created in the Edo period, and the others in the Meiji period. The contents are roughly classified into three types: 1) The lineage of the Kita family, 2) the official affairs of the Sendai Domain, and 3) learning/books.

*Kamimachi kitake monjo mokuroku (The catalog of the documents of the Kita family in Kami Town)
This is downloadable from the chosa kenkyu (research/studies) section of the website of the Uehiro Research Division of Historical Materials Study 
https://uehiro-tohoku.net/survey/survey04