Database: League of all the Commons of Iga

The Iga sōkoku ikki (the League of All the Commons of Iga) is known to us through a single surviving text, The Rules of the League, an undated document which now belongs to the Yamanaka archives in the library of the Ise sanctuary. We can surmise that the particular social system it lays out was created in the early 16th century, around the same time as that of a neighboring league of the inhabitants of Oyamato. Some scholars believe that the league was created before the rules were written out due to an urgent military situation: the looming threat of invasion by Miyoshi Nagayoshi (1522–1564) of nearby Yamato. This likely motivation is supported by the rules explicitly forbidding service to the Miyoshi. Formal consolidation of the league of lga seems to date from around 1560, when representatives from local communities drew up a formal eleven article constitution. Other historians suggest the date 1569. The creation date of this text is open to debate.

The league was prepared to put up a fierce collective resistance against any threats of invasion. The basis of the league was a federation of village communes, but local power was exercised by the sixty-six local warrior families who made laws from the safety of their local fortresses and held important policy-making sessions at nearby religious sites. These families collectively administered the territory for the next two decades until the ambition of Oda Nobunaga proved to be the insurmountable threat that would break the league.