As seen in relationships among honke (head family), ryoke (lord of the manor), kaihatsu-ryoshu (local notable who developed the land), shokan (officer governing shoen), and jito (manager and lord of manor), dominance relationships involving lands and farmers and also relationships involving rights such as land and profit were related to each other in multiple ways; therefore, the Shoen Koryo system of the Middle Ages was extremely complicated.
中世の荘園公領制では、本家-領家-開発領主-荘官-地頭らの関係に見られるように、土地や百姓に対する支配関係、また土地からの収益に関する権利関係が重層的に絡み合っており、著しく複雑な様相を呈していた。