Eishaku (an honorable position or rank) (栄爵)
An eishaku indicates an honorable position or rank. It was also another name for jugoi (Junior Fifth Rank) during ancient and medieval Japan. Furthermore, it was also used as a term to express a special privilege given to temples, shrines or guji (chief priests). Later, it was also used to indicate other high ranks.
Eishaku: Special privileges of temples, shrines or guji (chief priests)
Each year a temple, shrine or guji could grant the rank of Jugoinoge (Junior Fifth Rank, Lower Grade) to one person who desired the rank and who had paid a joryo (a fee to obtain the rank). This system began in the early Heian period. It was a system for selling ranks, the same as nenshaku in which a rank was granted of paying joryo to a retired emperor, empress or Sannomiya (third prince). Advancement through eishaku was quite common from the end of the Heian Period to the Kamakura period.
The amount an applicant had to pay for eishaku was called eishaku-ryo or joshaku-ryo. In 'Sakeiki' (a diary written by MINAMOTO no Tsuneyori in 1025) it states that this amount was 126 cubic meters of rice crop, while in 1287 the amount was stipulated to be at most 1500 hiki (a roll of cloth), the same as the amount stipulated for a Gon no Kami (Provisional Governer).