Shimazu-sho

• Japanese: 島津荘 (Shimazu shou)

The Shimazu-shô estate after which the Shimazu clan takes its name was the largest shôen (estate) in all of Japan.

It was established in the 1020s, when Taira no Suemoto, an official at the Dazaifu, was granted the land by Kanpaku Fujiwara no Yorimichi. The estate's center was at a place called Shimazu, within Morokata district, in Hyûga province (today, the Moromoto area in Miyakonojô city, Miyazaki prefecture), and so the whole estate came to be called "Shimazu." Over time, the estate grew to include parts of the neighboring provinces of Satsuma and Ôsumi.

In 1185, Minamoto no Yoritomo and the Konoe family named Koremune Tadahisa geshi (or gesu, 下司職) for that territory.

後に忠久は地頭職に任命されるが、島津荘は摂関家の1つ近衛家が本家として支配しており、近衛家に仕えていた忠久が荘園の管理を任されるのは自然な流れであった。本家近衛家の下には領家として興福寺一乗院が存在していた。建仁3(1203)年の比企氏の乱に連座して忠久は島津荘地頭職を没収されるも、のちに薩摩方のみ地頭職が返される。大隅・日向の地頭職は幕府執権の北条氏一族が鎌倉幕府滅亡まで保有し続ける。