Refers to the system or practice of farming land owned by a landlord, paying rent in cash or kind. Common in historical and agricultural contexts.
戦前、多くの農民は小作で生計を立てていた。
Before the war, many farmers made a living through tenant farming.
小作制度は地主と小作人の関係で成り立っていた。
The tenant farming system was based on the relationship between landlords and tenant farmers.
小作 refers to tenant farming on rented land, the direct opposite of 自作 in its sense of farming one's own land.
subtenancy; sublease
tenant farmer
tenant farmer's rent
tenant rights; cultivation rights
rice paid as rent
小作 originally denotes cultivating land belonging to another person, and by extension tenant farming or a tenant farmer. It does not imply that the farm itself is small.
perpetual tenant farming right