There is a concept called asylum. On Wikipedia, it is translated into Japanese as "sanctuary" or "free zone," but neither feels quite right. Asylum is simply asylum.
Wikipedia defines asylum as "a region beyond the reach of governing authority," but that also doesn't sit well with me.
Why? Because governing powers can create asylums themselves. I want to define medieval European asylum as "a mentally inviolable domain according to the values of the parties involved."
A concrete example of asylum is the church. All violence is forbidden there.
The prohibition of violence is not enforced by physical power. It exists because "the people of that era shared the value that one must not commit violence inside a church."
No one can spit on a Jizo statue, trample a beautiful flower field, or rape a widow in front of her husband's grave. That is precisely an area protected by values—an asylum.
