ORGANIZATION, CENTRAL AND LOCAL; CURRENCY AND THE LAWS OF THE
TOKUGAWA BAKAFU
THE ORGANIZATION OF THE TOKUGAWA BAKUFU
THE organization of the Tokugawa Bakufu cannot be referred to any
earlier period than that of the third shogun, Iemitsu. The
foundations indeed were laid after the battle of Sekigahara, when the
administrative functions came into the hands of Ieyasu. By him a
shoshidai (governor) was established in Kyoto together with municipal
administrators (machi bugyo). But it was reserved for Iemitsu to
develop these initial creations into a competent and consistent
whole. There was, first, what may be regarded as a cabinet, though
the name of its members (roju, or seniors) does not suggest the
functions generally discharged by ministers of State. One of the roju
was appointed to the post of dairo (great senior). He corresponded to
the prime minister in a Western Cabinet, and the other roju may be
counted as ministers. Then there were junior ministers, and after
them came administrators of accounts, inspectors, administrators of
shrines and temples, and municipal administrators. The place where
State business was discharged went by the name of Go-Yo-beya. There,
the senior and junior ministers assembled to transact affairs, and
the chamber being situated in the immediate vicinity of the shogun's
sitting-room, he was able to keep himself au courant of important
administrative affairs. During the time of the fifth shogun, however,
as already related, this useful arrangement underwent radical
alteration. As for judicial business, there did not originally exist
any special place for its transaction. A chamber in the official
residence was temporarily assigned for the purpose, but at a later
date a court of justice (Hyojo-sho) was established at Tatsunokuchi
in Yedo. This organization, though carried within sight of completion
in the days of the third shogun, required to be supplemented by the
eighth, and was not actually perfected until the time of the
eleventh.
THE DAIRO
The duties of the dairo--sometimes called karo or o-doshiyori--were
to preside over the roju and to handle important administrative
affairs. In many respects his functions resembled those discharged by
the regent (shikken) of the Kamakura Bakufu. To the office of dairo a
specially distinguished member of the roju was appointed, and if no
one possessing the necessary qualifications was available, that post
had to be left vacant. Generally the Ii, the Hotta, or the Sakai
family supplied candidates for the office.
THE ROJU
The roju or senior ministers--called also toshiyori--discharged the
administration. They resembled the kwanryo of the Muromachi
Government. There were five of these ministers and they exercised
control over all matters relating to the Imperial palace, the palace
of the ex-Emperor (Sendo), the Imperial princes, the princely abbots
(monzeki) and all the daimyo. It was customary to choose the roju
from among officials who had previously served as governors of Osaka
or Kyoto or as soshaban, who will be presently spoken of at greater
length.
THE WAKA-DOSHIYORI
There were five junior ministers (waka-doshiyori) whose principal
functions were to exercise jurisdiction over the hatamoto and the
kenin. These latter names have already been alluded to, but for the
sake of clearness it may be well to explain that whereas the fudai
daimyo consisted of the one hundred and seventy-six barons who joined
the standard of Ieyasu before the battle of Sekigahara, the hatamoto
(bannerets), while equally direct vassals of the shogun, were lower
than the daimyo though higher than the go-kenin, who comprised the
bulk of the Tokugawa samurai. Members of the waka-doshiyori might at
any time be promoted to the post of roju. Their functions were wide
as well as numerous, and resembled those performed by the Hyojo-shu
and the hikitsuke-shu of the Kamakura and Muromachi Governments. A
junior minister must previously have occupied the post of
administrator of temples and shrines (jisha-bugyo) or that of
chamberlain (o-soba-shu) or that of chief guard (o-ban). The offices
of minister and junior minister were necessarily filled by daimyo who
were hereditary vassals of the shogun.
SECRETARIES
There were two secretariats, the oku-yuhitsu (domestic secretariat)
and the omote-yuhitsu (external secretariat). They discharged, on
account of the senior ministers, the duties of scribes, and were
presided over by a todori, who, in later days, wielded large
influence.
THE JISHA-BUGYO
The jisha-bugyo, as their name suggests, supervised all affairs
relating to shrines, temples, Shinto officials, bonzes, and nuns as
well as persons residing within the domains of shrines and temples.
They also discharged judicial functions in the case of these various
classes. The number of these administrators of shrines and temples
was originally three, but afterwards it was increased to four, who
transacted business for a month at a time in succession. The
soshaban, who were entitled to make direct reports to the shogun, had
to fill the office of jisha-bugyo in addition to their other
functions, which were connected with the management of matters
relating to ceremony and etiquette.
At first there were only two of these soshaban, but subsequently
their number was increased to twenty-four, and it became customary
for one of them to keep watch in the castle at night. They were
generally ex-governors of Osaka and Fushimi, and they were
necessarily daimyo who had the qualification of direct vassalage to
the shogun. The jisha-bugyo performed their judicial functions in
their own residences, each administrator employing his own vassals
for subordinate purposes, and these vassals, when so employed, were
distinguished as jisha-yaku or toritsugi. Further, officiating
in conjunction with the jisha-bugyo f were chief inspectors
(daikenshi), and assistant inspectors (shokenshi) whose duties
require no description. The classes of people to whom the
jisha-bugyo's jurisdiction extended were numerous: they embraced the
cemetery-keepers at Momiji-yama, the bonzes, the fire-watchmen, the
musicians, the Shinto officials, the poets, the players at go or
chess, and so forth.
THE MACHI-BUGYO
The municipal administrator (machi-bugyo) controlled affairs relating
to the citizens in general. This was among the oldest institutions of
the Tokugawa, and existed also in the Toyotomi organization. At first
there were three machi-bugyo, but when the Tokugawa moved to Yedo,
the number was decreased to one, and subsequently increased again to
two in the days of Iemitsu. Judicial business occupied the major part
of the machi-bugyo's time. His law-court was in his own residence,
and under his direction constables (yoriki or doshiri) patrolled the
city. He also transacted business relating to prisons and the
municipal elders of Yedo (machi-doshiyori) referred to him all
questions of a difficult or serious nature.
THE KANJO-BUGYO
The financial administrator (kanjo-bugyo) received also the
appellation of kitchen administrator (daidokoro-bugyo), and his
duties embraced everything relating to the finance of the Bakufu,
including, of course, their estates and the persons residing on those
estates. The eight provinces of the Kwanto were under the direct
control of this bugyo, but other districts were administered by a
daikwan (deputy). There were two kinds of kanjo-bugyo, namely, the
kuji-kata and the katte-kata (public and private), the latter of whom
had to adjudicate all financial questions directly affecting the
Bakufu, and the former had to perform a similar function in cases
where outsiders were concerned. Various officials served as
subordinates of these important bugyo, who were usually taken from
the roju or the waka-doshiyori, and, in the days of the sixth shogun,
it was found necessary to appoint an auditor of accounts
(kanjo-gimmiyaku), who, although nominally of the same rank as the
kanjo-bugyo, really acted in a supervisory capacity. The Bakufu court
of law was the Hyojo-sho. Suits involving issues that lay entirely
within the jurisdiction of one bugyo were tried by him in his own
residence, but where wider interests were concerned the three bugyo
had to conduct the case at the Hyojo-sho, where they formed a
collegiate court. On such occasions the presence of the censors was
compulsory. Sometimes, also, the three bugyo met at the Hyojo-sho
merely for purposes of consultation.
THE CENSORS
An important figure in the Tokugawa organization was the censor
(metsuke), especially the great censor (o-metsuke). The holder of the
latter office served as the eyes and ears of the roju and supervised
the feudal barons. There were four or five great censors. One of them
held the additional office of administrator of roads (dochu-bugyo),
and had to oversee matters relating to the villages, the towns, and
the postal stations along the five principal highways. Another had to
inspect matters relating to religious sects and firearms--a strange
combination. Under the great censors were placed administrators of
confiscated estates. The ordinary censors had to exercise
surveillance over the samurai of the hatamoto and were under the
jurisdiction of the waka-doshiyori. There were altogether sixty
metsuke, and they travelled constantly throughout the empire
obtaining materials for reports which were submitted to the
waka-doshiyori. Among them are found censors who performed the duties
of coroners.*
*The employment of censors by the Bakufu has been severely criticized
as indicating a system of espionage. It scarcely seems necessary to
observe that the same criticism applies to all highly organized
Occidental Governments with their secret services, their detectives
and their inquiry agencies.
THE CHAMBERLAINS
Even more important than the censors were the chamberlains (soba
yonin) who had to communicate to the shogun all reports submitted by
the roju, and to offer advice as to the manner of dealing with them.
They also noted the shogun's decisions and appended them to
documents. The exercise of these functions afforded opportunities for
interfering in administrative affairs, and such opportunities were
fully utilized, to the great detriment of public interest. There were
also pages (kosho); castle accountants (nando); literati to the
shogun (oku-jusha), and physicians (oku-isha).
MASTERS OF CEREMONIES
The duty of transmitting messages from the shogun to the Emperor and
of regulating all matters of ceremony connected with the castle was
discharged by fifteen masters of ceremonies (koke) presided over by
four chiefs (the office of chief being hereditary in such families as
the Osawa and the Kira) who, although their fiefs were comparatively
small, possessed influence not inferior to that of the daimyo. A koke
was usually on watch in the castle by day. These masters of
ceremonies are not to be confounded with the chamberlains (soshaban)
already spoken of. The latter numbered twenty-four. They regulated
affairs connected with ceremonies in which all Government officials
were concerned, and they kept watch at the castle by night.
Subordinate to the koke and the chamberlains were various officials
who conveyed presents from the feudal lords to the shogun; directed
matters of decoration and furniture; had charge of miscellaneous
works in the castle, and supervised all persons, male or female,
entering or leaving the shogun's harem. Officials of this last class
were under the command of a functionary called o-rusui who had
general charge of the business of the harem; directed the issue of
passports to men and women of the samurai class or to commoners, and
had the care of all military stores in the castle. The name rusui
signifies a person in charge during the absence of his master, and
was applied in this case since the o-rusui had to guard the castle
when the shogun was not present. The multifarious duties entrusted to
officials over whom the o-rusui presided required a large number and
a great variety of persons to discharge them, but these need not be
enumerated in detail here.
THE TAMARIZUME
Characteristic of the elaborate etiquette observed at the shogun's
castle was the existence of semi-officials called tamarizume, whose
chief duty in ordinary times was to repair to the castle once every
five days, and to inquire through the roju as to the state of the
shogun's health. On occasions of emergency they participated in the
administration, taking precedence of the roju and the other
feudatories. The Matsudaira of Aizu, Takamatsu, and Matsuyama; the Ii
of Hikone, and the Sakai of Himeji--these were the families which
performed the functions of tamarizume as a hereditary right. It is
unnecessary to describe the organization and duties of the military
guards to whom the safety of the castle was entrusted, but the fact
has to be noted that both men and officers were invariably taken from
the hatamoto class.
THE WOMEN'S APARTMENTS
In the o-oku, or innermost buildings of the shogun's castle,
the harem was situated. Its chief official was a woman called
the o-toshiyori (great elder), under whom were a number of
ladies-in-waiting, namely, the toshiyori, the rojo, the churo, the
kojoro, and others. There were also ladies who attended solely to
visitors; others who kept the keys; others who carried messages to
public officers, and others who acted as secretaries. All this part
of the organization would take pages to describe in detail,* and is
necessarily abbreviated here. We may add, however, that there were
official falconers, sailors, grooms, gardeners, and every kind of
artist or mechanician.
*For fuller particulars of the manner of daily life at the shogun's
court, see Chapter 1. Vol. IV, of Brinkley's "Oriental Series."
THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT SYSTEM
In organizing a system of local government the Tokugawa Bakufu began
by appointing a shoshidai in Kyoto to guard the Imperial palace, to
supervise Court officials, and to oversee financial measures as well
as to hear suits-at-law, and to have control over temples and
shrines. The shoshidai enjoyed a high measure of respect. He had to
visit Yedo once in every five or six years for the purpose of making
a report to the shogun in person. The municipal administrator of
Kyoto and the administrators of Nara and Fushimi, the Kyoto deputy
(daikwan), and all the officials of the Nijo palace were under the
jurisdiction of the shoshidai. To qualify for this high office a man
must have served as governor of Osaka. In the Imperial city the
municipal administrator heard suits-at-law presented by citizens,
managed the affairs of temples and shrines, and was responsible for
collecting the taxes in the home provinces. There were two of these
officials in Kyoto and, like their namesakes in Yedo, they had a
force of constables (yoriki) and policemen (doshin) under their
command.
THE JODAI
Regarded with scarcely less importance than that attaching to the
shoshidai was an official called the jodai of Osaka, on whom devolved
the responsibility of guarding the Kwansei. For this office a
hereditary daimyo of the Tokugawa family was selected, and he must
previously have occupied the offices of soshaban and jisha-bugyo. The
routine of promotion was from the jodai of Osaka to the shoshidai of
Kyoto and from thence to the roju. Originally there were six jodai
but their number was ultimately reduced to one. Sumpu also had a
jodai, who discharged duties similar to those devolving on his Osaka
namesake. In Nagasaki, Sado, Hakodate, Niigata, and other important
localities, bugyo were stationed, and in districts under the direct
control of the Bakufu the chief official was the daikwan.
ADMINISTRATION IN FIEFS
The governmental system in the fiefs closely resembled the system of
the Bakufu. The daimyo exercised almost unlimited power, and the
business of their fiefs was transacted by factors (karo). Twenty-one
provinces consisted entirely of fiefs, and in the remaining provinces
public and private estates were intermixed.
LOCAL AUTONOMY
Both the Bakufu and the feudatories were careful to allow a maximum
of autonomy to the lower classes. Thus the farmers elected a village
chief--called nanushi or shoya--who held his post for life or for one
year, and who exercised powers scarcely inferior to those of a
governor. There were also heads of guilds (kumi-gashira) and
representatives of farmers (hyakushodai) who participated in
administering the affairs of a village. Cities and towns had
municipal elders (machi-doshiyori), under whom also nanushi
officiated. The guilds constituted a most important feature of this
local autonomic system. They consisted of five householders each,
being therefore called gonin-gumi, and their main functions were to
render mutual aid in all times of distress, and to see that there
were no evasions of the taxes or violations of the law. In fact, the
Bakufu interfered as little as possible in the administrative systems
of the agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial classes, and the
feudatories followed the same rule.
FINANCE
The subject of finance in the Bakufu days is exceedingly complicated,
and a very bare outline will suffice. It has already been noted that
the unit of land-measurement varied from time to time and was never
uniform throughout the empire. That topic need not be further
discussed. Rice-fields were divided into five classes, in accordance
with which division the rates of taxation were fixed. Further, in
determining the amount of the land-tax, two methods were followed;
one by inspection, the other by average. In the case of the former,
the daikwan repaired in the fall of each year to the locality
concerned, and having ascertained the nature of the crop harvested,
proceeded to determine the rate of tax. This arrangement lent itself
so readily to abuse that the system of averages was substituted as
far as possible. That is to say, the average yield of crops for the
preceding ten or twenty years served as a standard.
The miscellaneous taxes were numerous. Thus, there were taxes on
business; taxes for post-horses and post-carriers; taxes in the form
of labour, which were generally fixed at the rate of fifty men per
hundred koku, the object in view being work on river banks, roads,
and other public institutions; taxes to meet the cost of collecting
taxes, and taxes to cover defalcations. Sometimes the above taxes
were levied in kind or in actual labour, and sometimes they were
collected in money. To facilitate collection in cities, merchants
were required to form guilds according to their respective
businesses, and the head of each guild had to collect the tax payable
by the members. Thus, upon a guild of sake-brewers a tax of a
thousand gold ryo was imposed, and a guild of wholesale dealers in
cotton had to pay five hundred ryo. There was a house-tax which was
assessed by measuring the area of the land on which a building stood,
and there was a tax on expert labour such as that of carpenters and
matmakers. In order to facilitate the levy of this last-named tax
the citizens were required to locate themselves according to the
nature of their employment, and thus such names were found as
"Carpenter's street," "Matmaker's street," and so forth. Originally
these imposts were defrayed by actual labour, but afterwards money
came to be substituted.
An important feature of the taxation system was the imposition of
buke-yaku, (military dues). For these the feudatories were liable,
and as the amount was arbitrarily fixed by the Bakufu, though always
with due regard to the value of the fief, such dues were often very
onerous. The same is true in an even more marked degree as to taxes
in labour, materials, or money, which were levied upon the
feudatories for the purposes of any great work projected by the
Bakufu. These imposts were called aids (otetsudai).
MANNER OF PAYING TAXES
The manner of paying taxes varied accordingly to localities. Thus, in
the Kwanto, payment was generally made in rice for wet fields and in
money for uplands, at the rate of one gold ryo per two and a half
koku of rice. In the Kinai and western provinces as well as in the
Nankai-do, on the other hand, the total tax on wet fields and uplands
was divided into three parts, two of which were paid with rice and
one with money, the value of a koku of rice being fixed at
forty-eight mon of silver (four-fifths of a gold ryo). As a general
rule, taxes imposed on estates under the direct control of the Bakufu
were levied in rice, which was handed over to the daikwan of each
province, and by him transported to Yedo, Kyoto, or Osaka, where it
was placed in stores under the control of store-administrators
(kura-bugyo).
In the case of cash payments the money was transported to the castle
of Yedo or Osaka, where it came under the care of the finance
administrator (kane-bugyo). Finally, the accounts connected with such
receipts of cash were compiled and rendered by the administrator of
accounts (kane-bugyo), and were subsequently audited by officials
named katte-kata, over which office a member of the roju or
waka-doshiyori presided. Statistics compiled in 1836 show that the
revenue annually collected from the Tokugawa estates in rice and
money amounted to 807,068 koku and 93,961 gold ryo respectively. As
for the rate of the land-tax, it varied in different parts of the
provinces, from seventy per cent, for the landlord and thirty for the
tenant to thirty for the landlord and seventy for the tenant.
CURRENCY
It has been shown above that, from the time of the fifth shogun,
debasement of the coins of the realm took place frequently. Indeed it
may be said that whenever the State fell into financial difficulty,
debasement of the current coins was regarded as a legitimate device.
Much confusion was caused among the people by repeated changes in the
quality of the coins. Thus, in the days of the eighth shogun, no less
than four varieties of a single silver token were in circulation.
When the country renewed its foreign intercourse in the middle of the
nineteenth century, there were no less than eight kinds of gold coin
in circulation, nine of silver, and four of copper or iron. The
limits within which the intrinsic value of gold coins varied will be
understood when we say that whereas the gold oban of the Keicho era
(1596-1614) contained, approximately, 29.5 parts of gold to 13 of
silver and was worth about seventy-five yen. The corresponding coin
of the Man-en era (1860) contained 10.33 parts of pure gold to 19.25
of silver, and was worth only twenty-eight yen.
PAPER CURRENCY
The earliest existing record of the use of paper currency dates from
1661, when the feudal chief of Echizen obtained permission from the
Bakufu to employ this medium of exchange, provided that its
circulation was limited to the fief where the issue took place. These
paper tokens were called hansatsu (fief notes), and one result of
their issue was that moneys accruing from the sale of cereals and
other products of a fief were preserved within that fief. The example
of Echizen in this matter found several followers, but the system
never became universal.
JUDICIAL PROCEDURE
The administration of justice in the Tokugawa days was based solely
on ethical principles. Laws were not promulgated for prospective
application. They were compiled whenever an occasion arose, and in
their drafting the prime aim was always to make their provisions
consonant with the dictates of humanity. Once, indeed, during the
time of the second shogun, Hidetada, a municipal administrator,
Shimada Yuya, having held the office for more than twenty years, and
having come to be regarded as conspicuously expert in rendering
justice, it was proposed to the shogun that the judgments delivered
by this administrator should be recorded for the guidance of future
judges. Hidetada, however, objected that human affairs change so
radically as to render it impossible to establish universally
recognizable precedents, and that if the judgments delivered in any
particular era were transmitted as guides for future generations, the
result would probably be slavish sacrifice of ethical principles on
the altar of stereotyped practice.
In 1631, when the third shogun, Iemitsu, ruled in Yedo, a public
courthouse (Hyojo-sho) was for the first time established. Up to that
time the shogun himself had served as a court of appeal in important
cases. These were first brought before a bugyo, and subsequently, if
specially vital issues were at stake, the shogun personally sat as
judge, the duty of executing his judgments being entrusted to the
bugyo and other officials.
Thenceforth, the custom came to be this: Where comparatively minor
interests were involved and where the matter lay wholly within the
jurisdiction of one administrator, that official sat as judge in a
chamber of his own mansion; but in graver cases and where the
interests concerned were not limited to one jurisdiction, the
Hyojo-sho became the judicial court, and the three administrators,
the roju, together with the censors, formed a collegiate tribunal.
There were fixed days each month for holding this collegiate court,
and there were also days when the three administrators alone met at
one of their residences for purposes of private conference. The
hearing by the shogun was the last recourse, and before submission to
him the facts had to be investigated by the chamberlains (sobashu),
who thus exercised great influence. A lawsuit instituted by a
plebeian had to be submitted to the feudatory of the region, or to
the administrator, or to the deputy (daikwari), but might never be
made the subject of a direct petition to the shogun. If the feudatory
or the deputy Were held to be acting contrary to the dictates of
integrity and reason, the suitor might change his domicile for the
purpose of submitting a petition to the authorities in Yedo; and the
law provided that no obstruction should be placed in the way of such
change.
LAW
As stated above, the original principle of the Bakufu was to avoid
compiling any written criminal code. But from the days of the sixth
and the seventh shoguns, Ienobu and Ietsugu, such provisions of
criminal law as related to ordinary offences came to be written in
the most intelligible style and placarded throughout the city of Yedo
and provincial towns or villages. On such a placard (kosatsu) posted
up, in the year 1711, at seven places in Yedo, it was enjoined on
parents, sons, daughters, brothers, husbands, wives, and other
relatives that they must maintain intimate and friendly relations
among themselves; and that, whereas servants must be faithful and
industrious, their masters should have compassion and should obey the
dictates of right in dealing with them; that everyone should be hard
working and painstaking; that people should not transgress the limits
of their social status; that all deceptions should be carefully
avoided; that everyone should make it a rule of life to avoid doing
injury or causing loss to others; that gambling should be eschewed;
that quarrels and disputes of every kind should be avoided; that
asylum should not be given to wounded persons; that firearms should
not be used without cause; that no one should conceal an offender;
that the sale or purchase of human being, should be strictly
prohibited except in cases where men or women offered their services
for a fixed term of years or as apprentices, or in cases of
hereditary servitude; finally, that, though hereditary servants went
to other places and changed their domicile, it should not be lawful
to compel their return.
In the days of the eighth shogun, Yoshimune, it being held that
crimes were often due to ignorance of law, the feudatories and
deputies were directed to make arrangements for conveying to the
people tinder their jurisdiction some knowledge of the nature of the
statutes; and the result was that the mayors (nanushi) of provincial
towns and villages had to read the laws once a month at a meeting of
citizens or villagers convened for the purpose. Previously to this
time, namely, in the days of the fourth shogun, Ietsugu, the office
of recorder (tome-yaku) was instituted in the Hyojo-sho for the
purpose of committing to writing all judgments given in lawsuits. But
in the days of Yoshimune, the rules and regulations issued by the
Bakufu from the time of Ieyasu downwards were found to have fallen
into such confusion that the difficulty of following them was
practically insuperable.
Therefore, in 1742, Matsudaira Norimura, one of the roju, together
with the three administrators, was commissioned to compile a body of
laws, and the result was a fifteen volume book called the Hatto-gaki
(Prohibitory Writings). The shogun himself evinced keen interest in
this undertaking. He frequently consulted with the veteran officials
of his court, and during a period of several years he revised "The
Rules for Judicial Procedure." Associated with him in this work were
Kada Arimaro, Ogyu Sorai, and the celebrated judge, Ooka Tadasuke,
and not only the Ming laws of China, but also the ancient Japanese
Daiho-ritsu were consulted.
This valuable legislation, which showed a great advance in the matter
of leniency, except in the case of disloyal or unfilial conduct, was
followed, in 1767, by reforms under the shoqun, Ieharu, when all the
laws and regulations placarded or otherwise promulgated since the
days of Ieyasu were collected and collated to form a prefatory
vol-ume to the above-mentioned "Rules for Judicial Procedure," the
two being thenceforth regarded as a single enactment under the title
of Kajo-ruiten. "The Rules for Judicial Procedure" originally
comprised 103 articles, but, in 1790, Matsudaira Sadanobu revised
this code, reducing the number of articles to one hundred, and
calling it Tokugawa Hyakkajd, or "One Hundred Laws and Regulations of
the Tokugawa." This completed the legislative work of the Yedo
Bakufu. But it must not be supposed that these laws were disclosed to
the general public. They served simply for purposes of official
reference. The Tokugawa in this respect strictly followed the
Confucian maxim, "Make the people obey but do not make them know.":
ENGRAVING: MATSUDAIRA SADANORU
CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS
In Tokugawa days the principal punishments were; six: namely,
reprimand (shikari), confinement (oshikome), flogging (tataki),
banishment (tsuiho), exile to an island (ento), and death (shikei).
The last named was divided into five kinds, namely, deprivation of
life (shizai), exposing the head after decapitation (gokumon),
burning at the stake (hiaburi), crucifixion (haritsuke), and sawing
to death (nokogiri-biki). There were also subsidiary penalties, such
as public exposure (sarashi), tattooing (irezumi)--which was resorted
to not less for purposes of subsequent identification than as a
disgrace--confiscation of an estate (kessho), and degradation to a
status below the hinin (hininteshita).
The above penalties were applicable to common folk. In the case of
samurai the chief punishments were detention (hissoku), confinement
(heimon or chikkyo), deprivation of status (kaieki), placing in the
custody of a feudatory (azuke), suicide (seppuku), and decapitation
(zanzai). Among these, seppuku was counted the most honourable. As a
rule only samurai of the fifth official rank and upwards were
permitted thus to expiate a crime, and the procedure was spoken of as
"granting death" (shi wo tamau). The plebeian classes, that is to
say, the farmers, the artisans, and the tradesmen, were generally
punished by fines, by confinement, or by handcuffing (tegusari).
Priests were sentenced to exposure (sarashi), to expulsion from a
temple (tsui-iri), or to exile (kamai).
For women the worst punishment was to be handed over as servants
(yakko) or condemned to shave their heads (teihatsu). Criminals who
had no fixed domicile and who repeated their evil acts after
expiration of a first sentence, were carried to the island of
Tsukuda, in Yedo Bay, or to Sado, where they were employed in various
ways. Blind men or beggars who offended against the law were handed
over to the chiefs of their guilds, namely, the soroku in the case of
the blind, and the eta-gashira in the case of beggars.* Some of the
above punishments were subdivided, but these details are unimportant.
*For fuller information about these degraded classes see Brinkley's
"Oriental Series," Vol. II.
PRISONS
In Yedo, the buildings employed as prisons were erected at Demmacho
under the hereditary superintendence of the Ishide family. The
governor of prisons was known as the roya-bugyo. Each prison was
divided into five parts where people were confined according to their
social status. The part called the agari-zashiki was reserved for
samurai who had the privilege of admission to the shogun's presence;
and in the part called the agariya common, samurai and Buddhist
priests were incarcerated. The oro and the hyakusho-ro were reserved
for plebeians, and in the onna-ro women were confined. Each section
consisted of ten rooms and was capable of accommodating seven hundred
persons. Sick prisoners were carried to the tamari, which were
situated at Asakusa and Shinagawa, and were under the superintendence
of the hinin-gashira. All arrangements as to the food, clothing, and
medical treatment of prisoners were carefully thought out, but it is
not to be supposed that these Bakufu prisons presented many of the
features on which modern criminology insists. On the contrary, a
prisoner was exposed to serious suffering from heat and cold, while
the coarseness of the fare provided for him often caused disease and
sometimes death. Nevertheless, the Japanese prisons in Tokugawa days
were little, if anything, inferior to the corresponding institutions
in Anglo-Saxon countries at the same period.
LOYALTY AND FILIAL PIETY
In the eyes of the Tokugawa legislators the cardinal virtues were
loyalty and filial piety, and in the inculcation of these, even
justice was relegated to an inferior place. Thus, it was provided
that if a son preferred any public charge against his father, or if a
servant opened a lawsuit against his master, the guilt of the son or
of the servant must be assumed at the outset as an ethical principle.
To such a length was this ethical principle carried that in
regulations issued by Itakura Suo no Kami for the use of the Kyoto
citizens, we find the following provision: "In a suit-at-law between
parent and son judgment should be given for the parent without regard
to the pleading of the son. Even though a parent act with extreme
injustice, it is a gross breach of filial duty that a son should
institute a suit-at-law against a parent. There can be no greater
immorality, and penalty of death should be meted out to the son
unless the parent petitions for his life." In an action between uncle
and nephew a similar principle applied. Further, we find that in
nearly every body of law promulgated throughout the whole of the
Tokugawa period, loyalty and filial piety are placed at the head of
ethical virtues; the practice of etiquette, propriety, and military
and literary accomplishments standing next, while justice and
deference for tradition occupy lower places in the schedule.
A kosatsu (placard) set up in 1682, has the following inscription:
"Strive to be always loyal and filial. Preserve affection between
husbands and wives, brothers, and all relatives; extend sympathy and
compassion to servants." Further, in a street notice posted in Yedo
during the year 1656, we find it ordained that should any disobey a
parent's directions, or reject advice given by a municipal elder or
by the head of a five-households guild, such a person must be brought
before the administrator, who, in the first place, will imprison him;
whereafter, should the malefactor not amend his conduct, he shall be
banished forever; while for anyone showing malice against his father,
arrest and capital punishment should follow immediately.
In these various regulations very little allusion is made to the
subject of female rights. But there is one significant provision,
namely, that a divorced woman is entitled to have immediately
restored to her all her gold and silver ornaments as well as her
dresses; and at the same time husbands are warned that they must not
fail to make due provision for a former wife. The impression conveyed
by careful perusal of all Tokugawa edicts is that their compilers
obeyed, from first to last, a high code of ethical principles.
ENGRAVING: "INRO," LACQUERED MEDICINE CASE CARRIED CHIEFLY BY SAMURAI
ENGRAVING: TOKUGAWA MITSUKUNI