Edo Period Japan: 250 Years of Peace

Meg van Steenburgh

Legal Systems Very Different From Our Own
Spring 2006
Introduction

Unreason is less than reason. Reason is less than law. Authority is greater than law, but heaven is
supreme.
-Tokugawa saying

The hallmark of the Tokugawa dynasty (1603-1867) was a strong belief in the Neo-Confucian ideals of
morals, education, and strict hierarchical class structure in both government and society. After hundreds
of years of civil wars, the fifteen Tokugawa shoguns made their foremost goals political stability and
complete isolationism. The rice-based economy of Tokugawa period Japan was a complex form of
feudalism. It was a country symbolically ruled by the emperor in Kyoto, while in actuality ruled by his
shogun, or chief military advisor, in Edo.
The shogun implemented an administrative system which effectively organized Edo period society
into a strict hereditary caste system in descending order of Neo-Confucian merit: warrior, farmer, artisan,
merchant.[i] The different classes were separated by bungen, or lines of demarcation, which were almost
impossible to cross. Below the merchants in the hierarchy were the eta, or untouchables, who were not
actually considered people and were largely outside the purview of any governmental body. Another
group, the buke, or clergy (both Shinto and Buddhist) existed outside of the regulation of the feudal
government to a large extent. The buke were required to pay tribute to the feudal government but
effectively regulated themselves and did not go to the shogunate for the settlement of disputes; which was
one of the only ways that the peasant class ever interacted with the shogunal government. The Confucian
system was based on the idea that superiors ruled by example; their subordinates had no rights, per se, but
rulers had a moral duty to treat subordinates correctly. Theoretically, the law would only step in to punish
a failure of this moral duty, not to vindicate the rights of the victims.[ii]
Shogunal power rested on three key strategies. The first was using divine power in the name of the
emperor to maintain legitimate authority that was beyond question, though the emperor himself was little
more than a puppet and was virtually imprisoned in the imperial palace in Kyoto. The second was
complete control of the daimyo, or feudal lords, in order to prevent a repetition of the internal strife and

intrigue that had plagued the country until its unification in by Tokugawa Ieyasu in 1603 after the battle of
Sekigahara. And the third was isolation, or sakoku, from not only the West but also from the Chinese
mainland to minimize the threat of foreign influence or inspired rebellion. In fact, by 1635 the Japanese
people were forbidden to travel abroad and those who were already abroad were not permitted to come
home.[iii] All foreign trade was suspended, except for trade with the Dutch[iv]. However, the entire
Dutch trading mission was expelled to Dejima, an artificially made island in Nagasaki harbor.[v] When
the Portuguese attempted to re-establish trade relations with the shogunal government their entire
delegation was summarily executed upon arrival.[vi]
Another Western influence that the Tokugawa tried to eradicate was Christianity. In some village
codes, which were largely a reflection of shogunal wishes, there appear articles like: The peasants are
investigated every month, and comings and goings are checked with the pertinent temple in each case to
verify affiliation. Therefore, should there be a Christian in this village, not only his goningumi [village
council] and the headman but the entire village will be punished.[vii] Christianity was most likely
viewed by the shogun as dangerous to the stability of the new nation because of its direct opposition to
the Confucian ideal of maintaining the status quo that the shogun was attempting to instill in the people.
Another problem with Christianity is that its influence had always been strongest in Kyushu and southern
Honshu where the most powerful internal enemies of the shogun had their fiefs and the shogun did not
want to allow those lords to gain the sympathy of and ally themselves with the Western powers in any
way.[viii]
The stability gained by isolation and strict class control saw feudal Japan double its population
from fifteen-million to thirty-million in the first half of the period as well as an increase in urbanization
and the influence of the merchant class.[ix] Though Confucian ideals would rank merchants at the bottom
of the class structure as economic parasites, since they did not actually produce anything, during Edo
period Japan they became the creditors of overlords and samurai alike. While this did not officially
increase their status in polite society, holding the purse strings of a powerful overlord could guarantee
many perks in a society which continued to emphasize agrarian taxation and failed to tax the everexpanding urban industries.[x]
Villages, which operated as largely autonomous units, were also expanding their industries with
enterprises like silk production, textile weaving, and sake brewing.[xi] However, many of these
entrepreneurial villagers failed at their endeavors, went into debt, and migrated into the cities to form the
base of the unskilled labor force which fed the increasing urbanization.[xii] This growth and expansion
peaked during the Genroku period[xiii] (1688-1704). Another interesting note is that between 1600 and

1720 the percentage of arable land in Japan nearly doubled.[xiv] This was most likely in part due to the
fact that the lower classes could pursue their enterprises, be it sake brewing or irrigation projects, fairly
single-mindedly since they were completely excluded from political activity outside the village unit.[xv]
In fact the legal system of Tokugawa Japan had two very distinct jurisdictions which interacted very
rarely: the shogunal government and the village government.

Politics, Government and Social Structure

The Bafuku

The shogunal government was called the bafuku, literally tent government, a term which was
derived from the military structure of the shogunate. At the top of the command structure was the shogun
himself[xvi]. Under the shogun was the tairo, or prime minister, who would occasionally be called upon
to rule as a regent during the minority of a child.[xvii] Since the shogun was a military position a woman
could not rule as regent like an empress could in the imperial court. There was a council of state
composed of half a dozen roju (elders) who were appointed by the shogun and advised him on political
matters and another half a dozen wakadoshiyori (junior elders) who dealt with the problems of petty
vassals.[xviii] The hyojoshu, or judicial council, was formed by adding a few more members to the
council of elders and was responsible for the various government departments such as finance, police, city
government, and religious organizations.[xix] They functioned as both executive administrators and
judges.[xx] The next level of government were the feudal lords.

The Daimyo
The Tokugawa also imposed a strict hierarchy on the daimyo (feudal lords). The first group of daimyo
was shimpan. Shimpan were major branches of the shoguns own family.[xxi] Shimpan families could
supply a member to take over as shogun if the current shogun died without male issue.[xxii] The second
group was called fudai (inside lords); these were the lords who had been friendly to or loyal to Ieyasu
Tokugawa before the battle of Sekigahara.[xxiii] The last, and potentially troublesome, category of lords
were tozoma (outside lords), who had been enemies of the Tokugawa before Sekigahara.[xxiv] While
being a fudai lord had its privileges, it was often a significant financial burden because the shogun would
use his most loyal vassals to keep watch over the tozoma lords, which often required moving their large
estates around many times throughout the year.[xxv] In addition to being categorized as loyal and

disloyal, daimyo were also ranked according to the assessed value of their rice production.[xxvi] In order
to qualify as a daimyo the land must have an annual minimum yield of 10,000 koku (about 50,000 bushels
of rice).[xxvii] The lesser vassals whose land was valued at under 10,000 koku were called hatamoto, or
bannermen.[xxviii] In the early seventeenth century Japan produced an estimated 24.5 million koku
annually from daimyo fiefs of 10,000 koku or more, and of this the Tokugawa held lands produced about
8.5 million koku.[xxix]
Tokugawa shoguns implemented several ingenious way of keeping control over their daimyo; the
most well-known is the concept of sankin-kotai, which literally means alternate attendance. The shogun
required each daimyo to spend four months out of the year, or sometimes every other year, in residence at
Edo and the rest of the time at their own han (fiefs).[xxx] However they had to leave their wives and
families at Edo as an insurance policy for their good behavior; since family was so important in that
society there would be no point in overthrowing the shogun if you had no family to pass the honor or the
position on to. The burden of alternate attendance also required heavy financial expenditures on the part
of all the daimyo, usually about a quarter of the annual daimyo income, to travel in the custom that befit
them and maintain at least two separate estates.[xxxi] The shogun knew that it would have been nearly
impossible to finance an army without any extra income. The word alternate also referred to the idea
that each category of daimyo was divided into two smaller groups, one was in residence at Edo while the
other group was at their hans.[xxxii] So the tozoma lords were never all in the same place at the same
time. In this way the shogun even further hampered collusive efforts to thwart his rule as well as
providing an economic boon to the country in the form of frequent and expensive processionals to and
from the shogunal capital which fed the growing towns along the Edo road. [xxxiii]
Other forms of shogunal control over the daimyo included bans on any repairs, strengthening, or
enlarging of the fortresses of any daimyo without the express permission of the shogun, the constant
surveillance of the metsuke (secret police), and compelling the tozoma lords to undertake public works
projects as a further financial burden.[xxxiv] The daimyo were also forbidden any direct contact with the
emperor or the imperial family in Kyoto to ensure that his divine power belonged to the shogun and only
the shogun.[xxxv]

Legislation
One of the trademarks of the Tokugawa bafuku was government by documents. Legal disputes
which were appealed from the village level to a shogunal intendant had to be written in the proper form,
which was difficult since many villagers did not know how to write the most basic characters, let alone a

legal document.[xxxvi] The bafuku also required kokudaka (tribute) data from all the villages and
daimyos.[xxxvii] This data consisted of a complete national census every six years by the 1720s as well
as copies of the village population registers in order to be sure that the appropriate amount of tithe was
being passed up the ladder. [xxxviii] The amount of required tribute, determined by the daimyo and based
on this data was imparted to the village headman by the bafuku intendant in a document called the
nenguwaritsukejo, or yearly tribute rate letter.[xxxix] Villages were required to acknowledge, in writing
and with the seal of the headman, that they had received this and any other daimyo directives.[xl]
To clarify the roles of bafuku intendants the shogun promulgated the Kujikata Osadamegaki in
1742. The Osadamegaki, which was based on the ritsu-ryo, a set of administrative codes drawn up in the
eighth century and largely imported from Tang China, was a secret manual issued to administrators
only which consisted of two books.[xli] Book one listed eighty-one rules and directives and book two
listed the penalties for violating those rules (both civil and criminal).[xlii] The shogun also had a large
contingent of metsuke who were concentrated in Edo, but also spread throughout the countryside to report
any subversive plots or incipient rebellions to the shogun.[xliii]
The bafuku also adopted status legislation aimed at separating the peasant class from the warrior
class. The most well-known example of this is the Keian no Ofuregaki, issued in 1649. The first few
articles deal with the governmental hierarchy, the middle section is largely advice to peasant farmers such
as: One should sharpen hoes and sickles every year before the eleventh day of the first month. and
...the poor who do not own large fields should think well about a means of living throughout the year;
for instance, if there are many children in a family, some can be given away and some can be sent out as
servants.[xliv] And the last few articles address themselves mainly to issues of tribute with a touch of
sage Confucian advice thrown if for good measure. For example, the last article begins with If we are
right-minded, no one treats us badly. If someone treats us badly, that is because our heart is not in the
right place. The same is true for all relationships between intendants and peasants, masters and servants,
parents and children, husbands and wives, fellow peasants, and headmen and peasants.[xlv]
Peasants were also forbidden to carry long swords or use surnames in public or on official
documents.[xlvi] The peasants could and did have last names, but daimyo identified the peasants with the
land they occupied rather than with their lineage.[xlvii] Peasants were also only allowed to wear cotton
garments and were required to dismount when encountering a samurai.[xlviii] In fact samurai had the
right to kill any peasant at will who had offended them. Bafuku legislation, while tirelessly precise on the
subjects of crime (including status crimes) and taxes was not meant to govern the peasants interactions
with each other. The level of governance dealing with inter-village matters was the village council.

The Village

The village had its own hierarchy which was dictated by the bafuku through regulations like the Keian no
Ofuregaki, but was also a product of custom. Villages were largely autonomous and were only
incorporated into the bafuku system insofar as their regulation was necessary to keep the tributes flowing
smoothly uphill. At the top of the village hierarchy were the titled peasants or honbyakusho who held a
communal interest in grassland, mountain land and of course the most important village property interest;
water for irrigation.[xlix] The honbyakusho were the official tribute deliverers and were also eligible to be
members of the goningumi, or group of five, which were appointed by the local overlord.[l]
The goningumi were an intra-village alliance of families that were responsible not only to help
each other and settle village disputes but also to keep an eye on each other as a sub-level of metsuke.[li]
For the latter reason it was decreed that the goningumi should not be too closely related by familial ties.
[lii] The goningumi acted as a village council that was under the authority of the local daimyo, but was
allowed to settle village problems and draw up codes and regulations regarding local governance.[liii]
The heads of each goningumi family were called kumi, and they acted as council for the village headman
or nanushi.
Beneath the honbyakusho in the hierarchy were the mizunomi byakusho, literally water-drinking peasants.
[liv] The mizunomi byakusho were pure tenants with no land right whatsoever.[lv] Beneath them were the
cho-nai, or co-residents.[lvi] The cho-nai were women, children and other dependants of either mizunomi
byakusho or honbyakusho.[lvii] Next in line came indentured servants (genin)[lviii] and then lifetime
servants (fudai).[lix] At the bottom of the chain were the non-peasants, people like craftsmen and doctors
who moved into the village but were not attached to the land.[lx] Unlike samurai status which was passed
down to all the descendants of a samurai, only one of the honbyakushos sons could inherit their title.[lxi]
The other sons would form branch families, or kakae, to the main titleholder and would be subordinate to
the main titled family.[lxii]
Village laws functioned largely as a supplement to bafuku regulation.[lxiii] The local daimyo kept track
of the tribute owed to him by requiring village population registers which were updated yearly.[lxiv]
These registers recorded the persons name, social and legal status, and by 1665 their religious affiliation.
[lxv] Villagers had to approve, or at least legitimize the registers, along with the village laws, or zensho
goningumi, by affixing their seals; many of which were kept by the nanushi.[lxvi] The male head of the
household had legal authority over all of its members[lxvii] and the typical village consisted of only a few

hundred people.[lxviii]
Village law also severely restricted intra-village mobility by requiring an okurijo, or certificate of
leave, whenever one wanted to move from one village to another.[lxix] This is because the disappearance
of a household would change the distribution of tribute owed to the daimyo, and would presumably leave
the land that the household had vacated uncultivated, thus lessening overall production for that season and
increasing the tribute burden on everyone else in the village.[lxx] This was further complicated by the fact
that the daimyo could, and frequently did, raise tribute levels to suit their needs. Therefore, without a
proper okurijo it was impossible to leave ones own village legally or be added onto the village population
register of ones new village. Even temporary employment elsewhere would be noted in the registers, but
would not require an okurijo.[lxxi] In some village codes it is required that even people who wish to stay
overnight somewhere else for business or a pilgrimage must report the details of the trip to the goningumi.
[lxxii]
Another form of tribute required aside from rice tribute was a service tribute called yaku. Individual
peasant households were responsible for national duties such as portage duties at the various way stations
along the main roads for the daimyos yearly processions to and from Edo.[lxxiii] They could also be
mobilized to serve in the grand shogunal processions to Ieyasus shrine in Nikko.[lxxiv] According to
eyewitnesses these shogunal processions were so large that they stretched the entire length of the road
form Edo to Nikko, a distance of nearly 145 kilometers, and required 250,000 porters along the way.
[lxxv] Peasants could also be responsible for non-combative military service, although no such military
nationalization was ever required except for the quashing of the Shimbara rebellion in 1637[lxxvi].

The Kawata

There were people who existed outside the tightly regulated structures of both village and bafuku, the
untouchables, or eta, were considered non-human, and unlike the status of hinin, or beggars (who were
also considered non-human) the classification of eta was hereditary.[lxxvii] Eta means plentiful dirt or
polluted, however this class of people referred to themselves as kawata which means leather worker.
[lxxviii] The main function of the kawata was skinning and disposing of dead livestock and making
leather out of the hides, but they were also employed by villages and bafuku to catch criminals, guard and
execute prisoners[lxxix], and policing festivals and markets.[lxxx] Kawata lived in their own
communities, separate from the villages that they served and were under no authority from local village
heads.[lxxxi] Since these communities were set apart from the rest of society it was not uncommon for

fugitives to seek refuge in them.[lxxxii] The bafuku largely left them alone, but they did have a
representative in Edo who would settle disputes between different kawata communities.[lxxxiii]

Geisha & Prostitution[lxxxiv]

Geisha, which literally means person of the arts, were professional female entertainers, quite
distinct from prostitutes and were a completely self-regulating community. In Tokugawa period Japan the
chonin, or townsmen, who were largely imperial administrators, shogunal administrators, or rich
merchants were the most frequent patrons of the pleasure quarters. Formal family life and arranged
marriages were still the norm and there was no polite mixed society outside the family, so geisha became
the only female company that it was appropriate for a man to be seen with in public other than his family.
While a geisha may have a sexual relationship with one or several of her clients, it is not her primary
purpose and she has no fixed price, like a common prostitute. Sexual favors from geisha would be doled
out in response to a particularly lavish gift, but there would be no quid pro quo. The only time a geisha
would accept money for sexual favors would be her first sexual experience, as part of a ritual during
which her virginity is sold to the highest bidder in a ceremony called mizuage (red water).
A geisha trained for five to seven years usually from the age of five or six in the arts of poetry, dance,
music, and banter. At this same time the geisha in training, or maiko, would act as a maidservant in the
teahouse in which she lived. The maiko would also be taken under the wing of an older geisha, usually in
the same teahouse, but not always, who would act as a big-sister and introduce the new maiko to the
subtleties of the floating world. This apprenticeship system was a large part of the disciplinary system of
the pleasure quarters. The maikos failure was a disgrace, not only for her, but for her big sister as well. A
geishas reputation was her only true currency. She did not own anything else, not even her clothing,
which was usually the property of the teahouse she was bonded to; even her make-up and undergarments
were not her own. If a geisha lost her reputation and was unable to earn her way, she would be kicked out
with absolutely nothing, forced to sell herself or beg on the streets. A geisha lives on the edge of a knife,
one

false

move

or

even

rumor

could

end

her

career.

The floating world, as the pleasure quarter was called, was its own jurisdiction and guarded its secrets
jealously. Any geisha who attempted to go outside the confines of the floating world for justice would
find herself unwelcome in any reputable teahouse in the district, effectively banished from society and
denied her only means of income. Geisha who were banished from the reputable teahouses would either
leave the city in search of another pleasure quarter where their reputation had not preceded them, or they

would become common prostitutes. While it was completely acceptable for even a high-ranking official
to be accompanied to the theatre or a sumo match by a geisha (or several), visiting a prostitute was
something that one did secretly.

Law and Punishment

Samurai fight with weapons, peasants with lawsuits.

-Tanaka Kyugu, 1721

There was no word that directly translated as rights in Tokugawa period Japan.[lxxxv] When
Japanese scholars went abroad during the Meiji Restoration to translate European laws in an attempt to
create a new legal system one of the central concepts in each of these systems was the idea of personal
rights. The translation, as with most new words, was a new combination of Chinese characters. The first
character, ken, means quantity or measure, and the last character, ri, means good circumstances or benefit.
[lxxxvi] However in Tokugawa period Japan the bafuku used the Dutch word regt to denote the foreign
concept of rights. [lxxxvii]

Crime
The Village: Finding the Culprit

The bafuku considered village justice to be a secondary and separate form of justice, not a part of its
own judicial mechanisms, and allowed local administrators to deal with village disputes as they saw fit
except in the case of certain serious crimes.[lxxxviii] Manslaughter, theft, gambling and arson are among
the crimes that must be reported to the bafuku intendant. [lxxxix]
An interesting facet of criminal justice in Tokugawa Japan is the idea of irefuda, or fighting crime by
voting on the culprit. If there was a recurring crime like theft or arson, that villages were not allowed to
punish but were required to report to the bafuku authorities, a vote could be taken within the village to
determine the identity of the offender.[xc] The person who received the most votes would be incriminated
along with anyone who did not participate in the voting process.[xci] Then the guilty party and his
supporters, if any, would be thrown in jail.[xcii] If the crimes kept on occurring however votes would
continue until the crime spree stopped with each vote incriminating a new culprit.[xciii] Oftentimes the
villagers would be required to swear oaths before the gods or drink holy water prior to each balloting.

[xciv] Another interesting slant on this entire process is the idea of rakushogisho, literally dropped oaths
before the gods.[xcv] An anonymous written accusation would be dropped in front of a shrine, and
whoever had the misfortune of picking it up first was obliged to implement it, since rakushogisho were
seen as true signs from the gods, not merely mortal accusations.[xcvi]
Another way of ferreting out guilt and deciding disputes in Tokugawa times was trial by ordeal. For
example, in 1619 there is a documented case of a border dispute between two villages in the Aizu domain
which had escalated into an armed conflict.[xcvii] The local officials had taken many depositions but the
facts were still in dispute, so they ordered the two villages to a fire ordeal at the local Shinto shrine.
[xcviii] Each village had a representative who donned ceremonial dress and were required to grasp a redhot iron as many times as they could while holding the kumanogoohoin, a ceremonial document used for
solemnifying oaths.[xcix] The losers hands and feet were cut off and he was buried in a tomb which
served as the new border marker between the villages.[c]

The Village: Punishment

Capital punishment was reserved for the bafuku and was only doled out for the gravest offenses.[ci] The
most serious form of punishment available to the village authorities was banishment. Banishment, or
kyuri, was not only a punishment for the criminal; it was also a way to ensure the other villagers against
vicarious liability (enza) which was an inherent part of the Tokugawa legal system.[cii] Occasionally the
relatives, the village head, or sometimes the entire village could be punished for the crimes of one of its
members.[ciii] Kyuri needed to be sanctioned by the parents, the village officials, and the bafuku
representative who would take the name of the absconder off the population rosters.[civ] It is important to
note that kyuri could not be enacted against a status superior such as a parent and it made the disinherited
person a legal non-person.[cv] You could also banish someone in absentia if they had fled after
committing a crime, however you could only do this after a real effort, officially six periods of thirty
days, had been made to apprehend the person in question.[cvi] However, the most common form of
punishment was ostracism, since it required no permission from the intendant or goningumi heads.[cvii]
Ostracism was called murahachibu, which literally means eight parts out of ten.[cviii] Those who had
been ostracized from their village could not be assisted by the community for eight out of the ten
traditional parts of community life.[cix] Those eight parts were coming of age ceremonies, weddings,
memorial services, births, sicknesses, floods, travel, and building and repairs.[cx] They could also not be
greeted and could not participate in village festivals or meetings.[cxi] They could, however count on the

rest of the village for assistance during a fire and in the preparation of a funeral, the remaining two parts
of community life.[cxii] However, those who were ostracized also did not have to perform yaku and were
unable to pay tribute.[cxiii] While ostracism was a form of inter-village unofficial banishment, there was
also extra-village unofficial banishment.[cxiv] This could be triggered when someone was accused of a
crime and as a result of a vote, and often without material proof, the person would be expelled from the
village, but not removed from the population roster.[cxv]

The Bafuku: Punishment

Punishment in Tokugawa period Japan was incredibly harsh. Theft, for instance was punishable by
banishment, at the lightest end of the scale, or banishment accompanied by mutilation such as cutting off
the ears and nose.[cxvi] Female culprits were usually not physically mutilated, but rather paraded through
the village naked, which for a woman at that time was likely just as bad.[cxvii] Other possible
punishments included ostracism, special identifying garments, or forced village service like field guard
duty or sake expenses at festivals.[cxviii] Interestingly enough, though theft was a crime, so was not
reporting it.[cxix] If a theft was discovered and had not been reported, the victim of the theft would
receive the same punishment as the thief.[cxx] There were also different punishments for the same crime
depending upon the status of the individual.[cxxi] And torture was a completely acceptable method of
getting a confession.[cxxii]
There were about half a dozen death penalties which were graded according to the status of the victim
and the perpetrator, the motives, and the degree of participation.[cxxiii] For instance, killing a status
inferior was punished by banishment, and so was executing a contract murder, but if the murder had been
premeditated and for gain it carried the death penalty as did contracting a murder.[cxxiv] If there were
accomplices, the one who struck the first (but not necessarily the killing) blow would be executed, and the
others who physically participated would be banished.[cxxv] Death penalties were always beheadings,
but depending on the nature of the crime various other aspects could be added like crucifixion, gibbeting,
confiscation of the criminals property, or making the corpse available to the local samurai for sword
practice.[cxxvi]

Civil

There was no distinction between contract and tort in Tokugawa Japan.[cxxvii] And frequently
punishments for crimes and settlements of civil suits were interchangeable. The bafuku had very little
patience for civil suits since they were largely divorced from the main shogunal goal of maintaining the
hierarchy and seeing that tributes flowed smoothly.[cxxviii] While crimes were dealt with from the top
down, it seems that civil matters were exactly the opposite. It is important to remember that villagers
almost never dealt with strangers so most conflicts could be, and were, settled by mediation and social
pressure inside the village system.[cxxix] In fact some goningumi zensho which specifically mention
lawsuits seem to make this preference clear with articles like: People who... like quarrels and lawsuits, or
do all kinds of bad things should not be hidden. and In the case of quarrels and disputes, the locals have
to gather, put a stop to them, and settle the matter. [cxxx] However, occasionally there was just no way
for the village to settle a problem and they would have to appeal it to the local bafuku intendant who
would then decide whether or not to help, since bafuku involvement was completely discretionary.[cxxxi]
Even when the bafuku intendant stepped in, it was usually as a mediator rather than a judge.[cxxxii]
Jurisdiction ran with the land in Tokugawa Japan so the local daimyo was the first and last resort
for any kind of appeal, unless it was a diversity suit, which were fairly uncommon but were heard by the
bafuku in Edo.[cxxxiii] Any conflict over dowry, succession, border dispute, or land sale was likely to be
settled in the village because it was widely understood that bafuku justice was mostly about what was
good for the bafuku, not necessarily what was the right solution to the problem. There were no restrictions
on land sales among peasants.[cxxxiv] However, a samurai who was unable to find a samurai buyer and
wanted to sell land to a peasant had to report the price to a samurai council who could re-set the price as
they saw fit and attach certain privileges and restrictions to the land sale.[cxxxv] Land disputes received
preferential treatment from the bafuku when hearing complaints, most likely because those were the only
civil disputes which directly affected tribute.[cxxxvi]
By the middle of the Tokugawa period most merchants had organized themselves into selfregulating guilds which handled their own disputes much like the villages without resorting to bafuku
justice.[cxxxvii] In the few and tightly knit trading cities on the coast a bargain was enforced largely by
threats to reputation, reneging would be economic seppuku.[cxxxviii]

Conclusion

Towards the end of the Tokugawa period the villages became less and less autonomous as the pressures of
urbanization and the swollen bureaucracy of the bafuku closed in on them. The strict class structure gave

way to the more modern entrepreneurial spirit of Japan that we see today, even though history and
tradition still play a large part in Japanese family life. The Meiji restoration brought a still antiquated
Japan into the glare of the modern world and old traditions like the samurai and eta faded away along
with status restrictions and wars fought without guns. Isolationism may have been the best way to bring
order to a country which had suffered from civil strife and turmoil for so long, but in the end the
temptations of trade and modernity were too much for Japan to resist.

Appendix 1
Timeline
1603 Battle of Sekigahara: Tokugawa Ieyasu becomes shogun, establishes the Edo shogunate.
1619 The hishigaki kaisen (cargo ships) begin to sail regularly between Edo and Osaka.
1635 Shogunate forbids Japanese to travel overseas. Start of the sankin kotai
1637 Shimbara Rebellion.
1639 Entry of Portuguese ships forbidden. Start of sakoku, a period in which Japan was closed
off to the outside world.
1641 Dutch Trading Mission is moved to Dejima in Nagasaki which becomes the only port in
Japan where foreign trade is allowed.
1649 Promulgation of the Keian no ofuregaki, a document outlining the duties and conduct of
the farmers.
1657 Great Edo Fire.
1669 Ainu rebellion in Ezochi (Hokkaido).
1671 Kawamura Zuiken opens eastern sea route. Western sea route is opened in following year.
1688 Start of Genroku Period (to 1703).
1732 Kyoto Famine. Rice stores broken into as prices on rice soar.
1853 Admiral Perry arrives in Uraga and demands that Japan opens its ports.
1854 Japan concludes friendship treaties with the United States, Britain, Russia, France and the
Netherlands. The ports of Hakodate, Shimoda and Nagasaki are opened to foreign trade.

 1868 Meiji Restoration. Edo's name is changed to Tokyo ("Eastern Capital").

[i] Henderson & Torbert Traditional Contract Law in Japan and China, 5, University of Washington Press, March
1992.
[ii] Id. at 3.
[iii] Meyer, Japan: A Concise History, 102, Rowan & Littlefield 1993.
[iv] This may be explained by the fact that the Dutch, unlike the Portuguese, were not evangelical and were seen as
less of a threat to the Confucian hierarchy.
[v]Id at 101.
[vi] Morton, Japan: Its History and Culture, 122, McGraw-Hill 2005.
[vii] Goningumi Rules, Shimo-Sakurai, Kita-Saku District, Shinano, 1640. Article 2.
[viii]

Morton, at 122.

[ix] Meyer, at 107.

[x] Id. at 109.
[xi] Id.
[xii] Id.
[xiii] Named after the reigning emperor.
[xiv] Ooms, Tokugawa Village Practice, 103, University of California Press 1996.
[xv] Id.
[xvi] Although, in theory, the emperor had control over the shogun, the Tokugawa kept the imperial family isolated
in Kyoto and all visitors had to clear appointments to see the emperor through the shogunal bureaucracy.
[xvii] However, this post was sometimes left vacant by the shogun as an additional safeguard against assassination.
[xviii] Id. at 98.
[xix] Morton, at 121.
[xx] Id.
[xxi] Id.
[xxii] Morton, at 120.
[xxiii] Meyer, at 98.
[xxiv] Id.
[xxv] Morton, at 120
[xxvi] Meyer, at 99.
[xxvii] Id.
[xxviii]

Morton, at 120.

[xxix] Meyer, at 99.

[xxx] Morton, at 119.
[xxxi] Meyer, at 98.
[xxxii]Morton, at 119
[xxxiii] Meyer, at 99.
[xxxiv] Morton, at 120.
[xxxv] Id.
[xxxvi] Ooms, at 41.
[xxxvii] Id. at 314.
[xxxviii] Id. at 13-14.
[xxxix] Id. at 112.
[xl] Id. at 235.
[xli] Dean, Japanese Legal System: Text and Materials, 65, Cavendish Publishing Ltd. 1997.
[xlii] Id. at 87.
[xliii] Meyer, at 98.
[xliv] Keian no Ofuregaki, Articles 7 and
[xlv] Keian no Ofuregaki, Article 35.

[xlvi] Ooms, at 132.

[xlvii] Id. at 133.
[xlviii] Id. at 132.
[xlix] Id. at 31.
[l] Id. at 18.
[li] Id.

18.

[lii] Goningumi Rules, Shimo-Sakurai, Kita-Saku District, Shinano, 1640. Article 1.

[liii] Ooms, at 13.
[liv] Id. at 25.
[lv] Id.
[lvi] Id.
[lvii] Id.
[lviii] Genin were limited to a term of ten years of service.
[lix] Id.
[lx] Id.
[lxi] Id. at 168.
[lxii] Id. at 25.
[lxiii] Id. at 196.
[lxiv] Id. at 12.
[lxv] Id. at 13.
[lxvi] Id. at122.
[lxvii] Id. at 14.
[lxviii] Henderson, at 4.
[lxix] Ooms, at 16.
[lxx] Id.
[lxxi] Id. at 24.
[lxxii] Goningumi Rules, Shimo-Sakurai, Kita-Saku District, Shinano, 1662. Article 24.
[lxxiii] Ooms, at 93.
[lxxiv] Id. at 96.
[lxxv] Id.
[lxxvi] Where some 20,000 Christian peasants were executed.
[lxxvii] Id. at 244.
[lxxviii] Id. at 243.
[lxxix] In Tokugawa times executions were not public spectacles, they were done in the prison yard to avoid the
disruptive potential of a large emotional crowd.
[lxxx] Id. at 250.
[lxxxi] Id.
[lxxxii] Id. at 291.
[lxxxiii] Id. at 253.
[lxxxiv] All descriptions of geisha custom are taken from the accounts of life in the floating world as described to
me by Hosogai Naoko.
[lxxxv] Feldman, The Ritual of Rights in Japan: Law, Society, and Health Policy, 16, Cambridge University Press
2000.
[lxxxvi] Id.
[lxxxvii] Id.
[lxxxviii] Ooms, at 196.
[lxxxix] Id. at 197.
[xc] Id. at 223.
[xci] Id.
[xcii] Id.
[xciii] Id.
[xciv] Id. at 231.
[xcv] Id. at 225.
[xcvi] Id.
[xcvii] Id. at 231.
[xcviii] Id.
[xcix] Id.
[c] Id. at 233.
[ci] Goningumi Rules, Shimo-Sakurai, Kita-Saku District, Shinano, 1662. Article 4.
[cii] Ooms, at 44.
[ciii] Id.
[civ] Id.
[cv] Id. at 45.

[cvi] Id. at 48.

[cvii] Id. at 197.
[cviii] Id. at 216.
[cix] Id.
[cx] Id.
[cxi] Id.
[cxii] Id.
[cxiii] Id. at 219.
[cxiv] Id. at 221.
[cxv] Id.
[cxvi] Id. at 226.
[cxvii] Id.
[cxviii] Id.
[cxix] Id. at 228.
[cxx] Id.
[cxxi] Id. at 326-7
[cxxii] Id. at 330.
[cxxiii] Id. at 39.
[cxxiv] Id.
[cxxv] Id.
[cxxvi] Id.
[cxxvii] Henderson,

at 10.

[cxxviii] Id. at 329.

[cxxix] Henderson, at 7.
[cxxx] Goningumi Rules, Shimo-Sakurai, Kita-Saku District, Shinano, 1662. Articles 16 and 18.
[cxxxi] Henderson, at 9.
[cxxxii] Id. at 7.
[cxxxiii] Id. at 9.

[cxxxiv] Ooms, at 206.

[cxxxv] Id.
[cxxxvi] Henderson,
[cxxxvii] Id. at 8.
[cxxxviii] Id.

at 10.