Product Code Database
The lit. Various Points of Laws for Warrior Houses, commonly known in English as the Laws for the Military Houses, was a collection of edicts issued by Japan's Tokugawa shogunate governing the responsibilities and activities of daimyō (feudal lords) and the rest of the samurai warrior aristocracy. These formed the basis of the bakuhan taisei (shogunate-domains system) which lay at the foundation of the Tokugawa regime. The contents of the edicts were seen as a code of conduct, a description of proper honorable daimyō behavior, and not solely laws which had to be obeyed. By appealing to notions of morality and honor, therefore, the shogunate was able to see its strictures followed despite its inability to enforce them directly.
The edicts were first read to a gathering of daimyō by the retired shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu, at Fushimi Castle in the seventh lunar calendar of 1615. They had been compiled by a number of scholars in service to the shogunate including Ishin Sūden and were aimed primarily at limiting the power of the daimyō and thus protecting the shogunate's control over the country.
The reigning shōgun at the time, Ieyasu's son Tokugawa Hidetada, formally promulgated the edicts shortly afterwards, and each successive shogun formally reissued them, reinforcing the restrictions on the daimyō and the control of the shogunate. Through these successive generations, however, the rules developed and changed significantly.
The 1615 edict contains the core of the shogunate's philosophy regarding samurai codes of conduct. Similar policies would be imposed upon commoners as well, reissued and reinforced many times over the course of the Edo period.
Several items concern the need for frugality, a concept central to Confucianism notions of proper governance. Others relate to sumptuary law, requiring people of certain stations to present themselves as such, in their dress, their modes of transportation, and in other ways.
Some items were included to prevent the formation of alliances against the shogunate, for example, the items regarding social interactions between domains and marriages among the daimyō families. The fudai daimyō bore less power, were more trusted by the shogunate, and could be easily punished by having their domains and privileges rescinded. However, the tozama daimyō were far more powerful and less trusted and the shogunate lacked the strength to directly impose by force its policies within the tozama domains and rightfully feared the military potential of an alliance between multiple tozama domains.
Regulations regarding the construction, expansion, and repair of fortifications also serve to prevent the build-up of military power that could be used against the shogunate, as does a reference to the policy of sankin-kōtai, by which daimyō were required to make elaborate pilgrimages to Edo regularly, to present themselves for service.
This year is also quite significant for the implementation of a number of policies which can be grouped under the term kaikin (maritime prohibitions), and which are sometimes referred to as the Sakoku Edicts. Though the restrictions against overseas travel are not themselves mentioned in the 1635 version of the buke shohatto, a number of related policies regarding domestic travel and religion are described.
Some of the new stipulations were as follows:
The following seven shōguns reissued the buke shohatto in its 1683 form, with only the most minor of stylistic changes. Though these were once pronounced along with the Shoshi hatto (laws for samurai), the latter became largely obsolete after 1683 and was absorbed into the wider body of shogunal orders and prohibitions (the kinrei-ko).
|
|
