The creation of the Edo outcaste order

Journal of Japanese Studies

Volumn 27, Issue 2, 2001, Pages 263-292

  Groemer, Gerald ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0038586163     PISSN: 00956848     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3591967     Document Type: Article

References (239)

1. Herman Ooms, Tokugawa Village Practice: Class, Status, Power, Law (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996), p. 275. In Tokugawa Japan, for example, carrying out funerals, killing animals (including four-legged ones), or handling night soil were typical activities of Buddhist monks, hunter-peasants, and members of the merchant class respectively, none of whom was considered polluted.
2. In reference to Japanese medieval society I have utilized the term "outcast"; the label "outcaste" I have reserved for the Tokugawa period, particularly after the 1730s, when state-sponsored and codified discrimination endowed certain groups with caste-like qualities (though Tokugawa society was not a caste society). These included membership determined by birth, difficulty or impossibility of escape, and reinforcement of discrimination by appeals to religious or quasi-religious taboos regarding pollution attached to an individual beyond occupation. The addition of the inaudible grapheme "e" signals that even though the people concerned may not have differed from their medieval forebears in physical appearance or occupation, they now found themselves in a structurally new position, far more inflexibly demarcated than what had been the case in earlier ages. The term "commoner" I use to refer to those who were not of warrior, aristocratic, clerical, or outcaste status, i.e., mainly peasants, merchants, and artisans.
3. Scholars have argued for decades whether the origins of discriminated groups are located in status, occupation, domicile, social relations, or elsewhere. For a brief and lucid exposition of these issues see Teraki Nobuaki, Kinsei mibun to hisabetsumin no shosō: "burakushi no minaoshi" no tojō kara (Osaka: Kaihō Shuppansha, 2000), pp. 3-43.
4. Japanese research on medieval outcasts has burgeoned in recent years and cannot be summarized here. For a useful listing of important contributions up to around 1980, see Amino Yoshihiko, Chūsei no hinin to yūjo (Tokyo: Akashi Shoten, 1994), pp. 25-30.
5. Research from the 1980s to the early 1990s is summarized in Hosokawa Ryōichi, Chūsei no mibunsei to hinin (Tokyo: Nihon Editaa Sukūru Shuppanbu, 1994), pp. 3-54, 82-85.
6. Important recent book-length contributions include Miura Keiichi, Nihon chūsei senmin-shi no kenkyū (Kyoto: Buraku Mondai Kenkyūjo Shuppanbu, 1990, but consisting of earlier studies published separately),
7. Niunoya Tetsuichi, Nihon chūsei no mibun to shakai (Tokyo: Hanawa Shobō, 1993),
8. and Matsuo Kenji, Chūsei no toshi to hinin (Kyoto: Hōzōkan, 1998).
9. In English, Nagahara Keiji, "The Medieval Origins of the Eta-Hinin," Journal of Japanese Studies, Vol. 5, No. 2 (1979), pp. 385-403, remains an important starting point.
10. Ninomiya Shigeaki's oft cited "An Inquiry Concerning the Origin, Development, and Present Situation of the Eta in Relation to the History of Social Classes in Japan," Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, Vol. 10 (1933), pp. 47-154, contains some useful information but must be used with caution.
11. Niunoya Tetsuichi, "Hinin, kawaramono, sanjo," in Iwanami kōza: Nihon tsūshi, Vol. 8 (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1994), pp. 217-18.
12. Kuroda Toshio, Nihon chūsei no kokka to shūkyō (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1975), pp. 377-90;
13. Amino, Chūsei no hinin to yūjo, pp. 34-39.
14. Several good examples of attitudes toward hinin and beggars are provided in Yokoi Kiyoshi, Chūsei minshū no seikatsu bunka (Tokyo: Tokyo Daigaku Shuppankai, 1975), pp. 225-31.
15. The literature on "pollution" is immense. Particularly useful discussions of medieval forms can be found in Yokoi, Chūsei no minshū no seikatsu bunka, pp. 267-94;
16. Ōyama Kyōhei, Nihon chūsei nōson-shi no kenkyū (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1978), pp. 390-403;
17. Yokoi Kiyoshi, Mato to ena: chūseijin no sei to shi (Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1988);
18. Yamamoto Kōji, Kegare to ōharai (Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1992);
19. and Itō Kiyoshi, Nihon chūsei no ōken to ken'i (Kyoto: Shibunkaku, 1993), pp. 93-127.
20. Vocabulario da Lingoa de Iapam, Nagasaki, 1603
21. (facsimile reprint, Nippo jisho [Tokyo: Benseisha, 1973], f. 91r.)
22. Yoshida Tokuo, "Chūsei no shokue seisaku," Kansai Daigaku hōgaku ronshū, Vol. 40, No. 6 (1991), pp. 950-51.
23. For a discussion of medieval discriminatory terms, see Morita Yoshinori, Chūsei senmin to zōgeinō no kenkyū (Tokyo: Yūzankaku, 1974), pp. 11-80.
24. A brief discussion of discriminated minority groups in Tokugawa Japan, some of which have existed for centuries, can be found in Edward Norbeck, "Little-Known Minority Groups of Japan," in George DeVos and Hiroshi Wagatsuma, eds., Japan's Invisible Race: Caste in Culture and Personality (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1966), pp. 183-99.
25. On the origins and early history of the term "eta," see Morita, Chūsei senmin to zōgeinō no kenkyū, pp. 36-64.
26. For examples in which kawaramono and others are labeled eta (in some cases written with the characters "much pollution") from the late thirteenth century, see Morita, Chūsei senmin to zōgeinō no kenkyū, ibid., pp. 50-53,
27. and Yokoi, Chūsei minshū no seikatsu bunka, pp. 231-34.
28. Ooms's repeated assertion that it was not until 1446 (or the 1450s) that eta was written with the characters "much pollution" (Ooms, Tokugawa Village Practice, pp. 247, 278, 304) is incorrect.
29. For an early bakufu law, see Ofuregaki Kanpō shūsei (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1976), p. 1258 (no. 2755).
30. On the use of the term eta, see Minegishi Kentarō, "Bakuhansei-teki senmin mibun no seiritsu, jō," Rekishi hyōron, Vol. 307 (1975), p. 92,
31. and Minegishi Kentarō, Rekishi hyōron, ibid. Vol. 307 (1975), p. 92
32. "Bakuhansei-teki senmin mibun no seiritsu, kan," Rekishi hyōron, Vol. 309 (1975), pp. 63-64;
33. Tsukada Masatomo, "Shinshū ni okeru kinsei 'buraku' no suii," Buraku mondai kenkyū, Vol. 26 (1970), pp. 22-30;
34. Tsukada Takashi, Kinsei Nihon mibun-sei no kenkyū (Kobe: Hyōgo Buraku Mondai Kenkyūjo, 1987) (hereafter KNMK), p. 14.
35. Self-reference as eta in documents or petitions submitted to governmental authorities was no doubt the result of duress. See, for example, Kobayashi Shigeru, ed., Kinsei hisabetsu buraku kankei hōrei-shū: Tenryō o chūshin to shite (Tokyo: Akashi Shoten, 1981), pp. 159-60 (hereafter KHBKHS). The term chōri referred to various types of people depending on historical usage, including the boss of leather workers, kawata in general, and hinin, or hinin heads (especially in the Kansai area).
36. The role of the Ikkō sect in the establishment of the outcaste order has been hotly debated in recent years. The creation of antagonistic status groups to divide and facilitate control of the populace may well have been in part motivated from the rulers' desire to stifle the kind of populist solidarity that had made the Ikkō rebellions so difficult to quash. The connection is particularly interesting because most kawata/eta of the Tokugawa period belonged to the Jōdo Shinshū sect (i.e., the Ikkō sect). See Teraki Nobuaki, Hisabetsu buraku no kigen: kinsei seiji kigensetsu no saisei (Tokyo: Akashi Shoten, 1996), pp. 133-203.
37. See Yokota Fuyuhiko, "Kinseiteki mibun seido no seiritsu," in Asao Naohiro, ed., Mibun to kakushiki, Vol. 7 of Nihon no kinsei (Tokyo: Chūō Kōronsha, 1992), pp. 46-49;
38. Watanabe Hiroshi, "Kawara kara kawata e," Wakayama Daigaku Kyōiku Gakubu kiyō, Vol. 23 (1973), p. 13;
39. Ooms, Tokugawa Village Practice, pp. 279-83.
40. Teraki Nobuaki, Kinsei no buraku no seiritsu to tenkai (Osaka: Kaihō Shuppan, 1986), pp. 86-111,
41. and Teraki, Hisabetsu buraku no kigen, pp. 93-107, offer much evidence that during Hideyoshi's reign kawata or kawaya was already a status designation, one later linked to the one labeled eta.
42. For an explanation of what the law sought to accomplish, see Yokota, "Kinseiteki mibun seido no seiritsu," pp. 43-46.
43. See Yokota, "Kinseiteki mibun seido no seiritsu," ibid., pp. 55-71.
44. Ōsaka-shi Kyōiku Kenkyūjo, ed., Ōsaka ni okeru kinsei hisabetsu buraku no rekishi (Osaka: Buraku Kaihō Kenkyūjo, 1977), pp. 89, 115.
45. Tsukada, KNMK, pp. 47-56. In some instances, areas in which medieval kawara-mono resided turned into Tokugawa-period kawata/eta communities, but in many more cases the latter communities cannot be traced directly to medieval ones.
46. Nagahara, "The Medieval Origins of the Eta-Hinin," pp. 396-401.
47. See also Ooms, Tokugawa Village Practice, pp. 279-81.
48. Minegishi, "Bakuhansei-teki senmin mibun no seiritsu, jō," pp. 93-94.
49. The eight provinces were Sagami (today Kanagawa Prefecture), Musashi (Saitama and Tokyo-to), Awa, Kazusa, Shimōsa (all Chiba), Hitachi (Ibaraki), Kōzuke (Gunma), and Shimotsuke (Tochigi). A 1715 document claims that Danzaemon also controlled some of the province of Izu (Minami Kazuo, Bakumatsu Edo shakai no kenkyū [Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, 1978]
50. [hereafter BESK], p. 364);
51. by 1800, his terrain had expanded to include 10 houses in Suruga, as well as 64 houses in one village in Izu, 28 houses in western Kai, and 6 houses in southern Mutsu (see BESK], ibid., pp. 370-72, for detailed statistics on location and number of houses controlled).
52. Nakao Kenji, Edo shakai to Danzaemon (Osaka: Kaihō Shuppansha, 1992) (hereafter ESD), pp. 118-22, lists 91 rural bosses.
53. In an 1802 statement (John Henry Wigmore, ed., Law and Justice in Tokugawa Japan [Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1967], Vol. 8B, p. 197), Danzaemon claims that besides the eight Kanto provinces he controlled the entire province of Izu, five villages in Kai Province, one in the Ōshū district, and two in Suruga Province.
54. As late as 1867/7 a boss from Mikawa Province was newly put under Danzaemon's control, suggesting that the latter's power did not wane as the era came to its close (Nakao, ESD, p. 122).
55. For many important primary sources on Danzaemon, see Nakao Kenji, ed., Danzaemon kankei shiryō shū (Kyū-baku hikitsugi-sho), 3 vols. (Osaka: Kaihō Shuppansha, 1995) (hereafter DKSS);
56. and Shiomi Sen'ichirō, ed., Shiryō Asakusa Danzaemon (Tokyo: Hihyōsha, 1988).
57. Useful studies include Ishii Ryōsuke, ed., Kinsei Kantō no hisabetsu buraku (Tokyo: Akashi Shoten, 1979);
58. Danzaemon Kenkyūkai, ed., Danzaemon Kenkyūkai hōkokushū (Kobe: Danzaemon Kenkyūkai, 1990);
59. Hayase Jirō, Danzaemon fūun-roku, 3 vols. (Osaka: Kaihō Shuppansha, 1991-92);
60. and Nakao, ESD.
61. In English, see John Price, "A History of the Outcaste: Untouchability in Japan," in De Vos and Wagatsuma, Japan's Invisible Race, pp. 28-29;
62. John Cornell, "From Caste Patron to Entrepreneur and Political Ideologue: Transformation in 19th and 20th Century Outcaste Leadership Elites," in Bernard S. Silberman and H. D. Harootunian, eds., Modern Japanese Leadership: Transition and Change (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1966), pp. 66-68;
63. Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney, The Monkey as Mirror: Symbolic Transformations in Japanese History and Ritual (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987), p. 95;
64. Ooms, Tokugawa Village Practice, p. 280.
65. Documents regarding Danzaemon's origins include a version of his lineage and origins dated 1715 (reprinted in Nakao, ed., DKSS, Vol. 2, pp. 434-37);
66. for another version see Harada Tomohiko, ed., Hennen sabetsu shi shiryō shūsei, 21 vols., (Tokyo: San'ichi Shobō, 1984-95) (hereafter HSSSS), Vol. 8, pp. 161-65;
67. one dated 1719 (reprinted in Kobayashi, ed., KHBKHS, pp. 27-31);
68. and yet another from 1725 (reprinted in Nakao, ed., DKSS, Vol. 1, pp. 24-26).
69. Tsukada Takashi has presented compelling evidence that the 1715 and 1719 versions were forgeries produced after the 1725 document. See Tsukada, Kinsei mibun-sei to shūen shakai (Tokyo: Tōkyō Daigaku Shuppankai, 1997), pp. 237-42.
70. Nakao, ESD, p. 21.
71. See Nakao, ed., DKSS, Vol. 1, p. 27,
72. and Tsukada, KNMK, pp. 15-16;
73. for a discussion see Nakao, ESD, pp. 17-18, 25.
74. Nakao, ESD, pp. 48-53.
75. Nakao, ed., DKSS, Vol. 1, pp. 24-25.
76. Tenshō nikki, in Zoku zoku gunsho ruijū. Vol. 5 (Tokyo: Zoku Gunsho Ruijū Kanseikai, 1969), p. 481.
77. Nakao, ESD, pp. 45-47;
78. Arai Kōjirō, "Danzaemon yuisho-gaki ni tsuite," in Ishii Ryōsuke, ed. Kinsei Kantō no hisabetsu buraku (Tokyo: Akashi Shoten, 1979), p. 211;
79. Ochiboshū tsuika, cited in Takayanagi Kaneyoshi, Burakumin no seikatsu (Tokyo: Yūzankaku, 1981), pp. 136-37.
80. The 1772 volume Jiseki gakkō, in Enseki jisshu, Vol. 2 (Tokyo: Chūō Kōronsha, 1979), p. 166,
81. also claims that before Ieyasu's arrival, Danzaemon had lived for generations at the corner of the third and fourth blocks of Murochō. Asakusa-shi, in Mikan zuihitsu hyakushu, Vol. 2 (Tokyo: Chūō Kōronsha, 1976), p. 179, also places the move from Murochō at the time of Ieyasu's arrival.
82. Tsukada, KNMK, pp. 15-16.
83. Nakao, ed., DKSS, Vol. 1, pp. 199-201;
84. Minami, BESK, pp. 370-72. The document reprinted in DKSS gives (probably incorrectly, but in accordance with its source [Minami sen'yō ruishū, 28/3]) 100 eta houses for Hitachi Province, but nevertheless arrives at a total of 7,720.
85. Minami, based on Kansei kyōwa sen'yō ruishū, 6/tome, gives 110 houses for a (probably correct) total of 7,720. The statistics presented in Table 1 below would appear to indicate either that hinin families were very large, or that not all were included in the figure given by Danzaemon. At any rate, unregistered beggars (hinin) were certainly not part of Danzaemon's tally. Monkey trainer-handlers provided services to the bakufu and daimyō by exorcizing horse stables; they also provided the citizenry with entertainment.
86. For a table of hinin domicile locations in Edo from the early seventeenth century onward, see Nakao, ed., DKSS, Vol. 3, p. 554.
87. See also Minami, BESK, pp. 350-51.
88. Information on kawata/eta below is taken chiefly from Tsukada Takashi, "Danzaemon shihai to Shinchō yado," Shigaku zasshi, Vol. 92, No. 7 (1983), pp. 47-90.
89. General maps can be found in Takayanagi, Burakumin no seikatsu, pp. iv-xiii.
90. A detailed map of Asakusa Shinchō in 1871 is included in Shiryō-shū: Meiji shoki hisabetsu buraku (Osaka: Kaihō Shuppansha, 1986), pp. 290-91.
91. For an example of legal advisers, see Tsukada, KNMK, p. 26.
92. See Minami, BESK, pp. 387-92.
93. Relevant documents can be found in Nakao, ed., DKSS, Vol. 2, pp. 409-509;
94. Harada, ed., HSSSS, Vol. 10, pp. 195-96,
95. and HSSSS, Vol. Vol. 11, pp. 390, 560;
96. Jiseki gakkō, p. 166;
97. Shiryō-shū, pp. 92-98, 268-74. Except for a brief period during the Tenpō Reforms of the 1840s, when all cartels were outlawed, Danzaemon retained his monopoly on lamp wicks until 1871/9/30.
98. Nakao, ESD, pp. 151-62;
99. Waga koromo in Mori Senzō et al., eds., Nihon shomin seikatsu shiryō shūsei, Vol. 15 (Tokyo: San'ichi Shobō, 1971), p. 359.
100. "Shoshiki tome-chō" in Harada Tomohiko et al., eds., Nihon shomin seikatsu shiryō shūsei, Vol. 14 (Tokyo: San'ichi Shobō, 1971), pp. 5, 18, 261 (note 1).
101. Tsukada, KNMK, p. 311. Note, however, that Osaka hinin (kaito) of this era might rent houses outside their settlements.
102. See the documents reproduced in Nakao, ed., DKSS, Vol. 2, pp. 59 and 38-39;
103. also Takayanagi Kaneyoshi, Hinin no seikatsu (Tokyo: Yūzankaku, 1981), p. 46.
104. According to Ogyū Sorai, Zenshichi was a descendant of one Kuruma Tanba, a sandal carrier in the service of Uesugi Kagekatsu (1555-1623) a daimyō of the late Momoyama and early Tokugawa periods. See Seidan, in Ogyū Sorai, Vol. 36 of Yoshikawa Kōjirō et al., eds., Nihon shisō taikei (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1973), p. 286;
105. the author of Asakusa-shi refutes this and maintains that Zenshichi's ancestor was in the service of the Satake family (Asakusa-shi, p. 178).
106. Nasake no temakura (1710), cited in Takayanagi, Hinin no seikatsu, p. 55.
107. On Matsuemon, see Kenshōbo, in Tanigawa Ken'ichi et al., eds., Nihon shomin seikatsu shiryō shūsei, Vol. 25 (Tokyo: San'ichi Shobō, 1980), p. 259;
108. and Gofunai bikō, Fascicle 110 (Vol. 5), cited in Harada, ed., HSSSS, Vol. 7, pp. 252-54.
109. During the Tenpō period (1830-44) he called himself Tōzaemon (perhaps read Fujizaemon). See also Harada, ed., HSSSS, Vol. 7, p. 528;
110. Nakao, ed., DKSS, Vol. 2, pp. 74, 349.
111. Oshioki saikyo-chō, in Kinsei hōsei shiryō sōsho, Vol. 1 (Tokyo: Sōbunsha, 1959), p. 376 (no. 875);
112. p. Kinsei hōsei shiryō sōsho, Vol. 293 (no. 691);
113. Kinsei hōsei shiryō sōsho, Vol. p. 77 (no. 187);
114. Kinsei hōsei shiryō sōsho, Vol. p. 377 (no. 877).
115. Zenzaburō and Kyūbee also appear to have been subject to control by kawata/eta heads in the surrounding Kasai and Nerima areas, respectively, probably because the areas these hinin bosses controlled were once part of these rural regions. See Nakao, ESD, p. 108;
116. Tsukada, KNMK, p. 230.
117. During the Kansei period (1789-1801) and the early Meiji era, a man named Kinoshitagawa no Kyūbee also sporadically appears as a hinin boss, but little is known of him. An 1869 record (Shiryō-shū, p. 67) notes that he had absconded, leaving his work to the "hut head" Bunjirō.
118. See Nakao, ESD, p. 239;
119. Tsukada, KNMK, pp. 226-30.
120. For statistics see Tsukada, KNMK, pp. 240-41;
121. and Nakao, ESD, p. 243. In 1822, Chiyomatsu (a.k.a. Zenshichi) earned 416 ryō from the activities of his charges, Tōzaemon (a.k.a. Matsuemon) 76, Zenzaburō 56, and Kyūbee only 3.
122. See Minami, BESK, p. 346.
123. See Tsukada, KNMK, pp. 32-35, 311-14.
124. For examples of strife between kawata/eta and hinin in rural areas, see Takayanagi, Burakumin no seikatsu, pp. 230-42.
125. Nakao, ed., DKSS, Vol. 1, p. 19.
126. Nakao, ESD, pp. 95-96, 109.
127. Nakao, ESD, Ibid., pp. 104-6.
128. Ōsaka-shi Kyōiku Kenkyūjo, Ōsaka ni okeru kinsei hisabetsu buraku no rekishi, p. 110.
129. Nakao, ed., DKSS, Vol. 2, pp. 174-76;
130. also Harada, ed., HSSSS Vol. 8, pp. 374-78;
131. Nakao, ESD, pp. 95-96, 99-100;
132. and Tsukada, KNMK, pp. 227-28.
133. The case is recorded in Kachi ōgi, in Nihon shomin seikatsu shiryō shūsei, Vol. 14, pp. 489-526.
134. The arguments involved are discussed in Tsukada, Kinsei mibun-sei to shūen shakai, pp. 48-50, 229-37, 247-50.
135. See Nakao, ESD, p. 93;
136. Harada, ed., HSSSS, Vol. 8, pp. 375, 378.
137. For Danzaemon's recounting of this case, see Nakao, ed., DKSS, Vol. 2, pp. 174-76;
138. see also Nakao, ESD, pp. 99-100, 107-8.
139. See Danzaemon's 1725 record of origins, Harada, ed., HSSSS, Vol. 8, p. 517;
140. the event is also recounted in Kachi ōgi, p. 446;
141. and Ichiwa ichigon, in Nihon zuihitsu taisei, bekkan, Vol. 5 (Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, 1978), pp. 271-74. The last-mentioned record notes that Zenshichi had been suing for five years to escape Danzaemon's control.
142. Kachi ōgi, p. 446.
143. See the document cited in Harada, ed., HSSSS, Vol. 8, p. 377;
144. and Kenshōbo, pp. 258-60.
145. On the fire and rebuilding see Takayanagi Kaneyoshi, Edo jidai hisabetsu mibun-sō no seikatsu-shi (Tokyo: Akashi Shoten, 1979), p. 83.
146. Tsumura Masayasu, Tankai (Tokyo: Kokusho Kankōkai, 1917), p. 51.
147. On Danzaemon's relation to the blind, see Gerald Groemer, "The Guild of the Blind in Tokugawa Japan," Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. 56, No. 3 (2001).
148. Shiomi Sen'ichiro, ed., Edo kasō no shakai (Tokyo: Akashi Shoten, 1993), pp. 73-75
149. (based on newspaper articles from 1892), reports the events as taking place in 1838. A strikingly similar story is told by Yamaguchi Suruga no kami, a southern city magistrate (see Takayanagi, Hinin no seikatsu, pp. 124-26). According to this report, the incident occurred in 1866. Which of the two dates (perhaps neither?) is correct is not known, and one cannot help wondering if the incident ever took place at all. At any rate, Edo kasō no shakai contains numerous other errors, including the name of the magistrate at the time, and must be used with caution. The name Chiyomatsu was assumed after 1829 and used until roughly 1845.
150. Tsukada Takashi, "Kasōmin no sekai: 'mibun-teki shūen' no shiten kara," in Nihon no kinsei, Vol. 7, p. 265;
151. Tsukada, KNMK, p. 33.
152. Takayanagi, Hinin no seikatsu, p. 69.
153. Tsukada, KNMK, p. 316;
154. for statistics from 1818 and later see pp. 279-82; Tōkyōshi saimin enkaku kiyō, p. 646. Hinin houses were cramped even by standards of the day, with an entire family often living in a dwelling measuring as small as three by four meters.
155. Some edifices, in which a large number of inhabitants must have dwelled, measured up to eight by eleven meters, but this was unusual (Tsukada, KNMK, p. 251;
156. Minami, BESK, pp. 350-51.
157. Hinnin dwellings normally had a roof but no ceiling; sliding doors (shōji) and other luxuries were also prohibited (see Danzaemon's 1765 report in DKSS, Vol. 1, pp. 210-11).
158. Tsukada, KNMK, pp. 240-41.
159. Ofuregaki Kanpō shūsei, p. 1138 (nos. 2389, 2390);
160. Tokugawa kinrei-kō, zenshū (Tokyo: Sōbunsha, 1959), Vol. 5, p. 473 (no. 3431) (1674/11);
161. Shōhō jiroku, Vol. 1, p. 183 (no. 533);
162. Tokugawa kinrei-kō, zenshū, Vol. 5, p. 474.
163. Shōhō jiroku, Vol. 1, p. 202, (no. 595).
164. Ofuregaki Kanpō shūsei, p. 1138 (no. 2391).
165. See Getsudō kenbunshū, in Kinsei fūzoku kenbunshū (Zoku Nihon zuihitsu taisei, bekkan, Vols. 2-4) (Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, 1982), Vol. 3, p. 264;
166. Shōhō jiroku, Vol. 2, p. 277 (no. 1942),
167. and Shōhō jiroku, Vol. Vol. 2, p. 270 (no. 1932);
168. for a discussion see Minami, BESK, pp. 338-39.
169. Nakao, ed., DKSS, Vol. 1, p. 14.
170. Harada, ed., HSSSS, Vol. 8, p. 375. Seventeen more hinin were executed in other manners; 23 more were tattooed and 44 jailed.
171. On licenses see Minami, BESK, p. 348.
172. Hinin licenses are illustrated in Mikikigusa (Naikaku bunko shozō shiryō sōkan, tokkan dai-ni) (Tokyo: Kyūko Shoin, 1985), Vol. 5, p. 53;
173. and Takayanagi, Hinin no seikatsu, pp. 70-71.
174. For laws and procedures concerning reversion to commoner status, see Takayanagi, Hinin no seikatsu, p. 66 (1765/6);
175. and Tokugawa kinrei-kō, zenshū, Vol. 5, pp. 475-76 (no. 3435, from 1846/10/10, and no. 3437, from 1789/8).
176. See also Wigmore, Law and Justice in Tokugawa Japan, Vol. 8B, pp. 176-78.
177. DKSS, Vol. 1, pp. 18-21;
178. Kiyūshōran (Tokyo: Meicho Kankōkai, 1974), Vol. 2, pp. 636-37.
179. The 1687 Edo ka no ko (Tokyo: Sumiya Shobō, 1975), p. 52, still mentions the hinin huts at Yanagihara "during the bad times a while ago."
180. Nakao, ESD, p. 261.
181. In that year, 266 hinin were exiled. See Shōhō jiroku, Vol. 2, p. 277 (no. 1942).
182. Shōhō jiroku, Vol. 2, pp. 474-75 (no. 2268) (1733/1/23).
183. On the bakufu response to the "Kyōhō famines," see Kitahara Itoko, Toshi to hinkon no shakai-shi (Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, 1995), pp. 10-58.
184. Nakao, ed., DKSS, Vol. 1, pp. 32-33.
185. For a discussion see Nakao, ESD, pp. 259-63.
186. The other four were turned over to Edo townspeople (machikata), presumably relatives (Nakao, ed., DKSS, Vol. 1, p. 35). An asterisk indicates an intercalary month.
187. DKSS, Ibid., pp. 36-38.
188. That tattoos could be and sometimes were removed is evident from a case cited in Kobayashi, ed., KHBKHS, p. 255.
189. Nakao, ESD, p. 352;
190. on measures against absconding see Nakao, ESD, ibid., pp. 350-56.
191. See the law from Kiji jōrei cited in Kobayashi, ed., KHBKHS, pp. 302-3,
192. and Nakao, ESD, pp. 356-57.
193. Tokugawa kinrei-kō, zenshū, Vol. 5, pp. 184-85 (nos. 2812, 2813).
194. For a discussion see Teraki, Kinsei mibun to hisabetsumin shosō, pp. 235-57.
195. Tokugawa kinrei-kō, zenshū, Vol. 5, pp. 474-75 (no. 3434). In some urban areas hinin also served as guards. Kyoto city guarding was such a common hinin occupation that hinin in this city were commonly called banta (a derogatory term for guard); in the Osaka area, too, "hinin guards" (hinin-ban) under the direction of village officials and ultimately the Osaka city magistrate, guarded villages, searched for and interrogated suspects, and made arrests. Edo city wards, however, were guarded by commoners.
196. Tsukada Takashi, "Mushukunin," in Edogaku jiten (Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, 1994), pp. 208-9.
197. Tsukada Takashi, Edogaku jiten Ibid. 1994, pp. 208-9. ;
198. Tsukada, KNMK, pp. 259-70, 288-300.
199. Nakao, ESD, pp. 304-5, 351.
200. Nakao, ed., DKSS, Vol. 1, pp. 561-62 (1843/9);
201. for a copy of this document from 1858 see Minami, BESK, pp. 342-44.
202. For a useful chart of hinin duties, see Tsukada, KNMK, p. 225.
203. More and more tasks continued to be added between the years 1657 and 1734 (see Tsukada, KNMK, ibid., p. 231).
204. For a document enumerating Edo hinin occupations in 1854 see Nakao, ESD, p. 241.
205. In 1719 Kuruma Zenshichi had to supply 30 workers to the bakufu's prison daily; later this was increased, but during the 1770s only about ten hinin were actually being used. Instead, townspeople, who were paid up to four times more than hinin, were employed. See Nakao, ESD, pp. 300-307. Kotsukappara is today in Minami Senju in Arakawa ward; at the time it was also simply known as the "Asakusa" execution ground. Suzugamori was known as the "Shinagawa" execution ground and did not include a graveyard.
206. Tsukada, KNMK. pp. 273-74;
207. Nakao, ESD, pp. 240-42.
208. On gannin bōzu, see Gerald Groemer, "A Short History of the Gannin," Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, Vol. 27, Nos. 1-2 (Spring 2000), pp. 41-72.
209. Ofuregaki Tenpō shūsei, ge, p. 822 (no. 6458), 1822/1.
210. See Tsukada, KNMK, pp. 271-72;
211. Chirizukadan, in Enseki jisshu, Vol. 1 (Tokyo: Chūō Kōronsha, 1979) p. 288, gives a description of Matsuemon's practice of collecting contributions.
212. Tokugawa kinrei-kō, zenshū, Vol. 5, pp. 482-83;
213. Tsukada, KNMK, p. 280.
214. Extortion by warriors was so common in Tokugawa Japan that it was repeatedly banned by law (see for example Shōhō jiroku, Vol. 2, p. 433 (no. 2209) (1731).
215. Already in the mid-seventeenth century, peace officers had illegally solicited donations; others impersonated such officers to fortify their requests. For examples of antibegging and extortion laws, see Shōhō jiroku, Vol. 1, p. 3 (no. 8), 1648/3/19;
216. Shōhō jiroku, Vol. p. 16 (no. 54), 1651/5/10;
217. andShōhō jiroku, Vol. Vol. 2, p. 50 (no. 1546), 1716/12/18.
218. See also Tokugawa kinrei-kō, zenshū, Vol. 5, p. 474, no. 3432 (1748/12);
219. Ofuregaki Tenpō shūsei (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1977), ge, p. 822 (no. 6457) 1789/4.
220. Shichū torishimari ruishū, shichū torishimari no bu (in Dai Nihon kinsei shiryō, Vols. 1-3), (Tokyo: Tōkyō Daigaku Shuppankai, 1959-61), Vol. 1, pp. 20, 222.
221. The law is cited in Takayanagi, Edo jidai hisabetsu mibun-sō no seikatsu-shi, p. 132. In this volume Takayanagi focuses on the tame and the hinin yoseba. The yoseba was shut down in 1853.
222. Minegishi Kentarō, "Bakuhansei-teki senmin mibun no seiritsu, kan," p. 68.
223. Many more examples of kawata and hinin in rural areas resisting authority can be found in Ooms, Tokugawa Village Practice, pp. 249-70.
224. Seidan, p. 283.
225. Kobayashi, ed., KHBKHS, p. 173 (1784); pp. 215-17 (1795); p. 237-41 (1799).
226. From 1804, commoners who placed a hinin in charge of a shop or provided lodging to hinin were fined 3,000 coppers. See ibid., p. 269. Cases of commoners becoming members of outcaste villages in the Osaka area have been studied by Hatanaka Toshiyuki. See for example his "Mibun o koeru toki: setta o meguru hitobito," in Tsukada Takashi et al., eds., Mibun-teki shūen (Osaka: Buraku Mondai Kenkyūjo Shuppanbu, 1994), pp. 403-59.
227. Nakao, ed., DKSS, Vol. 1, p. 193.
228. Kerchiefs were outlawed on 1796/10/17 (Harada, ed., HSSSS, Vol. 11, pp. 499-500). Already in 1723 hats/head coverings (zukin, kaburimono) had been prohibited, but kerchiefs (tenugui) allowed the quick-witted to circumvent this order.
229. See, for example, Harada, ed., HSSSS, Vol. 11, pp. 549-52,
230. and Kobayashi, ed., KHBKHS, pp. 234-37 (1799/6).
231. In 1838/11 a kawata/eta posing as commoner was scolded and his guarantor fined 3,000 coppers. See Kobayashi, ed., KHBKHS, p. 335.
232. Minami, BESK, p. 381, presents other examples of attempts to escape eta/kawata status by marrying a commoner, renting a house outside the kakoiuchi, or becoming an apprentice.
233. Shichū torishimari ruishū, shichū torishimari no bu, Vol. 1, p. 366 (1842/9);
234. Hannichi kanwa (Nihon zuihitsu taisei, series 1, Vol. 8)(Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, 1975), p. 67.
235. Minami, BESK, p. 358.
236. See Minami, BESK, ibid. p. 359 for other instances of hinin concealing their status.
237. Suzuki Tōzō, ed., Kinsei shomin seikatsu shiryō gaidan bunbun shūyō (Tokyo: San'ichi Shobō, 1993), p. 50;
238. and Minami, BESK, p. 359. Several dozen people can hardly have lived comfortably in a two-story house 100 square meters in size. This type of panicked exaggeration is in the style of the Seji kenmonroku (p. 745), which describes an Osaka eta named Taikoya Matabee as owning 70 ryō in gold, a storehouse full of Chinese and Japanese curios, and maintaining seven or eight concubines. "They [the outcastes] wear swords and live in luxury. Though called hinin and koya mono [literally 'hut people'], they have elegant dwellings, wear silk and crêpe de chine, stage lavish feasts for their sons and daughters, indulge in sightseeing and pilgrimages, just like commoners. What a life this is, getting something for nothing while exhibiting not so much as a hint of shame!"
239. Discourses of this nature in which the kawata were "racialized" are analyzed in Ooms, Tokugawa Village Practice, pp. 298-309.