Everyday Life in Traditional Japan. Charles Dunn
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is by no means universal.) However, the necessity for a confession implies the necessity for persuasion, if the prisoner is unwilling to confess of his own free will. Flogging, pressing with stones and water torture were among the methods available, and were no doubt put to use, just as in England it was possible to press to death prisoners who refused to plead guilty or not guilty and who therefore could not be tried. In Japan, however, the power of authority was such that few guilty men would have persisted in any denials. When the confession came, the prisoner was taken before the magistrate, and there on shirasu, the “white sand” (20), an area before the office where the prisoners and witnesses knelt before the magistrate and gave their evidence, they heard his judgment. The “white sand” was symbolical of the truth of what was said there, and behind the name shirasu there lies, perhaps, the verb of the same pronunciation meaning “inform.”
The most serious punishment was the death penalty, which might take several forms, and might also be followed by exposure of the corpse, as an added shame. Crimes for which death was the punishment included murder, robbery, and some kinds of adultery, while burning alive was the fate of anyone convicted of arson, a much-feared crime in Japan. As an alternative to death at the executioner’s hand, a samurai was sometimes allowed to commit suicide (seppuku), by which act he preserved his honor: what in fact usually happened was that immediately the knife was plunged into the left side of the abdomen, and the cut made towards the center, the head was struck off by a blow from a friend’s sword, thus cutting short the death-agony. The punishment next in severity was banishment of various degrees, from exile on some distant island down to banishment beyond ten ri (25 miles) from Edo, banishment from Edo, or just exclusion from the culprit’s home district. Lighter punishments varied according to class. There were periods of house arrest and other restrictions on liberty. Women were sometimes punished by having their hair shaved off. Imprisonment was not a punishment; prisons existed only as places for detention while a decision was taken about guilt and sentence. Treatment in them was harsh, although a magistrate, Ooka, who served from 1717 to 1736, and who is still remembered for his legendary ability in solving difficult cases, is credited with having brought in humanitarian reforms, especially in relation to the interrogation of prisoners. Even in prison, samurai were lodged separately according to whether they were superior or inferior in rank, and apart from commoners, while women were also kept in separate areas. Yet another testimony to the power of authority in Japan is that if a serious fire broke out near the jail, the prisoners were released on parole, although with the prospect of very heavy penalties if they failed to return at the specified time.
(20) Shirasu: two prisoners, elaborately roped up, appear before the magistrate. Humanity allows them rough mats to kneel on.
The magistrate did not deal only with criminal offences, but also had to settle disputes between individuals. It is interesting to note that the method of dealing with these involved a “cooling-off ” period, such as might be used today. On the first application to the office, the complainant would have his statement recorded, but would be sent away for a few days. If he returned then, the magistrate himself appeared, and ordered him to reconsider. If he persisted, the duty of investigating the complaint was given to a yoriki, who would normally carry the inquiry through, although in difficult cases it might have to go back to the magistrate, who would, in any event, deliver the final verdict.
This description of the machinery of justice in Edo serves to give some impression of the way officials worked, and of the sort of situation in which they came in contact with ordinary people. Some samurai would of course be in direct touch with farmers and with suppliers, but others also managed certain enterprises that would more usually be run by merchants. One outstanding example of this was the notorious gold mine of Aikawa in the island of Sado, where folk memory has preserved tales of the harshness of the samurai overseers, and of the sufferings of young men forced to labor in the galleries and workings. They were in charge of an official who was equal in status to the Edo town magistrate. In other territories and domains there were other enterprises administered by samurai, which means that there were many who acquired experience in industrial matters: with the growth of industry after the middle of the nineteenth century, many former samurai were thus able to play their part in the new developments.
In their leisure pursuits as much as in their working hours, the samurai were supposed to be a class apart. However, many of them spent their spare time in ways that were frowned on, since they were not encouraged to participate in any of the leisure activities of the townsfolk, things such as theatre-going and visiting the brothel districts, although it is quite clear that they did so all the same, and with the minimum of subterfuge. Many other entertainments were officially available. Of course, lower samurai, who might be called upon to use their fighting skill if it came to an encounter with robbers or fractious peasants, would do a certain amount of military training, and wrestling, swordsmanship, archery, riding, and swimming were all practiced. Upper samurai, while learning swordsmanship with some seriousness, pursued the study of other military sports in the same sort of spirit as they did tea ceremony and flower-arrangement (21)—that is, as something more like a hobby, but learnt and practiced with great seriousness and a constant search for inner significance.
All these artistic pursuits were organized into “schools”, and learnt from authorized teachers only, who taught strictly in accordance with the rules of their individual schools. Differences between them were sometimes quite small, and very often without practical importance. Even a non-artistic pursuit such as swimming was organized on a “school” basis, each one teaching different strokes of the arms and legs, or the tactical use of various swimming styles, or horsemanship in water. The Ogasawara school was supreme in the study of polite behavior, which included methods of greeting, posture, manners at mealtimes, and so on, and also dealt with archery, a ritualized sport with considerable formality of procedure, in which as much, or even more, importance was placed upon gracefulness of movement and correctness of etiquette, as upon hitting the bull’s-eye. Cruder archery competitions were sometimes indulged in, but only by lower samurai: one of these that is remembered took place at a temple in Kyoto, the Sanjūsangen-do, which has a hall over 200 feet long crowded with statues. The outside gallery of this hall was used in a competition, the object of which was to shoot as many arrows as possible in a given time from one end to the other. An overhanging roof made it impossible to flight the arrows high (the beams still bear the marks where stray shots have hit), so that a strong, flat trajectory was necessary. The best performance is credited to a samurai in 1686, who shot 13,000 arrows, of which 8,033 reached the end of the balcony.
(21) Samurai view flower-arrangement. A senior samurai, with two of less exalted rank, gaze at a flower-arrangement in a toko-no-ma (see p. 147). The figure on the right, with shaven head and fan in hand, is a Buddhist priest.
A more active sport for senior samurai was hunting. The taking of life was against the tenets of Buddhism, according to which the killing of animals might bring punishment in the next world; nevertheless, many hunted game for food, and the use of the matchlock was common, although it is unlikely that shooting was considered a sport. Quite different from this practical hunting were the large-scale expeditions by great lords. Indeed, some of the earlier Sho-guns indulged in these from time to time, until they were brought to a halt by the fifth Shogun, Tsunayoshi (1680-1709). He is remembered as the “dog” Shogun, because of his protection for these animals, occasioned by the advice received from a Buddhist priest that his childlessness was a punishment for having taken life in a previous existence: he chose the dog for his particular favor because it was the calendar sign of the year of his birth. The power of the Shogun is demonstrated by the effect that this idiosyncrasy had on the country. Some persons were even banished for killing dogs, a vast dog-pound was established in Edo for the care of strays, paid for by a special dog-tax, while the general ban on animal-killing made it difficult for the farmer to protect his crops. All this did not bring Tsunayoshi a son, however, and he was succeeded