The Way of yin and yang is a method to serve one’s own interests at the expense of others by revealing what is lucky and what is unlucky, what is profitable and what is not.1 It includes fortune-telling based on feng shui or face reading, determining lucky and unlucky directions, performing rites to prevent misfortune associated with unlucky directions, and conducting rites to protect a building plot, a house, or a person. All these procedures lead people astray by encouraging them to speculate on what has not yet happened. Although the Way of yin and yang can be of use when applied to matters of the realm and the state, it should not be used for matters of lesser importance. Wrongly used, divination becomes a form of banditry. It can function as a means to seize the realm and harm its people.
The Way of yin and yang began to flourish in medieval times because the imperial court made such wide use of it. At that time the Tsuchimikado house of yin-yang diviners enjoyed a large fief, including the Ōi estate in Bizen province and some holdings in Hizen province.2 Their income from these holdings corresponded to that of a fief of one hundred thousand koku. However, Lord Toyotomi Hideyoshi confiscated the property of this house and exiled the Tsuchimikado to Owari province as a penalty for associating with his nephew Hidetsugu.3 I have heard that Lord Hideyoshi declared that the Way of yin and yang is harmful to the state and that he had long regarded it as useless in an age of peace and order. He thus dismissed all the staff of the court’s Yin-Yang Bureau.
After the Tokugawa came to power the Tsuchimikado were granted a pardon, given some modest stipends, and allowed to take up their old profession once again.4 However, it is said that while they were in exile, they had lost the old transmissions that had been handed down in their house since the days of Abe no Seimei. The …5 they use today are fake. All those who practice yin-yang under the jurisdiction of the Tsuchimikado today use the Book of Changes, and they have no knowledge of the … It appears very likely, therefore, that the original methods have been lost. Once I heard that in some faraway place there was a man who still held the original teachings as a secret transmission. I learned the contents of this book, and once I tested it by predicting the future. I found that the prediction was quite accurate. This book, then, appears to contain a profound and truly mysterious method.
Scattered not only in the three cities but throughout the provinces there must be ten thousand yin-yang diviners who come under the jurisdiction of the Tsuchimikado house. Although they call themselves disciples or followers of the Tsuchimikado, they have in fact never visited that house, nor have they received any secret teachings from them. They simply pay annual dues to branch offices that the Tsuchimikado have set up in different places, receive talismans from them, and make a living by distributing those. They do not know the procedures of that house, and each diviner has his own methods. Some use the Book of Changes, some the calendar, some perform Shinto purifications, and some even secretly engage in Buddhist prayer rites, or they employ foxes and tanuki.6 By all these means they make uncanny pronouncements, deceive people, and steal their money. Just like the Shirakawa and Yoshida houses of shrine priests, the Tsuchimikado hand out talismans to “disciples” or people under their jurisdiction throughout the land, but in fact they do not even know the faces of those “disciples.” They have no idea whether they are of good or bad pedigree or what kind of methods they use; they merely collect annual dues from them. These are livelihoods based on mutual greed.
Nowadays there are many who are rich and many who are poor, many who thrive and many who suffer from illness. The world is full of greed, cruelty, theft, and other evils. Because there is so much crime and ignorance, yin-yang divination and fortune-telling are much in demand, and there are many who want to join the Tsuchimikado. I am told that their annual income has doubled year by year.
The fees charged for yin-yang fortune-telling vary. Those who offer their services on street corners charge anything from twenty-four coppers and up. Depending on the service and the customer, they will swindle their victims for as large an amount as possible, without any limitation. The Way of yin and yang was originally an aid to government, but nowadays it has become entangled in greed and brings the people nothing but harm. Among those who engage in it are rōnin, dropout monks, Confucians-turned-physicians, and others who have failed in their house profession and lost their livelihoods. They are all dissolute scoundrels who have no scruples in swindling others with clever lies.
Would Heaven reveal its verdict to the likes of these people who consult it out of greed? Of course, Heaven may well divulge something about someone’s immediate fortunes, since the yin-yang methods go back to ancient worthies of the most sacred virtue; but Heaven’s eternal verdict will never be won in this fashion. Naturally, this is true not only of fortune-telling but also of Shinto purification and Buddhist prayer rites. Rituals that are performed for fees do not move the gods and buddhas, let alone the Way of Heaven. After all, a prostitute will not give you sons, either. The buddhas and gods will simply ignore rituals that are inspired by greed. In our age both the Way of the Confucian sages and the Way of buddhas and gods have fallen to the ground and become smeared with dirt. No auspicious signs reveal themselves, and the mysterious will of Heaven is no longer made apparent.
Let me illustrate this. Once there was a mountain ascetic who performed various kinds of magic. It is said that he was able to free himself even if his body was tightly bound with a rope. In the end, however, he was suspected of a crime, arrested, and put in prison. He complained about his misfortune to a fox of high rank that he had employed to do his magic. Angrily he said to the fox, “You have always let me foresee the misfortunes of others, but you have never given me any inkling that I would end up like this myself. And you have always freed me with that method of yours, even when I was bound with many ropes. It is strange indeed that that method has ceased to work just now, when I am in this fix!” The fox replied, “You would have been arrested many times before if I hadn’t intervened, but this time it can’t be helped. Before, something of your Heaven-endowed sincerity remained, and it seems that your fate had not yet run its course. But you have deceived tens of people with your tricks, and every time you deceived someone, some of your sincerity was lost. Now your fate has indeed expired. This is the retribution for many years of crimes. Heaven’s wrath has built up and now it has struck you down in one blow. There is no escape any longer. We cannot fathom the verdict of Heaven; it is frightful indeed!” In truth, if something is to be feared, it is Heaven’s verdict.
What makes us ignore Heaven’s verdict is arrogance and greed. In our day, yin-yang diviners turn their backs on the gods and buddhas and disturb the Way of Heaven out of arrogance and greed. They consult Heaven at will by performing divination, fortune-telling, feng shui, face reading, avoidance rites for unlucky directions, and other protective rites; but they merely seek to confuse others, and none of them truly and honestly fear the verdict of Heaven. As a result, tens of thousands of yin-yang diviners and mountain ascetics are now preying on the people, throwing the land into confusion.
Many in the world suffer defects in their five extremities, but the first among cripples are the blind. Despised by Heaven, they are ignorant of the brightness of the sun, moon, and stars and are unable to see the faces of their father and mother. No creatures among the birds and beasts, or even among fish, reptiles, and insects, lack eyes, and none among them are blind. Yet for some reason there are many blind people among humans. Perhaps this is because of the fickleness of human disposition.
When we examine the disposition of the blind, we find that they are invariably stubborn, selfish, and, most notably, cruel. They are driven by the desire to deceive and swindle people and are completely unable to take an interest in others’ concerns. They do not believe in others’ sincerity and suspect all honesty to be a deceit designed to trick—for ill doers are ill deemers. Have they become so suspicious and selfish because they cannot see? I cannot believe that this is the case. Normal people who are cruel and stubborn also lose their eyesight when they reach middle age. Thus it would seem that these are people whose disposition has lost all integrity and who have suffered Heaven’s ultimate punishment as a result.
It therefore defies belief that the blind can obtain official rank and appointments.7 People who, unable to receive the light of the sun and moon, are inferior even to birds, beasts, fish, and reptiles, are received in audience by the emperor and share sake with him.8 Cripples who have suffered the ultimate heavenly punishment for their fickleness attend audiences with the shogun and receive gifts. These are truly disgraceful scenes to behold. How is it that persons who are of no use to the state and of no benefit to others, who waste the resources of the world and are a true burden, reach high rank, receive the favor of the realm and the state, and live in extreme comfort?
How the Blind Came to Hold Official Rank and Appointments
When I asked someone this question, he replied that there are profound reasons for these appointments. The [blind guild] ranks of kōtō and kengyō originated with Prince Saneyasu [831–872].9 This prince, who was the younger brother of Emperor Kōkō and fourth son of the fifty-fourth emperor, Ninmyō, and who resided in Yamashina to the east of the capital, became blind in both eyes at the age of twenty-eight.10 Thereupon he took Buddhist orders and shaved his head, assuming the dharma name of Hōshō Zenji. He had long had a liking for poetry, song, and music, and after going blind he spent all his time playing the flute and the biwa lute. Looking for company, he gathered those blind persons living in the vicinity of the home provinces who were well connected and pure, and together with them he played the four-stringed biwa and the flute, performing saibara songs and the like.11 Prince Saneyasu held several house lands in the provinces of Ōsumi, Satsuma, and Hyūga. He asked Emperor Seiwa [r. 858–876] for permission to donate a portion of the rice taxes from those lands to his blind companions; the emperor responded that he should do as he wished in this regard. From that time, the blind flocked to the port of Toba in Yamashiro province every year when the rice tax was shipped in. Singing a song called “Pulling the Ropes,” they would cheer the workers on as they pulled the boats upstream into the port,12 bless them, and receive a portion of the rice. Even today, it is said, the blind guild has ceremonies called Rowing in the Boats, Stupas of the Two Seasons, and Pulling the Ropes. These ceremonies are performed in the middle of the second month of spring.13
Saneyasu died at the age of forty-two. His mother, the empress dowager, remembering how things had been while he was alive, requested the emperor to grant imperial appointments to the blind persons whom the prince had gathered from neighboring provinces and who had attended on him night and day. This, she proposed, would be an act of piety that would honor his memory for all time and at the same time bestow great beneficence on the blind. Having considered her request, the emperor issued a proclamation granting the blind the title kōtō. This was in origin [a type of attendant], an office for women.
To show their gratitude for the favor received from the state thanks to their relationship with Prince Saneyasu, these blind people holding the title kōtō gathered every year at the Yamashina riverside in Kyoto. They gathered stones and piled them up into stupas, recited the ten-thousandvolume Heart Sutra, and gave thanks to the imperial house, the gods, and the state. They played the biwa, sang saibara songs, and performed rites praying that the realm might prosper and be at peace as long as Heaven and Earth endure. This ceremony is nowadays held at the Shijō waterfront in Kyoto in the middle of the sixth month; it is a most splendorous display. After this, the times changed and the practice of donating a portion of the rice tax [from certain lands to the blind] ceased. They say that the eighty-sixth emperor, Shijō [r. 1231–1242], took mercy on the blind and distributed among them eleven different kinds of products paid in tribute from the provinces. Purportedly, this happened because the youngest son of the regent Fujiwara no Michiie [1193–1252], Shōbutsu, who served as the kengyō [in other words, the chief administrator] on Mount Hiei and also held the title of zatō, went blind in middle age.14
On Mount Hiei, there were a zasu and a zatō. The zasu [who acted as abbot of the entire temple complex] was an imperial prince of the highest rank; the zatō served as the kengyō. Zatō was an extremely important position in the temple complex on this mountain. There was only one kengyō on Mount Hiei and one on Mount Kōya. However, after this Shōbutsu had become the leader of the blind, the titles kengyō and zatō came to be used as important ranks within the blind guild, and they disappeared from Mount Hiei. Today, the title kengyō is retained [in a temple context] only on Mount Kōya. On that mountain, an assembly consisting of the thirty most distinguished scholar-monks is selected from the more than one thousand scholar-monks residing there. Seven monks from these thirty are selected as what are termed men of learning; two out of these seven are granted the title “manager.” One of these two is specially honored by being awarded the title kengyō. Only those who have exerted themselves in the dharma over many years, those who are selected by the Buddha’s mysterious will, can attain the heights of this position. All others fall by the wayside before reaching this point. On Mount Hiei, too, there must have been a similar procedure.
That these positions have come to be ranks and titles of the blind is truly deplorable. By seizing the moment and relying on Michiie’s authority, the blind adventitiously were able to secure prestigious appointments and to be recognized as entitled to the granting of rations from the realm. Later four titles [came to be associated with the blind as a hierarchy of ranks within the guild]: zatō, kōtō, bettō, and kengyō. Gradually these titles were subdivided even further, and today there are seventeen ranks between zatō and kengyō. Measured from its starting point, the career path of the blind is divided into seventy-one gradations.15 As a result of this, the blind have come to compete with one another over promotions, and they exhaust themselves in sumptuousness. How regrettable! The love and pity that the empress dowager and the regent Michiie felt for their sons, and the acts of pious charity they carried out on their behalf, gave rise to an evil that has plagued the realm and state ever since. When such people treat matters of the realm as a private affair, it will harm the realm for ages to come. In China, it is said, there are no court offices or ranks for the blind. That is how it should be.
The Way of government should be based on the people’s hearts in all things, and it should take its lead from the people’s wishes; otherwise, events will occur that damage the interest of the state, violate the Way of Heaven, and harm the Way of man. Although monks who follow Śākyamuni should, in principle, serve as a support for the state by using the Way of encouraging good and punishing evil so as to instruct the world, those blind people are a different matter altogether. There may well be good reasons for granting official rank and title [to monks], but as we have already seen, even in such cases such grants cause them to take pride in sumptuous spending and ignore their all-important duties toward the dharma. Court titles and ranks are a means of leading people to extravagance, a poison that destroys people and wastes the world’s resources—that fact applies not only to monks or to the blind.16
[For a while] the blind enjoyed the circumstances described above, but with the passage of time, the court’s authority waned, and as the world descended into chaos, eventually it became destitute. As a result, handouts to the blind ceased, and they could no longer depend upon promotions. Even in these times of chaos, some blind people who were close to the sources of power displayed extraordinary pride. One was Kakubu, holder of the title kengyō and a nephew of Ashikaga Takauji’s; he owned an estate in Akashi and was called Lord Akashi for that reason.17 Run-of-the-mill zatō, however, who had no connections with the high and mighty, roamed the roads, enduring the pangs of hunger and suffering from the cold. When the present Tokugawa reign began, they were once more granted the boons of benevolent government. They were allowed to make a living by receiving donations of rice and coins from households throughout the land, from daimyo on down, whenever these houses conduct marriages and funerals. These gifts are known as “distributions” because they are meant to be distributed to all the members of the guild.18 This arrangement is indeed an expression of the shogunate’s benevolent compassion.
Naturally the shogunate does not grant the blind rations taken from the realm’s tax resources, as in earlier times. In those times, in fact, only the blind in the five home provinces close to the capital appear to have received donations of rice and of products paid in tribute from the provinces. Further, the largesse seems to have been limited to those blind people who were of good pedigree and pure background. The Divine Lord decided that all the blind people of Japan, without exception, should receive such blessings equally. But because the blind were not awarded rations by the state, this was not an act of favoritism. Also, since it was left up to individual households how much to give, donations were founded upon mutual sincerity, and neither giver nor recipient had reason to be resentful.
This example in itself shows that the Divine Lord did not treat matters of the realm and state as a private affair. I have been told that in the Ashikaga years, the shogunal house singled out such blind persons as Lord Akashi, or the [leaders of the] Ichikata and Yasaka biwa schools, for great stipends.19 [Apart from such partial treatment shown to blind people] even famous and wise generals would at times heap praise on one or two favorites and grant them large stipends, but they did not extend their largesse to all in the realm. In a similar manner Lord Toyotomi Hideyoshi awarded a stipend of one hundred thousand koku to Ekei of Ankokuji and three thousand koku to Sen no Rikyū.20 There were many examples of partiality of this sort. But under the rule of the present Tokugawa house, I have yet to hear of a single great stipend having been awarded on the basis of private affection. Even modest stipends were granted with the interests of the realm and the state in mind. Therefore, none except warriors received large stipends. The Divine Lord employed many nonwarriors with expertise in different areas—such as the monk Tenkai of Nankōbō, the Rinzai senior priest Sūden of Konchiin, and Hayashi Razan—but he granted none of them large stipends.21 Blind persons, especially, are of no use to the realm and the state, so it is most admirable that he did not provide them with rations paid out of state coffers.
The blind, then, were allowed to go begging for alms from the warrior houses as well as the houses of farmers and townspeople. Others visited daimyo and high-ranking bannermen to perform music or give massage and acupuncture treatments, for which they received recompense. Some were allowed to obtain title and rank from the court and attained the ranks of kōtō or kengyō. In the Kan’ei years, however, a zatō called Sugiyama, who was highly skilled in acupuncture, found himself treating the third shogun, Lord Iemitsu, and received extraordinary favors.22 He was given a high status and his son was taken into shogunal service as a bannerman. Since that time, members of the blind guild have improved their standing and gained in authority. Holders of the titles of kengyō and kōtō were treated as having audience-rank status. Despite being cripples, they have come to imagine themselves the equals of bannermen and brag of their status and look down on ordinary people. Thanks to the merits of this one zatō Sugiyama, those blind persons who made their way through life depending on the largesse of farmers and townspeople have quite by accident won the beneficence of the authorities, and now they have come to despise those same farmers and townspeople. Thus, the world is turned upside down.
The Blind and Money Lending
When the blind received the court’s beneficence for having served Prince Saneyasu through the Way of flutes and strings, and when Sugiyama obtained the shogun’s beneficence because of his skill in acupuncture, they at least kept to their proper specialty. To obtain rank and title for one’s accomplishments in music or acupuncture can perhaps be said to be justifiable. However, the zatō of today are different. They habitually act outrageously and are cowardly in the extreme. Let me give a rough description of them.
The zatō of today first of all lend what they call their “rank funds” to the poor at high interest.23 They take 10 or 20 percent interest, plus another 10 or 20 percent in so-called service charges. When they lend out a certain sum, they subtract the interest and the service charges from the basic amount. They make the contract as being for a deposit without interest. If a borrower fails to meet the deadline for repayment, they use the authority of that deposit contract to collect the loan.24 They extort money through all sorts of other greedy and dishonest practices as well. For instance, they make loans for a term of only three or four months, and if someone proves unable to repay within that period, they rewrite the contract into a new loan. Every time they do this they levy new service charges. By charging “added months,” they turn one month’s interest into that of two or three,25 or they require repayment in monthly or daily installments. Thus, borrowers are dragged down by interest payments, service charges, and “added months,” and within a year, the cost of their original loan has doubled.
When the blind use such greedy and dishonest practices to attain their rank and position, they see this as quite in line with today’s normal custom. Nowadays, when a blind person enters the association of zatō it will cost him 10 ryō to acquire the lowest grade of han-orikake [literally, “half a fold”]. After this, the amount steadily increases. The position of kōtō costs 500 ryō and that of kengyō 1,000 ryō. In today’s world, all things depend on money. If one only puts out the stipulated amount, there is no need to advance step-by-step through all the 16 ranks and 72 gradations; one can obtain the rank of kōtō in one go, or that of kengyō overnight. That is why the blind always act with greed and dishonesty, and why they regard the robbing of others as an admirable skill. A kengyō of my acquaintance began his career by loaning out a mere 2 bu of gold. Within 10 years he had become a kengyō, and after 15 years there were 2 kōtō among his apprentices—and in addition he had outstanding loans of 5,000 ryō. The same goes for all the others. If there is a blind person somewhere who is not greedy and dishonest, he will fall behind. They say that there are 300 or 400 kōtō in Japan today, and 120 to 130 kengyō. Out of those 120 to 130, some 80 live in Edo. This goes to show the splendor of this city, and it demonstrates the extent to which the Way of robbery thrives here.
Of course, there are today also blind persons who teach the koto, samisen, or kokyū,26 or who only practice acupuncture. It is not easy to amass a great fortune by pursuing those arts, though. To be sure, the arts of amusement thrive in our time and the income to be made from pupils is considerable. The teachers take special high fees for certifying their pupils as being “registered performers,” “certified performers,” or “fully initiated performers.” In addition, they ingratiate themselves with persons of high status and rank, men of leisure, and the rich and serve as their companions in play. They receive clothing and money from them and gain fortunes such as a sighted person could never earn by honest work. Even so, their earnings cannot be compared to the profits made by money lending.
Moreover, to reach the point where one can instruct others in the arts requires great effort, teaching itself takes much energy, and innate talent naturally varies in degree. The Way of the moneylender, however, requires no particular training and the question of talent is irrelevant. It is enough to let loose one’s greed and dishonesty and to indulge in one’s own desire without any concern for others; anyone can do it. Therefore, eight or nine out of ten blind people put the arts to the side and gravitate toward money lending.
Blind people from the provinces who have come to the city looking for prosperity, dressed in dirty rags, with no more than their blindman’s stick to their name, may work hard for a while as masseurs and acupuncturists, but as soon as they have saved a small amount of capital, even they begin to lend it out. They stop doing hard work and turn bad. [Instead of working garb] they begin to wear the kind of robes worn by a man of leisure,27 they scold and threaten people, and they rob the world. At present in Edo there are more than 3,700 such persons, it is said. In addition, there are many blind people who do not join the zatō association and who are not registered in the books of the guild superintendent’s office.28 Some 3,000 of those 3,700 are moneylenders, evil people full of greed and dishonesty. One might expect that those who have risen to the rank of kōtō or kengyō would no longer desire money, but in fact their greed never ends.
The Cruelty of the Blind
In general, the blind are cripples also when it comes to human feelings. They are insensitive to the situation of those who are cornered by poverty, and they refuse to compromise if even a penny they are owed is missing. When sighted people meet face-to-face, they naturally feel empathy for each other. They cannot simply hold to reason and press their own advantage regardless. Because the blind lack the sense of empathy that comes from seeing another’s face, they will not give an inch as regards their own reasoning, and they do not hesitate to heap shame on others. It is most convenient for them not to be able to see.
Let me give a few examples of their lack of feelings, their greed, and their cruel dishonesty. When a warrior debtor lags behind with his payments, they will go right into his entrance hall and state their claims there and then in a loud voice, without any concern for appearances. This is known as a “sitting-firm claim” or an “insistent claim.” If the debtor is a townsman, they will revile him and shower him with abuse while making sure that the neighbors hear it all. Since it is the debtor who is in the wrong, he can say nothing in return, however the lender may berate him. If he talks back he will only cause the lender to become even more vehement, so he has no choice but to nod and bow. He cannot tie up the lender even if the latter makes a scene. The lender takes that into calculation in presenting his case as forcefully as possible. If the debtor so much as touches the lender, the lender will make an immense fuss and accuse him of causing bodily harm. The lender will trumpet his official guild status and make a complaint.
To be sure, not only the blind but all the usurers and dealers in daily-installment loans that flourish so today behave in this way,29 using all sorts of means to browbeat their debtors. But those who are sighted possess at least some degree of human feeling, and they are not quite so bad; they leave some room for compromise. The blind, however, make no allowances for saving one’s face. Concerned for his reputation, the debtor will pay up even if he has to skip a meal or strip the clothes from the aged or the small children in his household [so as to pawn them]. If nothing works and the debtor fails to pay, the lender will file a complaint with someone with influence over the debtor just as if he were a thief or a swindler: the debtor’s supervisor if he is a warrior, or his landlord if he is a townsman.30
For a rear vassal, in particular, an affair of this kind is sure to bring him shame if it reaches the ears of his domain’s Edo representative, inspectors, or especially the domain elders. Indeed, since everyone regards the rank funds lent out by the blind as something special, it may well lead to his being placed on restricted service or even, depending on the house customs, dismissal. Among the weak of heart, some cannot bear the shame and abscond. In such cases the debtor’s family, too, will fall permanently into dire straits.31 Of course, it is a very dangerous matter to borrow such troublesome money, but sometimes one has no other choice and ends up doing so despite knowing that loans of this kind are poisonous. Such may happen if a person who is already impoverished confronts a pressing need—for example, he may have to care for his parents or find himself unable to equip himself properly to perform his service for his lord. Even townspeople who are barely scraping by may fall ill or suffer other calamities and have to borrow money when their capital runs out and they are unable to carry out the day’s business. Nowadays many among both warriors and townspeople are poor. As a result, there are many moneylenders, and the numbers of kōtō and kengyō, with their special talent for cruel dishonesty, have increased greatly. From these examples we can know [just how unfeeling and greedy the blind are].
The Arrogance of the Blind
The blind of today engage in acts of greed and dishonesty, feast off tens of thousands of people, rise to the high ranks of kōtō and kengyō, and pride themselves on their luxury and comfortable lives of ease. Having attained a status equivalent to audience rank, they arrange matches for themselves and their daughters with bannermen of good family and indulge in the pleasures of life with their wives and concubines. They have apprentices and hire clerks, turn their sons into shogunal housemen, or adopt a son if they have none of their own. In many cases they purchase for these sons positions as supervising officers. Among shogunal housemen, such an officer has the rank of a mounted samurai, and to acquire such a position is no light matter.32 When these kengyō and kōtō go out in public, they go by palanquin, accompanied by men-atarms and footmen and by retainers holding long pikes and spears and staffs decorated with silver. This makes for an imposing procession. It is beyond the pale for a monastic official, let alone a blind person, to be attended by samurai carrying spears in this manner. This is appropriate only for those who carry out the work of the realm and the state and who may be called upon to perform military tasks. In what way do these blind persons make themselves useful to the state, let alone perform military tasks? Will they wave those spears about “blindly” in case of a military emergency? A sickening thought indeed.
The Divine Lord also allowed komusō mendicants to perform their practice of wandering from place to place playing the flute and laid down a number of regulations in that regard. I have heard that he stipulated that priests of this sort can also be used for military purposes and that, depending on their qualities, they can even rise to the status of housemen.33 Regarding these priests, then, he made strict regulations, but he did not do so for zatō, [indicating that he did not intend for them ever to obtain military positions]. The Divine Lord’s wisdom in not allowing private concerns to intrude upon matters of state is truly impressive.
But nowadays, the zatō boast of their court ranks and titles, pride themselves over the treatment they receive from the shogunate, and, on top of that, arrogantly wield the might bestowed by money; the likes of those mendicants are in no way their match. Those who should serve as housemen no longer can, while those who should not serve as housemen do. Thus we know that the intent of the Divine Lord’s regulations [has been lost], and things today are the reverse of what they were of old. While the sons of townspeople and farmers cannot become housemen, the sons of the cripples who receive alms from those townspeople and farmers can. Clearly, something is awry.
At first, the blind gathered in the port of Toba and received donations of rice by singing songs about workers “pulling the ropes,” and they built little pagodas of small stones in gratitude for the charity they received from the state; soon, though, they lost such privileges, and as the world descended into chaos, donations and handouts of provincial products ceased, so that they were reduced to roaming the roads. Nowadays they have forgotten about all this and devote themselves to avarice and dishonesty. They defile high-ranking titles with their impure money and live in luxury in a manner that ill befits cripples. At shogunal memorial services they receive alms in the same manner as outcasts and beggars, and even though they belong to a status group that begs alms from townspeople and farmers, they look down on them. All this is most improper. How outrageous that cripples who are a burden on others and of no use whatsoever to the realm and the state should enjoy such circumstances!
As I mentioned above, the position of kengyō is a most elevated one both on Mount Hiei and on Mount Kōya, and even though the monastic Way has collapsed in our age, it is not easy to gain promotion to such a post. It is a position that only one in several thousands can attain. It is most puzzling that nowadays so many among the blind have this elevated rank. That it is all the easier for them to attain it if they act with greed and dishonesty is an evil too great even for this age. Surely it would be enough for the blind to make do by begging for alms from households that are holding weddings and funerals, as stipulated in the regulations issued at the beginning of the Tokugawa reign.
On the other hand, the present manner in which the blind collect alms from townspeople door-to-door throughout the land is extremely improper. Using their shogunal authorization as a shield, they have become haughty and arrogant. When they reckon that the alms they receive are insufficient, they loudly complain and demand more. If they do not get what they want, they come back time and again, or they gather a large gang and cause trouble until they succeed in extorting an additional sum. It is the day’s custom among the baseborn that those who have an official authorization of even the flimsiest kind use it to intimidate and rob others. If those zatō would ask for compassion with true sincerity, visiting houses to offer congratulations at happy occasions and condolences at unhappy ones, people would surely give them a suitable amount as alms, since everybody knows that this is based on an established shogunal ruling. Because they extract donations as if they were taking what belongs to them, people become resentful, and thus they receive …34 after mutual feelings have turned sour.
The obligations that define the relationship of donor and receiver can never be done away with completely. On their side, the zatō thus can never win total dominance. At the same time, townspeople and farmers will in the end put up with zatō doings, making allowances because they are blind. Townspeople and farmers cannot know whose children will turn out to be blind next, and because their relationship may be reversed at some point, it is only appropriate that they should give handouts whenever possible. In truth, this one provision concerning alms suffices to show that the benevolent government established at the beginning of the reign of this house has extended throughout the realm and state, and that the rectitude of its measures remains unchanged even to this day.
The distributions allocated to the blind through this provision are quite sufficient in themselves, and appointments of rank and title should be limited to [monks who serve as] kengyō in the true sense. As mentioned above, the practice of giving such appointments to the blind was begun for no substantial reason, and it is not in accord with the principles of the realm and the state. Because the blind have secured a path to rank and title that is contrary to these principles, their greed intensifies and they engage in unlawful practices of cruel dishonesty. If it proves difficult to terminate such appointments, the blind should once more devote themselves to the arts of music or to acupuncture and the like, and, as was originally the case, seek promotion on the basis of their merits in those areas. At the very least, they must heed the demands of the monastic Way and stop their greedy harassment of others with the cry of “rank funds.” Nowadays, court ranks are not granted as a reward for virtue; they are all bought and sold. That is why matters have come to this. I will say more on the necessity for reform elsewhere.
In today’s world lawsuits are so numerous that they may well come to ten times what was typical in the Genroku-Kyōhō period. In the past, Lord Itakura Katsushige is said to have heard lawsuits while grinding tea.35 It was a leisurely activity. He in fact seems to have stopped appearing at the magistrate’s office. Compared with the time of Lord Itakura, there surely must have been ten times as many lawsuits in the Genroku-Kyōhō period. And now the number has increased by ten times as many again. This is because the general increase in today’s world of those who are crooked and deceptive means that people below have become ever more practiced in cheating their superiors, and they think nothing of appearing in court.
To be sure, in the present world the number of disputed matters is infinite, and one wonders whether even one out of a thousand such disputes reaches the courts. They do not because people begrudge the cost and time. It used to be that those with immediate jurisdiction over the parties concerned would themselves take the initiative to investigate matters, but now, on the pretext that “this is a matter for the shogunal authorities,” they turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to anything that does not become openly known. And even with things that do become known, they deal as perfunctorily as they can. Only one in a thousand of the pleas that might be brought by those below reaches the court, and officials deal as summarily as possible with things they should investigate; and yet, in spite of all this, the number of lawsuits is ten times what it was in the Genroku-Kyōhō period.
Lawsuits as a Means for Pursuing Greed and Desire
The reasons for lawsuits, too, are quite different from what they were a hundred years ago. In the past people used to argue fiercely over disputes having to do with moral obligations, but people today care nothing for matters of moral principle. All they fight over is profit, loss, and greed. But people today, as I have said above, are profoundly knowledgeable when it comes to perpetrating wrong, and they cunningly conceal their own desires twice, thrice over. Consequently it is difficult to quickly sort out good from bad and right from wrong, and investigating a case takes time and effort.
Lord Ōoka Tadasuke, the town magistrate in the Kyōhō period, is famous today as a wise person.36 From what I have heard about his approach to handling lawsuits, the people of that time were not yet so driven by desire. It was only about that time that cases growing out of desire began to occur. Cases revolving around moral obligation thus made up the major part of those Ōoka dealt with, and such cases were easy to judge. Even when the matter concerned greed or machinations, the deviousness was quite elementary, and so it was easy to sort out right from wrong. And since people were not so stubborn in the pursuit of their desires, it seems that black and white instantly became apparent if only the judge raised his voice and scolded the parties loudly. Since people held authority in great awe and deep inside still had much uprightness, they were quick to confess.
From the time the current house came to rule the realm until the Genroku-Kyōhō period, it seems that down even to the most lowly, people understood moral obligation, they deemed desires to be shameful, and they did not make a point of trying to trick others. Starting in the Genroku-Kyōhō period people began to be devious in the pursuit of greed, and in the one hundred years since then, the taste for luxury has steadily increased and people have grown ever more greedy. As a consequence people have become ever more practiced in deceit, until, as at present, they mutually cheat and plot to trick one another.
As for lawsuits at the present time, people try to steal from others as much as their own skills allow, and they turn to lawsuits to achieve what they cannot obtain by relying solely on their own skills. Thus from the very start, the plaintiff prepares a statement of the case that is full of lies, saying whatever he pleases to make an immense fuss out of something slight. The defendant does likewise, making up his own lies to answer the charges brought by the plaintiff. Today this has become the usual way of doing things, and although these lies become apparent at the hearing where the two parties confront each other, the judge does not castigate them for perpetrating such deceit. Because lawsuits have become so numerous, were the judges to scold the parties about such details, they would not be able to take care of them all. But since the judges then let such deceptions go, those who become parties to a lawsuit are convinced that to lie is the best strategy, and they do their best to brazen through. As a consequence, those who come out on top at the time of the hearing are the strongest wrongdoers and those who are most skilled at telling a good story.
Since people have become ever more cunning, they grasp the direction in which the trial is developing and can see the intent behind the investigating officials’ questions. Not being at all in awe of authority, they merely seek to bend it to their own ends. And since matters of desire that in the past would have been thought shameful are today seen as something ordinary, they are not in the least embarrassed about them. Instead, they stubbornly hold their ground and skillfully devise all sorts of fabrications. As a consequence it becomes difficult to tell what is true and what is false. It even happens that in a case of adultery, duplicity lies more with the husband than the adulterer, while in cases of cheating or deception, the true plotter may be the one seemingly cheated rather than the purported cheater. The trial is thus difficult to handle, and in some instances a wrong decision is handed down.
Private Settlements
Under these circumstances, today even lawsuits that appear to concern moral principle, in the vast majority of instances boil down to being about loans and debts and profit and loss. When things are sorted out, one finds that one was wrong in one’s initial impression that this party was good and that party bad. Since ultimately each side is driven by greed in equal measure, it is impossible to make a clear distinction between good and bad or to make a decision in favor of one or the other. In many instances, part way through the hearings, the presiding officials thus urge the parties to come to a private settlement.37 This is the common custom in the world today.
When things come to a private settlement, the two parties—plaintiff and defendant—come together and discuss the matter at issue themselves face-to-face. In this situation the one who is more clever and whose desire is the more intense has the advantage, while the one whose greed is more shallow and who is less devious loses out. Although the headmen and members of the five-household group [of the respective parties] or a go-between take part in the proceedings, they let the stubborn and selfish one, who digs in his heels and refuses to compromise, get his way. Prevailing upon the good-natured or timid party to be understanding, they wear him down with various arguments and resolve the matter by convincing him to put up with the situation. Thus the cunning calculate just how the suit and the private settlement will take shape, and in the end the one whose greed is stronger wins the day.
One hundred years ago the authorities would not have allowed such unreasonable behavior to pass, and the go-betweens, too, would have despised such evil and would not have given in to stubbornness. At the present time, though, those above and below are alike lacking in sincerity and readily give in. Consequently those who employ stubbornness and glibness to the full always win. And once they have won, all the world praises them as clever and skillful, so that stubbornness and glibness grow ever more rampant.
At present, even matters that come to a lawsuit cannot be easily resolved in court; most end up in a private settlement, without the right of the matter being resolved. Beyond that, since the hearings take an inordinate amount of time, the parties cannot easily set aside their regular work and cover the expenses of going to court. In current practice the costs attendant on being involved in a lawsuit are great. You have to provide the headman, monthly representative of the five-household group, and such who accompany you to the magistrate’s office with an allowance for lunch, and then, on the way back, it is customary to invite them to stop at a restaurant and to entertain them with drink and food. Once the suit is finished, all those concerned have to be thanked, whether you have won or lost. Should you win the suit and gain a substantial benefit, you have to be lavish with your thanks, whether spontaneously or not. Whichever, the costs will be great. And, as I said above, if it comes to a private settlement, the end result will depend solely on the relative skill of the two parties. Since there is thus no point in going to court, people do not easily decide to bring suit.
If nevertheless, despite all this, you end up in the single situation out of a thousand where there is no choice but to bring a suit, the cost will be great and so will be the time required. Further, in the end the moral principle of the matter will not be clarified. Consequently many lowly people do not resort to an official hearing and simply try to settle the matter among themselves. But then the results are even more scandalous. Thus in the world today moral obligations steadily disintegrate. When people do resort to the courts, it turns out that the officials in charge of the investigation have to deal with far too many cases for them to manage, and when the right and wrong of the matter cannot be decided immediately, expenses pile up. Since the matter is not one that calls for a rigorous trial but is simply one of mutual greed, in the officials’ eyes the only choice is to get the parties to reach a private settlement. While the negotiations for the private settlement are going on, the officials are kept busy trying to sweet-talk and cajole the parties just as if they were the intermediaries between them. They thus grow tired of the matter, and even if there are errors in what is worked out as the private settlement, they pretend not to have seen or heard and just let things go as they are. Compared with how matters were handled in the old days, it is a weak-kneed approach indeed.
There is, to be sure, a reason why at present only one case in a hundred reaches a clear judgment and the rest end up being relegated to the twists and turns of a private settlement. As I have said before, people’s dispositions today are totally different from what they were in the past. The matters that come to a lawsuit today of course reflect the temper of the time, which means that if one were to apply to them the procedures of the past, not a single matter would be met with mercy, and no one could escape being convicted. But that would be a totally unmanageable state of affairs. If, as in the present weak-kneed fashion, one simply lets things work out in their own crooked fashion, it will not be necessary to convict anyone, the damage suffered will be slight, and all can be smoothed over. Thus officials choose to take the easy course to get through the day at hand and ignore the obfuscation of moral obligation and the law. It is indeed difficult to run counter to the trends of the times!
In this way, even in the shogunal courts, reaching a judgment on the basis of moral principle is put aside and things are bent and twisted. Their eyes on the convenience of the moment, officials make do by putting things in a superficial order, thereby bypassing an immediate difficulty and getting through the day at hand. Quite naturally this has an influence on the world at large, and moral principle sinks into obscurity as something that is believed to be of no use. Simply to do as one pleases without any concern for others becomes the normal thing to do. Concern for others disintegrates from above as well as below, with all alike becoming disingenuous. The laws and institutions promulgated in the past cannot serve as the fixed standard for the present world.
Warriors’ Disadvantage
At present the practice of private settlement is not applied in lawsuits involving warriors. Since the old standards are applied, without twisting or bending moral obligation or changing a single word or phrase, should a warrior become involved in a lawsuit, he ends by losing his status. Even if it concerns a minor matter that could have been easily resolved, it inevitably turns into a lifelong blemish. In the case of townspeople and farmers, even if they engage in deception, they are simply scolded, and the matter ends there. And because they are directed in various ways to reach a private settlement, no one is declared in the wrong, and the matter is settled on the spot. For warriors, who give priority to moral obligation and despise expediency, the present state of affairs is most disadvantageous, while for the lower classes, who give priority to expediency and are not bothered by shame, it is highly beneficial. In the past someone [of lowly status] would never sue a warrior and bring him to court. Even today, it is said, this never happens in the provinces. Of course, if a warrior abuses a townsman or farmer, he may come under investigation from above, but never do those below sue warriors. This is how it should be. In Edo, on the other hand, it is easy to bring a suit against a warrior. Consequently people do so without hesitation, making a big fuss out of something small.
Warriors are supposed to be not in the least lacking in their attention to rectitude and proper etiquette in their relations with others, not in the least caught up in greed. The reverse applies to townspeople; they are not expected to know anything of rectitude and etiquette, while avarice goes with what they are. When a warrior puts out his elbows and insists that something is a matter of rectitude, none of them will agree; rather they will say, “Now that is being obstinate, so out of touch with the times!” and put him to shame. The greedy calculation of profit dear to townspeople is regarded as splendid and is taken for granted even when it is blatant for all to see.
Take an instance where the warrior is at fault in a matter that bears on [the townsman’s] avarice, while the townsman is at fault in failing to respect proper etiquette and moral obligation. Fault lies with each in equal measure. But even if the warrior complains vociferously about the townsman’s failure to respect proper etiquette and moral obligation, the officials will simply say, “There is reason in what you say, but since he is a townsman, he can hardly be expected to have any sense of etiquette or moral principle. And since he has apologized, you should put up with it and let the matter go.” When things are put to the warrior in this way, there is nothing he can do, and if he continues to stand his ground, he will just seem obstinate and mean-spirited, so he gives up and overlooks what happened. Even if a warrior is humiliated to the point of damaging his reputation, that humiliation cannot be weighed on a scale or calculated in terms of monetary value. If he will simply endure the humiliation, everything will be settled on the spot without any lingering problems. How sad to be a samurai, saddled with the burden of pride! In these circumstances officials simply urge the warrior to put up with humiliation and try to settle the matter without any winner or loser. This is the common practice today. In the past, would not the moral obligation and reputation of the warrior have carried the day? Certainly, moral obligation and reputation are a samurai’s essential capital. How wretched to lose that capital without paying heed to the cost!
Since the townsman’s calculations are based on profit, the amounts involved are all clear, and it is impossible to force him to give up even the slightest sum. The only way to get him to give up his claim would be to prevail upon him to do so as an act of charity. There is no other way. But how could a warrior ask for charity from a townsman? The officials cannot persuade him to seek charity, and indeed it is not something that the townsman would readily grant. Should he in fact go so far as to do so, truly the warrior’s fortune will have run out; he will be obliged to the townsman forever, generation after generation unto eternity. Townspeople have a solid capital that does not disappear and stands solid wherever they go. Everyone today simply recognizes this as a matter of course.
Given this situation, should a warrior be treated with disrespect and a failure to recognize moral obligation, officials will not take action to help him recover his damaged reputation. By and large they will simply ignore the matter. On the other hand, since they cannot ignore the avaricious calculations that are the townsman’s concern, they accept the latter’s assertions. Thus in a situation where each is equally at fault, the warrior is sure to lose and the townsman to win. On nine points out of ten, the warrior may have the better argument, but when the remaining point has to do with avarice, on exactly that point he will lose. In matters that involve even a slight profit, a townsman may well bring about the downfall of a warrior to whom he has long been greatly obliged. The warrior may have shown him a great benefice in the past, but its legacy will not suffice to compensate for his liability, and thus he will lose. At present government officials care nothing for what in the past was held to be moral obligation or a debt of gratitude, not only when it comes to lawsuits involving warriors [but in other matters as well]. It seems that they reach a decision solely on the basis of the calculation of profit and loss.
Townspeople who seek to undertake some profitable activity in exchange for the payment of compensatory fees to the government, or who submit a request to a government office regarding some other project, will offer bribes to the officials concerned or send presents to the official’s retainer who mediates on their behalf. Then, if what they are trying to do does not work out well, they harbor a grudge. They press in various ways those involved or shame them, or they bring a suit in which they claim they have been cheated and turn the retainer to whom they are indebted into a common criminal. Simply because the person to whom they made the request was not able to work things out, they put aside the obligation they owe him, ignore the fact that they were the ones who made the original request, and plot revenge against him—the audacity of it is beyond words!
As regards the relative culpability of the two, the townsman who tried to make use of the retainer and aimed to get an immense profit solely for himself by cheating the world at large is a greedy criminal. The retainer who accepted the bribe and tried to arrange things is a petty miscreant who took advantage of the opportunity. But because he is of a status where not the smallest bribe or act of avarice is acceptable, the retainer is damaged for life. The townsman who is the main perpetrator, on the other hand, gets off quite lightly. Since the matter is brought to formal trial, the retainer cannot say a single false word; he cannot even make an exaggerated claim. If the townsman is found lying, on the other hand, it will only be a matter of being scolded on the spot, and depending on the situation, he may gain by exaggerating his case. [Unless those judging the case] take the warrior’s disadvantage and the townsman’s advantage into account, it will not be possible [to reach a proper decision]. It is indeed most dismaying that at the present time, rectitude, reputation, and shame—the attributes proper to the warrior—carry no weight at all, while avarice and deception—the attributes of the townsman—win out every time.
The concern for rectitude and reputation and distaste for shame fundamental to the warrior are of great importance to the state. Without them one is not a warrior and cannot be of use to the state. To bend and compromise about this point is to lose the state’s core framework. But now, people have ceased to care about even extreme instances of disrespect, denial of moral obligation, loss of reputation, and shame. Should there be warriors with a proper understanding of things, they will not be able to gain a hearing from those in government. Instead, since they are supposed to act as a model for the people of the world, they will simply put up with the situation and try to keep the matter from being generally known. As warriors grow weak in spirit, they frequently lose face. When townspeople meet with the slightest mistreatment or the slightest loss, they will immediately challenge the warriors, spurred on by avarice. Might it not come to their even bringing the warriors down?
Problems in the Handling of Lawsuits and Investigations
At the present time, bribes are a standard accompaniment to the hearing of a lawsuit. Consequently lowly people mistrust those above, and when the case they present results in their receiving a scolding, they are sure that it is because the officials have received a bribe from the other side and are showing that side favor. Unaware of their own faults, they harbor doubts about the officials and enmity toward the other party and become all the more recalcitrant. The scolding they receive fails to correct their behavior, and they become even more stubborn. So long as bribery exists, people will harbor doubts and resentment toward those above and revile the officials. Officials suffer a loss of authority, correct principles are obscured, and evildoers grow ever more rampant.
Lowly people become aroused over a slight matter of moral obligation, or, unable to stand a slight loss, will not listen when officials try to persuade them to understand the situation. The officials then scold and berate them and do not pay any attention to their complaint. However slight the issue or loss, it is important for the person concerned. Thus the officials should just listen carefully to what the person has to say. Even if the investigating officials think the matter is minor, for lowly persons it is major. Because it is something major for them, they have put all their efforts into bringing the suit. Officials should put themselves in the plaintiff’s position and listen to what they have to say. It is not proper for one who serves as a judge to disregard small details because it is tiresome to look into them. A concern for rectitude and scrupulousness shows more in minor matters than major. One needs to put much effort into dealing with the lowborn and obtuse and listen to them patiently and calmly. The officials hearing the matter must set aside their personal interests and make a concerted effort to investigate what such people have to say, taking into account the good and bad in their hearts, their degree of intelligence, their wealth or poverty and status, where the principle of the matter lies, and where things have become entangled.
In presenting their cases, some people are skillful, while others are clumsy; some are bold and others timid; some are pleasant in manner, while others are awkward in appearance and pretentious in manner. Officials do not need to make a particular effort in dealing with those who present their case logically and express themselves skillfully, or with those who are personable. In dealing, however, with those who are not good at expressing themselves or not personable, or who are full of trepidation and do not explain their situation sufficiently, one has to devote special attention to make sure that nothing has been overlooked or failed to be heard. And since there are good people who do not look the part, one should not come to hasty conclusions.
At present lawsuits take a great deal of time and trouble and are costly; moreover, because of bribes, the right of the matter is not clarified. Therefore, people throughout the world today feel that it is better to solve things below, by themselves, and that if they go to the government, they will only suffer a loss. Even if they are robbed or cheated, they keep the matter to themselves, and if they come across a thief, an arsonist, a mugger, or a murderer who is lying low, they pretend to know nothing of it. Or else they hide him or help him flee elsewhere. This happens because people dislike getting involved with the government and shun the cost. It is also because those above and below alike no longer feel antipathy toward evil. At the present time not a few murderers and other lawbreakers have managed to flee into hiding or otherwise escape being brought to justice. Not only do they escape being brought to justice, but also such people without fail end up becoming troublemakers who roam the provinces, doing as they please. At the present time, there has been an immense increase in the number of troublemakers throughout the provinces. Of course, thieves who break into houses, muggers, murderers, and the like are the object of thorough investigation, and those associated with the suspect are ordered to undertake a fixed-term search. But although officials may order a fixed-term search, the recipients of the warrant do not make the least effort to track down the miscreant, and once the term is up, he is simply placed on permanent search.38 The officials responsible for the search have to deal with the new problems that constantly arise, and so they just let the matter slide as an event of the past.
Since the investigative offices of even the shogunal government are in this state, the investigations conducted by daimyo and other fief holders are all the more lax, and they let many miscreants escape. I have heard it said that in the past it was impossible for someone who had committed a serious crime to stay hidden and remain undetected. According to a book by Ogyū Sorai, this was the case in the Genroku period. I have forgotten the book’s name, but it said that at that time a daimyo in Harima had tried but failed to track down a murderer, who had fled the domain. The daimyo thus appealed to the shogunal government, and a description of the person was circulated, but even then he was not found. The account made it seem as if such a failure was very unusual.39 At that time, for any case as serious as murder, it was customary for the shogunal government to circulate a description of the suspect. And once the person being hunted was found in such-and-such province and place, a second order would be circulated, canceling the first and announcing that there was no need to search further. There were no instances, it is said, where such a search did not turn up the criminal. There is a saying that one cannot escape Heaven’s net, and in fear and trembling people referred to a shogunal government search as “Heaven’s net.”40
At the present time, notices are sent out only for particularly heinous crimes such as the murder of one’s master or parent, and no description of those who have committed other crimes is circulated. According to what a certain old-timer has said, even in the case of the murder of a master or parent, often notices are not sent out, and it is rare to have a search canceled because the culprit has been found. As this suggests, at present it is quite easy to escape Heaven’s net, and wrongdoers go through the world as they like, committing all sorts of offenses. Even in the provinces and countryside, the old rules grow more lax and laws crumble. People do not care if unregistered persons and troublemakers from elsewhere come to stay, and even if they know that the shogunal government is seeking someone as a criminal, they ignore the matter. Troublemakers of this sort take the lead in organizing lotteries, games of chance, and gambling, and then move on to night thefts and muggings. In the past, troublemakers did not roam freely through the countryside, but now people have ceased to detest evil; quite to the contrary, many have come to like troublemakers and their evil doings, so that others of the same sort readily gather from elsewhere and take over the locale.
Since at present this is the situation even with criminals sought by the shogunal government, what happens with those sought by the daimyo is all the more problematic. They flee to the bustling areas of cities, where it is difficult to find them, or if they hide in a neighboring province, the lord cannot intrude upon another domain. Even if he engages in negotiations with the officials of that domain, they will not track the culprit down promptly. In the meantime, the culprit flees elsewhere, and it becomes impossible to find him. This is true not only of criminals. In all areas where the lands of different domains are interspersed, the officials of the different domains have to negotiate with one another to resolve matters, but since each acts with an eye on what the other will do, it becomes impossible to sort out the right and wrong of the situation. The issue becomes one of the two lords’ dignity on the one hand and, on the other, the shrewdness with which the officials in charge of the negotiations pursue the interests of their own side. The lords simply [leave the matter up to their officials], much as if they were the absentee lord of a distant province. Ultimately, it all comes down to a competition in shrewdness between the two groups of officials. If, unable to decide the matter among themselves, the two lords refer it to the shogunate, the two sides become divided into two enemy camps, and the matter escalates until it resembles a lawsuit between the two lords.
In the past, at the beginning of Tokugawa rule, the shogunal government dispatched inspectors to survey conditions in the provinces. Since the inspectors were charged with observing local customs and hearing the pleas of the populace, the daimyo all feared what might be reported about them to the government and made every effort to decide cases in such a way as to distinguish clearly between black and white. Today such inspectors are not sent out, and, as a consequence, the main issue at stake in lawsuits is put aside; they simply become contests over the domain holders’ dignity and might and opportunities for their respective officials to polish their shrewdness. People assume, too, that it will not be possible to win a case where the other party comes from the domain of one of the three branch houses, the three cadet houses, or another powerful house.41
The domain officials of the three branch houses and three cadet houses indeed make every effort to ensure that people from their domain do not lose a lawsuit with people from elsewhere and guide them in various ways. Standing on their dignity as the representatives of a house related to the shogunate, the domain officials who are present at the time the verdict is handed down or at the investigation of some untoward event take the seat of honor, and, asserting their authority, they claim the first say regarding the right and wrong of the matter. The officials from other domains are not able to counter this display of might and give way on points where their interests are at stake. In most cases, might prevails.
For this reason the farmers living in the domains of the three branch houses and the three cadet houses are arrogant as a matter of course. They haughtily use their association with Tokugawa-related houses to take advantage of farmers from other domains, pursuing their own selfish interests and giving trouble to others. On the other hand, if farmers from shogunal lands become involved in a dispute with people from another domain, the shogunal officials do not put any particular effort into helping the plaintiffs make their case more persuasive. The latter’s position is thus not that strong, and they do not act as arrogantly as the farmers living in the domains of the related houses. Perhaps also the shogunate shows particular favor to those from its related houses or the hereditary vassal domains? I do not know about this matter, but should the government indeed do such a thing, how shortsighted it would be! I will not go into my concern about this here.
It must have been in the Genroku or Hōei era, when Lord Ōoka Tadasuke served as the Yamada magistrate in Ise. A dispute had arisen between people living in the domain held by the Ise Shrines and people from the neighboring domain of Kii [one of the branch houses]. Unable to decide it, the previous magistrate had left the matter for his successor, but Lord Ōoka handed down a decision immediately. It seems that in this case right clearly lay on the side of the people from the shrines’ domain, while the Kii argument was unfounded. Yet whether because to decide it properly would not have been beneficial to the lord of Kii or because the magistrate had accepted some importunate plea from the Kii officials, he did not reach a decision. The matter was handed on to successive magistrates, and for several years was just set aside. Lord Ōoka, without showing any particular consideration to either side, simply decided the case straightforwardly on its merits, and the Kii party lost completely. It is said that Lord Yoshimune heard of this matter while he was daimyo of Kii and later, when he had become shogun, recalling it, praised Lord Ōoka and promoted him.42 This is indeed a wonderful thing.
In this case, the shogunate did not show any favoritism even though one of the parties was from the domain of a related house. To be sure, Lord Ōoka was an illustrious magistrate—someone who stands out as one of the two or three most notable magistrates of the past two hundred years. But unlike the situation often today, unexceptional magistrates, too, surely should not take stock of the status of the parties and show special consideration to people from the three branch houses or other powerful houses. Whatever the domain holders’ circumstances, their farmers should not be treated as if there were a difference in rank. A domain holder may be from a Tokugawa-related house, but the people of the soil in that domain are not. As is said, among the people in the land, there are none who are not people of the realm. The shogun thus does not distinguish between “his” and “theirs” but treats all as the people of the realm. Nevertheless, the farmers from a powerful domain are always confident, while those from an ordinary domain are diffident. Especially when it comes to small fiefs, both the fief holder and the farmers are timid and do not have officials they can turn to. Not wanting to become tangled in troublesome obligations or to incur heavy expenses, the fief holders try to keep the farmers on their holding from getting involved in a suit.
In the present age, domain and fief holders all live extravagantly in a manner inappropriate to their status. Consequently their household finances are strained, and as the costs of living in Edo are enormous, the domain officials spend all their time trying to manage the lord’s Edo household finances and give only secondary attention to matters of the domain. They are not able to manage even criminal cases satisfactorily. In particular, where parts of the domain’s holdings are located in distant regions as noncontiguous lands, the immediate administration is left up to officials posted to the local domain branch office or to a local intendant. In these areas the investigation of judicial matters is all the more hit-or-miss, and the officials are unable to negotiate effectively with another domain over a dispute. How the people of such an area are to be pitied! Even if they meet with grievous mistreatment, the farmers from a small fief or a noncontiguous holding far from the main domain cannot hope to see their sorrows assuaged down into the generations of their children and grandchildren. All they can do is put up with their plight year in and year out. Is this not sad?
Obstacles to Obtaining Justice
In this way, in distant regions there is no means to handle cases properly. Even should a decision reverse black and white, people have no means of obtaining redress. The daimyo refuse to refer the matter to the shogunal government, and even should the domain lord by some chance allow this, it is not easy for people to make the trip to Edo. If they do take their case to Edo, they must say farewell to parents, wife, and children and leave their house behind. And if they come to Edo for a lawsuit, the expense being enormous, ultimately they are sure to end up destitute. That they should have to go such a distance, without any thought to what this means for their families or themselves, shows that judicial decisions require much time and trouble, and even then, the right of the matter is not made clear.
It must have been in the Shōtoku period—Arai Hakuseki wrote in his book called An Old Man’s Tale that at that time the handling of lawsuits had become extremely drawn out and that this was causing difficulties in various parts of the country.43 Thereafter, presumably as the result of the reforms of the Kyōhō period, things were processed much more smoothly. Recently, however, the tendency seems again for cases to drag out.
As I said above, the lawsuits of the present time tend to be extremely complicated and involved, and because they are so numerous, inevitably they take a long time to process. Also, the disposition of people who come up to Edo from distant provinces for a lawsuit differs greatly from what is typical of the shogunal capital today. Whereas in the provinces things have not yet become so desultory, the attitude of the officials in Edo in charge of the hearing is entirely that of the current style. Their practice is to ignore matters of moral obligation and to give priority to what is profitable and expedient. From their perspective the people from the provinces are caught up in petty logic and merely stick to their stubborn, old-fashioned ways. It seems that they thus find dealing with such people tiresome and do not pay them any attention. Instead they simply wait until the provincial people find such stubbornness fruitless and give up.
In some cases people from the provinces have heard stories of how in the Kyōhō period their grandfather or great-grandfather came up to Edo in connection with a lawsuit. They have heard how the shogunal magistrates’ offices are upright and just, no comparison to the situation in the daimyo domains, and that in deciding cases shogunal officials never pay attention to what is profitable or expedient but decide things totally on the basis of principle. Convinced that the same must still be true today, they travel long distances to come up to Edo, incurring far greater costs than they anticipate, only to discover that no one pays heed to principle and that their painstaking logic is roughly rejected as useless. What counts is only a grasp of the quick route of expediency, and the officials show no sign of benevolence. It was pointless to have abandoned their homes and endangered their lives to make the trip to Edo to file their suit. Concluding that the great shogunate cannot be trusted, they come to harbor bitterness toward those above. In the end, things come to a private settlement, and they return home feeling that the outcome was no different than if they had resorted to an informal resolution on their own back in the country.
It also happens that officials misjudge a suit or wrongly find someone guilty of a crime and harshly scold the person or sentence him or her to be put in handcuffs or to be sent to prison and beaten. It then turns out to have been a terrible mistake and a complete misjudgment, but the officials are reluctant to admit their mistake. So as to cover up the misjudgment, they look for some wrongdoing or old misdeed that has nothing to do with the matter at hand and make the person culpable of that. Concealing one’s own original misjudgment in this way is a most heinous wrong. Since their misevaluation of the situation resulted from their own failure in understanding, they should not try to cover up the mistake or put the blame on someone else. This is a key point in polishing the capacity expected of an official, a crucial aspect of the responsibilities of office. Since the accused are of lowly status, they can do nothing about the matter even if the officials hold them guilty because of something else they have done. However, the Way of Heaven will not let this pass, and such behavior will bring Heaven’s anger down on the shogunal government.
Since in the provinces people are unable to deal appropriately with lawsuits and also unable to keep troublemakers under control, customs steadily deteriorate and the law breaks down. Those who are bold and devious run rampant, while those who are timorous and lacking in deviousness lapse into decline. Even if reason is fully on their side, fearing to arouse resentment and bitterness, they give in and put up with the situation. Taking advantage of that laxness, troublemakers emerge to disturb local order. They summon their fellows from other places, and evildoers who cannot show their faces in the cities or on the thoroughfares slip into the hinterland, with the result that it is beset by arsonists, thieves, muggers, and murderers.
In the past, I have heard, whenever there was a drowning, an inspector would always be sent out to examine the body and investigate the matter. Some time ago, at the time of a certain town magistrate, that practice was stopped. The various provinces thereupon did the same, and now no one bothers should a dead body be found in a river; they just push it further downstream. Since that has become the common practice, troublemakers are well aware of it, so they sometimes dump someone they have killed in a river, or they roll a drunken victim up in a mat and throw him in, or they bury the body in the brush. Indeed the people throughout the provinces are unable to receive the benefits of the shogunate’s governance. Not only must they wear themselves out, toiling away at cultivating and weaving, without experiencing even a smidgen of shogunal benevolence, but also they spend their lives seeing and hearing only what is unconscionable and contrary to the Way.
One would expect lawsuits and criminal cases to be investigated properly in Kyoto, Osaka, and other places where the shogunal government posts magistrates. [Yet the situation is otherwise.] Perhaps it is because whereas the officers and subordinates attached to the magistrate’s office have a detailed knowledge of local manners and customs and of how things have been done previously, the magistrate has only recently arrived and, being unfamiliar with these things, leaves matters up to them. Or perhaps his attention is on getting safely through this posting without incident and returning to Edo, where he hopes for further advancement. Or perhaps, again, he is lazy and seeks to take advantage of being far from his lord and enjoy some leisure and respite. Whichever, since he follows the locally hired officials’ lead, these officers and subordinates often dupe and take advantage of him. The behavior at present of those samurai who have lived in the area around Kyoto and Osaka for generations is far more obsequious, frivolous, and given to extravagance and greed even than that of people based in Edo. They all expropriate the shogunate’s might and glory to extract bribes, show favoritism and unjust partiality, and do things grossly contrary to the Way. In Kyoto and Osaka today, I have heard, even a murderer, so long as money is paid, often gets off with a private settlement.
Let me explain how such a private settlement for a murder is worked out. Suppose someone happens to be killed in a quarrel or other untoward incident. The victim’s parent or child submits a petition that the other party be arrested and executed, and the perpetrator is put in jail. But then the relatives of the petitioner gather and begin to suggest other things. Even if the guilty party is executed, they say, it will not bring the murdered person back to life; since the guilty party is saying he will pay such-and-such compensation and has apologized, it would be best to accept the apology. If the money helps the bereaved to live more easily, the deceased person, too, will not be displeased. It will be much better to be able instead to perform the funeral services and memorial rites in a more devoted fashion. Since they all urge the petitioner in this way, his heart begins to soften, the disposition typical of the time rises to the fore, and arrangements are worked out. The petitioner asks to have his original petition canceled, saying that he had been mistaken in first claiming that his father or son had been murdered. He makes up a story that the dead person had just gotten into a fight and, angered about having been knocked around a little, had wounded himself, or that later he had been laid low by some other illness and had in fact died of that. The investigating officials know that a major law is being broken, but since it is not anything to do with them personally, they are not that angered about it.
So long as both parties work out an arrangement convenient to themselves and everything is smoothed over tidily, they will come to a new understanding of the matter. Doubtless bribes are also offered secretly in such a case, and thus the presiding officials paper over the matter so the magistrate does not become suspicious and allow the victim’s side to withdraw its original petition for punishment.
Since at the present time even cases where a formal petition for punishment has been submitted are then resolved in this way, in many instances the parties concerned simply take care of the matter privately, without informing the shogunal authorities. This is the sort of thing that I meant when I said above that today moral principle is put aside and does not carry any weight; what does carry weight above all with most people is expedience. And it is the style of the day, too, that the magistrate himself is anxious not to produce convicts; he wants to punish as few as possible. Precisely because this is the currently popular style, he will at times allow it to hold sway over even weighty matters and will not hesitate to distort them. In the end, he will simply believe that goodness means to do this kind of thing well.
Investigative officials see misdeeds as not affecting them and thus show no indignation because they have no true understanding of the fundamental meaning of government. One who does not feel even angrier than the person directly affected and does not take punitive action is not worthy of the name “official.” It is most weak-kneed for the magistrate himself not to want to produce convicts. The basic function of the magistrate is to search out and punish as many thieves, arsonists, and murderers as he can. It is the utmost dereliction of duty to think only of getting through each day without trouble. Today, though, both those above and below dislike the severe laws of old and prefer the weak-kneed present-day style.
Long ago there was a woman known as Lady Ōba who had been a wet nurse to Lord Hidetada, the second shogun. In her old age, as she lay mortally ill on her deathbed, the shogun came to visit and, grieving deeply, said she should ask for whatever wish she might have. Having received the honor of his visit, there was nothing more she could ask for, she replied, but the shogun came again, and again said she should make any request she might have. She replied once more that she had nothing to ask and had no lingering unfulfilled wishes. But then, she suddenly remembered that years before her son had broken the law and had been condemned by the shogun to distant exile. Since he was still alive on the island to where he had been exiled, undoubtedly the shogun had this in mind in asking repeatedly if she did not have some wish to make. She thus waited for him to come again, and when he did and again asked if she did not have some wish, this time Lady Ōba said that she did. “As you have kindly suggested, there is one thing I would like to request of you,” she said. “It is that you do not undermine the laws established by the Divine Lord. Please do not show favoritism to my son by granting him a pardon.”44
In the early years of Tokugawa rule, even a woman of this sort recognized the importance of the handling of punishments. The people of that time, of course, all knew of the struggles the Divine Lord had endured since his youth in Tōtōmi and Mikawa and had seen how his efforts had at last been rewarded by success, endorsed by Heaven and nature, and how he had established the institutions for securing peaceful rule throughout the realm. All knew to their marrow what was essential and recognized that it should not be distorted or undermined in the slightest for private interests. People of the present time do not know the thrust of the Divine Lord’s teachings for securing peaceful and orderly rule. They know nothing of the trials of an age of disorder, and because they have forgotten how blessed an age of peace is, they do not know how essential laws are. They have become more and more negligent, and even in the case of serious crimes such as murder, the law is not enforced. Even in Edo, in three recent instances murder cases have been settled privately through the payment of monetary compensation.
The strongest ties of fidelity in the world are those between parent and child. No feelings of fidelity are greater than these. For this reason a parent whose child has been murdered, or a child whose parent has been murdered, seeks the execution of the murderer. Should even the might of shogunal authority not be sufficient to secure the murderer’s capture and punishment, he stakes his own life on hunting him down and taking revenge. This is the Way of Heaven, the Way of man. How regrettable it is that today such fidelity, endorsed by Heaven and nature, is squandered for the sake of a bribe of gold and silver. How can such behavior be justified to the dead person? It shows just how people today have lost the Way of Heaven, discarded the Way of man, and let themselves be driven by avarice.
In the past, people might not have submitted a petition to the government [calling for the murderer’s punishment], but they would have found him and taken action themselves. Now, even when they make a petition, things turn out as I described above. From this one can imagine what the situation is in cases where they do not make a petition. This is how things are in cities under the direct administration of the shogunate; in the domains and countryside, laws are not implemented at all. Serious crimes such as murder are more and more often resolved through private arrangements. Infractions of the law are not reported to government offices, and settling matters through private arrangements is growing increasingly popular. Moral principle is ever more obscured and held to be useless, while the way of expediency is seen as an incomparable treasure. Will not trespassing against the law become rampant throughout the entire world? As I said above, if the standards of old were employed in today’s lawsuits, everyone would be found guilty. From this one can know how most of the world today trespasses against the law.
Handing down judgments on lawsuits serves to correct distortions and contraventions of moral obligations; jailing people and levying punishments serve to eradicate troublemakers who behave unconscionably and contrary to the Way. At present, not one in ten cases of a contravention of moral obligation is officially investigated; such cases remain hidden away, and even if they are investigated officially, it is impossible to correct them. Similarly, not one in ten efforts to eradicate behavior that is contrary to the Way succeeds; such measures prove impossible to carry through. It seems that people regard it as appropriate for the shogunal government to be lax in punishing crimes and to overlook wrongdoing and feel that deserved punishments do not accord with the mode of the day. If the situation continues to disintegrate in this manner, will not the shogunate’s laws as such ultimately become useless and fade away? Will not lawlessness raise its head as a monster beyond human control? Will not the various magistrates’ offices and other government offices come to be seen as inconvenient impediments, and punitive action against troublemakers as unreasonable and contrary to the Way?
Should that come to pass, human power will not be able to stop it since it will be the current of the times. Even under the present circumstances, were punishments to be carried out by increasing the number of government offices tenfold and likewise the number of magistrates, it likely would not suffice to eradicate unconscionable behavior contrary to the Way. Would it not be difficult to hope for a return to the original good circumstances? There is, though, a means for stopping unconscionable behavior, putting an end to troublemakers, encouraging rectitude and the norms of propriety, reducing the number of lawsuits, and restoring the proper mode of shogunal governance. Since I will discuss this separately, I will not go into it in detail here.
Addendum: Since the subject of lawsuits and the handling of criminal cases and punishments is vast, it is difficult to discuss it in detail and comprehensively. Further, it is a topic that may infringe on the shogunate’s authority, and since one should not reach conclusions simply on the basis of one’s own personal views without an understanding of the entire system of shogunal laws, I have discussed only one-tenth of the subject here.
