Secrets of the Samurai. Oscar Ratti

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      Towers (yagura) rose from these compounds. They consisted of structures containing three or more levels, heavily fortified, with the uppermost functioning primarily as an observation post or, in times of peace, as a spot for contemplating the moon or performing ritual suicide, depending upon the circumstances. These towers were located at the most strategic points: on the outer compounds, toward the northern (kitanomaru) and the western (nishinomaru) sides of the horizon; at the corners of the compounds (sumiyagura); in the center, where they were given the poetic name of “guardian of the sky” (tenshu-kaku) or, more prosaically, the “keep” (tsunemaru), because this point represented the final defensive position against invading forces (Yazaki, 105).

      Yazaki also tells us that a vast network of supporting fortresses, auxiliary castles (shijo, edashiro), and smaller outposts (hajiro) were constructed to form a wide, defensive line that encircled and protected the boundary line of a provincial domain and its base castle (honjo, nejiro). Military outposts of smaller size and abbreviated function confronted one at the most unexpected places and were generally identified by their primary purpose, such as boundary surveillance (sakameshiro), watchpost (banteshiro), communication (tsutaenoshiro), and attack (mukaishiro). It is recorded that the Lord of Obi, head of the Ito clan, had forty-eight forts grouped around his castle in Hyuga province—but the Uesugi clan topped even this with 120 forts surrounding their three major castles.

      Encased in this vast network of fortifications, lorded over by fiercely independent clans of warriors, the larger masses of commoners were, for all intents and purposes, imprisoned. By the time Ieyasu consolidated his power over the country, the warriors had assumed those professional characteristics which he was to acknowledge formally and embody in the law of the land. Their ranks were arranged vertically in strata descending, by order of importance and wealth, from the daimyo, who was often the heir of a former provincial protector or caretaker, to the upper ranks of his warriors (kyunin), who possessed their own estates, to the middle ranks of warriors (gokenin,jikan), subordinated to the kyunin, and then to the lower ranks of foot soldiers (ashigaru), with their cohorts (chugen) and servants. Beneath all of these, in the provincial territories, labored the large masses of farmers, bound to the land and carefully watched. In the larger towns, the civilian population had developed several professional classes which seemed to consist primarily of a number of ruling landlords, wealthy wholesalers, and moneylenders, who lorded it over the various guilds and corporations of merchants, craftsmen, and farmers tied to the productive land around the towns. Below these were apprentices, tenant-farmers, and servants in near-slavery. At the bottom of this social stratification were entertainers, porters, foreigners, the destitute, and, below even these groups and outside society, the unmentionable outcasts (eta). All these classes, with all their categories and ranks, which were to play a part in the evolution of bujutsu, confronted the first shogun of the Tokugawa clan.

      The Military Structure of Tokugawa Society: The Shogun

      Ieyasu established his central government in Edo, a small hamlet transformed into a prosperous town in 1456 by a son of the provincial governor of Tamba, Ota Dokan (1432-86), and destined one day to become Tokyo, the “Eastern Capital” of the nation. With the first leader of the Tokugawa clan “an age of disorderly splendor and democratic promise” ended (Cole, 46), and the nation saw the major social divisions of the Ashikaga (Muromachi) and Momoyama periods congeal into a rigid system of class separation clearly defined by the new laws of the land and strictly enforced by the new aristocrats on horseback.

      In all their laws and regulations, Ieyasu and his direct descendants sought to establish guidelines for the creation and preservation of a stable national structure. These guidelines defined the primary morality of public and private subjects, established the agencies that fostered that morality throughout the entire national body, and punished transgressors. This primary morality was clearly based upon public rapport between master and subordinate, which was then reflected in the private rapport between father and son. The former determined the shape and functionality of the major social organizations of Tokugawa society: the various classes and the clans within each class, in a descending order of hierarchical subordination. The latter determined the composition and function of the basic unit of any society: the family. This morality, inherited from China and reinforced by her scholars throughout the ages, had evolved in Japan into an essential motivation of national purpose and function—nay, of national existence and, in times of crisis, of actual survival. In feudal Japan, there was no more despicable crime than that of rebellion against a master (or father); and no series of punishments, inflicted cumulatively according to the dictates of the penal code (Kujikata Osadamegaki), was considered harsh enough to erase the deed or even atone for it. As Yazaki tells us, “The heaviest penalties were given those who violated the master-subordinate relationship, so essential to maintaining the feudal system.” In the fifty-third section of his Legacy, Ieyasu proclaims:

      The guilt of a vassal murdering his suzerain is in principle the same as that of an arch-traitor to the Emperor. His immediate companions, his relations—all even to his most distant connections—shall be cut off, hewn to atoms, root and fibre. The guilt of a vassal only lifting his hand against his master, even though he does not assassinate him, is the same. (Hearn, 347-48)

      Upon this base the Tokugawa elevated that social structure which sealed the subjects of the nation into classes according to a vertical order of pragmatic importance, drawing heavily upon the military character and strength of the warriors to whom all other subjects were subordinated.

      The previous ages had witnessed the beginning of that process of social selection and specialization which the Tokugawa practically confirmed, once they had positioned their class above all others and their clan at the summit of the social pyramid. A body of laws and regulations emanated from the new government from time to time, defining and clarifying divisions of class, function, and rapport within the national body politic. From 1615 onward, laws specifically determining the legal positions and functions of the imperial court and its aristocratic families (Kuge Sho-hatto), of the military class (Buke Sho-hatto), of the religious orders (Jin-hatto), of the farmers (Goson-hatio), of commoners in Edo and, by analogy, in every other town (Edo-machiju-sadame) were issued by the military government of the Tokugawa shogun. Guidelines covering police administration, the penal codes, and the judicial procedures were published in a series (Kujikata Osadamegaki), and agencies were created to insure that these laws and regulations would be observed—any infractions being swiftly and mercilessly dealt with.

      The society which emerged during the Tokugawa period as a result of the reorganization effected by the Edo government was structurally arranged as illustrated in chart 3. There were a series of classes, which, in the order of their importance, included the military class at the apex (buke), with its professional warriors and their families (shi, bushi); followed by the agricultural class (no), with its peasants or farmers (hyakusho); the industrial class (ko), which consisted mainly of artisans (shokunin); and the commercial class (sko), represented by merchants (akindo, chonin).

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