The was a law composed of three articles which was promulgated by
Toyotomi Hideyoshi
, otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: Military Innovations that Changed the Cour ...
on 8 October 1591, the 19th year of the
Tensho era during the Azuchi–Momoyama period.
Summary of contents
The law prohibits
samurai
were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...
and their retainers the buke hokonin, which were in turn divided into the chugen and the komono, from becoming peasants or merchants, and also bans peasants from abandoning their fields to engage in commerce or wage labor and warriors from employing buke hokonin who fled from their original masters. It lays down punishments for those who violate these provisions. Its purpose was to ensure stable revenue from the land tax and a pool of warriors in view of the imminent
invasion of Korea
An invasion is a Offensive (military), military offensive in which large numbers of combatants of one geopolitics, geopolitical Legal entity, entity aggressively enter territory (country subdivision), territory owned by another such entity, gen ...
.
Translation of the Edict
1. Townspeople and farmers should investigate if any samurai, chugen, or komono have become merchants or farmers since the expedition against
Date Masamune
was a regional ruler of Japan's Azuchi–Momoyama period through early Edo period. Heir to a long line of powerful ''daimyō'' in the Tōhoku region, he went on to found the modern-day city of Sendai. An outstanding tactician, he was made all ...
in
Oshu in the seventh month of last year. If any such people are found, they must be expelled. If any such people are hidden, the entire village will be punished.
2. If any peasant abandons his fields and engages in commerce or wage labor, not only the farmer himself but his fellow villagers will be punished. Those not involved in either military service or working the fields will be investigated and expelled. If an official does not execute these instructions, he will have his lands seized for negligence. If there is any concealment by townspeople or farmers, the whole county or town will be held accountable.
3. Do not employ anyone who has left his former master without permission whether he is a samurai or a komono. Thoroughly investigate an individual's background to ensure he has not done so. If he has done so, he shall be arrested and handed back to his former master. If this law is ignored or if a violator of the law is deliberately released then it is ordered that two or three people will be decapitated in the violator's place and their heads will be delivered to his former master. If this order is not carried out the person who sought to employ the violator will be punished.
Theory of Shosaku Takagi
Though the Separation Edict was widely considered to be the law that first established the rigid class system of the subsequent
Tokugawa shogunate
The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...
based on the
four occupations
The four occupations () or "four categories of the people" ()Hansson, pp. 20-21Brook, 72. was an occupation classification used in ancient China by either Confucian or Legalist scholars as far back as the late Zhou dynasty and is considered a c ...
, Japanese historian Shosaku Takagi has called this into question. He believes that during this period of history the word "samurai" did not refer to warriors, but rather to the wakato, who were retainers of warriors just like the chugen and the komono. Takagi thus believes that the draconian social class structures imposed by the Separation Edict were actually intended specifically for the buke hokonin, including the wakato, chugen, and komono, and not for most of the individuals engaged in military service. According to this theory, the feudal class structure in Japan was in fact not legally mandated in 1591, but much later in the
Edo period
The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...
. However, Takagi acknowledges that the portions of the Edict relating to the peasantry did contribute to class separation.
[Shosaku Takagi, 日本近世国家史の硏究 (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1990), 279.]
See also
*
Sword hunt
Several times in Japanese history, the new ruler sought to ensure his position by calling a . Armies would scour the entire country, confiscating the weapons of all potential enemies of the new regime. In this manner, the new ruler sought to ensure ...
*
Population Census Edict The was a law promulgated in the name of Kampaku Toyotomi Hidetsugu in 1592, the first year of the Bunroku era during the Azuchi–Momoyama period. It is known in Japanese as the Hitobarai Rei or Ninbetsu Aratame.
The edict ordered a complete nat ...
*
Four occupations
The four occupations () or "four categories of the people" ()Hansson, pp. 20-21Brook, 72. was an occupation classification used in ancient China by either Confucian or Legalist scholars as far back as the late Zhou dynasty and is considered a c ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Separation Edict
16th century in law
Edicts
1591 in Japan
1591 in law