The Codes of ChOsokabe Motochika
and the Economy of Buddhist
Temples in His Day (IV)
Kozen
Tachibana
III: Translations 1. Kira Nobutsune Jomoku
With regard to the discussion and the establishment of the (twenty-four) articles (by Kira Nobutsune).
After (the Lord Kira) Nobutsune had again and again discussed the code with (his close senior retainer Kira) Ukon and then showed it both to the Do-gun no shut) and to the Ichimi no shu3), he established the code. Each article is as follows:
1: The samurai are the most important people for guarding the country. Therefore you4) should always bestow your favour on them and also if the offence commited by them is not serios, their right of holding land should not be abrogated.
1) In preparing this translation I have sometimes had the advice and assistance of Mr. Shiro Nakata, formerly Professor of Japanese histoly at KOchi and Mie Uni-versities.
2) Do-gun no shu refers to "Kokuninshu" or "Shodogo" in Nagaoka district who were the core of the "Goson-sei" or the village system. The word "shu" indicates the prominent people in the village or district called "Kokuninshu" or "Shodogo." 3) Ichimi no sha refers to "Kokuninshu" outside Nagaoka district. Normally
No-butsune and the Ichimi no sha maintained lord-vassal relations. Lord NoNo-butsune protected them from all sufferings, while in return they were faithful to their lord. For example, the Ichimi no sha were sometimes born of a political marriage. So most of the Icimi no shu consisted of people who lived in districts which were not far from the border of Nagaoka district.
(38) The Codes of Chosokabe Motochika (K. Tachibana)
2: Those who work on the land (nomin) form the motive power which makes the country wealthy. You must govern them with compassion and make sure they never. starve. Any landholder (hyakusho) who holds more than 2 cho of cultivable land shall be given arms and taught the military arts. 3: Filial piety is the principal concept to guide action, likewise fidelity is
the principal concept in the performance of duty. Therefore all the people must be diligently faithful and obedient, and always strive hard to achieve
these qualities.
4: Trust is the most basic concept for maintaining friendship. Whenever meone is in difficulties and in pain, others should help him out of such
verse circumstances and bestow their f ovours on him.
5: The friendship among the Do-gun no kumisha5) and among the (Do-gun no) kaiyaku no shu6) must always be maintained as closely as that among brothers. If one has rancour against another, both should thoroughly talk it over in order to solve their misunderstanding of each other and they should
never leave it undiscussed.
6: Whenever a flood or a fire occurs at the Doyaku no shu7) either during the day or at night, the people of neighbouring villages should sound the alarm-bell here and there in order as quickly as possible to save the Doyaku
no shu.
7: When a group of enemy abruptly attacks part of the domain, disturbs the social order of that place and there occurs the very serious event of the theft of products such as wheet or rice from the land, the people of each neighbouring village should beat drums and shoot guns hurriedly and drive 5) Do-gun no Kumishu refers to the "shu" who united a group in Nagaoka
distri-ct. Therefore in Nagaoka district there were a lot of groups of such "shu." It may be said the group of union.
6) (Do-gun no) kaiyaku no sha refers to the "shu" who allied some common re-gulations for something of the same purpose., Therefore in Nagaoka district there was only one group which was allied among many "shu". It may be said a group of alliance.
7) Do-gun no sha was almost the same as the Kaiyaku no sha. However, it might often be used in narrower sense than the Kaiyakku no shu.
The Codes of Chosokabe Motochika (K. Tachibana) (39) away the enemy from the domain as soon as possible.
8: Anyone who is Kumigashira among samurai or Shoya among peasants must ceaselessly inquire into the goodness and the evil of the samurai or the peasants. People who do a little goodness shall be commended and encouraged to promote such acts of goodness by the Kumigashira or the Shoya, whereas the people who commit a minor evil shall be sent a warning and lightly chastised by the Kumigashira or the Shoya. Likewise the people who perform an act of remarkable goodness shall be recommended to the Lord by the Kumigashira or the Shoya and be given the reward by the Lord, whereas the people who commit a major evil shall be reported to the Lord by the Kumigashira or Shoya and shall have a penalty given them by the Lord. 9: The, officials such as Kumigashira, Yokome, Shoya, and Kobugyo8) should
never receive a bribe. Each official should daily keep a careful watch of the area which he manages without neglecting his duties, they should supervise those of the four classes of the people9) who neglect their duties.
10: Whenever you10) deliver judgement on a criminal or deal with a judicial case, you must decide the punishment according to the nature of the offence, major or minor, after inquiring into the matter closely without fear or fa-vour and with an unprejudiced mind, and disregarding the climinal's previ-ous history.
11: Youll) must always keep a watch whenever travelling merchants, or Bud-dhist monks or gyo jas (people who go about performing religious austerities) from other domains are. in the domain. And whenever you are aware of such individuals in this domain, you must expel them as soon as possible. 12: Any samurai who is skiful in the military accomplishments or in the
8) "Kobugyo" was a kind of official under the lord Nobutsune.
9) I am not sure whether it indicated definitely the people of four classes such as shi (samurai), no (peasant), ko (artisan) and sho (merchant). Its defi-nite classification did not appear in Japan until the beginning of the Tokugawa period.
10) See note 4. 11) See note 4.
(40) The Codes of Chosokabe Motochika (K. Tachibana)
artistic accomplishments is valuable for the country. Therefore if there is such a person of talent in this domain, he must be appointed even though he comes from an extremely, poor family. Again, if there is such a person of talent in the other domains, you must invite him to this domain after paying your politest regards to him.
13: Wneever the Bante12) is informed of the possibility of an enemy on by his servants who are engaged in keeping day and night watch on
the enemy, he should beat drums and light signal-fires as stated in the viously formulated article of this code. Even if information concerning the enemy which is given to all samurai in a district by him is mistaken, they
shold never lose time. They should again and again assemble _to the nted place bringing their arms at all speed as stated in the previous article of this code.
The fundamental part of the code consists of the above (thirteen) articles. Therefore all people in this domain should keep each article firmly in their mind. The followings are the (eleven) articles of prohibition. Every indivi-dual must firmly keep in mind each article.
14: Generally speaking, when you13> decide the right or wrong of a matter or estimate the victory or defeat of a war which has already been fought, you should first of all never have any doubts left in your mind. You should never, despise your friends for the purpose of justifying your own nable opinions, or suppress the right for the purpose of accomplishing the wrong. Also, you should never have enmity against another as a result of a
debate held between you.
15: Anyone who perplexes people by widely circulating misleading rumors without making sure whether the rumors came from a friend of the enemy
anyone who deceives the people by speaking at random ; anyone who incri-. 12) "Bante" refers to the samurai, or sometimes "Ichiryo gusoku" who watches
over the border of Nagaoka district. 13) See note 4
The Codes of Chosokabe Motochika (K. Tachibana) (41) minates individuals by slandering them or anyone who separates close frie-nds by talking irresponsibly to both of them individually, shall be banished from this domain or have his head cut off
16: Anyone who is neither obedient nor faithful, or who treats his wife cru-elly and also does not bestow favours on his servants shall be punished after full consideration by the official.
17: Anyone who gambles or drinks heavily without performing his own ties shall receive a minor fine in cloth, grain or money for example. 18: Anyone who lives in a house, wears clothes, or eats food beyond his
ans shall also receive a minor fine.
19: Anyone who does not pay attention to training in the military arts, or is unprepared for arms shall be punished or receive a light fine according
to the degree of his laziness.
20: Any samurai who pays no attention to the directions by the Kumigashira or shows himself rude to his superior shall be punished after a close nation. Furthermore, any peasant who does not answer the summons of the Shoya shall also be punished afterr a close examination.
21: The revels or the dance (ranbu) of the samurai shall be held only after giving full details to the Kumigashira. Permission for amusements of people other than samurai may be given at a favourable opportunity by the superior
office. Entertainments other than the above are strictly prohibited.
22: The Doyaku no shu should never shelter a suspicious servant. Again, in the case of a servant of one Doyaku no shu (A) flees to the house of other Doyaku no she's servant (B), the master of that servant should not harbour him without a just reason. A servant of (A) must be extradited to
his master by the master of (B) when it is certainly proved by the nation of the master of (B) that a servant of (A) is an offender. If his of-fence, however, is minor, the master of (B) should ask his master to pardon him.
23: Even if a samurai who neglects the principal rule that the command issued by the general in the battle field shold be obeyed by the subordinate
(42) The Codes of Chosokabe Motochika (K. Tachibana) issued by his general must be regarded as a major offence.
24: If one party bickers or quarrels with another about something in a camp on the battle field, both should be punished, regardless of the right or wrong
of the matter. However, if one party does not raise his hand against the other, he shall be given a prise.
Besides articles 23 and 24 twenty more military articles were established by Kira Nobutsune. When I (i. e. Shinsai the author of KM) read all the codes established by each daimyo, I am aware that none of them gave any reference to the principal concept of Confucianism, ethics and morality. Here the Kira Nobutsune Jomoku reads as follows: "All the people must be diligently
fai-thful and obedient, and always strive hard to achieve these qualities." And it continues to read:
"Anyone who is neither obedient nor faithful shall be punished." How excel-lent it was that Kira Nobutsune established such articles stressing the impo-rtance of human duties based on ethical and moral points of view It seems that it was Nobutsune alone who thoroughly recognized the extreme importa-nce of human duties.
2. Preface to Motochika Seido Shikimoku (from Shikoku Gunki) With regard to governing Tosa by Motochika14)
On an occasion when Motochika called together all of his principal ministers he said to them, "By good fortune I have reigned over all of Tosa. However a series of long battles have led the government into decline, the codes into confusion and the peasants into loss of work. Now, by adding my new poli-cies to the old code15) I hope to reform the administration and thus take care
14) SG, vol. 5, pp. 302-304. 15) COK, p. 170.
Mr. Inoue referred to this code in COK. "There was Kira Jomoku with twenty-four articles which was established by (Kira) Nobutsune during the Tensho era as the first code in Tosa."
The Codes of Chosokabe Motochika (K. Tachibana) (43) of all my people. I will consider the rise and the fall of one country by lo-oking over the ups and downs of ancient and present countries
(1) When the ruler is not sufficiently generous to praise the good activity of his people and to reward them appropriately, and when his people are also not faithful to their ruler, that country falls to decay since reward and loyalty are never in that country;
(2) When the ruler is sufficiently generous to praise the good activity of his people and to reward them appropriately, and when his people are also faithful to their ruler, that country will certainly rise since reward and loyalty are in that country;
(3) When the ruler does not know how to praise the good activity of his people and to reward them appropriately while his people are faithful to their ruler, that country will easily change for the worse. Whenever the ruler is sufficiently generous to praise his people and to reward them appropriately, his people are absolutely faithful to their ruler. Therefore he can govern his cou-ntry without any trouble. According to these phrases, if the ruler is wise in governing his country, he will never fall to observe whether his people are faithful to him or not and then he will make the loyalty and the non-loyalty clear. In the above proposition, loyalty means to be absolutely faithful to one's ruler, and non-loyalty means to be unfaithful to one's ruler.16) Also he said, "To cultivate the good and to disregard the bad will not be effective enough
16) This sentence means that if one is faithful to one's ruler, one will be praised and rewarded by one's ruler according to one's actions. Conversely, if one is unfaithful to one's will be punished by him.
17) This code includes the articles concerning religion, education, military service, economy, marriage, punishment etc. Therefore it is not strange that, since each article had a very wide application, there were several regulations in each article. Mr. Inoue referred to this code briefly in his book COK. Since MSS has been more often referred as TeS, it was difficult for us to find the location of the ori-ginal copy at first. Fortunately KR (Tokyo. 1927) gives a slight clue to the true name of this code in the item CMS. The editor of tis book writes: "It seems to me that, since this code consistes of fifteen articles, it is different from Motochika Hyakka jo or CMS." This code has also been reprinted in only one source, SG, vol. 5, pp. 303-304. My translation is based on SG.
(44) The Codes of Chosokabe Motochika (K. Tachibana)
until the code is established." He constituted some articles on his governing as follows:
3. Motochika Seido Shikimokut7)
1: In the event of damage to Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples, the Shinto priests and the Buddhist monks must inform the local magistrate or the
estate owner who governs the area, and they must have the damage repaired. Furthermore, one must never profane the ancient rites of the Shinto and Buddhist services and festivals.
2: The San-ship, Wu-ching and Ch'i-shu are books to be studied enthusiasti-cally by everyone. One should strive to learn these books under the guidance of one's teacher.
3: It should be the primary concern of a samurai to train himself in archery and horsemanship, swordmanship and halberdsmanship, and musketry. ryone who wants to become a samurai should master these arts under the guidance of his teacher from his childhood. However, he should completely master only one of them since each samurai will have his strong and weak abilities. If he wants to be familiar with most of them, he may not be able 18) The "ranbu" in those days had two different meanings:
(1) A very popular unregulated dance, (2) Sangaku or Sarugaku.
Explanation:
(1) The dance was danced waving one's hands, and tapping one's foot to ac-cord with a relaxed mind. And this dance was sometimes accompanied by va-rious kinds of music and popular songs, e. g., "Nenbutsu odori," "Bon odori" and other popular dances.
(2) Sangaku was one of the miscellaneous arts which were played among the masses. It also contained some elements of Kabuki. The "Sangaku's" origin was traced to Central Asia. "Sangaku" was introduced to China and then transfer-red to Japan about the Nara period. In the Heian period "Sangaku" was called "Sarugaku" because it included music and comic elements, and then the name "Sarugaku" became very popular. As "Sangaku" had some elements of dance it was also called "Ranbu".
"Ranbu." referred to the twenty -first article of KNJ applies to (1) and (2), and the fourth article of MSS applies to (2) only.
19) Jansen, TSC, p. 100, footnote 46.
-489-The Codes of Chosokabe Motochika (K. Tachibana) (45) to master completely even one of them.
4: One should develop arts such as dancing (ranbu),18) flute and drum, ball (which has been played among the Kyoto nobility chiefly), and the tea ceremony. For one may be much ashamed to feel inferior on visits to other
provinces.19)
5: All samurai must strive to practice rigid economy' of clothing, food and housing appropriate to their status.
6: You must govern with pity and clemency, even the peasant class. Anyone who unreasonably threatens the peasants will be severely punished. The wo-rds of old say that if a governor is trusted and supported by his people, he will be able to govern his nation smoothly. Conversely, if a governor is
ne-ither trusted nor supported by his people, he will lose his nation. Therefore every governor must assume an unprejudiced attitude toward his people.20) 7: The allotment of the household effects and fields of all people in Tosa
sho-uld be determined by a handwritten will of the father.
8: Each samurai who serves in the castle should not take any person into his service who comes from any country outside this domain.
9: No people should form any kinds of parties with neighbouring countries, nor should anyone marry a woman from outside of this domain.
10: When not only everyone who occupies a high position in the castle, but also men such as the unit commander or the low ranking officer intends to get married, he shall inform the councillor about the matter and must obey the advice of the councillor.
11: In the event of damage to any roads, bridges and banks in Tosa, the officer should repair them as soon as possible and should take care not to impede travel. Furthermore, it is permissable to let those criminals sentenced to the five punishments,21) with the exception, of the death sentence, build these damaged parts as retribution for their offence.
20) 古 語 日, 得 衆 則 得 邦, 失 衆 則 失 邦, 専 可 用 清 廉 事。 21) NRJ, vol. 7, p. 95c.
According to this book, the five punishments were rod 答 罪, bamboo 杖 罪, imprisonment 徒 罪, banishment 流 罪, and death 死 罪。
-488-(46) The Codes of Chosokabe Motochika (K. Tachibana)
12: All castle holders near the seashore should always be in possesion of me ships for war. Even if the castle is distant from the seaside, the lord of
the castle should have some ships for war appropriate to his status. 13: In the inside of the main front gate of the castle, everyone will be
lutely prohibited from both staying in a palaquin ' and riding on a horse. 14: Inside the castle, no one with the exception of Jitsugon-zamurai22) will be permitted to wear both long straw sandals and wooden sandals. As an exception, only monks and medical doctors will be allowed to put on these kinds of sandals in the castle. Also men and women, who belong to the family of the samurai class, and who are over sixty years old and are under ten years old will be permitted to wear these sandals. However, all such people who do not belong to the samurai class must wear half size sandals
in the castle.
15: If there is any one of high or low status who has excellent ability to handle matters of government, they may apply for office. Therefore if there are excellent people in the nation, then the nation will prosper, and if there is a man of strict moral discipline in the house, then the house will be ordered. There are the "Golden Words" of the ancient sage.23)
These articles must be observed strictly. Accordingly, it is promulgated as here set forth.
In A Day of the Fifth Month, Second Year of Tensho (1574 A. D.)
Tosa no Kami
(to be continued)
22) Hirao Michio, Tosahan Goshi Kiroku (TGK), p. 3.
This meant Kachu-bushi. Most of the modern bushi lived in houses which were built around the castle, and they used to obey their lord.
23) 夫 国有 善 人 則 其 国般, 家 有 諫 子 則 其 家 斉, 是 先 哲 之金 言 也。
