Module 7 Discussion Post: USE the attached docs for the sources!

Law and Precepts for the Warrior Houses 415

THEJOEICODE

The fifty-one articles of the Joei Code deal with a broad range of topics, including the granting and holding ofland, the duties of shogunate officials, the bestowal and receipt of estate property, the rights of inheritance, and the apprehension and punishment of criminals. The following is a sampling of these articles, chosen to illustrate some of · the distinctive features of the new warrior law promulgated by the Kamakura shogun- ate. Among the distinctive features are the limitations placed on the duties and rights of the shogunate's own principal officers in the provinces and estates, that is, the constables and stewards (articles 3 and 5); the recognition of the continuing, indepen­dent jurisdictions of both court-appointed officials (governors) and estate holders (ar-! ticle 6); the twenty-year rule applied to the possession of land (article 8); and the granting and holding of land and adoption of heirs by women (articles 18, 21, and 23). i The articles dealing with women are particularly interesting because they show that ; women enjoyed considerable rights of ownership and privileges of family membership in Kamakura warrior society based on the practice of divided inheritance, that is, the division of estate property to all offspring, female as well as male. But within a century or so, most of these rights and privileges were lost, as warrior society shifted to the practice of single inheritance or the exclusive inheritance of both economic wealth and political authority by the male successor to a family's headship.

Article #1. The shrines of the gods must be kept in repair; and their w o rship performed with the greatest attention ....

Article #2. Temples and pagodas must be kepi in repair and the Buddhist services diligently celebrated ....

c--�·rt�§)c�nceming the duties of the constables (shugo) in the provinces. ll was dectded m the ltme of Lord Yontomo3 that these dubes should be: 1. providing for guard duty at the imperial capital [Kyoto]; 2. suppressing rebel-

3. Here and elsewhere in the J6ei Code, Yoritomo is referred to as "Great General of the

Right (utaisho)," which is an abbreviation of the highest court title he held, ukon'e taisho.

Wm. Theodore de Bary et al., ed., Sources of Japanese Tradition, 2nd ed. (New York: Columbia University Press, 2001)

416 THE MEDIEVAL AGE: DESPAIR, DELlVERANCE, AND DESTlNY

lions; and 3, tracking down and apprehending murderers, But of late, deputies (daikan) of the constables have been dispatched to districts and towns (gunko), where they have imposed levies, Although not provincial governors (kokushi), they have interfered in the provinces' administration, Although not stewards (iito), they have coveted profits from the land, Such behavior is utterly unprin­ cipled, __ , __ , ,

� --,, -., .

(Article #5>(:::oncerning the withholding by a steward (iito) of the assessedamount of the annual rent (nengu), If a complaint is submitted to the central proprietor (honjo) of an estate that the annual rent has been withheld by a steward, an accounting will be made at once and the complainant will receive a certificate specifying the balance that may be due him, , ,

Article #6, Governors of the provinces and estate holders (ryoke) may con­ tinue to exercise their usual jurisdiction without reference to the Kant6 [i,e,, the Kamakura shogunate], __ _

Article #8, Concerning a fief that a plaintiff, although holding a deed of investiture, has not possessed over a period of years, If the current holder has been in possession of the fief in question for more than twenty years, then, in accordance with a precedent established in Lord Yoritomo's time, it will not be transfe:r_ed_to the plaintiff, whatever he may claim in seeking to obtain it , , ,

(Article #11� Whether, because of a husband's crime, the landholding of awife-shouldbe confiscated or not In the case of serious crimes, such as rebellion and murder, as well as banditry, piracy, night attacks and burglary, the husband's guilt will extend also to the wife, But if, as the result of a sudden dispute, the hysband-wo_unds or kills someone, the wife will not be held responsible, _ , , Article #1S)Nhether or not parents, having given a daughter a holding in land, mayreclaim it because of a later falling out with the daughter_ Legal scholars have held that, although sons and daughters differ in gender, they are equal in terms of the benefits bestowed upon them by their parents, Hence, a gift to a daughter should be as irrevocable as one to a son, But if a gift to a daughter were irrevocable, she might rely upon that fact and not scruple to go against her filial duties, Parents therefore must, when thinking of bestowing a gift of land on a daughter, consider whether or not there might later occur a dispute betweerrth\!m and the daughter_ __

�cle #2:')whether or not a wife,' having received a grant ofland from her husban_d, .. cari retain that grant after divorce, If the wife has been rejected be­ cause of a serious transgression, she will not be allowed to retain the grant even if she possesses written documentation for it from an earlier time, But if the wife has been virtuous and innocent of any fault and was discarded by the husband in favor of something new, then the grant given her cannot be re­ voked, , , ,

+ It states here "wife or concubine," but the remainder of the article refers only to "wife."

Law and Precepts for the Warrior Houses 417 /Article ·#2J::iConcerning the adoption of heirs by women. The intent of

�r-lier law w;s not to allow adoption by women. But from the time of Lord Yoritomo to the present day it has been a fixed rule to allow a childless woman to bequeath her land to an adopted child ....

[Adapted from Hall, "Japanese Feudal Law," pp. 37-45; PV]

5. Grossberg and Kanamoto, trans. and eds., The Laws of the Muromachi Bakufu, p. 15.