Research on the structure of Shogunate and domain system's document management and the process of legal concept formation

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K16906
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Japanese history
• Research Institution: Kumamoto University
• Principal Investigator: YASUTAKA HIROAKI 熊本大学, 大学院人文社会科学研究部(文), 准教授 (30548889)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 公事方御定書 / 徳川吉宗 / 大岡忠相 / 熊本藩 / 法の伝播 / 法認識

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The KUJIKATAOSADAMEGAKI of official law enacted by TOKUGAWA Yoshimune is regarded as the modern Japanese legal history as a lex scripta. It was a secret code that only a part of the shogunate officials could view because it adopted the penalization principle in reverse of the previous strict principle. However, in reality the fact that has spread in many directions comes to light, and is still present all over the country. So, in this research, we investigated the system of the spread of the official statement, and examined the formation process of the legal concept at that time. There was a figure of people who lived in the modern society who tried to greed the secular official document management and code of the Shogunate. In addition, the facts of the human society in the early modern period were also known, such as the official statement of the Public Code leaked because the emphasis was on personal relationships rather than duties as an official.

Free Research Field

日本近世史

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

人と法の関係は、普遍的なものがある。法を制定するということは支配者による特権的事項であり、被支配者は法を入手するという構造が近世社会には築かれていた。今日のように情報公開が進んでいなかった江戸時代において、役人はもとより、町や村に住む人たちも大きな関心事となっていた。秘密にされれるほど、これを入手しようとする動きがあることは今日にもつながることであえる。今日の法治国家が形成される過程を、公事方御定書を素材に明らかにすることができたことは大きな意義と考える。