Obligatory Seppuku during the Edo Period: A historico-cultural legal study of applications in different domains

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K13306
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 05010:Legal theory and history-related
• Research Institution: Teikyo University
• Principal Investigator: Korneeva Svetlana 帝京大学, 文学部, 准教授 (30599494)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 江戸時代の刑罰 / 死刑 / 切腹

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Under the criminal law of the Edo period, seppuku was generally imposed on samurai of high rank (allowed an audience to Shogun), but in practice, seppuku was sometimes imposed on samurai of low rank. According to the record of a consultation held in November 1789 at the Bakufu council office, when a quarrel or violence under alcohol resulted in the death of the other party, the standard for determining whether to impose seppuku or geshunin (simple style of death penalty by decapitation, known as the penalty for murderers), was the rank of a guilty side: those who held samurai rank were allowed to be executed by seppuku.
However, this study reveals that the application of the death penalty at the domains in the early Edo period was not always in line with the policy of the Bakufu, and further analysis is required in the future.

Free Research Field

法制史

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

武士身分であれば、人殺しのような重い罪に対する処罰は決まって切腹だったという今日の通念は必ずしも事実に対応していないことが諸藩の事例から明らかになった。例えば、江戸時代前期の加賀藩において、武士の罪と罰の位置付けについて、盗みや臆病といった武士に相応しくない行為は切腹ではなく打首にすべきと、罪の性質によって切腹と打首を区別していた。武士であっても、犯罪の規模や状況によっては打首に処されることが少なくなく、罪の重さを計り、死刑方法の中から適切なものをその都度選択していこうとする姿勢を確認することができた。
今後の課題として、地域と時代を少しずつ広げつつ、更なる事例収集とともに、比較検討をしていく。