<研究ノート>近世前期における「倹約令」の全国的展開とその特質

Abstract

Most previous studies on sumptuary laws, kenyakurei 倹約令, that have been based on the historical records compiled by various prefectures, have considered the laws as resources to gain insight into the actual farmers of farmers and townspeople. These studies have tended to develop along lines focusing on governmental policy, for example, the restrictions of the caste system by the shogunal and domain authorities, bakuhan, kenryoku 幕藩権力, or the political suppression of commercial activities. These studies, however, have focused only on the lifestyles of the farmers and townspeople and have not considered the process of the formulation of the laws by the shogunate and the application of the law by individual domains. The aims of this paper are 1) to examine the process of formulating and enacting the shogunate's sumptuary laws as national laws at that time, and 2) to define how these sumptuary laws were perceived and enforced by daimyo in their own domains. The first section of this study examines how the sumptuary laws were enacted as a measure to counteract the famines during the Kanei Period 寛永期. It will also examine how the shogunate took the social and economic gap between Kanto 関東 and Kamigata 上方 (Kyoto and the Osaka region) into consideration when the laws were enacted. In the next section I suggest the case of the Okayama domain as an example of the actual application of the law to show how each domain was included in a nationwide sumptuary system in the 8th year of the Kanbun era 寛文 8 (1668). Ultimately, I would like to show how the Okayama domain implemented the law by confronting social and economic conditions of their own terms. In the third section, by comparing the national sumptuary laws of the shogunate and the local sumptuary laws of the individual domains, I have attempted to show the discrepancies that arose between the law enacted by the shogunate and the law actually practiced by the daimyo. In conclusion, the basic intention of enacting the sumptuary laws was spurred by the common interest of the shogunate and the daimyo to restrict the lower classes from obtaining luxury items. From the point of view of the daimyo, however, these sumptuary laws were regarded as interference on the part of the shogunate and an attempt to control the lifestyle of the residents of their domains. Therefore, the shogunate's national laws were often altered when proclaimed in the domains in order to suit the various political conditions of individual daimyo. Moreover, during the middle period of the early-modern era, the daimyo added restrictions on days of rest and enacted sumptuary laws that were not authorized by the shogunate based upon the needs and customs of the individual domains.