Criminal punishment in Edo-period Japan

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During the Edo period, Japan utilized various punishments against criminals. These can be categorized as follows:

1 Death penalty
2 Incarceration and exile
3 Penal labor
4 Confiscation
5 Corporal punishment
6 Notes
7 References
8 See also
9 External links

[edit] Death penalty

Serious crimes such as murder and arson were punished by death. The shogunate maintained execution grounds for Edo at Kozukappara, Suzugamori, and Itabashi. Kozukappara, also known as Kotsukappara or Kozukahara, is currently located near the southwest exit of Tokyo's Minami Senju train station. It's estimated between 100,000 and 200,000 people were executed here. Only part of the site remains, located next to Enmeiji temple, partly buried under the rail tracks and under a more-recent burial ground. Archaeological and morphological research was done by Tokyo University on the skulls found buried here which confirmed the execution methods.) Another notable one was located at Suzugamori in Shinagawa. Both sites are still sparsely commemorated in situ with memorial plaques and tombstones.

The shogunate executed criminals in various ways:

Boiling
Burning
Crucifixion for killing a parent, husband etc.
Decapitation by sword
Sawing
Waist-cutting. The Kanazawa han coupled this with decapitation.

The death penalty often carried collateral punishments. One was parading of the criminal around the town prior to execution. A similar one was public display of the criminal prior to execution. A third was public display of the severed head.

Samurai were often sentenced to commit seppuku in lieu of these forms of punishment.

[edit] Incarceration and exile

Depending on the seriousness of the crime, magistrates could sentence convicts to incarceration in various forms:

Exile to an island. Criminals in Edo were often confined on Hachijojima or Miyakejima. Criminals so punished received tattoos.
Imprisonment. The government of Edo maintained a jail at Kodenma-chō.

Exclusion from the location of the crime was a penalty for both commoners and samurai.

Tokoro-barai, banishment to a certain distance, was common for non-samurai.
Kōfu kinban, assignment to the post of Kōfu in the mountains west of Edo, is an example of rustication of samurai.

[edit] Penal labor

For crimes requiring moderate punishment, convicts could be sent to work at labor camps such as the one on Ishikawa-jima in Edo Bay. More serious acts could result in being sent to work in the gold mine on the island of Sado. In 1590, Hideyoshi had banned "unfree labor" or slavery; but forms of contract and indentured labor persisted alongside the period penal codes' forced labor. For example, the Edo period penal laws prescribed "non-free labor" for the immediate family of executed criminals in Article 17 of the Gotōke reijō (Tokugawa House Laws), but the practice never became common. The 1711 Gotōke reijō was compiled from over 600 statutes promulgated between 1597 and 1696.^[1]

[edit] Confiscation

A penalty that targeted merchants especially was kesshō, the confiscation of a business.

[edit] Corporal punishment

Handcuffing allowed the government to punish a criminal while the criminal lived at home. Depending on the severity of the crime, the sentence might last 30, 50, or 100 days.

Flagellation was a common penalty for crimes such as theft and fighting.