Japan

by Walter G. Dickson

* In all the empire the main roads are to be six keng wide (or about sixty feet[6]). Cross-roads are to be three mats wide or eighteen feet; Yoko mitchi, or bridle-paths, two mats; Katchi mitchi, walking paths, one mat or six feet; Sakuba mitchi or tchika mitchi, less than three feet. On either side of a ferry landing, ground is to be left to the width of sixty mats, or 360 feet, so that when many persons may collect care may be taken. This is the custom as to ferries ever since the time of my ancestor, Nitta, Oee no skay, Yoshi shige, Nioo do, called “Josay dono.”

* All the revenues arising from rates levied at ferries, lakes, hills, etc., are not to be used by the military department, but are reserved for the Mikado’s treasury.

* It is not allowed to any one to build a house in the middle of wheat or rice fields, as the shadow of the house and trees spoils the surrounding ground, and renders it unproductive. If any dare so to build, all the building is to be swept away, and he is to be confined for 100 days.

* For the settlement of what is old plantation and what is new, it is decided that Furui yama, or old trees, are those which at the level of the eye are three feet or more in circumference. Atarashi yama, or new plantations, are trees which are less than three feet at the level of the eye.—At one time this was a source of great trouble in Japan.

* If a large tree overshadows a neighbor’s house or drying-floor, so that rice, grain or wheat cannot be exposed to the sun, when necessary the branches may be cut off.

* Every year the Kanjo sho is to send in a report of bad bridges, roads, etc., in need of repair.

* In the good old-fashioned times the relations of master and servant were like those of water and fish, but now, in these times, people are apt to become proud and to dislike their work, but every one is to do faithfully the work assigned to him, and not to throw his work or duties on another. This is very important to be remembered, and is not difficult to be learned. The result is like water flowing down encircling the country, at which all the people rejoice.

* Honcho, or Japan, is the (Shin koku) country of spirits. Therefore we have among us the Jiu (Confucianism), Shaku (Buddhist), Sen (Ch., Tseen), Do (Taouist), and other sects. If we leave our gods (Shin), it is like refusing the wages of our master and taking them from another. Therefore a watch is to be kept as to this. But as to Itchiko (divination) and Buddhistic practices, the workers are not to be driven away, but the people are not to follow them.

* In regard to dancing-women, prostitutes, brothels, night work, and all other improper employments, all these are like caterpillars or locusts in the country. Good men and writers in all times have written against them. But as it is a law of nature that man should desire the society of woman, it is enacted that these people and places shall not be tolerated; but as it would, if the laws were rigidly carried out, be a perpetual punishing and nothing else, they are not to be administered severely, but out of a regard for the uneducated and the nature of mankind these offenses are to be lightly passed over.

* It has been the wont of my ancestors ever to follow out the thread of the customs of (Yoritomo) Kamakura dono, and no other customs are to be observed. But the heart and goodness of Hige mori (Komatzu dono, eldest son of Kio mori) is never to be forgotten.—This refers to the steady opposition made by him to the “mauvais desseins” of his father, Kio mori, against the family of Yoritomo in 1170-80 A.D. He is called in the “Annales des Empereurs” “homme habile, vertueux, et juste.” He was extremely distressed at hearing of the treachery of his father in inviting the regent to a conference, and then ordering him to be cut to pieces. After his death, Kio mori, seeing no one to oppose him, regardless of everything, acted according to his own pleasure.