Slavery in Medieval Japan

Slavery in Medieval JapanAuthor(s): Thomas NelsonSource: Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. 59, No. 4 (Winter, 2004), pp. 463-492Published by: Sophia UniversityStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25066328 .

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Slavery in Medieval Japan

Thomas Nelson

Slave is an emotive word. Yet most societies have, at some point in their

history, been described as slaveholding. Ancient Japan is, for example, known as a slave-owning society, but what of Japan in the medieval period?

The word is little used by modern historians of the medieval era, but occurs fre

quently in the writings of the first Europeans to reach the archipelago in the six

teenth century. By examining their descriptions of servitude in late medieval

Japan and their uses of the term "slave" and comparing these to the native

Japanese sources, it is possible both to determine that Japan was, by the stan

dards of Occidentals of the same period, a slaveholding society and to reveal the

salient features of slavery there.

The best way to accomplish this task is perhaps from the outside in: by begin

ning with Japan's involvement in the greater East Asian slave trade and its inter

action with societies that are generally recognized as slaveholding, and then

moving on to an examination of the domestic situation.

Export and Portuguese Impressions

Portuguese and other Occidental sources are replete with records of the export of Japanese slaves in the second half of the sixteenth century. A few examples should serve to illustrate this point. Very probably, the first Japanese who set

foot in Europe were slaves. As early as 1555, complaints were made by the

Church that Portuguese merchants were taking Japanese slave girls with them

back to Portugal and living with them there in sin.1 By 1571, the trade was being conducted on such a scale that King Sebastian of Portugal felt obliged to issue

an order prohibiting it lest it hinder Catholic missionary activity in Kyushu.2 Political disunity in Japan, however, together with the difficulty that the Portu

guese Crown faced in enforcing its will in the distant Indies, the ready availability of human merchandise, and the profits to be made from the trade meant that the

chances were negligible of such a ban actually being enforced. In 1603 and 1605,

The author is a visiting lecturer at Oxford University. 1 Ayres 1904, p. 89.

2 The decree is quoted in Okamoto 1931, p. 731. For a discussion of the issue of slavery and

Christianity in Japan, see also Alvarez-Taladriz n.d. I am grateful to Professors Gonoi Takashi

and Annibale Zambarbieri for providing me with photocopies of this essay, which is an appendix to the edition with commentary prepared by Jos? Luis Alvarez-Taladriz of Alessandro Valignano's

Adiciones del sumario de Japon.



464 Monumento Nipponica 59:4

the citizens of Goa protested against the law, claiming that it was wrong to ban

the traffic in slaves who had been legally bought. Eventually, in 1605, King

Philip of Spain and Portugal issued a document that was a masterpiece of obfus

cation intended both to pacify his critics in Goa demanding the right to take

Japanese slaves and the Jesuits, who insisted that the practice be banned.

I have been informed of a number of abuses and injustices concerning the tak

ing and captivity of people from Japan. My late cousin King Sebastian ordered in 1570 that this be prohibited. I ordered that the said decree should be published and obeyed in those regions. I have now been told that it has been claimed that this edict should be extended to slaves who are legally and properly held. This

has created many problems in addition to the damages incurred by the inhabi

tants of the Estate [of India] as well as the problems that are likely to arise if they are set free. It was not my intention, nor would it have been the wish of King Sebastian, to prevent Japanese being held as slaves when there are just and law

ful titles and in those cases in which the law permits it to be done, as with the

people of other nations. In order to prevent other problems that have been

reported to me by the cities of Goa and Cochin, I have commanded enacted the

accompanying provision, which you will order to be published so that it will come to the notice of everyone; you will see this is obeyed, taking care that all the abuses presently existing and that hitherto have existed in this matter be pre vented, and that the said slaves have the right to seek justice if they claim their

captivity is illegal and lacks legitimate title.3

The upshot was that slaving would continue unless the Japanese authorities step

ped in to stop it. Such was the negative impact upon their image in Japan and

such was their lack of success in having the trade banned that Jesuit authors

sought to excuse themselves in the eyes of their Japanese converts by shifting the blame for the trade away from the Portuguese merchants who bought the

slaves and on to the Japanese who sold them. Alessandro Valignano, for exam

ple, wrote a textbook for Japanese seminarians based upon his reconstruction of

the experiences of a mission sent to Rome in 1582 by the Christian lords of

Kyushu. In it, he portrayed the members of the mission as horrified at the large numbers of Japanese slaves that they had encountered at various points en route

and indignant that Japanese were being sold to non-Christians. The text takes

the form of a conversation between a group of Japanese Christians, all of whom

have been given European names:

Michael: The Portuguese and all the Europeans are amazed that we should be so greedy and desirous of money that we sell each other and gravely besmirch

the name of Japan. Moreover, during our travels in divers parts, we have seen

our countrymen sold and reduced to slavery. We could not help but burn with

anger at our own people, who, oblivious to all piety, have sold off people of their own blood and tongue at such a low price just as if they were cattle or sheep. .. .

Martin: Who could not be moved seeing so many of our people, men and

3 Documentos Remetidos, tomo 1, p. 43.



Nelson: Slavery in Medieval Japan 465

women, boys and girls, in so many different parts of the world, sold off at such

a low price and dragged away to suffer such a miserable servitude. I might be

able to bear it if they were only sold to Portuguese, as the Portuguese are mer

ciful and kind towards slaves and teach them the true faith. However, who can

bear with equanimity that our people have ended up scattered all over the hea

then kingdoms of the world, [home to] abject peoples of false religions given over to vice. Not only must they suffer bitter servitude among black barbarians, but also be filled with false creeds.

Michael: No blame at all can attach to the Portuguese, for they are merchants.

They are in no way to be held at fault, if, in the hope of gain, they sell our peo

ple off in India and other places and make a profit from their sale. The blame

belongs entirely to our people.4

The worst fears of the Jesuits were confirmed when Hideyoshi, the great uni

fier of Japan after a century of civil strife, arrived in Kyushu. He shared the dis

gust of many of his countrymen at the custom, common in Kyushu, of selling

Japanese slaves to foreigners, and he questioned the Jesuits sharply on this prac tice. On 24 July 1587, he sent the following letter to the Jesuit Vice-Provincial

Gaspar Coelho, preserved in Portuguese in Luis Frois's Historia de Japam:

It has come to our attention that Portuguese, Siamese, and Cambodians who come

to our shores to trade are buying many people, taking them captive to their king doms, ripping Japanese away from their homeland, families, children, and

friends. This is insufferable. Thus, would the Padre ensure that all those Japanese who have up until now been sold in India and other distant places be returned

again to Japan. If this is not possible, because they are far away in remote king doms, then at least have the Portuguese set free the people whom they have

bought recently. I will provide the money necessary to do this.5

It is possibly no coincidence that, only days later, Hideyoshi issued his first ordi

nance expelling the missionaries.

Native Japanese sources, such as the following passage from an account of

Hideyoshi's Kyushu campaign, confirm that the Portuguese practice of trading in slaves made them many enemies in the country.

In the Goto islands, Hirado, or Nagasaki, all is readied for the Iberian ships every time that they arrive. They gain influence over the leaders of those provinces and

lure them over to their vile faith. Moreover, they buy several hundred men and women and take them aboard their black ships. They place chains on their hands

and feet and throw them into the holds of their ships. Their torments are worse

than those in hell. They also buy cattle and horses and skin them alive. Their

4 Valignano 1590, pp. 138-39.1 am grateful to Dr. J. F. Moran for sending a photocopy of the

relevant pages from the Latin text. The text was originally written in Spanish by Valignano, who

ordered Duarte de Sande, who had taught humanities at the University of Coimbra, to translate it

into Latin. The text consists of thirty-four colloquia, or fictitious conversations, with two Japanese Christian boys (Leo and Linus) asking the four Japanese (Michael, Mancio, Martin, and Julian) who

had returned from Europe about their experiences there. That the conversations are fictitious is appar ent from the fact that the book was actually published in Macao before the travelers' return to Japan.

5 Frois 1976-1984, vol. 4, p. 402.




priests and their disciples themselves then eat them. There is no respect for deco rum among parents and children or among siblings. It is said that hell (chikush?d?

t??4?) has been made manifest on earth. We hear that the local Japanese have

learned their ways by imitating them and sell their own children, parents, wives, and daughters.6

The trade remained active until the end of the sixteenth century at least.

The Jesuit Conference of 1598 In September 1598, the senior Jesuits in Japan held a meeting at their head

quarters in Nagasaki to discuss the issue of slavery. The debate between the del

egates included a general examination of the special features of servitude in

Japan. Detailed minutes were taken, and these constitute undoubtedly the most

important single Western source on servitude in Japan and on the export of

Japanese slaves. In his opening remarks, Mateus de Couros, who took the min

utes at the conference, commented that, although the Church abhorred the slave

trade, Pedro Martins, the previous bishop of Japan, had been prepared to sanc

tion the transportation of Japanese outside Japan as long as they were given con

tracts with a fixed term rather than being treated as slaves. In practice, it had been

impossible to maintain the distinction, and Martins had been forced to abandon

such sophistry, declaring that anyone involved in the trade would be excommu

nicated.7

The Jesuits had now been forced to address the issue of slavery again, as with

Pedro Martins's death, his excommunication order had lost its validity. After

much discussion, the delegates agreed that it was no longer permissible to trans

port labor outside Japan, whether as slaves or under contract. Regarding the lat

ter practice they reiterated that

It does not matter that some people assert that it is now the custom to use tem

porary contracts and that the padres do not criticize this kind of slavery. To this we can counter that this kind of slavery has hitherto hardly been found anywhere else on earth.8

6 ?tK ?K ?mmzx, mmM^mz^mLx, itmzmttmn. mmzmwmzÂ, -e

inOkamoto 1931, p. 734. 7

A few years later the Dutch would likewise seek to address their chronic shortage of labor by

recruiting Japanese in large numbers. They did give these people contracts, the terms of which

were respected. Unlike the Portuguese, however, the Dutch colonial empire was rigidly organized under a single company, and so such rules were far more easily enforceable.

8 This document is preserved in the archives of the Academia Real in Madrid. A photocopy is

kept at the Historiographical Institute of the University of Tokyo. I am grateful to Professor Gonoi Takashi _f?HF#|?__J?, formerly professor at the University of Tokyo, for helping me to locate the

Portuguese version for this source in the University of Tokyo library. A full French translation is

available in Pages, pp. 70-79. A Japanese translation of most of the text is available in Okamoto

1931, pp. 733-52. See also Maki 1961, pp. 197-206, for a full Japanese translation. The passages

quoted in the remainder of this section have all been translated from the original Portuguese text.




The king, the Jesuits concluded, should thus be asked to renew his edict freeing all Japanese slaves found within his realm.

In the course of their discussion, however, the Jesuits also took up many

aspects of servitude within Japan itself, revealing that, in their view, Japan was

a slave-trading and slave-owning society. One major source of slaves, they noted, were captives seized in warfare. According to church doctrine of the time, it was

legitimate to treat as slaves prisoners taken in a "just war," and, to salve their

consciences, the Portuguese were wont to argue that many of the wars waged by one local daimyo warlord against another were legitimate, making it acceptable to treat as slaves the prisoners taken in them:

It is possible for a lord to wage a just war, whether defensive or aggressive, and

the priests have recognized the prisoners taken in these wars as legitimate pris oners, and so the Portuguese bought them in good faith.

In reality, however, those partaking in the debate recognized, it was often almost

impossible to decide what was and what was not a just war:

But experience shows that, to get a better price for their slaves, many who bring

boys from various regions to sell them to other lords declare that these boys were

taken in a just war and tell these boys to say the same.

Further, Japanese soldiers and camp followers had carried the practice of seiz

ing captives as slaves to Korea during Hideyoshi's invasion of that country at

the end of the sixteenth century. In fact, it was this practice that provided the

Portuguese with such an abundant supply of slaves for export. The Jesuits held

that Hideyoshi's invasion of Korea could not be considered a "just" war, and

that, thus, neither could the enslavement of the prisoners taken in it be condoned:

If matters are examined closely, then we see from our own experience that the

majority of the boys and girls who are sold are kidnapped or tricked and later

traded with absolutely no legal title. Insofar as we may assert that there is not one among one hundred who has been bought through legal channels, we can

well see what great sins emerge from this upon the conscience of those who buy or sell slaves or who consent to this trade. It is very rare and questionable indeed to have legal title to own a slave in Japan such as might prove that they were

made captive in a just war. Taking the Koreans as our first example, many have been exported aboard the Great Ship of Macao in the six years since the Japanese began the conquest [of Korea]. But they are not legitimate slaves, for the war

waged by the Lord of Japan was by no means legally justified. . . . After the

Japanese had made uncountable numbers of Koreans prisoner, they brought them

back to Japan and sold them off at very low prices. Not only did many Japanese from the region of Nagasaki take the opportunity to travel to other parts of Japan to buy up Koreans to bring them back for sale to the Portuguese; they also crossed

the sea to Korea for the sole purpose of seizing people, carrying them off even

from places already under Japanese control.

The Portuguese minutes also imply that the practice of slaving was far more

deeply entrenched in Kyushu than it was in the parts of Honshu with which they were familiar:




The parts of Japan that we come to are the coasts and kingdoms of Ximo

[Kyushu], where dwell the nobility of this nation. It not being his custom to seize

slaves through war, for this reason, Hideyoshi was outraged when he heard that

every year Japanese were being sold to the Portuguese in these kingdoms of

Ximo.9

It was not only prisoners taken in war, however, who could expect to end their

days as slaves. It was equally possible, the Jesuits noted, for Japanese to be

reduced to servitude because of debts or a criminal act and then be sold to the

Portuguese by their own countrymen:

It is the custom of the Japanese to put people to death for the most trivial reason, such as the theft of a worthless object. In such cases, the criminal's wife and chil

dren are reduced to the status of slave. It is also the custom among women [who have lost the desire to live with] their husbands, sons [who scorn] their fathers, and servants [who abandon] their masters to flee to the mansion of the Tono (lord) and become his slaves. Sometimes, creditors seize the children of a debtor [as

collateral]. The pawnbroker then burdens them with repayments and either sells

the children, or alternatively, forces the father to sell them. These three types of

people who have been enslaved either illegally, or in accordance with very dubi ous rules, are being sold to the Portuguese. As already said, the brokers falsify the legal situation in order to hide the injustice. The custom also exists of fathers, driven into extreme poverty, selling their children. This is done to escape extreme

and serious want.... Nonetheless, it happens that sometimes they are sold with out any real need and sometimes without any at all.

The general consensus of opinion at the conference seems to have been that

slaves who remained in Japan were better off than those carried abroad. Unlike

many of the Portuguese colonies, Japan did not have the kind of economy that

required teams of slaves working together. The Portuguese report also indicates

that Japanese slaves, unlike their counterparts in the West, owned their own per sonal possessions and could marry:

The Portuguese excuse their behavior by saying that they have legally purchased the Koreans or Japanese and so freed them from a worse form of slavery and

guaranteed them a better one. In reality, this is untrue because the Japanese give better treatment to the people they own as slaves and indeed treat them as their own children. The common people sometimes adopt them as children or even

allow them to marry their own daughters or relatives. The slaves also own in

their own right all the property they have acquired for themselves and they may use it as they wish. [By contrast], the Portuguese treat them just like dogs.

In contrast to Valignano's assertion that the Portuguese were "merciful and

kind" towards those they bought as slaves, the minutes of the Jesuit conferences

9 While earlier in their discussion the Jesuits had drawn attention to the activities of Japanese

slavers in Korea, they now claimed that Hideyoshi did not take slaves in war. The only possible conclusion is that Hideyoshi may have objected to slaving within Japan, but tolerated it during his campaigns in Korea. See below, pp. 480-481.




of 1598 describe the conditions in which slaves were exported in terms remi

niscent of the accounts of the infamous Middle Passage in the Atlantic:10

Because the Portuguese make great profits from this trade, they buy up as many slaves as they can without making the required investigation. They treat these

slaves like an item of merchandise. Even the lascars and servants of the Portu

guese are buying up slaves and selling them in Macao. As a result, many of the

slaves die at sea. This is because they are piled up one body on top of another, there being so many. As soon as their foremen, often the kafirs and blacks of the

Portuguese, fall ill, the slaves receive succor from no one. [Sometimes the mas

ters] are unable to give them sufficient provisions. Whereas many have only been

taken on as slaves for a limited and agreed period, they end up being sold as

slaves for the rest of their lives. The contracts they have concluded limiting the

terms of their service are simply broken. Sometimes, they are abandoned upon their masters' deaths or once their contracts have come to an end. The men

become thieves in Macao, robbing the Chinese who come to the city from the

villages with provisions. The women are forced through poverty to live badly and scandalously.

Japanese Slaves in Macao

Once Japanese slaves left the country, it becomes almost impossible to trace their

movements. Both Chinese and Japanese sources, however, confirm the existence

of some Japanese slaves at the Portuguese enclave of Macao. The presence of a

potentially disruptive Japanese community in Macao caused the Chinese great

anxiety. The Portuguese were allowed to act as middlemen between China and

Japan precisely because the Chinese considered the Japanese to be a major ele

ment within the pirate population in East Asia and believed that the problem could be reduced by severing all ties with them. They thus were angered and irri

tated to discover just how many Japanese slaves the Portuguese had introduced

into their settlement. In 1613, the Chinese delivered a series of five demands to

the Portuguese authorities in Macao, for which a Portuguese translation survives.

The first demand concerned the presence of Japanese slaves:

You may not retain Japanese people. You are Westerners and so of what use are

Japanese to you when you [can] use blacks? If things go on like this, the num

ber of [Japanese] will rise and rise. The law demands that Japanese people should

be killed wherever they are found. Your taking in such people is like taking in

wild tigers who will eat you [too]. When I went down to the harbor, I saw many

Japanese people, and I immediately had them sent away. The number was over

ninety. For this reason, I have had a stone pillar [set up]. As I have driven these

people away, you, too, will be able to live without fear. However, I am afraid

that, though I drive them away, you will merely bring more. When you go to that

country for trade, you must not bring back any Japanese, be they many or few.

10 In the Atlantic, European ships would sail to the west coast of Africa with goods to trade for

slaves. They would then carry these to the West Indies to exchange for sugar for the return voy

age. The route between Africa and the New World was known as the "Middle Passage."




Anyone who does bring them will be punished in accordance with the laws of

China, which means decapitation.11

A text dated 1614 and quoted in a local Chinese gazetteer confirms that some

ninety-eight Japanese were expelled from China around this time.12 Another

Chinese account confirms that a stone stele was set up, carrying the following

inscription:

It is forbidden to take in Japanese slaves. Among the merchants of Macao, both

those of long residence and those newly arrived, there are those who, as in the

past, dare to take in Japanese slaves and to take them aboard their ships when

they trade. A report shall be made concerning those who have regularly acted in

this way in recent years and they shall be punished according to military law.13

The Slave Trade in East Asia before the Arrival of the Portuguese Was this international slave trade in Kyushu something new, or were the

Portuguese merely exploiting existing local practices? The so-called wak? US

pirates had been seizing slaves from the coasts of Korea and China for at least

two centuries and bringing them to Japan. It was once argued that almost all the

wak? were Chinese. This was undoubtedly true of most (but not all) of the later

wak?, who raided the coasts of southern China in the middle of the sixteenth cen

tury. By contrast, the earlier wak?, who had concentrated their attention on Korea

in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, may have included Korean elements, but they were largely a Japanese or, more specifically, a Kyushu and Tsushima

based phenomenon. Many of the people they seized were then disposed of in

Japan. Nosongdang Ilbonhaengnok ^f?? B +?T?1, a travel diary of Japan writ

ten in 1420, reports that its author had come across a Japanese merchant vessel

while making the crossing to Japan. On board was a sobbing Chinese slave beg

ging for food and asking to be purchased so that he could escape his miserable

condition.14

In 1429, Pak Sosaeng thSe^ was sent on a diplomatic mission to Japan. Upon his return, he immediately presented the following report preserved in the chron

icles of the Yi dynasty:

Previously, the Wa pirates would invade our country, seize our people, and make

slaves of them. Alternatively they would sell them to distant countries and cause

it that they could never come home. . . . Wherever we went and whenever our

ships put into port in Japan, [Korean] slaves would struggle against each other

in their efforts to flee to us, but they were unable to do so because of the chains

that their masters had put on them.15

11 Bocarro 1876, p. 725.

12 Xiangshan-xian zhi #lilM>?, cited in Okamoto 1931, p. 773.

n?XM&. Aomenjilue ?PTOfflg, cited in Okamoto 1931, pp. 113-74. 14 Pack 1973, pp. 59-60. 15

mmm?J&nm, *?ae, ?n&nm. mn%m.m, ?^*m... e^??t> mmm, ?_*? A. 4Nfc2_.*, ?AA-?OO?IMPg*^:. I-cho sillok ^MM^fi, quoted in Maki 1961, p. 166; and in Murai 1993, p. 30.




Occasionally, after years of servitude in Japan, such captives would try to

make their way home. The Korean chronicles contain a number of references to

such men:

Yang Ji Sp, the Chinese whom Yorinaga fi?TK in Kami-Matsura ?f?if in Japan's Hizen province has sent to us, has given the following deposition: "I originally came from Ningbo in . . . China. I lost my parents while I was still small. My elder brothers Bin jf and Hui ?? were just ordinary folk. At the age of forty-two, I was seized by some wak? while I was out fishing. They took me back to

Tsushima island and made me serve in the house of a man called Tonsamon <S tp~%. I remained in his house for about fourteen years. Unable to bear the hard

ships I suffered there, I fled until I came to the house of Yorinaga in Kami Matsura in Hizen in Japan. I am old and I remember my village with fondness.

I pleaded with Yorinaga to let me come [to Korea]. However, upon considera

tion, I am old. Even if I were to go home, I don't know if any of my relatives are

still alive. I request to be allowed to remain in Korea.16

His request was refused and he was sent on to Ming China.

Literary sources from the Muromachi period offer further evidence of the exis

tence of an international slave trade and the presence of foreign slaves in Japan. The ballad Tosen Jtffp tells a story concerning a Chinese man called Sokei Kannin

WSP?X who is captured and sold. He is made to herd cattle for a great family in Kyushu. In time, he is able to marry a Japanese woman by whom he has two

sons. After thirty years, his two Chinese sons come over to buy his freedom. He

is given permission to go, but he does not want to abandon his Japanese family, and they cannot go with him. His master, the Lord of Hakozaki ?IK?, declares

that the two Japanese children were born his hereditary slaves and will remain

so for ever. In time, he relents, however, and all of them are allowed to leave for

China.17

There is also evidence that this traffic in slaves was two-way and that some

times Japanese might be sold to Koreans as slaves. The Veritable Records (I cho sillok ^KJ? S), the official chronicle of the Korean royal house, records the

following incident that occurred in 1408:

The buying of Wa slaves is prohibited. The superintendant of the capital of the

Ky?ngsang region submitted a report that Pak Ch'?nga #~^M of Kimhae com

mandery &M?fi? had been trading in Japanese slaves. One had escaped to a ship carrying the Japanese ambassador. The commandery's own officials sent word to the ambassador that this slave woman had legitimately been bought for a high price and that hiding her and not releasing her was not in accordance with neigh borly behavior. Thus they should return her immediately. The ambassador

16 B*nrM#i?f?srfi7i<pjT?jf Aff^w?*4^... ?iSiSAtii> ?hmxmm%>5imm> *?

M, 9JB#fflEfiffl?f??iMfi*?. &BE&, &?5??, ?i^fiblcffi*, ^MS?Ê?^St)l*? |B]a#?S*BJ?Q. WgAH. 7-c?o siHoJfc, quoted in Murai 1993, p. 41.

17 For a detailed analysis of this source, see Akiyama 1935. Maki 1961, pp. 147-64, gives a

synopsis of the literary sources dealing with slavery.




replied that his country did not have any private slaves, and so he did not return

her. When His Majesty heard this, he issued the above order.18

There has long been much debate as to whether the terms Wa #1 and "Japanese"

really coincided during the medieval era. Wa is often said to refer to the Northeast

Asian coastal community, of which maritime Japanese were one element. The

fact that this woman fled to the Japanese ambassador, however, would seem to

imply that she herself was from the Japanese islands. The ambassador's insis

tence that his country did not have private slaves may have been sincere, but, as

shall be demonstrated below, Japan did have something that was very close to

slavery.

Medieval Japanese Conceptions of Servitude

The sources considered above provide strong evidence that slavery, as it was

understood by Europeans of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century, existed in Sengoku-period Kyushu. Our next task is to try to explore more fully the forms of such servitude, the means by which a man or woman could descend

into slavery, and what rights these slaves had, if any. First, let us take a closer

look at the terms used at the time to indicate servile status. Vocabulario da

Lingoa de Japam, the Japanese-Portuguese dictionary published by the Jesuits

in 1603-1604, provides a convenient overview of this issue.

The terms for servile status given in Vocabulario include the following:

Fudai no guenin [genin]: amo ou criado de multas idades e antigo (a servant

over many generations) Fudai no mono: cativo ou criado por descendencia de multas idades (slave or

servant by descent over many generations) Fudai soden no mono: criado antigo que vem por descendencia de seu pai,

amo (long-standing servant who had inherited his or her status from his

father) Guenin: servo ou pessoa de servi?o (servant) Nubi: mo?o, ou mo?a de servi?o (serving-boy or serving-girl) Ximobe [shimobe]: h?rnern ou mother baixa de servi?o (lowly serving-man,

serving-woman)

Xoj? [shoj?]: dom?sticos da casa, & criados que est?ofora da casa (house hold domestics and servants who are outside the house)

Xoj?quenzocu [shoj? kenzoku]: o mesmo (the same)

Yat?uco [yatsuko]: criado, escravo ou servo cativo (servant or slave)19

As can be seen from this list, the compilers of the dictionary were rather incon

?BB?#*lfr. Quoted in Maki 1961, p. 167. 19

Vocabulario da Lingoa de Japam, ff. 106, 116, 187, 302, 31 lv, 318v. See also Alvarez

Taladriz n.d. While the Portuguese dictionary gives the reading nubi, modern historians normally

pronounce this word nuhi &i$.




sistent in their choice of terminology. They used both the word criado (servant) and the word cativo (slave) indiscriminately to translate terms such as fudai no

mono MH? <?>&<?> or shoj? Witt. The word escravo (slave) is used only to trans

late the general term yatsuko ?, but other entries in the same dictionary use it in

passing to define other terms. Fitocaibune (hitokaibune AWfn), for instance, is

translated as embarca?ao que leva escravos ou gente comprada (a ship carrying slaves or people who have been purchased). Fitoaqibito (hitoakibito ASA) is

translated as mercador que trata em comprar e vender gente (a merchant whose

business it is to buy and sell people.) And, while the concept of slavery presup

poses the concept of freedom, Vocabulario did not offer any term explicitly indi

cating "free" status. Perhaps the closest equivalent was bongue (bonge HT), which the dictionary defines simply as "a man of low station without letters and

without honor" (h?rnern baixo sem lettras e sem dignidade).20 What can we deduce from native texts about the differences in these terms

that Vocabulario holds to refer to servile status? Nuhi WM was already an ar

chaism in the medieval period. Although the standard term in the ritsury? codes

of the eighth century, the word was not normally used in written sources by the

end of the twelfth century. By medieval times, it is found mainly in legal texts,

where the authors were influenced by the terminology used by the editors of the

ritsury? codes.

The two terms most used in medieval sources to describe the unfree were shoj? and genin TA. Often appearing together as a compound, these words seem to

have been interchangeable and to have indicated one who was bound to a single master and did not have the right of free movement. Both frequently carried the

prefixes s?den fflf? ox fudai lift (hereditary). The difference between the two

words appears to have been more of nuance than substance, with genin imply

ing a more lowly status and shoj? being a more neutral term. A shogunal law of

1243.4.20, for instance, in attempting to distinguish the prerogatives of warriors

and commoners over their respective bound servants, used the term genin for

those held by commoners and shoj? for those held by warriors:

Concerning absconding genin: Where land stewards (jit?) are in dispute with one another [regarding custody over people of servile status], [even] if they have

been held in service for years, regardless of the statute of limitations, [while] the courts will not take up the case, from now on, those involved should ascertain the circumstances among themselves, and return [the person who absconded].

However, the genin of commoners (hyakush? Htt) are not to be confused with

the shoj? of jit?. So long as no more than ten years have passed, in accordance

with previous decisions, [absconded genin of commoners] should be returned

[to their original masters].21

20 Forfitocaibune mdfitoaqibito, see the supplement to Vocabulario, f. 349. It is of course pos

sible that these entries refer to European slave-ships and traders. For bongue, see f. 24v. See also

Alvarez-Taladriz n.d., p. 500.

fflsfi?i^*Ljgi!i, ifi^H?TA#, ^-njmmmzmf?. ?+ffi?ft#, ??5E?;?tt, ^jm#.




Such distinctions in prerogatives in fact proved problematic, and only a few

weeks later, this law was amended:

Concerning absconding genin: [If, in accordance with the shogunal order of

1243.4.20], ... a distinction is made between the shoj? of jit? and the genin of commoners (hyakush?), this will only create difficulties in reaching decisions, and disputes will never be resolved. Accordingly, as for past disputes, the courts are not to be involved, regardless whether the matter concerned shoj? of jit? or

genin of commoners. In the case of disputes from now on, the parties should ascertain the circumstances among themselves and hand back [the person who

absconded]. To ensure prompt compliance, we issue this order.22

We thus may conclude that the shogunate found it difficult to differentiate not

only between the prerogatives of masters of divergent status, but also between

the status of those in service to them. It is most reasonable to see the two terms

as overlapping in meaning.

Passages to Bondage

Turning from terminology to practice, let us explore the various means by which

one could become a genin or shoj?.

Birth. Both native and Iberian sources indicate that one route to servitude was

to be born into that estate. The terms s?den and fudai, suggesting transmission

from one generation to the next, attest to this situation. It also was possible, how

ever, for a child to be of mixed parentage, with one free and one unfree parent. In such cases gender determined status, with boys being slaves if their fathers

were, and girls if their mothers were. This was clearly stated in article 41 of

Goseibai shikimoku fP$cI??@, the law code of the first shogunate promulgated in 1232:

Concerning the boys and girls born to slaves (nuhi), in accordance with the prece dent from the time of [the founder of the Kamakura bakufu, Minamoto no

Yoritomo], boys are to go with their fathers and girls with their mothers, even if there are special circumstances.23

Sat? and Ikeuchi 1955, tsuikah? 207; vol. 1, pp. 143-44. The tsuikah? are the supplementary laws

of the Kamakura and Muromachi shogunates. In volume 1 of Ch?sei h?sei shiry?sh? ^t-tiEftdiE ?4A, their compendium of medieval law, Sat? Shin'ichi fe?ifl^ and Ikeuchi Yoshisuke ftiif?lt

M ascribed each of these laws a number. Their work has enjoyed such popularity among medieval

historians that it is now normal to use this numbering system to refer to the laws of the Kamakura

bakufu.

H?TFA> ?*&*?*, &Kk*R&ik. Mg^?JH?\ ffi__L?p&#Li_Hi_- ^?tg, ?j??PT??:^ ftfflflJi?Pft1. Sat? and Ikeuchi 1955, tsuikah? 209; vol.1, pp. 144-45.

23 ̂SPFi?^lS^*^??A#^#?ffl??l^fP0#??ÎB##^^#nJWSi!l. Sat? and Ikeuchi, vol. l,p. 24.




Debt slavery. Even if the majority of slaves were born into that estate, it was also

possible for freemen to descend into servitude. The Portuguese sources mention

that the practice of debt slavery was well entrenched in Japan. Such debt slav

ery was also a common practice in Southeast Asia up until the modern era.

Although it would be unwise to carry the analogy too far, the comparison is

nonetheless instructive. Anthony Reid gives the following definition:

Some bondsmen and bondswomen were acquired by inheritance, some as per

quisites of office, some as gifts in marriage, while others were captured in battle, or sought protection from an enemy. The most characteristic source of obliga tion to a master, however, was debt. At one extreme an inability to pay substan tial debts or judicial fines could lead to sale as a slave.24

Both the Kamakura shogunate and later regimes sanctioned the seizing of

hostages to ensure that taxes were paid. Frequently, it was the children or depen dents of the debtor who were used as collateral to cover the amount in arrears:

Taking permanent possession (torinagasu WlH) of peasant hostages: Regarding the aforementioned, it is legal to take hostages in order to ensure payment when

there is resistance to legally constituted taxes and dues. However, it is not accept able to take permanent possession of hostages because a tiny amount is owed or as punishment for a trifling crime. Even if years have passed, hostages should be returned if the debt is paid and such a request made. If their father or master states

that, due to an inability to pay, permanent possession is to be taken [of the

hostage], authority over [the hostage's person] should be assumed [only] after a

discussion has been held with the deputy jit? [the local Kamakura representa tive] of the area to determine the proper value, the money has been handed over, and the document of release has been issued.25

The same principles can be seen in a document dating from 1338 concerning the pawning of a child:

Concerning the pawning of my son Ubatar?, aged nine, to the family of Lord Ikehata for two hundred mon. There has been a famine this year, and because both I and my son would [otherwise] have starved, I gave him to the family [of Lord Ikehata]. During the famine [prices rose so much that] two hundred mon was the equivalent of two kanmon normally, so I said "I shall do it." Moreover, if I should forget the benevolence I enjoyed during the famine and not pay during the coming ninth month, then the child shall be taken as Your Lordship's hered

itary (s?den) person in perpetuity. This is to certify that by the ninth month I shall

pay twice the amount [received]. If the ninth month passes [without my being able to pay], then this document will serve as a document of release, and [Your

24 Reidl993,p. 121.

ti. IXftî??. ?T^?JUE. Sato and Ikeuchi, tsuikaho 287; vol. 1, p. 173. This document is quoted in Maki 1961, p. 124; and discussed in detail in Amino 1994, p. 134.




Lordship] shall permanently control the services of Ubataro on a hereditary basis.26

The law also stipulated that persons held as collateral for a loan or in lieu of

unpaid taxes became the property of the creditor after a certain number of years had passed. Article 41 of Goseibai shikimoku, cited above regarding the status

of children of mixed parentage, began with the statement:

Concerning slaves (nuhi) and other miscellaneous people. In accordance with

the precedent set by Yoritomo, if more than ten years have passed without any

objection being made, regardless of who is right and wrong, the case will not be

heard.27

The combination of this stipulation with the principle of potential redemption introduced various contradictions and ambiguities into the implementation of

laws concerning debt slavery. In that taxes and rents were regular and unavoid

able obligations, a further complication was that a local strongman might take

advantage of the situation to convert free farmers into bonded servants. To pre vent this from happening, the shogunate later added restrictions to the principle enunciated in article 41 of Goseibai shikimoku:

Concerning disputes over slaves (nuhi). It has already been stated in Goseibai

shikimoku that if more than ten years have passed without any objection being made, regardless of who is right or wrong, the case will not be heard. However, we hear that because persons hold the authority to administer a territory, they take the children and slaves (shoj?) of commoners (hyakusho) into their service

and then retain permanent control of them, claiming that ten years have passed. Or, asserting that people are their slaves (shoj?), they cause [such people] prob lems when [the latter] try to move to another place. If such is the case, it is an

outrage.28

Voluntary enslavement. Commoners might also choose to become slaves if the

alternative were starvation. A story titled "The Boy Who Sold Himself to Support His Mother," in Shasekish? ?>5?, a collection of didactic tales written in 1283

by Muj? Ichien Mft^R, relates such a case:

26 v^t?fct?(?iB5î^m5?fc^^t)^t)*?A^?0?S:, k?to^h/vlz^ti

?*??A\?*0):b?;b?&^fc^?^^

T/WS>< bi? b^l^^ ?iH^#&0 . Nanbokuch? ibun (Ky?sh?-hen) 1165; vol. 1,pp. 352-53. Also quoted in Ishii 1978, pp. 314-15.

27 SZ?*6A?, *??A#*?fi|?A^^3?+??^^ffe?l#^&^^??C. Sat? and Ikeuchi 1955,

vol. l,p. 24. 28 ??ffl?^, ?, ??8>ik?+*-?#, *s?3#, *&8>ifc?EiK ?f?tiS, ffiBff??ifT

^*, **^??A?1. Sat? and Ikeuchi 1955, tsuikah? 291; vol. 1, p. 174




During the long droughts of the Bun'ei period [1264-1274] Mino and Owari

provinces were especially hard-hit by the widespread famine, so that many

people fled to other areas. In Mino lived a poor mother and son who had no one

on whom to rely, and who in such troubled times could only starve to death. So

the boy decided to sell himself into bondage in order to provide for his mother.

But the mother could not agree. "If we are to die let us die together." Nevertheless, the son sold himself without his mother's consent and gave her the

proceeds. After a tearful farewell, he went down to the eastern provinces with

his new master. According to the report of someone who had taken lodging at

an inn at Yahagi in Mikawa province, the young boy wept uncontrollably among a large company of merchants with whom he was traveling. When he explained

what he had done and told of his sadness at leaving his mother, everyone at the

inn was moved. The boy's filial piety was not inferior to that in antiquity.29

Senj?sh? ?1a#, a collection of edifying tales reputedly written by the twelfth

century monk Saigy? Hff, but actually of uncertain authorship, offers another

account of people selling themselves of their own volition:

Long ago, I went to a place called Shita-no-Kamimura L ft <?>?fi in Echigo prov ince. The settlement is on the coast. Rich and poor people from the inland areas

had gathered at the harbor. It was just like a morning market, [except that] they were not trading merely shellfish from the sea, nuts from the mountains, silk

cloth, and such; they were also selling horses and people. These included, of

course, the very young and those in the prime of their lives, but also people [who looked as if] snow and frost had repeatedly fallen on their heads and whose backs

were stooped like a catalpa bow. Not knowing [their fate] from one day to the

next and hoping to eke out their lives for the moment, they spun tales and played on the sympathy of others. When they were sold, they wept [for joy].30

Criminals as slaves. It was not only debtors who could be converted into slaves.

If a criminal was condemned to death but this sentence was commuted, he

became the personal property of whoever exercised the policing (kendan i&Hr)

rights in that area. Unlike the documents recording land transactions, documents

detailing this practice, known as mibiki %!%, are fairly rare. This does not nec

essarily mean that they were rare at the time, however; merely that few have

been preserved.31 One such document dated 1400 has been preserved in the

archives of the Aokata #;? family of northern Kyushu:

I, Magosabur?, committed a crime at Nama on the Aokata lands. I should imme

diately have been put to death, but I apologized to the investigating official

29 Morrell 1985, p. 239; see also Shasekish?, pp. 383-84.

30 Saigy? zensh?, pp. 659-60. Also quoted in Maki 1961, pp. 147-48.

31 The fullest extant collection of such documents originally belonged to the Chiba =f H fam

ily of the Kant? region. Paper was a precious commodity, and their scribe gave a wad of old

documents to Nichiren so that he could use the reverse to inscribe a devotional work. See Ishii

1990, pp. 10-11. The fact that the scribe gave these documents away illustrates that after a period of time had elapsed they were of no further value and may help explain why so few have sur

vived.




(ch?mongata), and, in accordance with the law, submitted a hikibumi [giving up

my freedom]. If I flee to another estate, you may claim three members of my

family [lit: parents and children] as hereditary slaves (j?dai s?den no genin) also.

It does not matter onto the lands of which temple or shrine I flee, I will utter no

word of protest when I am prosecuted by the terms of this document.32

These mibiki give the appearance of having been written by the person for

going his freedom, but quite often the new owner seems to have drafted the doc

ument himself and then submitted it to the newly enslaved man to endorse. The

following example dates from 1455:

This certifies that, because I have engaged in kidnapping, I hand over my per son. My name is Oto Hosshi, but my age is not written here as I am concealing it. I hand over my person to Hatayama-dono in perpetuity.33

As medieval Japan did not have prisons, it was a common practice, especially in the eastern part of the country, to put criminals in the custody (sh?jin azukeoki

HAfi?B) of a vassal or even in the charge of a hyakush? or unfree shoj??4

Presumably, hyakush? could force these uninvited guests to work for them, but

prisoners do not appear to have become their property, and responsibility for

looking after them could be a heavy burden. In the eyes of the local authority,

allowing such prisoners to escape was a gross dereliction of duty and worthy of

severe punishment, even being taken into slavery. A legal decision issued by the

Rokuhara Commandery in 1243 provides information on just such a case. A

plaintiff called Kanshin SfcO protested that the deputy jit? had ordered both his own slaves and local commoners to take in and keep watch over some thieves,

who had then escaped. A fine of one kanmon had been imposed on their

guardians. The deputy jit? replied that this practice was perfectly normal, but

Kanshin contended that the deputy jit? was using this incident to force farmers

to become his slaves illegally. In another instance, a blind man had come around

the estate begging, and a family of commoners had taken him in. The deputy jit? not only had proceeded to arrest the beggar for stealing three sheaves of rice, but

also had enslaved the wife and daughter of the man who had lodged the beggar and demanded that they supply the deputy with hikibumi. The deputy jit? replied that what he had done to the thief was natural and in accordance with precedent.

The man and his wife had fled after they had been taken into custody. The deputy did not know what had happened to the daughter, as the matter had been dealt

with by his predecessor. He asked why he should not reduce to servitude people

32 w^f)mn(D^\z^^xMm(D^\zm^^^^^m^{?^?mz^'DX, mzmL^r^<m

^?*fe, ^^5t)^*'^?**?pfl, ffi?ssâix*b?i-:*?, ffi?itcffit)HiT*?mi, ?fC;ffiE<Z)TA^SiHA?)^fcaffiî-r^<fe ^^^??M??#a{A#C)??l*l^t-iT AD?f?<__fc, ^0??^T^tkLg$n?J#, -P(7)S?i?Û<M. Aokata monjo, vol. 2, p. 153. Also quoted in Ishii 1994, pp. 156-57.

33 Afr^?fcSnckA/C, ^?r>?*^0T*li_, ^^???BfS?*M^?^. ??fr[<]T~

cfc/uT, ?^^-f?^ *ft43frt?Df?T, ?BBL?^0r^#^^^??g0TAi!l.QuotedinIshiil994, p. 160.

34 This was one way by which a free warrior might descend to the status of bound r?d? ?|5^

warrior.




who had lodged a thief. The shogunate concluded that his actions had been exces

sively harsh and also ordered him to pay back the one kanmon he had taken from

the commoners.35

Abduction and enslavement. Medieval law codes also make frequent reference

to kidnapping (hitokadoi A&J3I), which in effect meant the taking of slaves.

Today, kidnapping for ransom usually implies the seizing of a wealthy individ

ual and the demanding of money. In medieval Japan, wealth meant primarily the

ability to control land and, equally importantly, labor. Many of those kidnapped were in fact peasants, and what the kidnapper acquired was access to the labor

resources that they represented. When ransoms were demanded, it was after a

campaign where people had been seized in bulk and taken to a different domain.

In the disturbed conditions of the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, oppor tunities multiplied for irregulars and camp followers to seize captives in the areas

they passed through. What had previously been merely random kidnappings came to be carried out on a grand scale. Both irregular and regular troops engaged in indiscriminate pillaging and slaving (randori gLfi ? ), a practice also known

as hitogari A??, or "harvesting people." Fujiki Hisashi W^fc& argues that hito

gari was a common practice in every campaign. A floating population of the

footloose and desperate would emerge from the undergrowth whenever there

was fighting in the hope of loot. Fujiki provides a wealth of sources to show just how common the practice of abducting slaves was. K?y? gunkan WISES, for

instance, offers a graphic account of the great numbers of women and children

seized by the Takeda army after the Battle of Kawanakajima JII^?f of 1553:

It was entirely due to [Takeda Shingen's SEH fit ?] skill at arms that I, as general,

leading the people of this place, burned [and pillaged] as far as the other side of

Sekinoyama H<Diij and struck as far as . . . the vicinity of Lord Terutora's WlJ?

[Uesugi Kenshin ?^Htfi!] castle, abducting people from Echigo province and

bringing them back here to serve us.36

H?j? godaiki ^t^Sf^lH reveals how systematized the process of ransoming and abduction could become:

A small stretch of sea lies between Sagami and Awa. It is a short distance to cross

by boat, and both allied and enemy forces have many ships. The fighting never

ceases. At night they sometimes come across in one or two small boats to steal, and they pillage the settlements near the shore. On other occasions they come

with fifty or thirty ships and set ablaze the coastal villages, seizing women and

children [before] quickly going back out to sea while it is [still] dark. The

inhabitants of Shimazaki ft^ have come to a private understanding with, and

pay rice tribute to, the enemy, calling it hante 4^, so that they can live in peace at night. They are in secret contact with the enemy and buy back the hostages.37

35 Kaizu 1986, pp. 3-4.

36 Quoted in Fujiki 1995, pp. 27-28. The original is to be found in K?y? gunkan taisei, vol. 1,

p. 168. 37

H?j? godaiki, quoted in Fujiki 1995, p. 32. For the original work, see H?j? godaiki, p. 196.




Reports by the Portuguese corroborate such accounts. In 1578, the Shimazu

SjW armies overran the ?tomo ~X1z. territories in northern Kyushu. The Portu

guese writer Luis Frois records that the prisoners were sold in Higo. Because of

a famine, however, the Higo people were unable to feed them and so sold them

off at Mie and Shimabara in Hizen:

Some of the people seized in Bungo by Satsuma troops were taken to Higo for

sale. However, the people of Higo were suffering from terrible famine and tra

vails at that time and could not even support themselves, still less the people they had purchased. Thus, they were shipped off for sale in Takaku like sheep or cattle.

In this way, they were sometimes sold off in lots of forty at Mie and Shimabara.

They were handing over women, little boys, and girls from Bungo for only two

or three mon to be free of them. The numbers were very great indeed.38

As the Sengoku daimyo moved to establish firmer control over the economic

and social resources of their territories, they also began to try to limit the anar

chy inherent in this situation. The Uesugi code of 1604, for instance, acknowl

edged the legitimacy of buying and selling human beings, but sought to rein in

the activities of freelance slave-traders:

You should detain anyone who arrives with attendants (j?rui ?a??) and no proof of their legal possession. This applies both to people with whom you are pri

vately acquainted as well as people you do not know. You must then immedi

ately report the matter to the local official responsible. The selling of people to

other provinces, whether they are men or women, will cease. Sales within the

domain are allowed if registered with the local official responsible.39

Similarly, whenever Hideyoshi pacified a region, one of the first things he did

was to order that people who had been carried away as slaves or hostages be

returned to their home villages. In 1587, when he embarked upon the pacification of Kyushu, he sent the following order to Kat? Kiyomasa jjn??ilE and Konishi

Yukinaga /hiSff j|, generals in the Toyotomi league:

Commoners and others from Bungo have been bought and sold in recent years? men, women, and children, without regard to status. Concerning those who are

[now] in Higo, issue instructions that they shall be returned without fail. In partic ular, concerning those abducted later than last year, you should strictly order that

the buyer shall lose his money. Disobedience of this ruling should be declared a

crime.40

Such measures served three purposes. They announced that the period of civil

38 "Frois Apparatus," vol. 1, p. 20. The volume number and pagination refer to the bound photo

copy kept by the Historiographical Institute of the University of Tokyo. 39 *#*a*&*. i*g*#?H?#iK?. ?EUS*. &gEtt?*>&<. ?il^?^r;^, @it.

ffi<DKmwm\z, ^^Bj?ji?. mmÂ^Ttmm, ^tz^mw?. ??+??#, %m?.f?-m SPft^??fl??n. "?JStTcS?*. Quoted in Maki 1961, p. 182.

40 *??H?HttA^?T^PS. B^Sifi?^7c?. SE?aH-ffi-?#?*. ?tt?SnJilfm

Quoted in Maki 1961, p. 236.




strife was over and that the "Great Peace" had been restored. They helped tie the

workforce to the land and so guarantee agricultural production, and, by forbid

ding the seizure of each other's labor supply, they helped forestall disputes between the major lords.

But however much Hideyoshi may have sought to ban slaving, one of his poli cies in particular massively increased the supply of slaves in Japan?his inva

sion of Korea. The minutes of the Jesuit conference of 1598, as noted above,

speak of the huge numbers of slaves taken in Hideyoshi's invasions of the penin sula. Japanese sources confirm the situation. One of the most vivid accounts of

the fighting was written by a minor warrior named ?shima Tadayasu JK?hJEM.

He sent a letter home to his wife in which he stated that, as his retainer Kakuemon

A?UrPI was going home, he had sent with him a teruma 7^1/V slave and a kaku

sei ti^î^ slave as gifts. He was concerned to discover whether or not they had

arrived safely. The kakusei slave, presumably a child, was to go to his daughter.

Tadayasu reported that he had also taken an eleven-year-old child prisoner on

the battlefield and was then using him as a servant. Unfortunately, the child was

terribly sickly, and this was causing problems. The letter notes as well that

Tadayasu was planning to get another teruma slave and send it to his daughter and also to take a child?one who would make a good slave-girl (gejo Tie)? and send her to someone called J?zaemon no j? f??#?n_hit as his next gift.41

Slave Sales and Bequests It is clear that once possession had been taken of a hostage, he or she could be

bought, sold, or bequeathed. The large number of bills of sale surviving from

the later medieval period provide evidence that the buying and selling of human

beings was common. The earliest example of such a bill of sale dates from 1324:

Certificate attesting to the sale of Inumasa.

Total price 2 kan 200 mon: This is to certify that the aforementioned woman

called Inumasa, aged ten [blank], has been sold and that she and her [further] descendants will remain the property of the buyer. If she flees, either her infant

daughter or her mother [blank] will be handed over on a hereditary basis. If she

defies her owner and flees, and her parents conceal whither she has fled, then let

the wrath of all the gods and Buddhas be heaped upon them. Set down for future

reference.42

Over two centuries later, in 1570, a twenty-six-year-old slave called Yokur?

-%*%$$ was sold by his master, who commented:

41 Fujiki 1995, p. 60-61. The words kakusei and teruma are believed to be Korean loanwords

of uncertain etymology. From the context, however, it is clear that they are varieties of slave.

m%, mz?TMz??)t>rcLnt>i?:mtz.?>L%&, bLiztt^nbmmt'i^Ttbof?t. ??SaSrDKTfcf?'V mZoTMZtbZtlf?U. X?^?-?-tm$^?>i?f?T, ^T^Dtt

D0W1^>?, *^<^^<D^?'\<^ &T (Dtt o b/u<DL^ 5. Kamakura ibun2SSS3; vol. 37, p. 227. Also quoted in Maki 1961, p. 138.



482 Monumento Nipponica 59A

Although this person is of a line of slaves who have been held in our family for

many generations (fudai s?den), I am selling him in perpetuity for fourteen bales

of rice to the Mitsuz?in as I have a need for funds. If he should have any sons,

they shall be your hereditary property too.43

Slaves remained inheritable property. Beginning from the end of the Heian

period, medieval wills frequently mention slaves as an adjunct to other types of

property. A few even deal exclusively with slaves, as does, for example, the fol

lowing testament of a woman from 1343:

Concerning the bequest by [me], Ama, of a twenty-four-year-old woman called

Hatsu and a child, Shaka. They are [of a line of] hereditary slaves (s?den no

shoj?) belonging to me, and I hereby clearly bequeath them in perpetuity to my son Sent? Hy?e no j?. Let no one dispute this in future.44

Rights and Restrictions

On the basis of the Jesuit debate on the nature of slavery in Japan, let us now

examine the Japanese sources to see what rights slaves may have enjoyed.

Property rights and marriage rights. The Portuguese report stated that, unlike

in the Occident, slaves had the right to own property, and this is confirmed by

Japanese documents. For example, in 1443, Matashir? XPHE? of Kasasagi SS in

Nara was able to buy his freedom from his master and his master's wife by

putting up the very considerable sum of ten kanmon of his own money.45 Slaves could establish liaisons with someone who was not a slave, and laws

determining the status of any children born to such a relationship have already been cited. Slaves also seem to have had sexual ties to people outside the house

hold where they lived. An incident reported in Azuma kagami shows the com

plications that could result from such a situation. While Yoritomo was plotting rebellion against the Taira in the home of his H?j? in-laws, a male servant

(z?shiki ?S?) came in from a neighboring warrior residence in order to visit a

female slave (gejo) owned by the H?j?. As he was owned by a warrior family

unsympathetic to Yoritomo's cause, steps had to be taken to ensure that he did

not carry news of the plot back to his master.46

Another result of these liaisons was that warrior houses frequently had to nego tiate the ownership of slaves with their neighbors, a circumstance that hints at

why the rules governing the division of slave children needed to be so detailed

and so often restated. A will dating from 1288 lists over one hundred male slaves

til, SJB?^<fcDffi*#l?^ A#~A*ft<&$!fc5^<f?. Quoted in Ishii 1978, p. 300.

?S. Quoted in Ishii 1978, pp. 292-93. 45 Takahashi 1977, p. 93. 46

Azuma kagami, Jish? 4 (1180).8.17; vol. 1, p. 55.




owned by the Tadokoro 03 0T family of Aki province. Among them was a male

child living with his mother because his male relatives were dead. As soon as he

was old enough to work, he was sent to his father's owner:

Regarding Banta Kunimori's grandson. His father47 Banjir? [appears in] a hiki

bumi from [his] father, Kunimori. However, as both his grandfather and father are dead, this child has been living with his mother at Nihojima. In the spring of

K?an 11 [1288], I sent Kokuz? [to Nihojima] and ordered that he should come

and serve me. The mother agreed that he should serve me though he is still

young.48

While on this occasion, the matter seems to have been settled amicably, the

Tadokoro will also indicates that legal disputes over slaves were common. The

Tadokoro house had been forced to go to court three times in order to secure

control of its slaves. In one case, the judge had chosen to split a slave family between two masters. Although the slave Munet? remained with the jit? rather

than the Tadokoro house, he had to compensate the Tadokoro, who were his

father's creditors, with a child of his own. In return, from then on, one child from

every generation of his line was to serve the jit?. The others presumably were to

stay in the service of the Tadokoro:

The aforementioned slave's grandfather Munekado handed himself over for five kanmon in cash. In addition, it was understood that [the master] would have the services of any descendants. After Munekado died, Munet? suddenly announced that he was in the service of the jit?. Consequently, he was ordered to pay back

the ten kanmon (originally five) that had been paid to Munekado. So [Munet?] handed over the aforementioned Otowakamaru [instead]. It was agreed that

[henceforth], in accordance with customary practice, depending upon the num

ber of children, one should be handed over to the jit?, and that thus this matter

would not be subject to dispute.49

Kyory? nojiy?. Various restrictions set slaves apart from the free poor. One was

limitation of the right to live where they wished. Shogunal law specifically con

firmed the right of commoners (bonge) to seek a new place of abode (kyory? no

jiy? g?? (D g ?) once they had paid their taxes. The following law was issued in

1253:

Concerning whether peasants leave or stay. It is set down in the [Goseibai] shikimoku that this should be at the discretion of the peasants. However, it has come to our attention that the families and possessions [of peasants who have exercised this discretion] have been seized on the pretext that they have

47 The text says grandfather, but this is probably an error given the whole sense of the passage.

#*n ?es. Kamakura ibun 16862; vol. 22, p. 160.

Kamakura ibun 16862; vol. 22, p. 160.




absconded, or that, saying [the peasants] have debts and acting highhandedly, [the local proprietor] has forcibly taken possession of their persons and then

treated them as hereditary [slaves]. If this is true, it is an outrage.50

By contrast, as this law implied, genin did not enjoy kyory? no jiy?, and a

genin who fled was to be returned to his master. Sometimes when a genin was

caught, he would deny his servile status in an attempt to remain free. A certain

S?ei #^ served a resident of Echi #1? district in ?mi province by the name of Taira no Toshizane WM. On Toshizane's death, S?ei's sons were distributed

among Toshizane's children. The fourth of the slave's sons, Ky?raku Jir? $mM

&II5, was given to Toshizane's adoptive son, who then passed him on to his own

second son, Shinzei fflfiS. Ky?raku Jir? eventually fled and entered the service

of an Enryakuji priest. When it was discovered that he was a hereditary genin,

however, he was immediately returned to his former master. Then, during the

Kench? era (1249-1256), Ky?raku Jir? absconded again and entered the service

of the district agent (gunshugodai ?Pî?ft) of a provincial military governor. Shinzei would have none of his protestations that he was not a genin and de

manded his return:

Although there may be differences in status between you and myself, our views are one over the holding of slaves. If this sort of lying and plotting on the part of

servants is not checked, there will be no stopping their misdeeds in future. If [you are concerned] that someone who is not a hereditary servant has been seized as

such, I have submitted the signatures of local people, [who can confirm the truth

of what I am saying.]51

Evidence that slaves could be put to death at their master's discretion can be

found in a case from 1270. The daughter of Lord Kiyowara i#JS complained to

the courts that her younger adopted brother (toriko M^) had put to death a slave

girl who was dear to her. The court ruled that the matter was a private affair over

which the court had no jurisdiction.52 But while there are many documents asserting that fleeing genin should be

returned to their masters, the fact that such laws had to be so often restated is

itself indicative of an important feature of medieval society. The right to prop

erty, be it land or slaves, might be enshrined in a written document, but with no

policing institution, the enforcement of rights often depended on the degree of

local power wielded by the parties involved. Thus, although the law did not

acknowledge the right of slaves to leave their masters, sometimes, in practice,

they could.

?>ik, ?A#?m ^ffl?îlSS-EW&ffi., *#, ?K?S?itil. Sat? and Ikeuchi, tenifeit? 289; vol. l,p. 174.

Kamakura ibun 7267; vol. 10, p. 219. This document is analyzed in detail in Ishii 1990, pp. 22-43.

See also Takahashi 1977, p. 79. 52

Kamakura bakufu saikyoj?sh? 120; vol. 1, pp. 163-64.




This circumstance helps to explain why lawsuits concerning slaves were so

common. As one example we may consider, an undated late-thirteenth-century

plea lodged by a certain J?nin ??S, a member of the Chiba =f H lineage and a

close friend and patron of the Buddhist priest Nichiren. J?nin had inherited two

slaves, but when their former master moved from Inaba to the Kant? region, the

slaves had taken up residence with the reeve (kumon (?'SQ of the local Ichinomiya shrine. In his plea J?nin sought to assert his claim to the two men:

To wit: My slaves (shoj?) Sabur? HE? and Gor?maru S?R?l have been retained

by Gent? t?^, the kumon of the Ichinomiya shrine of Inaba province (we do not

know his real name). There was no justification for this.

Regarding the aforementioned, these men were conveyed to me, J?nin, in the

second year of Kench? [1250] by the lay priest Toki Naka[hara] Ta[r?] HW^ A

(priestly name Rennin WM). This is clearly stated in the instrument of con

veyance. After Rennin took up residence in the Kant?, these men started to fre

quent Gent?'s residence of their own accord.

When their original master (honshu $z? [that is to say Rennin and J?nin]) calls

them for service, they of course should not disobey this order. Nevertheless,

Gent?, saying that they have come of their own accord, [continues to] hold them.

I have repeatedly written to him that, in accordance with the principles of jus

tice, he should return them, but he has not replied. This is an outrage and will be

a source of disorder. As I have been unable to solve the problem through my own

efforts, I request that you issue an order to the administrative officer (mandokoro

R0f) of Ichinomiya instructing him to return these men immediately in accor

dance with the instrument of conveyance.53

In some cases the parties concerned were able to work out a solution to a sit

uation like this. The Tadokoro will cited earlier, for instance, indicates that a

slave passed down in the family had left to work for the local jit?. On this occa

sion, it will be remembered, the two slave owners seem to have been able to

reach an amicable settlement, wherein they agreed to share the slave's progeny. Contested claims to slaves clearly challenged the capacity of Kamakura courts,

however. Thus, as seen in a number of examples above, to minimize the num

ber of potential lawsuits, the shogunate also applied a statute of limitations con

cerning slavery. The former owners of slaves could not claim them back if more

than ten years had passed since they last exercised their rights of ownership.

Similarly, a child sold into servitude could no longer be reclaimed by its parents if more than ten years had passed.

53 AHttB-g&:fc7cS(*??*)?6lf?iff??HfiB?f?EfiBA#, i?lilt. fMfc mm%,

?*. fr?RJSi?iîiiJi7n*a?:, si^*igtt^B#. so/f^?i?lî?. ffigE^jmm ?? ?g?T*UI?S. fAS*??.?. tfcFAiUf?ifc, ?iI?S, uf?^tBti?. R)ff?f?tt^*fT?;. ^??W^c. ^?LilfMlJl;^. ?fflT-Ki&?m 0}ffia?#Dft. Ishii 1990, pp. 14-15. Ishii

provides a detailed discussion of this document, pp. 12-21.




The Employment of Slaves

The type of work a slave was expected to perform depended on whether he or

she lived within or outside the home. As with the Gibeonites in the Bible, who

were made hewers of wood and drawers of water, literary sources such as the

tale Sansh?-day? \hWd^^. describe a boy-slave as being made a woodcutter and

his sister a water carrier. We may assume that these were standard duties assigned to domestic slaves. The Chinese slave in the ballad Tosen is made into a cattle

herder. The Tadokoro will and other sources also indicate, however, that some

slaves continued to work on the land. A slave identified as Seijir? ?^C?? is listed, for instance, as the cultivator of seven and a half tan fx of land. He had become

a Tadokoro slave because of the inability of the family that either owned him or

of which he was a member to pay their rice tax. On some occasions land and the

slaves who worked it were bequeathed together.54 It would appear that slaves who worked within the home were regarded as

being more beholden to their master than slaves who worked a designated piece of land. They were in constant contact with their master and were fed by him or

her. Every time they ate, consequently, their debt increased. This was particu

larly so if they had been brought up in the master's household. The Tadokoro

will and other sources describe some slaves as having lived in the household

since they were in diapers (ky?h? no naka yori g IMS 40- By implication, for

hereditary (s?den) slaves, the degree of their bondage grew with every genera tion.

Trading in Slaves

While slave owning was clearly a recognized practice in medieval Japan, the

Kamakura law codes repeatedly prohibit the buying and selling of human beings.

Take, for example, a shogunal order dated 1240.5.12:

Concerning the prohibition on the buying and selling of human beings: Over the

generations, the imperial court has issued innumerable edicts [prohibiting such

trade], and these laws have been enforced by the shogunate. During the famine

of the Kangi period [1229-1232], however, people [had no choice but to] sell

their children and dispose of their servants (shoj?) in order to maintain their exis

tence. Because [to hold to] the prohibition [in these circumstances] would con

versely have caused the people to suffer, it was not enforced. Now, however,

things have returned to their former state. Even so, we hear that assorted persons are flouting the law. This is an outrage. Let it be stopped immediately.55

Of special note in the above quotation is the reference to assorted persons. Who might these have been? In other instances, such as a law from 1290, the

shogunate singled out slave traders (hitoakibito) as the objects of censure:

54 See, for example, the Takebe Kiyotsuna jSn?if M will of 1275. Kamakura ibun 12213; vol.

16, p. 205.

?S, SJ^M?H, ?ft?^?M^?N -?-^J^?$ih?. Sat? and Ikeuchi, tsuikah? 142; vol. 1, p. 121. Also quoted in Maki 1961, p. 98.




It is said that there are many people who, calling themselves merchants in peo

ple, make this their sole occupation. This shall be stopped. Those who disobey shall be branded on the face.56

We may surmise that the "assorted persons" targeted by the 1240 law were sim

ilarly "merchants in people." In other words, the authorities acknowledged own

ership of slaves, which often involved the exchange of money, but banned slave

trading. The key word at issue in such prohibitions is baibai t?H (trafficking). As far as the Kamakura shogunate was concerned, the bond of a slave to his or

her master was personal. The acquisition and transmission of ownership of a

slave by the master might entail financial compensation, but it was illegal for a

third party to act as a broker. Adding to the ambiguity of this situation, the pro hibition of slave trading was allowed to elapse during times of famine, as seen

in the 1240 edict. There was always a large group of people living in poverty. Famine pushed them over the edge and into the arms of the hated slavers.

In contrast to the first shogunate, the Ashikaga regime made little or no effort

to prevent the buying and selling of human beings, and the practice remained

commonplace. A number of literary sources depicting the activities of slave

traders can be traced to the Muromachi period. The most famous of these is

Sansh?-day?, a story that has been reworked many times over the centuries. The

earliest extant version is a sekky?bushi iililiffii tale from the early Edo period, but

the consensus view is that this was based on an older story. In outline, the plot runs as follows: Iwashiro Masauji ?ftioEJS, an official in northern Japan, is exiled

for some unnamed crime. His son Zushi? ^ L? and his daughter Anju gc# set

out to visit him accompanied by their mother and former wet nurse. After some

days they arrive at Naoi-no-ura f?i?^(Z)ffi in Echigo province, but they cannot

find anyone to give them lodging for the night. An old woman explains that peo

ple who had in the past taken in strangers had been accused by the local magis trate of trading in slaves and harboring bandits. As a result, an order had gone out forbidding the villagers to provide hospitality. Eventually, however, a man

called Yamaoka-day? L?M^:^ offers them a room. He even proposes to serve

as their guide the following day. The next morning they set off down to the har

bor where, to their surprise, two boats are already waiting for them. The two

older women board one of the ships, the boy and the girl the other. Their guide

explains that the men in charge of the boats are his associates and that they will

both be going to the same place. What Yamaoka-day? has actually done is to sell the unfortunate travelers. The

mother ends up on the island of S ado. When she tries to escape, she is lamed and

made to work as a bird-scarer. She cries herself blind. The two children are

eventually sold to another slave owner called Sansh?-day? for seven kanmon, a

very considerable sum. As mentioned above, the girl is made into a water car

rier and the boy into a woodcutter. Their treatment is extremely harsh. When the

56 *aswah;?*, #^&?s*> pj#il m^m^^m^m^w^ sato and ikeuchi, ̂ ^0

625; vol. 1, p. 284. Also quoted in Maki 1961, p. 101.




master hears of slaves plotting to escape, he brands them so that everyone can

see that they are slaves. Eventually, the girl sacrifices herself so that her brother

can escape. She dies under torture. Her brother makes his way to Kyoto where

his true identity is revealed. He returns to find and free his mother. Sansh?-day? is horribly punished.57

Medieval ballads provide equally heartrending accounts of the treatment of

slaves and the cruelty of slave traders. The ballad Sumidagawa ?EBJH tells the

story of a mother whose only child is seized by a slaver. She immediately sets

off to retrieve him, and at the Sumida river she meets a boatman who takes pity on her and agrees to carry her across. Noticing a group of people under some

willow trees, she asks the boatman who they are. He tells her that a child pur chased by slavers had been abandoned there for being too young and weak to

continue its journey. He explains that the child had managed to give its name

before expiring. The woman realizes the dead child to be her own son, and his

spirit then appears before her.58

From the middle of the fifteenth century, Japan ceased to be in any substan

tive sense a unified state, and local magnates began to compete for control of

land and, equally importantly, labor. While on the one hand this situation may have spurred the seizing of captives as slaves, the activities of hitoakibito fol

lowing in the wake of armies also threatened to strip the domains of their human

capital. Perhaps for this reason many regional law codes from the period specif

ically forbid the selling of people outside the domain. The Uesugi code cited

above (p. 480) should be seen in this context as should Hideyoshi's efforts to

restrict slave trading within Japan. It is possible, too, that there was considerable regional variation in practices

concerning slavery. As early as 1192, when the first shogun, Yoritomo, ap

pointed military governors in Kyushu, he gave them powers to stamp out trad

ing in people that were not enjoyed by governors elsewhere.

The office of the former general of the right sends the following orders to Sahy?e no j? Koremune no Tadahisa. You are required to fulfill your duties as officer

responsible for overseeing [Kamakura] vassals (kenin bugy?nin) in the provinces of ?sumi and Satsuma, to wit: . . . You are to put a stop to the trade in human

beings. Repeated government orders have been issued to this effect, but it has

come to our attention that the residents of outlying provinces are defying the law.

This shall cease immediately. If anyone goes against this ruling, let him be

severely punished . . .59

57 For a fully annotated version, see Kojoruri sekkyo shu, pp. 318-90. In the modern period the

story has been made famous by the Meiji novelist Mori ?gai MM9V and the filmmaker Mizoguchi Kenji?P?Z!.

58 For a fully annotated version, see Y?kyoku, vol 2, pp. 502-17.

59 m-?JsMWLWRy. fc?ffieift^?A plf-ÂPgffl?f^HÂ^?f A, &?>&&* ?...-*!

?* ?N pJÂ?4^. Kamakura ibun 950; vol. 2, p. 275.




Literary sources often speak of slaves being carried from the capital to outly

ing provinces, and it may be that outlying regions had a greater need for labor

and so drew it in from the more densely populated central provinces. It is true,

too, that almost all the surviving European evidence concerning slavery comes

from the island of Kyushu. Given the fact that slavery may have been more wide

spread there than in other parts of the country, we should keep this circumstance

in mind when generalizing from this evidence.

To conclude, many Japanese suffered the indignity of being taken as slaves and

carried to distant shores, just as elsewhere African princelings sold prisoners of

their own to Portuguese merchants. The Portuguese were able to buy these slaves

because slave trading between Japan, China, and Korea already existed. This

fact is confirmed in Korean, Portuguese, and Japanese sources. The supply of

slaves in the ports of Kyushu depended upon the fact that seizing slaves in

Japan's own domestic wars was a well-established custom, as was the selling of

children by debtors and the indigent. Genin were held within the household as

bound servants. They could be bought and sold quite legally and returned for

cibly to their masters if they ran away. They could not seek justice from the courts

and could be put to death at their master's wish. They could, however, dispose of their own property as they wished. The law stepped in primarily when third

parties were involved and when the seizing of and trading in human beings was

carried out on a large and impersonal scale. The increasing ineffectuality of gov ernment from the middle of the fourteenth century made such restrictions harder

to apply, and they were largely ignored throughout the Muromachi era. With the

coming of the Portuguese and Hideyoshi's invasion of Korea, the slave traders

were able to develop lucrative new markets. These events helped tie Japan into

the worldwide trade in slaves developing at the time, the legacy of which has

left a huge imprint upon the world to this day. At the same time, within Japan, moves towards the consolidation of authority on the domainal and national scale

led to renewed efforts to restrict and control trade in human beings.




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Slavery in Medieval Japan

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