Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Violence of this kind had been more common in the seventeenth century than later in
the period, when the police had become more efficient. In the 1600s, among the hatamoto
or “banner-men” ( samurai who had direct access to the Shogun), were some young men
whose duties were very light but who still had a comfortable income. They formed gangs,
one of which, for example, was called the “White Hilt Mob,” who wore white obi and
white fittings to their swords, which were longer than usual. They adopted eccentricity of
dress, wearing a single short kimono in winter, and three long ones in the summer; they put
lead along the bottom edge of their clothes, to make them swing. When they were short
of funds they would not pay their bills; when they had money, they loftily paid in large
coins and grew violent if change were offered. A member of another gang is said to have
been grappled with from behind to stop him attacking someone, and to have retaliated by
stabbingtheintervenerwithablowthatpiercedhisownbodyfirst,thusputtinganendboth
to himself and to the man who had tried to restrain him. At the same time there were gangs
of low-class townsmen—porters, laborers and so on—who took to wearing long swords
andoftencameintobloodyconflictwiththebannermen.Thesetownsmengangswerealso
professionalorganizersofgambling.Theytoohadnearlyallbeensuppressedbythebegin-
ning of the eighteenth century.
In 1733, 1787, and 1866 ( 95 ) disturbances of another sort occurred, when some of the
more impoverished inhabitants of Edo attacked rice-shops. The 1787 riots, for example,
occurred at a time of famine, when prices were very high, and were not confined to Edo,
there being similar risings in Kyoto and Nagasaki at about the same time. The rioters, who
numbered some 5,000 in Edo, had for the most part recently come in from the country dis-
tricts,andweremainlydependentuponoccasionalearnings.Theriotsweredirectedagainst
rice-shops and rich merchant-houses, with breaking in and smashing of fittings and fur-
nishings. The authorities tended to allow them to work off their ill-will unchecked on such
occasions— after all, they were only attacking merchants, who needed to have their pride
humbled from time to time; it would have been a different matter if samurai had been at-
tacked. In 1787, however, matters reached such a state of confusion that 30 arrests had to
be made before things returned to normal.
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