Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
(18)
Yoriki
(
left
) and
dōshin
with a female prisoner, weeping at her misfortune.
Still lower-grade
samurai,
known as
dōshin,
“companions,” worked under the
yoriki,
group. Their income was 30 bales of rice, and they too received gifts from the
daimyō,
very often a
haori
with his crest on it, so that, since a
dōshin
might get them from several
daimyō,
he had to be careful to put on the right one when making a call at the residence of
one of his benefactors. Two points should be noted about these gifts: firstly, gifts of cloth-
ing have been customary for at least 1,000 years in Japan, and until well into the present
century it was still normal to give such a present to one's maid at the New Year; secondly,
while the giving of such gifts might well be counted as bribery in modern times, tradition-
al Japan was a world in which the superior and the official expected to receive them as a
right, and although the receipt of a gift involved some obligation, this could immediately
be forgotten in the course of official duty.
The
dōshin
maintained an individual style of dress, for although they were classed as
samurai,
they wore only one sword, and no
hakama,
and did not don the more formal
dressevenonceremonialoccasions,thusdistinguishingthemselvesfromthenormalrunof
samurai.
The
dōshin
formed the lowest rank of peace officer, and it was they that patrolled
the streets of Edo, carrying as their symbol of office the
jitte,
the steel wand with a
hook
