Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
by giving bounties payable on the birth of a child, but by and large the control was not ef-
fective.
Fromtimetotimecircumstances woulddrivevillagerstoattemptrecoursetocommun-
al action in an effort to ameliorate their situation. Any sort of combination was, of course,
illegal, but they protested all the same. Sometimes they tried to complain about the behavi-
or of a village official, or to get the tax-rate reduced: in one case, which is recorded, word
was passed secretly round, and a meeting was held by night on a river-bank (the one avail-
able open space), at which members of various villages agreed to make a direct approach
to the lord—in itself an illegal procedure, since it ignored the proper channels. Unfortu-
nately for them, spies of the head-man of one of the villages were present, and reported the
assembly to him. The villagers had to send a letter through the headman to two
samurai
making very fulsome apologies for their wicked action, with reiterated promises not to do
such a thing again, and asking them to intercede with their lord. In some other cases, if it
was thought that the normal procedure of approaching the headman would be ineffective,
therewasanattempttosendonacomplaintorrequestbymeansofaroundrobin,inwhich
the names of all the villagers, with their seals, were arranged in a circle, so that the identity
of the ringleaders should not be disclosed.
(43) Peasant riot. Peasants attack a samurai with bamboo staves and spears, and a spade.
When peaceable protest failed, and things were desperate, the villagers joined in an
armed rising, although the weapons at their disposal were not normally anything but agri-
culturaltools.Itisestimatedthatsome1,500peasantrevolts(
43
)occurredduringthisperi-
od, ranging from those involving the inhabitants of a single village to one in which those
