Paper short abstract:

In this paper we intend to discuss architectural and urban regulations edited by the Maeda clan over their retainers in Kanazawa. We will study historical documents containing rules about the size and situation of their residential lands, and the restrictions of materials and forms in their houses.

Paper long abstract:

During the Edo period, everyday life of the bushi class was mainly regulated by the Buke shohatto, which was edited by the shogun from 1615. In provincial cities, local lords were able to edit their own rules like in Kanazawa where the Maeda government issued laws and rules in the early 17th century in order to control their rear vassals. In this paper, we would like to discuss the rules in regard to the architectural and urban matters. In early-modern Japanese castle-towns, controlling space was an important matter for the local administration since warriors' lands covered between 50% and 70% of the cities. Such regulations are well known in the case of the capital Edo, especially by the work of the scholar William Coaldrake, but little is yet known about those of the provinces. The work of James McClain about Kanazawa provides an important source of historical information about the development of the city in the 17th century, but architectural and urban regulations of the retainers are not fully discussed.

In this paper, we would like to study historical documents mentioning the rules of attribution of residential lands according to status and salary and mentioning the architectural regulations for the construction of houses. Since housing reflects the social status of its inhabitant, such rules were to be respected in order to preserve the social hierarchy dictated by the neo-Confucian philosophy. However, it is also well known that some regulations were not systematically respected (Coaldrake). This is the reason why we also intend to compare historical documents with Edo period houses remaining in Kanazawa today to see whether the regulations were strictly observed.

Selective bibliography :

COALDRAKE William, « Edo Architecture and Tokugawa Law », Monumenta Nipponica, vol. 36, n˚ 3, 1981, p. 235 284.

MCCLAIN James L., Kanazawa, a Seventeenth-Century Japanese Castle Town, New Haven et London, Yale University Press, 1982, 205 p.

HEKI Ken 日置謙 (éd.), Kaga-han osadame-gaki 加賀藩御定書 (Laws of the Kaga domain), Kanazawa, Kanazawa bunka kyōkai 金沢文化協会, 1936, 802 p.