Slanderous conduct - Akkozai

… Among them, the Goseibai Shikimoku, in its Article 12, stipulated that slander was a crime, which was a very significant event in the history of slander in Japan. This is because this code, which was completely exceptional among premodern Japanese law, continued to be a widely known law for a long time, and influenced several later written laws to establish the crime of slander, and at the same time, it recorded many slanderous words that would not have otherwise come to the surface of history through courtroom disputes over whether they were slanderous or not. The Shikimoku made slanderous words the "basis for killing people in battle," and imposed banishment for severe slander and imprisonment for mild slander. …

*Some of the terminology that refers to the crime of slander is listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…　その中で御成敗式目がその第12条で，悪口を罪として規定したことは，日本の悪口史上きわめて重大なできごとであった。なぜならこの法典が，日本前近代法の中で全く例外的に長く広く社会的な有名な法でありつづけたために，一つには後代のいくつかの成文法に影響を与えて悪口罪を制定させ，また同時に本来は歴史の表面に出る可能性のなかった多くの悪口を，悪口か否かの法廷論争を通じて歴史に記しとどめたからである。式目は悪口を〈闘殺の基〉とし，重い悪口は流罪に，軽い悪口でも拘禁刑を科した。…

※「悪口罪」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典 第２版について | 情報