Foot soldier - Kachi

A rank of warriors in the Edo period, and a title of a warrior's job. It can also be written as tu or hokkou. A tu is a warrior of light rank who was not allowed to ride horses and lived in the household of a shogun, feudal lord, or other powerful warrior. Among the samurai, ashigaru, and chugen seen in the Sengoku period, it is thought that the upper ranks of ashigaru gained the rank of tu in the Edo period. The ranks of the various families were generally divided into samurai and tu, who were of the samurai rank, and ashigaru and chugen, who were of the lower rank. However, even though they were both of the same rank, there was a large gap in status between the tu and the samurai, who were allowed to ride horses, in many areas. For example, roughly speaking, those of the samurai rank were of the rank of Omemie or above and Chigyotori, while those of the tu were of the rank of Omemie or below and Kuramaitori. In the shogunate, samurai were hatamoto and foot soldiers were gokenin, with the upper limit of their stipends being around 100 koku. As foot soldiers all had small stipends, they were extremely poor financially from the start, and so they barely managed to make ends meet by doing a variety of side jobs such as making umbrellas, carving chopsticks, making bamboo crafts, or teaching haiku and flower arranging. Unable to bear the growing poverty, some gokenin began to buy and sell their status as stock. As a samurai occupation, foot soldiers were also called foot soldiers and samurai, and were originally called hashiri-shu. This was a position held by light foot samurai within the households of the Shogun, daimyo, and other large warrior families, who stood by their lord's hatamoto in times of war, and led the processions and guarded the lord's personal guards in times of peace.

[Kitahara Akio]

“Lower Samurai Theory” by So Kimura (1967, Hanawa Shobo)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

江戸時代の武士の一身分、また武家の職名。徒、歩行とも書く。武士身分としての徒士は、将軍・大名そのほか大身の武家の家中にあって騎乗を許されない徒歩の軽格の武士をさしていう。戦国時代にみられる侍・足軽・中間(ちゅうげん)のうち、足軽の上層のものが江戸時代に入って徒士という士分の地位を得たものと思われる。諸家中の身分は、一般に士分である侍・徒士、軽輩である足軽・中間に区別された。ところで、同じ士分といっても徒士と騎乗を許された侍との間には、諸方面で格式上に大きな隔たりが認められた。たとえば、大略、侍身分のものは御目見(おめみえ)以上・知行取(ちぎょうとり)の格、徒士身分のものは御目見以下・蔵米(くらまい)取の格であった。幕府では侍は旗本、徒士は御家人(ごけにん)に相当し、その俸禄(ほうろく)上の境目は100石前後となっていた。徒士はいずれも小禄であったので、経済的には当初からきわめて窮乏し、そのために傘張り、楊子(ようじ)削り、竹細工あるいは俳諧(はいかい)、いけ花の指南(しなん)など各種の内職を営み、かろうじて生活を維持する状態であった。御家人の間では、募る窮乏に堪えきれず、その身分を株として売買することが行われた。武家の職名としての徒士は、また徒士侍とも称し、もとは走衆(はしりしゅう)ともいった。将軍・大名そのほか大身の武家の家中にあって徒歩の軽格の武士の勤めた役職であり、戦時には主君の旗本に備え、平時には行列供方(ともがた)の先導や主君の身辺警固にあたった。幕府や諸藩には徒士組がある。

［北原章男］

『木村礎著『下級武士論』（1967・塙書房）』

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