Village Law - Sonpo

Japanese: 村法 - そんぽう

The self-governing laws of villages, especially the self-governing legislation, from the Sengoku period to the Edo period. These self-governing legislation were called muragime, murasadame, muraokite, murachu sagai, muragijo, etc. They have their origins in the sochujo and jigejo of the late Muromachi period, but by the Edo period they had become quite formalized and were probably established with the tacit approval of the shogunate, feudal lords, and hatamoto. They were agreements made by villagers at meetings. Their contents covered all aspects of village life, but many of them codified customs such as membership and water irrigation, and included sanctions against those who broke these customs, those who gambled in the village or provided a place for it, and those who stole crops from the fields, and many of them provided for the imposition of fines.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia About Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia Information

Japanese:

戦国時代以後江戸時代における村落の自治法，ことに自治立法。この自治立法を村極 (むらぎめ) ，村定 (むらさだめ) ，村掟 (むらおきて) ，村中申合，村議定などと呼んだ。室町時代末期の惣中 (そうちゅう) 定，地下 (じげ) 掟などに起源をもつが，江戸時代ではかなり形式化して，幕府や大名や旗本の黙認のもとに成立したものと思われ，各村の村民の寄合いで議定された協約立法である。その内容は村民生活の各般にわたっているが，入会，用水などの慣行を成文化したり，これを破った者，村内でばくちをした者やその場所を提供した者，田畑の作物などを盗んだ者などに対する制裁規定を有するものが多く，過料を科する旨定めたものが少くない。

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