Apprenticeship letter - Hokogaki

Japanese: 奉公書 - ほうこうがき

In the Edo period, these documents listed the service history of samurai from the time they entered the service. Many of them included detailed records ranging from transfers of position and rewards to alternate attendance and accompanying pilgrimages to Nikko. In the shogunate, they were written on slips of paper and called detailed tanzaku, while in some feudal domains they were called detailed statements. In the early modern period, military merit books mainly recorded military service, but as society stabilized and the shogunate and feudal domain systems were established, they changed into service books, which mainly listed positions. [Negishi Shigeo]

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

江戸時代，武士が出仕して以来の自身の勤仕の経歴を書き連ねた文書。役職転任や褒賞から，参勤交代･日光社参の供奉などに至るまで，詳細に記載されたものが多い。幕府では明細短冊と称し紙片に記し，藩によっては明細書などと呼んでいる。近世前期の軍役を中心に記載した軍功書が，社会の安定と幕府･藩の職制の確立につれて，役職を主な内容とする奉公書に変化していった。【根岸茂夫】

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

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