Servant - Hokounin

Japanese: 奉公人 - ほうこうにん

A person who serves a master. Originally it meant a person who served the Imperial Court, but in the Edo period it came to be used for samurai, merchants, craftsmen, farmers, etc. In the Kamakura period, the military and economic obligations that vassals bore in return for the Shogun's favor, which was centered on the assurance of their land and the provision of land, were called servants, and these vassals were also called servants.

Samurai servants were those who served ordinary samurai families, such as wakato, kachi, chugen, komono, and rokushaku. In the mid-Edo period, in Edo, fudai servants of samurai families disappeared and were replaced by replacement servants. This phenomenon extended to mid-level samurai servants, such as the appearance of wandering servants. The disappearance of fudai servants with the appearance of replacement servants signified a transformation in the structure of the samurai family. In the relationship of master and servant, this manifested itself as a lack of feudal loyalty. Replacement samurai servants were townspeople before their service, so they did not carry swords. However, during their service, they were treated as equivalent to samurai, and were allowed to carry swords. This was not a change in status, but merely temporary treatment, but if one was to steal during the period of employment as a samurai, they would be punished with death, as they would be treated the same as a samurai, whereas for a townsman, this would amount to little more than tattooing and beating. Servants such as apprentices, boys (who would eventually become clerks or storekeepers), and apprentices (disciples) of town merchants and craftsmen were often introduced by relatives or acquaintances from other households or relatives, and although they would become independent after a certain term of service, they were still in a strong relationship of subordinate status. In contrast, short-term replacement servants such as menials and maids were usually employed through employment agencies, and were employed for relatively short periods of time, and were characterized by a strong element of wage-based employment. Furthermore, Edo stores such as Echigoya and Shirokiya, which had their main stores in Kamigata, employed only male servants and no female servants, and kitchen work was also done by boys called 'kitchen servants' or 'men'.

In farming households, servants are roughly divided into two types: (1) those who are completely subordinate to the master in terms of status and do not receive a salary, and (2) those who are employed by the master, with less stringent status restrictions and a salary. (1) includes hereditary servants, who are lifelong servants who are subordinate to the master for generations, pawn servants, and adopted servants.

[Minami Kazuo]

Pawnbroker

Pawn service, also called pawn ticket service, is a type of service in which human labor is pawned as collateral for a debt, and the servant remains in service until the debt is repaid. This type became common after the prohibition of perpetual sale of persons, and arose from a change in the form of indentured service, so the contract language is extremely subordinate, and the sanctions for violations use master-subordinate and servile language. There are two types of pawn service: those who pay interest on the advance and those who do not. In the latter case, the wages are higher by the amount of the interest on the advance, and if this is even higher, it becomes a type of pawn service that is used for a short stay. In this type, the advance debt is partially or entirely offset by the labor of the indentured servant, and it is a precursor to pawn service and the transition from indentured service to indentured service. The contract period is usually 3 to 5 years.

[Minami Kazuo]

Indentured Servitude

Indentured servants, also called detsu-bōkō or ikki-bōkō, were contracted for a period of one year. The term was used to distinguish them from long-term indentures such as fudai-bōkō and pawn-bōkō. Since indentured servants were contracted for a period of one year, it was customary to renew the contract when it expired if the contract continued for more than one year. The deadline for indentured servants in Edo was February every year around 1615 (Genwa 1), and only applied to samurai servants of hatamoto and gokenin, but in 1668 (Kanbun 8) it was changed to March 5, and the following year it was extended to samurai servants employed by daimyo in Edo and servants of Edo townspeople. This was to crack down on vagrants such as kabukimono and dei-shū. In 1672, it was extended to the whole country in an attempt to unify the system, but the dates for indentured servants in each domain were not necessarily the same. The employment period also tended to be six months, three months, or one month, and there was an increase in day laborers. In cities like Edo and Osaka, there were many "keian" (also called "jobbers" or "lodging houses") who arranged for servants, and in Edo their corrupt and malicious acts had become a social problem since the Shotoku and Kyoho eras (1711-1736). To be employed as a servant to a samurai in Edo, one needed a document ("ukejo") guaranteeing one's identity, that one was not a Christian, and that one would not run away (if one did run away, one had to pay an advance payment). However, if one did not have a suitable guarantor, one could easily become a guarantor by paying money (judgment fee) to a lodging house. From the mid-period onwards, the keian system became a formality, and the keian's obligation to fulfill debts was lightened, and this type of interaction gradually led to a private law relationship.

[Minami Kazuo]

"Edo Store Crime Records" by Reiko Hayashi (1980, Yoshikawa Kobunkan) "The Social Structure of Edo" by Kazuo Minami (1969, Hanawa Shobo)

[ Reference item ]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

Japanese:

主人に仕える者。元来は朝廷に仕える者の意であったが、江戸時代には武家や商家、職人、農家などでも用いられるようになった。なお鎌倉時代には、本領安堵(あんど)・所領給付などを中心とする将軍の御恩に対し、家臣の負う軍事的・経済的義務を奉公とよび、これら家臣を奉公人ともいった。

　武家奉公人とは一般武家のもとに仕える若党(わかとう)、徒(かち)、中間(ちゅうげん)、小者(こもの)、陸尺(ろくしゃく)などのことである。江戸中期には、江戸では武家の譜代(ふだい)奉公人は消滅し出替(でがわり)奉公人となる現象がみられる。それも渡り用人が出現するなど、中級の武家奉公人にまで及んでいった。出替奉公人の出現による譜代奉公人の消滅は武家下部構造の変質を意味する。それは主従関係にあっては封建的忠誠心の欠如となって現れてくる。出替武家奉公人の身分は、奉公以前は町人であるので帯刀することはない。しかし武家奉公中は武士に準じた身分として扱われ、帯刀が許される。それは身分の転換ではなくあくまで一時的な扱いであるが、武家として雇傭(こよう)されている期間中に盗みを働くと、町人では入墨(いれずみ)・敲(たたき)にすぎないのに、武家同様の扱いを受けるため死罪となる。町の商工業者の丁稚(でっち)、小僧（やがて手代(てだい)、番頭(ばんとう)となる）や徒弟（弟子）などの奉公人は別家や親戚(しんせき)などの縁者や知己の紹介によることが多く、一定の年季を勤めて独立するが身分的従属関係が強い。これに対して下男、下女などの短期の出替奉公人は通常口入(くちいれ)屋を介して雇傭され、それも比較的短期間の雇傭であり、しかも賃金による雇傭関係といった面が強いのが特色である。なお上方(かみがた)に本店がある越後(えちご)屋や白木屋などの江戸店(えどだな)では男の奉公人ばかりで女奉公人はいっさい置かず、台所の仕事も台所衆や男衆とよばれた男子たちが勤めた。

　農家では（1）身分的にまったく主家に従属し給金支給のない奉公関係と、（2）身分的制約も緩く給金支給のある雇傭関係的奉公とに大別される。（1）には主家に代々隷属する終生的下人の譜代奉公と、質奉公、養子奉公とがある。

［南　和男］

質奉公

質奉公は質券奉公ともいい、債務の担保に人間の労働力を質入れしたもので、債務を弁済するまで奉公に従う。これは人身の永代売買禁止後に一般化したもので、身売奉公の形式変化から発生したものであるため、契約の文言はきわめて従属的であり、違反への制裁も主従的・隷属的文言を用いている。質奉公には、前借の利子を払うものと払わないものとがある。後者は前借の利子分だけ労賃が高くなったわけで、これがさらに高くなると居消質奉公(いげししちほうこう)となる。これは質奉公労働によって前借金の一部または全部を相殺していくもので、質奉公から変化し、年季奉公へと移行する先駆的形態である。その契約期間は3～5年が普通である。

［南　和男］

年季奉公

年季奉公は出替奉公、一季(いっき)奉公ともいい、1年を単位に奉公契約をするものである。譜代奉公や質奉公のような長期にわたる奉公と区別するため使用した。1年を単位とした奉公であるから、1年以上継続するときは契約の切れたとき改めて契約を更新する慣習があった。江戸の出替日限は1615年（元和1）ごろは毎年2月で、旗本、御家人の武家奉公人のみを対象としていたが、1668年（寛文8）より3月5日とし、翌年には大名が江戸で雇傭する武家奉公人や、江戸町方の奉公人にも及ぼした。これは「かぶきもの」や出居(でい)衆などの浮浪人化を取り締まるためであった。さらに1672年には全国に及ぼしてその統一を図ったが、各藩の出替日はかならずしも一定していない。その雇傭期間も実質的には6か月、3か月、1か月というように日雇的なものが増加する傾向が生じた。江戸や大坂のような都市では奉公人を周旋する「けいあん」（口入、人宿(ひとやど)などとも）が多数存在しており、江戸では彼らの不正悪質な行為は正徳(しょうとく)・享保(きょうほう)（1711～1736）のころから社会問題化していた。江戸で武家奉公人として雇傭されるためには身元や、キリシタンでないこと、また逃亡しないこと（逃亡したときは前渡金の弁償）などの保証をする証書（奉公人請状(うけじょう)）を必要とした。しかし適当な身元保証人のないときは人宿に金銭（判賃）を支払うと簡単に保証人となった。このように中期以降になると請人制は形式化し、請人の債務履行義務が軽減化され、この種の出入りは漸次私法的関係に赴く過程を示すのである。

［南　和男］

『林玲子著『江戸店犯科帳』（1980・吉川弘文館）』▽『南和男著『江戸の社会構造』（1969・塙書房）』

[参照項目] | 居消質奉公 | 御恩・奉公

出典　小学館　日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)について　情報 | 凡例

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