Homeless - Mushuku

They are also called homeless. In the Edo period, this was a general term for people whose records were removed from the family register due to elopement, disownment, banishment, etc. Yado means address, and mushuku means people without a fixed place of residence, and was also called chogai (outside the register). They were named after the country or town they came from, such as Joshu mushuku and Asakusa mushuku. Their numbers increased from the mid-Edo period, and dramatically increased after the Tenmei famine. In particular, in Edo, poor farmers who had fled from neighboring countries flooded in and threatened public order. The shogunate had a hard time dealing with the rampant homelessness, and while they restricted banishment, they captured them and sent them to work as water exchange laborers at the Sado Gold Mine, and also established a labor shelter in Ishikawajima, Edo, to rehabilitate them. In 1805 (Bunka 2), the Kanto Torishiyaku was established to try to wipe out and suppress the homeless in the Kanto region, especially the gamblers, but the gamblers often colluded with the officials and became their pawns, fighting for power with other gamblers, so the effect was not very good. After the Meiji Restoration, the homeless were absorbed into the labor force, but some of them continued to remain as a criminal population.

[Taizo Fujino]

"The Life of Homeless People in the Edo Period" by Tokuzo Imagawa (1973, Yuzankaku Publishing)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

無宿者ともいう。江戸時代、欠落(かけおち)、勘当(かんどう)、追放刑などにより、人別帳(にんべつちょう)（戸籍）から記載を削られた者を総称していう。宿とは住所を意味し、無宿とは定住の場所をもたぬ者のことであり、帳外(ちょうがい)（ちょうはずれ）ともいった。出身の国または町名を冠して常州無宿、浅草無宿というようによぶ。江戸中期以降増加し、天明(てんめい)の飢饉(ききん)以後激増した。とくに江戸では、周辺諸国から離村した貧窮農民が流れ込み治安を脅かした。幕府は無宿の横行に手を焼き、追放刑を制限する一方、これを捕らえて佐渡金山の水替人足(みずかえにんそく)に送り、また江戸の石川島に人足寄場(よせば)を設置して更生を図った。1805年（文化2）には関東取締出役を設置し、関東地方の無宿、とくに博徒集団の掃討弾圧が試みられたが、博徒は役人となれあい、その手先となって他の博徒と勢力を争うことが多く、実効はあまりあがらなかった。明治維新以後、無宿は労働力として吸収されるが、一部は依然として犯罪人口として残ることになる。

［藤野泰造］

『今川徳三著『江戸時代無宿人の生活』（1973・雄山閣出版）』

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