''Kiri-sute gomen'' ( or ) is an old

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese expression dating back to the feudal era ''right to strike'' (right of samurai to kill commoners for perceived affronts).

Samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...

had the right to strike with their sword at anyone of a lower class who compromised their

honour Honour (British English) or honor (American English; American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, see spelling differences) is the idea of a bond between an individual and a society as a quality of a person that is both of socia ...

.Kirisute-gomen - Samurai World
/ref>

Etymology

''Kiri-sute gomen'' translates literally as "authorization to cut and leave he body of the victim" Contrary to popular belief, this exact term did not originate in the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

. The real name used in historical sources is either or .Mako Taniguchi, ''Kiri-sute Gomen'', Yamakawa, 2005

Conditions

Because the right was defined as a part of

self defence Self-defense (self-defence primarily in Commonwealth English) is a countermeasure that involves defending the health and well-being of oneself from harm. The use of the right of self-defense as a legal justification for the use of force in ...

, ''kiri-sute gomen'' had a set of tight rules. The strike had to follow immediately after the offence, meaning that the striker could not attack someone for a past grievance or after a substantial amount of time. Also, due to the right being self-defence, it was not permissible to deliver a further

coup de grâce A coup de grâce (; 'blow of mercy') is a death blow to end the suffering of a severely wounded person or animal. It may be a mercy killing of mortally wounded civilians or soldiers, friends or enemies, with or without the sufferer's consent. ...

if a blow had been successfully applied. Anyone who was at the receiving end had the right to defend themselves by ''

wakizashi The is one of the traditionally made Japanese swords (''nihontō'') worn by the samurai in feudal Japan. History and use The production of swords in Japan is divided into specific time periods:

'', a situation most common in the case of a higher samurai exercising the right against a lower ranked samurai as those would always carry ''wakizashi''. Some professions, like

doctor Doctor or The Doctor may refer to: Personal titles * Doctor (title), the holder of an accredited academic degree * A medical practitioner, including: ** Physician ** Surgeon ** Dentist ** Veterinary physician ** Optometrist *Other roles ** ...

s and

midwive A midwife is a health professional who cares for mothers and newborns around childbirth, a specialization known as midwifery. The education and training for a midwife concentrates extensively on the care of women throughout their lifespan; co ...

s, were not eligible targets for ''kiri-sute gomen'' while at work or heading to their workplaces, as their jobs often required them to push the boundaries of honor. This exception was called . In any case, the samurai performing the act had to prove that his action was right. After striking down his victim, the user was required to report the incident to nearby government official, give his version of the facts and provide at least one witness who corroborated it, and he was expected to spend the next 20 days at home as a proof of contrition. The last one applied even after favorable verdict, although it is unclear whether it applied to the physical author of the death or his superior in case the kill was performed by

proxy Proxy may refer to: * Proxy or agent (law), a substitute authorized to act for another entity or a document which authorizes the agent so to act * Proxy (climate), a measured variable used to infer the value of a variable of interest in climate ...

. Moreover, the homicidal weapon could be confiscated if an investigation was necessary or as a warning for a kill whose justification was feeble, and it was only given back after the 20 days. Performing ''kiri-sute gomen'' without justification was severely punished. The guilty party could be destituted from his job and could even be

sentenced to death Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

or forced to commit ''

seppuku , sometimes referred to as hara-kiri (, , a native Japanese kun reading), is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. It was originally reserved for samurai in their code of honour but was also practised by other Japanese people ...

''. His family would be affected too if his properties and titles were removed from his inheritance.

History

Samurai visiting Edo often did all they could to obtain favorable verdicts, as an unfavorable court decision there could be even considered an act of rebellion against the

shogunate , officially , was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, though during part of the Kamakur ...

. It was usual that clan elders presented gifts to officials in order to secure their support, to the point it was said magistrates earned more through those bribes than through their own salaries. It was also advisable for a samurai to go out accompanied by servants and other clan members who could serve as witnesses if it was necessary. A popular incident tells how a commoner bumped into Saiheiji Tomo, treasurer of the

Owari-Tokugawa family The is a branch of the Tokugawa clan, and it is the seniormost house of the ''Gosanke'' ("three honourable houses of the Tokugawa").Namamugi Incident The , also known as the Kanagawa incident and Richardson affair, was a political crisis that occurred in the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the ''Bakumatsu'' on 14 September 1862. Charles Lennox Richardson, a British merchant, was killed by t ...

(sometimes known as the "Kanagawa incident" or "Richardson affair") was a political crisis that followed the 1862 murder of British merchant

Charles Lennox Richardson Charles Lennox Richardson (16 April 1834 – 14 September 1862) was a British merchant based in Shanghai who was killed in Japan during the Namamugi Incident. His middle name is spelled ''Lenox'' in census and family documents. Merchant Richardso ...

, who was killed by the armed retinue of

Shimazu Hisamitsu Prince , also known as , was a Japanese samurai of the late Edo period. Hisamitsu was virtual Super Potentate of Satsuma Domain. The younger brother of Shimazu Nariakira, Hisamitsu served as regent for his underage son Tadayoshi, who became the ...

, regent of the

Satsuma Domain The , briefly known as the , was a domain (''han'') of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1602 to 1871. The Satsuma Domain was based at Kagoshima Castle in Satsuma Province, the core of the modern city of Kagoshima, ...

, on a road in Namamugi near Kawasaki. Europeans protested that the incident violated their extraterritoriality in Japan, while the Japanese argued Richardson had disrespected Shimazu and was justifiably killed under the ''kiri-sute gomen'' rule. British demands for compensation and failure by the Satsuma to respond resulted in the

Bombardment of Kagoshima The Bombardment of Kagoshima, also known as the , was a military engagement fought between Britain and the Satsuma Domain in Kagoshima from 15 to 17 August 1863. The British were attempting to extract compensation and legal justice from ''daim ...

(or Anglo-Satsuma War) in August 1863. Another happening features a nobleman named Kuranosuke Toda, whose ''

kago A is a type of litter used as a means of human transportation by the non-samurai class in feudal Japan and into the Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was ...

'' was shoved by a commoner trying to cross through. Toda's bodyguard demanded an apology, but the peasant insulted them instead. The samurai then threw him to the ground, but the peasant still started a shouting match. Watching it from his litter, Toda ordered the man to be cut down. After reporting the incident, the judges approved Toda's decision and did not condemn him.Shigeaki Asahi, ''Bunka Kagaku'' An instance of ''Kiri sute gomen'' is described in the story of the

Hōgyū Jizō are Japanese stone statues; mostly of Ksitigarbha and other kinds of stone statues made by Buddhist monk Hōgyū (around 1672–1732) between 1722 and 1732 in Kumamoto, Japan. When Hōgyū was about 14, in 1686, his father was Kiri sute go ...

statue. A boy, whose father was killed by ''Kiri sute gomen'', made 100 stone statues in later life, in

Kumamoto is the capital city of Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, Japan. , the city has an estimated population of 738,907 and a population density of 1,893 people per km2. The total area is 390.32 km2. had a population of 1,461,000, ...

Notes

{{Reflist

References

*John Pierre Mertz
"Tokugawa Cultural Chronology"
(version 2008.01.30; www4.ncsu.edu/~fljpm), page 2. Retrieved on 2008-08-16. Japanese words and phrases Feudal Japan Japanese culture Society of Japan

Etymology

Conditions

History

See also

Notes

References