This article tries to identify the formation process and historical background of proscriptions on character usage (kinji-horei 禁字法令) in the rules and regulations concerning samurai given names (jitsumyo 実名) in the Sendai clan. There were no laws of this kind until the later part of the 17th century in Sendai, but Tsunamura 綱村, the 4th lord, began to promulgate laws that forbid all vassals of the Date伊達family to use certain characters. Such prohibited characters were kanji that the members of the Date family used as parts of their names. Yoshimura 吉村, the 5th lord, forbade the use of 宗, which was the kanji that the successive heads of the Date family had used in their given names; then finally several characters that the members of the Date family were using and that their ancestors had used were forbidden all together. It was in this way that the leading family of Sendai was ranked as special by forbidding the "desecration" of names related to the Date family. The creation of such laws is closely connected with not only the qualitative shift in the relationship of master to servant, but also the relationship between feudal lord and his vassals in the Date clan.
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