Under Baku-Han Regime in Tokugawa Era, there existed a peculiar superintendent system. There were superintendent officers called "METSUKES" both in Tokugawa Shogunate and in all Hans (Clans). Metsuke of the Tokugawa Shogunate superintended its own direct vassals and all Daimyos namely feudal lords who reigned over their Hans. Every Daimyo has his own metsuke to superintend and control his feudal vassals and to maintain law and order in his feudal territory.
This paper is an inquiry into "Metsuke system" in Hachinohe-Han and consists of five parts as follows.
1. Preface.
2. The Outline of Hachinohe-Han.
3. The Superintendent System (metsuke system) in Hachinohe-Han.
4. The Task of metsuke in Hachinohe-Han.
5. Closing remarks.
Hachinohe-Han was one of the minor Hans. As for the ruling system of Hachinohe-Han, the feudal0 lord had a few ministers called "KAROS". Under karos, there were three kinds of top-class officials called Sanyaku. Most of the important matters in the Han were virtually decided and carried out by Sanyaku. Among Sanyaku, metsuke's duty or task was various and covered the widest range.
Metsuke's task in Hachinohe-Han can be divided into two parts;
First, Metsuke investigated and inspected the vassals including all the officials appointed from among the vassals both in their private and in their public lives, discovered good and evil of them, exposed their misdeeds, therefore, Metsuke held the practical power of reward and punishment for them and of personnel management of them.
Really Metsuke was the pivot of vassal control in this Han. His duty or task in legal field, should be paid attention to. He issued various laws and ordinances to the vassals and to the common people in the territory. In legal questions, he examined laws and prejudications and tried to keep uniformity of the construction of las and ordinances in this Han.
Secondly, he issued laws and ordinances to the common people as described above. He inspected all the territory, investigated crimes, punished criminals. He can be said to have been a procuratorial official and at the same time a judge both in criminal and civil trials.
Metsuke was both an executive and judicial official and this was the remarkable characteristic of Metsuke.
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