ABSTRACT
These rules were for the control of the military class, who in their turn controlled the whole country, and they are fairly drastic in their meaning, and in practice the most harmless ones, such as the exhortation to economy and the prohibition of immod erate revelling, were very often made the pretext for severe measures by the Bakufu against a daimyo, against whom they had a black mark because he seemed likely to become in some way a menace to them. It was easy to make such an one retire from the headship of his fief, or confine him to his house, or diminish his revenue, or order him to exchange with another feudatory, or even deprive him altogether. A charge of luxury or levity was quite enough. Even a platitude was useful to the Shogunate. Tokutomi calls this set of regulations “a velvet bag full of gunpowder.”
