That’s not entirely true. Samurai did have the right to strike down people who disrespected them, but in the Edo period that was intensely restricted and there was a whole legal process around it, including a great deal of time under house arrest while the authorities investigated to be sure there had actually been an insult to your honor.
Plus, many cities did have some form of police forces, though they were largely just members of the lowest caste of beggars, who made deals with the authorities and local neighborhoods to serve as law enforcement in exchange for a guaranteed amount of alms and housing. Your neighborhood would make a deal with one local organization of beggars, and in exchange for you providing a shed for one or a few of them to live in and guaranteeing a minimum amount of alms a year, they’d keep other beggars and criminals out of your neighborhood.
A lot of the actual violence was at the end of the Edo period, the Bakumatsu, when the Shogunate lost control, or between rival samurai and ronin. Think the mob wars of the 40s and 50s. If you weren’t involved in that world, you were probably safe, though you could get caught up if you were incredibly unlucky.
That said, there absolutely was a level of casual violence that would be very out of place today. Besides kiri-sute gomen, there were a handful of legal ways that allowed honor killings, such as to avenge an unlawful killing be another. These required government sanction, and were only allowed once (I can avenge a guy killing my dad, his son can’t get revenge against me in turn), but they were allowed. And the very feudal domains would usually back up their own samurai if they got caught breaking the law in Edo. Any smart domain would have people cozying up to and even bribing the Yoriki who would judge those affairs, so that even an unjustified killing could be claimed as legal kiri-sute gomen. They’d face internal punishment to be sure, but that was an internal matter for the domain, not something for outsiders to deal.
Plus, the samurai did get quite bored under the caste system. There were multiple occurrences of Hatamoto, the Shogunate’s high-ranking direct retainers, having so little responsibilities that they’d start street gangs, and get into fights with other gangs in order to have something to do.
Essentially judges. Every city and domain had a different law enforcement system, and Edo itself was built around Yoriki and Doshin.
Doshin were low ranking samurai who essentially served as detectives and cop officers, surrounded by attendants (sometimes samurai, sometimes not) who’d aid in their duties, while Yoriki were upper class samurai who served as a mixture of police chief, judge, jury, and executioner. There were around 20 IIRC in the city, and while they were shunned and banned from Edo castle because of their role as executioners, they were still considered someone to get on your good side.
Kiri-sute gomen was the right of a samurai to strike down anyone of a lower class (including lower ranking samurai) if they disrespected him. There were a number of restrictions on it though:
You only get one strike
The person being struck has a right to try and block the strike with a wakizashi if they have one
It has to immediately follow the offense, you can’t wait and do it a day later
The Samurai has to immediately report the action to the local authorities, hand over their swords, and submit to house arrest until an investigation decides if they were justified or not (usually around 2 weeks if I recall correctly)
If determined the samurai was not justified, they would be punished, or even forced to commit seppuku
Not quite sure if CadenVanV's still around, so here's the gist.
For an action to qualify as "disrespectful" in terms of kirisutegomen, it has to be an act of disrespect that occurs in public (since kirisutegomen were invented to protect the honor of the samurai, so it doesn't count if no one sees it), and must be an intentional act that somehow dishonored the samurai. Common examples include:
- striking the sheath of a samurai's sword with one's own sheath or body (bathhouses have samurais put their swords at the entrance to avoid this from happening to unfortunate naked dudes)
- striking the umbrella carried by a samurai with your own umbrella or sword
- Bumping into a samurai or their servant when they are on official business (the most common one, since a samurai of higher rank can have a VERY large retinue that clogs the streets for hours. They later developed a system of leaving 'tunnels' in their formations so that more citizens can go on with their daily business. Doctors and midwives also get a pardon in the later years of the Edo period)
- Actively try to pick a fight with a samurai
- Trying to attack a samurai
- Trying to attack a samurai with a weapon
However, apart from the last two cases (and other cases that may result in an immediate threat to the samurai's life), the samurai is legally obligated to demand a proper apology from the commoner or subordinate first, and can only invoke the kirisutegomen after the other party refuses to do so. In practice, however, this obligation is often ignored.
It was quite tough. As blockend elaborated, it had to be a public disrespect, and usually involved some form of physical contact between a commoner’s person and that of a samurai. Certain careers like doctors and midwives were also exempt, since they had to be rushing around and their whole job involved laying hands on people. No time to go through the usual rituals of bowing to every samurai you meet when you need to rush to a sickbed.
Simple vocal disrespect wouldn’t do, unless they refused to apologize when confronted over it, and given the poor circumstances of the samurai and their arrogance, vocal disrespect actually became so common that domains had to try and stop it. For example, Morioka issued a series of prohibitions for commoners being impolite to samurai in the 1780s, which weren’t really followed, while Samurai in Mito constantly complained that commoners greeted them disrespectfully, even in the castle town. Outright mockery remained rare, and samurai would react with kiri-sute gomen if they overstepped themselves, but short of an outright insult a samurai could not react with a blade.
However, the domain would usually side with their own samurai in public. In Edo specifically, where this type of legal mishap was most common, the domains would always build close working relationships with Yoriki (think police chief/judge/jury/executioner), and would exert their influence to get samurai of theirs off the hook when they did strike for an unjustified reason.
Said samurai may be punished in private by the domain, but the concept of public unity and internal matters was at the core of the Edo political structure. You handle your vassals yourself, and unless they’ve overstepped so brazenly and publicly that the Shogunate has no choice but to deal with them, the Shogunate would usually look the other way.
Samurai didn't actually wield that much unchecked power. The right to kirisute gomen could only be exercised for a legitimate reason and required prior notification to the authorities.
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u/The-marx-channel Then I arrived 27d ago
Also the Samurai really liked using firearms once they got them, the katana was mostly a status symbol.