Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 4.djvu/71

 adopted in the cities. These groups were, in effect, administrative units. They enacted rules for themselves with regard to matters of religious observances, apparel, household relations, marriage, quarrels, robberies, and natural calamities. To render succour to each other in time of distress was also a duty of those forming a group, and their collective responsibility towards the law was strictly enforced. They were further required to give information of any unlawful act coming within their notice, and to conduct investigations into the circumstances of a crime so as to be able to furnish evidence to the tribunals of justice. Each group chose one house to be its head (kumi-gashira), and the farmers in every village elected a headman (shōya), the headmen, in turn, being grouped according to local convenience under a chief headman (ō-jōya), while functions closely resembling those of police were discharged by representatives of the farmers (hiyakushō-dai) in rural districts. Indeed, among the notable improvements standing to the credit of the Tokugawa administration police efficiency must be placed. Bands of robbers no longer roamed the provinces nor openly harassed the citizens of the great towns. There was an abundance of all other kinds of thieves,—burglars, highwaymen, pickpockets, shoplifters, and swindlers,—but open defiance of the law ceased to be possible.

The most daring disturbers of the peace were the so-called "wave-men" (rōnin), or unattached