Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 4.djvu/86

 the effect of greatly reducing crime, neither he nor the Hōjō nor the Ashikaga left any models worthy of imitation by subsequent generations. It was when the Tokugawa came into authority that more enlightened procedure began to be adopted. As to Iyeyasu himself, what is chiefly memorable is his organisation of three bodies of judicial officials—one charged with jurisdiction in matters relating to temples and shrines; another with jurisdiction in the case of artisans, tradesmen, and other commoners; the third with jurisdiction in questions concerning the agricultural classes—and his creation of collegiate courts, in pursuance of the principle that the graver the case the larger should be the panel of judges appointed to try it. In the matter of prisons, however, there is no evidence that he effected any improvement. That task was left to his successors Iyetsuna (1651–1680) and, above all, Yoshimune (1716–1745). The former caused a new and extensive jail to be built, consisting of five sections: the first (agari-zashiki) for the detention of persons whose rank entitled them to audience at Court; the second (agari-yo) for ordinary samurai and priests; the third (tairō) for "commoners" of the mercantile and manufacturing classes; the fourth (hiyakusho-rō) for farmers, and the fifth (jorō) for females. The office of chief jailer was hereditary in the Tatewaki family, and the representative of the family controlled this, the principal prison in the capital, with a staff of one hundred