Aspects of the Bushi-class and Fictitious Family Relations in Several Eras – Focusing on Kamakura Period and Edo Period –

長い間、日本は同じ東アジア文化圏に属する韓国や中国、ベトナムとは異なる独特な武士文化を作り出した。700年余りの間、支配層が文士ではなく、武士だったということにより、彼らによって受け継がれてきた伝統と文化が今も日本人の日常生活のなかで垣間見ることができるのである。江戸幕府が崩壊して150年が過ぎた今も、武士階級によって受け継いできた伝統、習慣、行動パターン、考え方などは日本人の生活に多かれ少なかれ影響を及ぼしていることを見過ごしてはならないだろう。また、その社会を理解する上で親族関係は非常に重要なポイントになる。日本で養子制度が発達したのも武士階級と関係がある。江戸時代になると武家のみならず商人․農民のイエも現れるようになった。イエの継承と噛みあって養子制度も発達した。江戸幕府の徳川将軍15人のうち、養子として将軍職を継承したのは6人で、徳川将軍家の養子継承率は40%に上る。将軍家のみならず藩士の家系も養子によって途絶えず引き継がれていた。武家にとって養子相続は、当然、不可欠な要素であった。

Japan had long formed a unique bushi-culture distinct from the cultures exhibited in other East Asian countries such as Korea, China, and Vietnam. Approximately 700 years had seen the bushi-governed, rather than intellectual- governed, hierarchy, and their traditional and cultural heritages are still found in contemporary Japanese life. It has already been 150 years after the demise of the Edo regime, and it is a remarkable fact that the contemporary Japanese are more or less affected by the bushi-derived tradition, custom, behavioral pattern, and thought. The key to understanding the contemporary society is the concept of family relation. One of the reasons why the adoption system has developed in Japan is indeed concerned with the bushi-class in the past time. During Edo period, not only the families of bushi but also those of merchants and farmers emerged, and the adoption system accordingly developed in order to resolve issues about taking over the house. Out of 15 Tokugawa shoguns in the days of Edo Shogunate, six of them inherited the shogunate position as an adopted child, with the adopted rate being more than 40 percent. At the time, adoptions were continuously found in not only shogunate families but also families of feudal worriers. It is concluded that the inheritance through adoption was an essential factor for bushi-families.