), suicide (seppuku), and decapitation
(zanzai). Among these, seppuku was counted the most honourable. As a
rule only samurai of the fifth official rank and upwards were
permitted thus to expiate a crime, and the procedure was spoken of as
"granting death" (shi wo tamau). The plebeian classes, that is to
say, the farmers, the artisans, and the tradesmen, were generally
punished by fines, by confinement, or by handcuffing (tegusari).
Priests were sentenced to exposure (sarashi), to expulsion from a
temple (tsui-iri), or to exile (kamai).

For women the worst punishment was to be handed over as servants
(yakko) or condemned to shave their heads (teihatsu). Criminals who
had no fixed domicile and who repeated their evil acts after
expiration of a first sentence, were carried to the island of
Tsukuda, in Yedo Bay, or to Sado, where they were employed in various
ways. Blind men or beggars who offended against the law were handed
over to the chiefs of their guilds, namely, the soroku in the case of
the blind, and the eta-gashira in the case of beggars.* Some of the
above punishments were subdivided, but these details are unimportant.

*For fuller information about these degraded classes see Brinkley's
"Oriental Series," Vol. II.

PRISONS

In Yedo, the buildings employed as prisons were erected at Demmacho
under the hereditary superintendence of the Ishide family. The
governor of prisons was known as the roya-bugyo. Each prison was
divided into five parts where people were confined according to their
social status. The part called the agari-zashiki was reserved for
samurai who had the privilege of admission to the shogun's presence;
and in the part called the agariya common, samurai and Buddhist
priests were incarcerated. The oro and the hyakusho-ro were reserved
for plebeians, and in the onna-ro women were confined. Each section
consisted of ten rooms and was capable of accommodating seven hundred
persons. Sick prisoners were carried to the tamari, which were
situated at Asakusa and Shinagawa, and were under the superintendence
of the hinin-gashira. All arrangements as to the food, clothing, and
medical treatment of prisoners were carefully thought out, but it is
not to be supposed that these Bakufu prisons presented many of the
features on which modern criminology insists. On the contrary, a
prisoner was exposed to serious suffering from heat and cold, while
the coarseness of the fare provided for him often caused disea