Laws for the Military Houses

The Buke shohatto (武家諸法度, lit. Various Points of Laws for Warrior Houses^?), commonly known in English as the Laws for the Military Houses, was a collection of edicts issued by Japan's Tokugawa shogunate governing the responsibilities and activities of daimyō (feudal lords) and the rest of the samurai warrior aristocracy. These formed the basis of the bakuhan taisei (shogunate-domains system) which lay at the foundation of the Tokugawa regime. The contents of the edicts were seen as a code of conduct, a description of proper honorable daimyō behavior, and not solely laws which had to be obeyed. By appealing to notions of morality and honor, therefore, the shogunate was able to see its strictures followed despite its inability to enforce them directly.

The edicts were first read to a gathering of daimyō by the retired shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, at Fushimi castle in the seventh lunar month of 1615. They had been compiled by a number of scholars in service to the shogunate including Ishin Sūden, and were aimed primarily at limiting the power of the daimyō and thus protecting the shogunate's control over the country.

The reigning shogun at the time, Ieyasu's son Tokugawa Hidetada, formally promulgated the edicts shortly afterwards, and each successive shogun formally reissued them, reinforcing the restrictions on the daimyō and the control of the shogunate. Through these successive generations, however, the rules developed and changed significantly.

The 1615 edict contains the core of the shogunate's philosophy regarding samurai codes of conduct. Similar policies would be imposed upon commoners as well, reissued and reinforced many times over the course of the Edo period.

Several items concern the need for frugality, a concept central to Confucian notions of proper governance. Others relate to sumptuary law, requiring people of certain stations to present themselves as such, in their dress, their modes of transportation, and in other ways.

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