Higisho — Kiyosu, January 1557
Oil on canvas, 38.0 × 45.5 cm, 2015-2022, M.Tsushima
Trial by ordeal was a medieval judicial practice by which the guilt or innocence of the accused was determined by subjecting them to a painful, dangerous experience. The judgement was held by Nobunaga himself to correct the corruption.
Background
In 1555 Nobunaga moved his headquarter from Nagoya to Kiyosu. From the Kiytosu Castle, Nobunaga would go out for hawking.
One day on his way back from hawking, he called at the Sanno Shrine, where he found that many people were gathering in a trial to judge a servant of Ikeda Tsuneoki, Nobunaga's vassal, for an alleged burglary. The judgement was made by a trial by ordeal called Higisho, with which, a defendant was determined guilty or innocent according to the accomplishment in carrying a red-hot iron in the hands. Though the defendant had failed in a Higisho, Ikeda was so powerful that the judgement was about to be rigged to make the defendant innocent. Nobunaga, hearing that, got angry and himself took a Higisho to correct the judgement.
Accounts
Ota Gyuichi(1527-1613), samurai who served Nobunaga, writes[1]:
In the village of Oya, Kaito County, Owari Province, there was a headman named Jinbei, who was a retainer of Oda Mikinojo, and in a neighboring village called Isshiki, there was a man named Sasuke. The two men were on good terms.
Sometime in mid-December, when Jinbei of Oya was away to Kiyosu to pay annual tribute, Sasuke of Isshiki Village robbed Jinbei's house at night. His wife woke up, clung to Sasuke, and took up the scabbard of his sword.
The wife complained about this to Kiyosu, and both sides filed a case with the court. Sasuke of Isshiki Village was a retainer of Ikeda Katsusaburo Tsuneoki, the younger foster brother of Lord Nobunaga. Ikeda was in power at the time.It was decided to hold a Higisho trial, and the magistrates lined up in front of the shrine at Sanno Shrine, and both the plaintiff and the defendant were in the presence of witnesses.
There is something contrary to reason here.
The detail is that, Sasuke lost the Higisho, but at that time, Ikeda Katsusaburo's vassals were proud of their power, so they took away the iron of the Higisho as evidence and were planning not to let him be executed.
Just at that time, Nobunaga stopped by on his way home from falconry, saw the commotion, and said, "Why are so many people gathering with bows, spears, and weapons?" Nobunaga, who had listened to both sides about the situation, quickly seeing the detail, changed his complexion and expressed anger, saying, "How much did you burn the iron to take? Bake it as it was and show it." The person baked the iron until it turned red, and said, "This is how I got it."
Nobunaga said, "Keep in mind, if I complete the Higisho, I will execute Sasuke.", took the burned ax head in his hands, and walked three paces, put it on the shelf and said, "Did you see this?" then he executed Sasuke. It was terrifying.
Venue and Date
The trial was held at the Sanno Shrine, a Shinto shrine in Kiyosu, Owari Province. In the shrine area today are three buildings; the Honden (main shrine) at the back, the Saimonden (liturgy hall) in the middle, and the Haiden ( hall of worship) at the front. Besides them are many small shrines. What makes this Sannno Shrine characteristics is a lot of pictures and statues of monkey which was thought to be a messenger of god.
The Sanno Shrine was found in 771[2]. Halls were built in 807. In the 13th century, the shrine was developed so much that it had an area of 13,000 square meters. However, in 1584, the buildings were burned down in the battle of Nagakute.
After the battle, Nobunaga's son, Oda Nobukatsu restored the Honden. In the early 1600s, Tokugawa Ieyasu's fourth son, Matsudaira Tadakichi, the lord of Kiyosu Castle, made a large scale construction of the Sanno Shrine. The picture of the Sanno Shrine drawn in the late 19th century shows the typical building arrangement of shrines in Owari Province, in which a gate, a Suigai (see-through fence), a Haiden, a Saimonden, and a Honden are placed in a row from south to north.
Though the buldings at the time of Nobunaga were different from present ones, the arrangement of the buildings was presumably same as that of the picture. The hip-and-gable roof structure is the Haiden, in front of that is a space where the Higisho would be held.
The precise date of the Higisho is unknown. Ota Gyuichi's account writes the burglary took place sometime in mid-December in Japnaese old calendar (mid-January of the following year in Julian calendar), but the account does not write the year.
Nobunaga moved to Kiyosu in 1555 and left in 1565. It is certain, therefore, that the event took place during this period. The plaintiff, Jinbei, was a servant of Oda Mikinojojo Nobufusa who is considered to have died in 1560 in the battle of Okehazama, because his record disappears after that. So the event is likely to have taken place before 1560. In the Ota Guichi's chronicle, the document of the Higisho is followed by events in from 1555 to 1558. All these things considered, 1557 is the most likely. Nobunaga then was 23 years old.
Higisho
Higisho is a kind of ordeal by fire believed as god's judgement conducted in Japan during the medieval and early modern period. A representative, selected from each of the disputing groups, spreads a talisman paper called Gohoin on his palm in front of an official, who places a hot iron on it, Then the representative walks three paces and put it on a shelf. The validity of the claims from their belonging groups was determined according to the degree of their accomplishment. If it did not succeed, the group was considered to be defeated, and the representative was punished for deceiving the god by decapitation.
The way of Higisho is written in detail in the record of Fukushima Masanori(1561-1624), the load of Hiroshima Castle, who conducted a Higisho in 1606 [3]:
There were two men named Fujimatsu Jiuemon and Tsudano Kogenta, Jiuemon was the father-in-law and Kogenta the son-in-law. The two filed a lawsuit against each other. But it was so pompous a lawsuit that no one wanted to judge the case. Lord Tayu (Fukushima Masanori) heard about this and ordered;
"Now then, there's nothing I can say to these disgusting guys. Now, let's get them to take the red-hot iron in front of an altar."
A bamboo shelf was made in front of the altar, and a table was put on it, then an iron was cut into 8 cm long and 2 cm wide, and bellows were set up to heat the iron red-hot.
Both of them put on kamishimo, and the father-in-law Jiuemon first folded a Gohoin of Kumano into three, wrapped the ends of the Gohoin in both hands. And then the red-hot iron was held by a pair of pincers and put in his hands. Jiuemon took three steps and quietly and quickly placed the red-hot iron on the table. The Gohoin burned to dust, and the table also was burned.
Kogenta also picked up a Gohoin in the same way, put the red-hot iron on it, and threw the red-hot iron at the table from a little before.
Then, after putting their hands in a cloth bag and looking at them three days later, Jiuemon's hands were swollen from burns, Kogenta's hands were not burned. As a result, Jiuemon committed seppuku, and Kogenta asked for a leave because it was difficult to serve because the lawsuit ended up with Higisho.
When the load Tayu heard this, he said;
"Since I used Kogenta by my side since he was young, I thought he was somewhat patronizing, but he was a disgusting guy and did a particularly stupid thing. So make Kogenta cut his stomach." and made him commit seppuku.
A Gohoin is a talisman paper, on the flip side of which a pledge to god is written. The one who broke the pledge was believed to be punished to death.
Gohoins were issued in Kumano, the holy ground of Shinto and Buddhism, or its subordinate shrines across Japan. On the paper are written crow-shaped characters. A crow, in a legend of Kumano, guarded the emperor Jinmu from a bear in the mountain of Kumano and supported him to travel through the mountain pass, arrive at Nara where he unified the country.
Nobunaga's Judgement
The defendant, Sasuke, was a servant of Ikeda Tsuneoki(1536-1584), who was Nobunaga's foster brother and was gaining power at that time. Under Ikeda's protection, Sasuke was about to be judged innocent, though he had failed in a Higisho; he dropped the burned iron. Nobunaga incidentally, on his way home from hawking, called at the Sanno Shrine, where he found the court going on. As he examined the situation, he got furious and was determined to correct the judgement by taking the Higisho himself. Nobunaga said that if he succeeded in the Higisho he would execute Sasuke. Then he took the hot iron which was an ax head, walked three paces, and put it on a shelf. Then Nobunaga executed Sasuke.
The incident must have been so shocking for Ota Guichi who wrote it in the chronicle of Nobunaga five decades later, that, though the descriptions of Nobunaga's early years in the chronicle are scarce, he remembered the incident and wrote it in detail, ending with his comment; "It was terrifying".
Luis Frois, Jesuit missionary to Japan, later wrote that Nobunaga was strict in justice. This Higisho episode is the very evidence of it.
References
[1] 信長公記, 太田牛一
[2] 尾張名所図会. 後編巻３ 春日井郡 p19/74
[3] 福島太夫殿御事 p146/418
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