Legal Suits and Illegal Suits in Early Modern Japan

在近代日本早期的德川时期(1615-1867)，有三种法律程序被归类为“诉讼”。第一类是民事诉讼，第二类是刑事诉讼，第三类是向当局请愿。因此，请愿在德川日本也被称为“诉讼”。今天，我们在德川找到了许多关于民事和刑事诉讼的学术书籍和论文。然而，在日本史学界，几乎找不到任何有关向德川幕府请愿的法律程序的研究，因此，这项研究考察了德川幕府时期的请愿程序，并弄清了这种“诉讼”与当时称为诉讼的另一种法律程序的异同。它还描述了德川幕府处理这些诉讼和请愿的制度，并指出了这些制度的局限性。从这项研究中，我们可以理解早期现代日本人的诉讼和请愿得到保障和不得到保障的说法。

There were three types of legal procedures that were classified as "suits" in the Tokugawa Period of early modern Japan (1615-1867). The first was civil lawsuits, the second, criminal lawsuits and the third type was something like petitions to the authorities. Thus, petitions were also called "suits" in Tokugawa Japan. Today, we find many academic books and papers on civil and criminal suits in Tokugawa Japan. I would say, however, we can hardly find any research in the field of Japanese history on the legal procedures related to petitions to the authorities of the Tokugawa Shogunate.This study therefore examines the procedure of petitioning the authorities in the time of Tokugawa Shogunate and makes clear the differences and similarities between this type of "suits" and the other type of legal procedures referred to as suits at that time. It also describes the systhems Tokugawa Shogunate had for handling these suits and petitions and point out limits of these systhems. From this research, we can understand the says in which suits and petitions were guaranteed and those in which they were not guaranteed for the people of early modern Japan.