The Land Survey and Sword Hunt

The essence of Hideyoshi’s unification of Japan lay not only in military power but also in the design of early-modern social institutions. The Taiko land survey and the sword hunt were its two main pillars.

Basic Knowledge

The Taiko land survey was a nationwide land survey and measurement conducted by Hideyoshi. It began in 1582 and continued until Hideyoshi’s death in 1598.
Main features:
① Uniform standards: The unit of length was standardized as 1 ken = 6 shaku 3 sun (later 6 shaku), and the unit of area as 1 tan = 300 bu (previously 360 bu).
② Standardization of measuring boxes: The Kyomasu became the national standard.
③ Introduction of the kokudaka system: Land productivity was expressed in koku (the amount of rice). 1 koku = approximately 180 liters = approximately 150 kg.
④ One plot, one cultivator principle: One cultivator was registered for each plot of land. Complex rights involving intermediate exploitation were dismantled.
⑤ The land registers recorded the location, area, grade, kokudaka, and cultivator of each field.
The sword hunt was carried out under the Sword Hunt Edict of 1588.
① Swords, short swords, bows, spears, firearms, and other weapons were confiscated from farmers.
② The stated purpose was to use them for nails and clamps for the Great Buddha at Hokoji Temple (they were not actually used).
③ The true purposes were the disarmament of farmers and prevention of uprisings.
This completed the separation of warriors and farmers (the occupational separation of warriors and farmers). Together with the Status Control Edict (Hitoshi Edict, 1591), it fixed the statuses of warriors, farmers, and townspeople.

In Depth (Background and Effects)

The historical significance of the Taiko land survey is immeasurable.
① Dismantling of the shoen system: It rapidly dismantled the layered land rights of medieval society and reorganized them into the simple early-modern relationship between daimyo and farmers.
② Kokudaka system: Domains were described by their rice yield, making standards for warrior ranking, military service, and taxes common nationwide. This became the foundation of the Edo-period bakuhan system.
③ Farmers’ independence: Farmers registered in the land registers as named cultivators were guaranteed the right to cultivate the land, while also being obligated to pay taxes.
The sword hunt was decisive in establishing the status system. In medieval society, the distinction between warriors and farmers was unclear, and farmers were armed and mobilized as warriors during wartime. After the sword hunt, farmers could no longer possess weapons, and professional warriors alone became the main actors in warfare. This was the separation of warriors and farmers.
These policies completed the foundations of early-modern Japanese society: the warrior-farmer-artisan-merchant status system, the distinction between villages and towns, and rule by domains. The Edo shogunate inherited and developed these systems.

Points to Note (Easily Confused)

① The Taiko land survey (Hideyoshi, 1582-) and the later Land Tax Reform (Meiji government, 1873-) were both land-system reforms, but their periods and content differed.
② Distinguish the kokudaka system (from Hideyoshi onward) from the earlier kandaka system (measured in money).
③ Do not confuse Hideyoshi’s sword hunt with the Meiji Haitorei Edict (1876). The sword hunt applied to farmers; the Haitorei Edict prohibited warriors from wearing swords.
④ The one plot, one cultivator principle registered one cultivator for each plot and was a groundbreaking system that dismantled medieval layered rights.

Practice

1. State the name of the land survey conducted nationwide by Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
2. State the name of the system introduced by the Taiko land survey that expressed land productivity by the amount of rice.
3. Briefly state the true purpose of the 1588 Sword Hunt Edict.