Akuto

• Japanese: 悪党 (akutou)

Akutô (lit. "evil bands") was a term used in the Nara (710-794) to Muromachi periods (1333-1573), but primarily in the Kamakura period (1185-1333), to refer to bands of brigands, thieves, or others engaging in violent and destructive acts. The term was more of an accusatory label than a true descriptor of a specific phenomenon, and akutô ranged dramatically in size, composition, activities, and motives. Some were brigand bands composed of samurai, others of peasants, revolting against authority in general, while others were organized by dispossessed land managers to strike out against political rivals. While the activities of some akutô are known to have included thievery, arson, and murder, official complaints and other original contemporary documents on the matter simply describe their transgressions as outrages (rôzeki) or evil acts (akugyô).

Still, loose as the category of "akutô" may be, the phenomenon reflects the relative lawlessness at a local level prevalent under the Kamakura shogunate, which was unable to effectively exert its power down to the local level.

Though the term appears in documents as early as the Nara period, and as late as the Muromachi period, akutô activities in the Kamakura period can be said to have focused around Kyoto and Kyushu, in the period immediately following the Jôkyû War of 1221. It was after this date that the Kamakura shogunate extended its administrative authority to the west, establishing the post of Rokuhara Tandai in Kyoto, that of Chinzei Bugyô or Kyushu Tandai already in place. Jitô were installed to govern and administer territories (shôen) on behalf of the shogunate, often displacing the former stewards of the territory, known as the gesu.

Thus it was that incidents such as that of 1227, at Toyokuni estate in Yamato province, occurred. The gesu, a man by the name of Yukisue, had been dispossessed of his authority over this estate when a jitô was appointed by the shogunate. After trying and failing to regain his authority through the proper legal means, the gesu and a core of his officials led a band of roughly three hundred men in destroying homes, lighting fires, and forcibly expelling the new jitô from the land. The jitô of course filed a formal complaint, but the akutô managed to fight off the official forces sent from Rokuhara. Similar incidents occurred across the country. In some cases, the shogunate, persuaded by the arguments of the dispossessed former official, would remove the new jitô and restore the gesu to his position; this did not happen in the case of Toyokuni.

Akutô are explicitly mentioned by that term in the Goseibai shikimoku, a set of laws issued in 1232, though under that edict they are equated with mere thieves, various other crimes or types of criminals apparently not coming under the jurisdiction of the nationwide shogunate government. These other crimes associated with the akutô, including piracy, night raiding, and violent theft were placed under the jurisdiction of the provincial governors (shugo).

References

• Harrington, Lorraine F. "Social Control and the Significance of Akutô." in Mass, Jeffrey (ed.). Court and Bakufu in Japan: Essays in Kamakura History. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1982. pp221-250.