Hanmoto mitodoke

• Other Names: 判元改 (hanmoto aratame)
• Japanese: 判元見届 (hanmoto mitodoke)

Hanmoto mitodoke, also known as hanmoto aratame, was a procedure performed in the Edo period by metsuke (inspectors) in the service of the Tokugawa shogunate, in order to determine the validity of a family's succession.

Officially, samurai were only permitted to formally name an heir, or to adopt an heir, before the (previous) family head fell ill, or died. Very often, however, this was in fact performed after the head of the family had died; it was not uncommon for metsuke to simply look the other way, officially authorizing a family's succession on paper (and often even altering the officially recorded date of the lord's death), even though privately things might not be quite according to policy.

References

• Craig, Teruko (trans.). Musui's Story: The Autobiography of a Tokugawa Samurai. University of Arizona Press (1988), 159.