What Happened If You Got ARRESTED in Samurai Japan

In Edo Japan the law could not punish you without your own confession, so getting one out of you was the job. Arrest officers caught suspects alive with barbed poles that snagged their sleeves (sodegarami) and iron forks that pinned them down (sasumata). If you stayed silent, shogunate law allowed four tortures, used in order: whipping, kneeling on a ridged board with stone slabs stacked on your thighs (ishidaki), the "shrimp tie" that folded you in half until your skin turned purple (ebizeme), and hanging by the arms tied behind your back (tsurizeme), the last one only for serious crimes. And confessing could be worse: for killing your master the punishment was nokogiribiki, buried to the neck beside a road with a saw next to your head. Sources: torimono sandogu (Edo arrest tools); the four legal tortures (Sakuma Osataka, Gomon jikki; kotobank "goumon"); Kujikata Osadamegaki (1742) on nokogiribiki. #samurai #japan #history #edo #shorts