The
Goseibai Shikimoku or the
Formulary of Adjudications was the legal code of the
Kamakura shogunateThe Kamakura shogunate was a military dictatorship in Japan headed by the shoguns from 1185 to 1333. It was based in Kamakura. The Kamakura period draws its name from the capital of the shogunate...
in
JapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, promulgated by third
shikkenThe was the regent for the shogun in the Kamakura shogunate in Japan. The post was monopolized by the Hōjō clan, and this system only existed once in Japanese history, between 1203 and 1333...
Hōjō YasutokiHōjō Yasutoki was the third shikken of the Kamakura shogunate in Japan. He strengthened the political system of the Hōjō regency.He was the eldest son of second shikken Yoshitoki...
in 1232. It is also called
Jōei Shikimoku (貞永式目) after the
era nameThe Japanese era calendar scheme is a common calendar scheme used in Japan, which identifies a year by the combination of the and the year number within the era...
.
Before enacting the Goseibai Shikimoku, the Kamakura shogunate conducted trials without formal laws. After the
Jōkyū War', also known as the Jōkyū Disturbance or the Jōkyū Rebellion, was fought in Japan between the forces of Retired Emperor Go-Toba and those of the Hōjō clan, regents of the Kamakura shogunate, whom the retired emperor was trying to overthrow....
, an increasing number of land disputes between its
vassalsA was initially a vassal of the shogunate of the Kamakura and the Muromachi periods. In exchange for protection and the right to become shugo or jitō , in times of peace a gokenin had the duty to protect the imperial court and Kamakura, in case of war had to fight with his forces under the...
, aristocrats and peasants made fair trials indispensable. Thereafter Hōjō Yasutoki compiled the outline with 51 article headings and 13 Hyojoshu (councilors) completed it.
Supplementary articles to the Goseibai Shikimoku, called Tsuika (追加), were issued afterward. The Muromachi shogunate also adopted the Goseibai Shikimoku as the basic law. The Goseibai Shikimoku was repealed during the
Edo periodThe , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....
, but was widely used as a textbook for writing in
temple schoolTerakoya were private educational institutions that taught writing and reading to the children of Japanese commoners during the Edo period.-History:...
s.