Meyasubako

Meyasubako ( Japanese 目安箱 ), also Sojōbako ( 訴状箱 ), describes a suggestion box for petitions in Japan during the Edo period .

In August 1721, the 8th Shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune ordered that three times a month in front of the Supreme Court ( Hyōjōsho ) in Edo ( Tokyo ) a box should be hung in which the citizens could submit petitions that were read by him personally. In doing so, he wanted to demonstrate closeness to the citizen and reduce dissatisfaction among the population, but above all to communicate new ideas and to get evidence of corruption and incompetence among his officials.

One result of this system was the Koishikawa Yōjōsho ( 小石川養生所 ), a free hospital for the poor, which was built in 1722 at the suggestion of the doctor Ogawa Shōsen . This is a forerunner of today's Tokyo University Medical School .

Similar suggestion boxes were also set up in the cities of Kyōto , Osaka , Sumpu and Kōfu , which were directly controlled by the shogunate , as well as by individual daimyo in their respective fiefs.

Individual evidence

↑ 訴状箱 . In: 大辞林第三版 at kotobank.jp. Retrieved April 27, 2013 (Japanese).
↑ ^a ^b Tatsuya Tsuji: 目安箱 . In: 世界大百科事典第２版 at kotobank.jp. Retrieved April 27, 2013 (Japanese).
↑ Tatsuya Tsuji: Politics in the eighteenth century . In: John Whitney Hal (ed.): The Cambridge History of Japan . 6th edition. Volume 4: Early Modern Japan. Cambridge University Press, 2006, ISBN 978-0-521-22355-3 , pp. 443 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
↑ Roman Adrian Cybriwsky: Historical Dictionary of Tokyo . 2nd Edition. Scarecrow Press, 2011, ISBN 978-0-8108-7489-3 , pp. 120 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
^ Marius B. Jansen: The Making of Modern Japan . 3. Edition. Harvard University Press, 2002, ISBN 0-674-00991-6 , pp. 238 ( limited preview in Google Book search).

[1] 訴状箱 . In: 大辞林第三版 at kotobank.jp. Retrieved April 27, 2013 (Japanese).

[kotobank-2] Tatsuya Tsuji: 目安箱 . In: 世界大百科事典第２版 at kotobank.jp. Retrieved April 27, 2013 (Japanese).

[3] Tatsuya Tsuji: Politics in the eighteenth century . In: John Whitney Hal (ed.): The Cambridge History of Japan . 6th edition. Volume 4: Early Modern Japan. Cambridge University Press, 2006, ISBN 978-0-521-22355-3 , pp. 443 ( limited preview in Google Book search).

[4] Roman Adrian Cybriwsky: Historical Dictionary of Tokyo . 2nd Edition. Scarecrow Press, 2011, ISBN 978-0-8108-7489-3 , pp. 120 ( limited preview in Google Book search).

[5] Marius B. Jansen: The Making of Modern Japan . 3. Edition. Harvard University Press, 2002, ISBN 0-674-00991-6 , pp. 238 ( limited preview in Google Book search).