Female Crime and State Punishment in Early Modern Japan

One official response to the societal change Japan experienced during the Edo period (1603-1868) was the championing of patriarchal values through laws restricting both female sexuality and autonomy. Despite this, when the punishments received by convicted women are compared to those prescribed by law, it becomes evident that while the appearance of Tokugawa law was that of a harsh, female-suppressing legal code, actual punishments were mitigated and relatively gender-blind. That women convicted of crimes increasingly appear in government records from the late eighteenth century onward was not due simply to an ideological bias against women, but was in fact a reflection of the State's growing inability to control society in general. Women were more frequently convicted of anti-social behavior during the latter part of the Edo period because criminal activity, however defined, was a significant segment of women's "wide field of action." Economic considerations rather than ideological agendas were primary forces behind authorities' efforts to define and restrict women's sphere.