The Sanpatsu Datto-rei of 1871 — Freedom to Cut Hair and Lay Down the Sword

Overview

The Sanpatsu Datto-rei (the "Haircutting and Sword-Laying-Down Edict") was a proclamation issued by the Dajokan on the 9th day of the 8th month of Meiji 4, which corresponds to 23 September 1871. It is also called the Danpatsu-rei. It did two things: it made hairstyle a matter of personal choice, and it made it optional for nobles (kazoku) and former samurai (shizoku) to wear swords. Wearing a sword remained necessary with formal dress. Despite the name, it was not an order to cut the topknot or surrender swords; it was a permission, and that is the key point.

Background

In the Edo period, the paired long and short swords at the waist were the most visible marker of samurai status, and the shaved pate and topknot were part of an outward code of status as well. After the Restoration, reforms such as the return of domains and the abolition of the domains gradually dismantled the status order. Commoners' sword-carrying had already been prohibited, so the sword as a samurai privilege was losing meaning. The edict turned these outward status symbols into matters of individual choice.

Content and character

The edict allowed any hairstyle and allowed nobles and former samurai to go without swords. Nothing forbade keeping a topknot, so many people did. Shimazu Hisamitsu and Shimazu Tadayoshi are recorded as keeping theirs, and Iwakura Tomomi still wore a topknot when he left on his mission abroad. In some areas with reform-minded prefectural governors, topknots were suppressed strictly, so enforcement varied by region.

Spread of short hair

Short hair spread first among former samurai and officials, followed a few years later by townspeople, and among farmers only after 1874. A turning point was Emperor Meiji cutting his own hair in March 1873, after which the practice is said to have spread faster from officials to the public. Because some women wrongly thought the edict applied to them, Tokyo Prefecture banned women's haircutting in May 1872.

Connection to swords

For swords, the edict meant releasing former samurai from the expectation of wearing them every day. That swords were still required with formal dress shows they remained part of proper attire. But wearing a sword was not yet forbidden; the longer-term blow to demand for swords and to swordsmiths came later with the Haitorei.

Difference from the Haitorei

The Haitorei of 1876 prohibited carrying swords, except for those in full court dress, soldiers and police. The 1871 edict said one might lay the sword down; the 1876 edict said one must not carry it. Many former samurai had already given up swords by 1876, but those who kept wearing them were ended by the later prohibition, which became one of the grievances behind the samurai rebellions.

Aftermath

After the edict, hairstyle and swords became personal choices and outward status symbols quickly lost their force. The sword moved gradually from a marker of rank toward an art object, craft work and family heirloom, a long process of which this edict is one starting point.