Neighbors made answerable for each other
The goningumi, or five-household group, was the smallest unit of village and town government in the Edo period. Groups of about five neighboring households were made jointly responsible for paying the rice tax and keeping the peace.The shogunate made the system general around 1633, in the Kan'ei era (1624 to 1644), and one of its stated purposes was the control of Christians (and of masterless samurai).Each group had a head, the goningumi-gashira, and its members signed a register, the goningumi-chō, swearing to keep the laws written in it.
For the this meant that faith was never a private risk. The anti-Christian notice board of 1682, preserved in the Wakayama Prefectural Archives, promised rewards to informers: 500 pieces of silver for a priest, 300 for a brother or a lapsed Christian who had returned to the faith, 100 for a catechist or an ordinary believer. If a Christian was found to have been hidden, it warned, the village headman and the five-household group would be severely punished.The board was meant to make neighbors watch one another.
In some places the whole village shared the secret: at Shitsu in even the headman and the village officials were hidden Christians.
The boards came down in 1873 (Unverified).
What is uncertain
Where the sources disagree
- Disputed: start of the informer reward system. The Wakayama worksheet says "1622 (Genna 4)"; Genna 4 is 1618, so one of the two numbers is wrong.The JTA chronology dates nationwide cash rewards to 1638.