ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the incident related to Shitennoji's punitive powers over the Hidenin and Tobita fraternities that occurred in the latter half of the eighteenth century. In early modernity, great urban cities such as Edo, Osaka and Kyoto emerged, with populations ranging from several hundred thousand to a million people. Soga Hisasuke, Lord of Tamba, was the City Magistrate from 1634 to 1658. The City Magistrate supported the fraternities based on their official duties and began to show signs of coming into confrontation with Shitennoji. Furthermore, a population register was created in 1698 meaning that the statement that responsibilities for population registration were only handed over during the Hoei period does not match the facts. The organizational structure of the three tiers of the Tennoji fraternity at the end of the seventeenth century was indivisibly related to the fact that they were entrusted with the duties of policing and offering poverty relief to new hinin/wild hinin.
