This is a wooden notice
board that listed rules for
the whole village to follow.
It was usually put up in the
village center.

What kind of rules were
written on it?

During the Edo period,
the shogunate had
boards like this posted
with orders such as: be
filial to your parents,
don’t leave the village
without permission, and
don’t practice
Christianity.

Did they take it down
when the Meiji era
started?

Actually, they put up
new boards in the
name of the Meiji
government—with
almost the exact
same rules!

Huh?! If it was the
same stuff, why
bother changing it?