The Otokodaté were friendly associations of brave men bound together
by an obligation to stand by one another in weal or in woe, regardless
of their own lives, and without inquiring into one another's
antecedents. A bad man, however, having joined the Otokodaté must
forsake his evil ways; for their principle was to treat the oppressor
as an enemy, and to help the feeble as a father does his child. If
they had money, they gave it to those that had none, and their
charitable deeds won for them the respect of all men. The head of the
society was called its "Father"; if any of the others, who were his
apprentices, were homeless, they lived with the Father and served him,
paying him at the same time a small fee, in consideration of which, if
they fell sick or into misfortune, he took charge of them and assisted
them.

The Father of the Otokodaté pursued the calling of farming out coolies
to the Daimios and great personages for their journeys to and from
Yedo, and in return for this received from them rations in rice. He
had more influence with the lower classes even than the officials; and
if the coolies had struck work or refused to accompany a Daimio on his
journey, a word from the Father would produce as many men as might be
required. When Prince Tokugawa Iyémochi, the last but one of the
Shoguns, left Yedo for Kiôto, one Shimmon Tatsugorô, chief of the
Otokodaté, undertook the management of his journey, and some three or
four years ago was raised to the dignity of Hatamoto for many faithful
services. After the battle of Fushimi, and the abolition of the
Shogunate, he accompanied the last of the Shoguns in his retirement.

In old days there were also Otokodaté among the Hatamotos; this was
after the civil wars of the time of Iyéyasu, when, though the country