The fifth shogun Tsunayoshi’s Edicts on Compassion for Living Things (from 1685) banned killing dogs, cats, fish, and insects, with harsh punishments. Believing a monk’s advice that protecting dogs (his zodiac animal) would bring him an heir, he built vast kennels at great public cost, earning the mockery ‘Dog Shogun.’ Once seen purely as a bad law, it is now also viewed as a pioneering step toward valuing life that included protecting abandoned children and the sick. It was repealed immediately after his death in 1709.