Page 17 - GM EBOOK

THE CLASS SYSTEM OF FUEDAL JAPAN The Artisans:
Artisans, though producing Japan’s beautiful and C
Parallel to the European feudal society, the 12th h
through the 19th centuries of Japan are considered necessary goods, clothes, cuisine, and prints, were a p
the Japanese feudal period. During this era the Japa- considered less important than the farmers. Even t e
nese maintained an elaborate four tier class structure skilled blacksmiths and boat wrights belonged to this r
formed by Confucian ideals which emphasized the third tier of society in feudal Japan. The artisan class
importance of productive members of society near its of Japan typically lived in its own section of the ma-
top. The four classes of the Japanese feudal society jor cities, segregated from the samurai and from the
was the Samurai, the Farmer, the Artisan and finally lower merchant class.
the Merchants. Samurai answered only to the dai- The Merchants:
myo for whom they worked. The daimyo, in turn, The last rung of feudal Japanese society was occu-
answered only to the shogun. pied by the traveling and trade merchants, as well as

Places in Society the shop-keepers. Merchants were not liked and con-
The Samurai Class: sidered "parasites" who profited from the labor of the
more productive peasant and artisan classes. Not on-
Feudal Japanese society was dominated by the ly did merchants live in a separate section of each
samurai warrior class. The word samurai originally city, but the higher classes were forbidden to mix
meant “one who serves,” and referred to men of no- with them except on business. Though merchant fam-
ble birth assigned to guard members of the Imperial ilies were considered bottom feeders of society, they
Court. Although they made up only about 10% of the eventually became able to amass large fortunes as
population, samurai and their lords wielded enor- well as economic power. With a lofty economic sta-
mous power and maintained a noble status among the tus, their political influence grew, and the restrictions
people of Japan. Should a samurai pass members of against them weakened.
the lower classes, those citizens were required to bow
and show respect. If a member of the lower tiers People above the Four-Tier System:
should refuse to bow, the samurai was legally entitled Although feudal Japan is said to have had a four
to chop off the obstinate person's head. This service tier social system, some Japanese lived above the
ethic spawned the roots of samurai nobility, both so- system, and some below. The very pinnacle of socie-
cial and spiritual. Over time, the nobility had trouble ty was the shogun, the military ruler of the nation.
maintaining centralized control of the nation, and be- The shoguns carried out their ruling in the name of
gan “outsourcing” military, administrative, and tax the emperor, who served as the figurehead for the
collecting duties to former rivals who acted like re- shogun, and as the religious leader of Japan. Though
gional governors. Virtuous or villainous, the samurai the emperor, his family and the noble court had little
emerged as the colorful central figures of Japan. power, they were at least supposedly above the sho-

The Farmers / Peasants: gun, and also above the four tier system. The shogun
is generally the most powerful daimyo. Daimyo con-
Just below the samurai on the social ladder were trolled a broad area of land, and had an army of sam-
the farmers or peasants. The Confucian ideal was urai. Buddhist and Shinto priests and monks were
that farmers were superior to artisans and merchants also above the four-tier system of Japan as well.
because they produced the food that all the other
classes depended upon. Although technically they People below the Four-Tier System:
were considered an honored class, the farmers lived Some unfortunate citizens were considered below
under a crushing tax burden for much of the feudal the fourth tier of the Japan’s feudal structure. These
era. people included the ethnic minority Ainu, the de-
scendants of slaves, and those employed in taboo in-
dustries. Prostitutes and courtesans, also lived outside
of the four tier system. They utilized their own classi-

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