Everything about Four Divisions Of Society totally explained
The
four divisions of society refers to the model of Japanese society during the
Edo period. The four castes,
samurai,
farmers,
artisans and
merchants were abbreviated to form the term .
The four divisions
Samurai
With the creation of the
Domains (han) under the rule of
Toyotomi Hideyoshi, all land was confiscated and reissued as fiefdoms to the
daimyo. The small lords, the samurai, were ordered to either give up their swords and rights and remain on their lands as peasants, or move to the castle cities to become paid retainers of the daimyo.. Only a few samurai were allowed to remain in the countryside; the . Some 5% of the population were samurai.
Artisans
The artisans were likewise ordered to move to the cities. Thus, the towns below the castles were divided into four parts, the samurai quarter, the merchant quarter, the artisans quarter, and the
hanamachi, where theaters, brothels and gambling dens were located. In the towns, different ways of life developed, with the
chōnindō of the artisans and merchants and the
bushidō of the samurai.
The peasants, around 80% to 90% of the population, had to carry the burden of the economy. Taxes were paid in rice, 40% to 50% of the harvest, collected from the
village as a community. The villages were given self-rule under village headman.
The ranking of the divisions was influenced by
confucianist thinking: The wise ruler was at the top, followed by the farmer who produces the wealth of the society. The artisan only reuses the wealth created, while the merchant only distributes the goods. Interestingly, there's a parallel to the
physiocratic school of
François Quesnay and his contemporaries, who influenced the French
Ancien Régime.
Merchants
Yet, the picture didn't fit reality: the merchants were the wealthiest group, and many samurai had to take debts to keep up.
Farmers
The farmers were above the merchants on the caste system.
Others
Parts of the population didn't belong to any of the four castes at all. On top were the
kuge, the
Court Nobles in
Kyoto. They didn't possess political influence, but still had a ceremonial function. They were dependent on the shogun, who gave them enough financial support to regain some of the old splendour of the
Heian period. With only about 5000 people, they were a rather small group.
Below the system were the
eta, who did the "dirty work", because their occupations were taboo under
Buddhism and
Shinto. They were the undertakers, the slaughterers and the tanners. The
hinin, literally "Non-people" were the second group: travelling minstrels and convicted criminals.
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