Edo society

Uncommon card · No. 187719

Edo society refers to the society of Japan under the rule of the Tokugawa Shogunate during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Edo society was a feudal society with strict social stratification, customs, and regulations intended to promote political stability, despite existing in the early modern period, not the Middle Ages. The Emperor of Japan and the kuge were the official ruling class of Japan but had no power. The shōgun of the Tokugawa clan, the daimyō, and their retainers of the samurai class administered Japan through their system of domains. The majority of Edo society were commoners divided into peasant, craftsmen, and merchant classes, and various "untouchable" or Burakumin groups. The Tokugawa shogunate ruled by dividing the people into four main categories. Older scholars believed that there were Shi-nō-kō-shō (士農工商, Four Occupations) of "samurai, peasants (hyakushō), craftsmen, and merchants" (chōnin) under the daimyo, with 80% of peasants under the 5% samurai class, followed...

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