Japan's Society During The Edo Period

My research paper will be covering the Edo period of Japan. I will start by explaining Japan’s society during this time period. Japan’s society during this time was ruled by strict customs which were intended to promote stability. The society was based of on Confucian ideas. Society was split into different social groups, at the top was the emperor, then came the count nobles, shogun, daimyo, samurai, peasants, craftsmen, and finally merchants. Peasants and craftsmen produced most goods in society. During this time social mobility was very limited leading to conflicts between classes which became a major challenge. Samurai were placed at the top of non-royal society because they set high moral values for others to follow. Peasants

Most of them did not leave their village however, young people searching for extra income would on occasion leave the village. Peasants were very suspicious of outsiders. There were strong pressures to conform which lead to conflict because the villagers did not want to deviate from old customs. The peasant class owned land, but rights to tax the land were always in the hands of Daimyo. Peasants produced enough food for themselves and were still able to meet the tax burden. Peasants were able to obtain large sums of money but remained in the same class due to ties with their land.

Merchants and artisans gained more economic power as a result of 10% of Japan’s population living in cities, which at the time was one of the highest in the world. Daimyo and samurai did not produce any goods, their needs were met by artisans and merchants. Merchants traded local and regional goods to samurai. The power of merchants grew as wealthy houses arose to organize distributors and legal monopolies. As their power grew, they wanted to display their wealth like samurai, but laws prevented them from doing

One major problem was that power became concentrated outside of the samurai class. This meant that the samurai’s stipend that they lived off of did not increase to accommodate the increasing cost commodities and heavy debt brought on by wealthy merchant enterprise. Changes in rural areas also created conflict in Japan. New technology lead to many families developing a surplus in food which lead to them pursue other ventures in life. Many of them fell into debt to wealthier villages. Unpaid funds sparked a lot of conflict between