SAMURAI AND MERCHANTS
http://ecache.ilbe.com/files/attach/new/20140210/14357299/1882685898/2929463940/43a7b89096ead48de2153d9626abb2a9.jpg
Through the accounts of Japanese Buddhist monks who visited the Asian mainland (China), Japan began to adopt its own unique form of Confucianism called Neo-Confucianism about three hundred years before the Edo Period, during the late Kamakura shogunate. It was only during the Tokugawa Shogunate, however, that it became an official state-endorsed ideology. This was part of an attempt to create the stable social order that had been so successful in China, including a merit-based bureaucracy and balanced class system. For example, many farmers would likely try to move up the social ladder into a higher class to avoid grueling farm labor and crushing rice taxes, and a food production shortage might result. To avoid this, Edo farmers were legally forbidden from leaving their farms. As Carol Gluck, a scholar of East Asian culture, summarizes here: "The most important aspect of the borrowed Neo-Confucianism in the seventeenth century in Tokugawa Japan is the securing of the social order — its social values and political values, its values for governing and values for social order "(Gluck 2).
In this Neo-Confucian class system, shown in the graphic above, merchants are at the very bottom and samurai are near the top. Confucius viewed the merchants as society's parasites, for they profited off others' hard labor (which created the goods they sold) without doing any themselves. However, samurai, who, like Confucius, greatly valued loyalty and devotion, were highly respected. Ironically, the Tokugawa government's policies ended up helping the merchants the most and samurai the least. Here's why:
1. The growth of cities, including the new capital Edo (now Tokyo), whose population was over a million by the early 1700's, made trade easier and incredibly profitable.
2. Many landed estates were confiscated from daimyo and cleared for crop production; these crops were used in trade.
3. The Tokkaido Road, which daimyo used for their massive processions to the capital (see: Sankin Kotai), was filled with merchants selling wares.
4. Tokugawa Ieyasu and his successors standardized Japan's currency and minted coins.
With the commercial boom, merchants grew incredibly wealthy. By law, samurai were not allowed to forfeit their honor and move down into the merchant class, although most wanted to and some even did. Traders dressed in fine silks and lived in large houses, and even imitated the samurai hairstyle, shaving the tops of their heads and pulling the sides back into a knot. The shogunate, feeling that this shattered the Neo-Confucian social order, repeatedly issued edicts against merchant's lavish ways-but these always fell on deaf ears.
Furthermore, the samurai class still received payments of rice, which they had to trade in for currency. Not only was the market price of rice highly unstable, but the exchange was controlled by greedy merchants who often paid less for the amount than its actual value. Thus, many samurai, unable to help themselves through commerce and constantly at the mercy of the merchants and the market, struggled to make a living. Even so, they attempted to keep up their noble appearance; a saying of the time went, "if a samurai is starving, he uses a toothpick all the same".
As a temporary relief for their troubles, many samurai turned to the pleasure districts in their cities.
In this Neo-Confucian class system, shown in the graphic above, merchants are at the very bottom and samurai are near the top. Confucius viewed the merchants as society's parasites, for they profited off others' hard labor (which created the goods they sold) without doing any themselves. However, samurai, who, like Confucius, greatly valued loyalty and devotion, were highly respected. Ironically, the Tokugawa government's policies ended up helping the merchants the most and samurai the least. Here's why:
1. The growth of cities, including the new capital Edo (now Tokyo), whose population was over a million by the early 1700's, made trade easier and incredibly profitable.
2. Many landed estates were confiscated from daimyo and cleared for crop production; these crops were used in trade.
3. The Tokkaido Road, which daimyo used for their massive processions to the capital (see: Sankin Kotai), was filled with merchants selling wares.
4. Tokugawa Ieyasu and his successors standardized Japan's currency and minted coins.
With the commercial boom, merchants grew incredibly wealthy. By law, samurai were not allowed to forfeit their honor and move down into the merchant class, although most wanted to and some even did. Traders dressed in fine silks and lived in large houses, and even imitated the samurai hairstyle, shaving the tops of their heads and pulling the sides back into a knot. The shogunate, feeling that this shattered the Neo-Confucian social order, repeatedly issued edicts against merchant's lavish ways-but these always fell on deaf ears.
Furthermore, the samurai class still received payments of rice, which they had to trade in for currency. Not only was the market price of rice highly unstable, but the exchange was controlled by greedy merchants who often paid less for the amount than its actual value. Thus, many samurai, unable to help themselves through commerce and constantly at the mercy of the merchants and the market, struggled to make a living. Even so, they attempted to keep up their noble appearance; a saying of the time went, "if a samurai is starving, he uses a toothpick all the same".
As a temporary relief for their troubles, many samurai turned to the pleasure districts in their cities.