print | close The Four Classes of Tokugawa Society

A feature of Tokugawa society was a strict four class system designed to limit social mobility. The following selection is from an anecdote told by a contemporary of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first Tokugawa shôgun.

Reading

Once Lord Ieyasu conversed with Honda, Governor Sado, on the subject...


The warrior is one who maintains his martial discipline even in time of peace...


The farmer's toil is proverbial...he selects the seed from last fall's crop and undergoes various hardships and anxieties through the heat of the summer until the seed grows finally to a rice plant...the rice then becomes the sustenance for the multitudes...


The artisan's occupation is to make and prepare wares and utensils for the use of others...


The merchant facilitates the exchange of goods so that the people can cover their nakedness and keep their bodies warm...*


* Selection taken from Ryusaku Tsunoda, Wm. Theodore de Bary, & Donald Keene, Sources of Japanese Tradition, Vol. I. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1964), pp. 329-330.

Discussion Questions

1) Why do you think occupations were ranked in this order in Tokugawa Japan?


2) Why was the farmer's importance to society placed above that of the artisan and the merchant?


3) Are occupations ranked this way today?