Society

The Tokugawa era had structured social classes for the citizens of Japan:

• Samurai (shi)
• Peasants (no)
• Artisans (ko)
• Merchants (sho)

These classes were based on importance to society, but not wealth or income. Merchants would become some of the richest people in the country, while the samurai would become some of the poorest. Despite this, their position in society was unchanged.

Social classes were also unchangable, someone born a peasant would stay a peasant their whole life, they could not become a samurai, artisan, or merchant.

Jobs were also not changable, and were passed down from father to son. People could have been very bad at their jobs, but they would be able to keep their job this way.

During this era, the lower three social classes contained around 93% of the island's popualation, most of them were peasants (Gates, "Asia").