page_title: Edo society
section_title: Four Classes
hierarchical_section_title: Edo society / Tokugawa class system / Four Classes
caption_attribution_description: English: The four classes of society in Japan during the Edo period: military, agricultural, laboring, and mercantile. Artwork made by Ozawa Nankoku.
context_page_description: 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. Japanese people were assigned into a hierarchy of social classes based on the Four Occupations that were hereditary. 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. Majority of Edo society were commoners divided into peasant, craftsmen, and merchant classes, and various "untouchable" groups.
  The Bakumatsu from 1853 led to growing opposition to the Edo system and it was dismantled after the Meiji Restoration in 1868.
context_section_description: The Tokugawa government intentionally created a social order called the Four divisions of society (shinōkōshō) that would stabilize the country. The new Four Classes were based on ideas of Confucianism that spread to Japan from China, and were not arranged by wealth or capital but by what philosophers described as their moral purity. By this system, the non-aristocratic remainder of Japanese society was composed of samurai (士 shi), farming peasants (農 nō), artisans (工 kō) and merchants (商 shō). Samurai were placed at the top of society because they started an order and set a high moral example for others to follow. The system was meant to reinforce their position of power in society by justifying their ruling status. However, the shinōkōshō does not accurately describe Tokugawa society as Buddhist and Shinto priests, the kuge outside of the Imperial Court, and outcast classes were not included in this description of hierarchy. In some cases, a poor samurai could be little better off than a peasant and the lines between the classes could blur, especially between artisans and merchants in urban areas. Still, the theory provided grounds for restricting privileges and responsibilities to different classes and it gave a sense of order to society. In practice, solidified social relationships in general helped create the political stability that defined the Edo period.
caption: The four classes of society in Japan during the Edo period by Ozawa Nankoku.
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