Tokugawa Shogunate Research Paper

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Tokugawa Shogunate, also called Edo period was a structure of Japanese society which existed in Japan between 1603 and 1868. The Tokugawa Shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and was a hereditary title. (Wikipedia, 15/11/2014) It divided society into seven different classes; the warriors (Shi), the peasants (No), artisans (Ko), merchants (Sho), outcasts (Eta), non-people (Hinin) and the Emperor (Tulloh, 2012). It achieved the longest period of peace for almost 250 years. Out of the seven divided classes in the Tokugawa Shogunate, at the top of the social pyramid was the emperor and his family. Although he did not have much power during the Shogun period, he was an important religious leader and he lived a very privileged life (Tulloh,…show more content…
For the Shogun to limit the power a Daimyo had, he created rules. When he had power in 1615, Tokugawa Ieyasu restricted the Daimyo from constructing new castles. If this rule was not abided by, the Daimyo would face a consequence of the size his army being effectively limited (Addison, 2011). One of the rules of the feudal structure was that if people were born into a class, they were to remain in that class and weren’t allowed to move up or down. As well as this, the population of the higher classes had to get approval for marriage, and Daimyo’s had to return to Edo once every two years while their families must stay in Edo. The lower classes had to eat, dress and live according to their rank and were forced to pay tax to the Daimyo in the form of rice and vegetables. They also had rules to abide by, like how they had to unceasingly show respect to the upper class people, with the consequence that if they did not, they would be severely punished, possibly by death (Addison 2011). Two kinds of punishments that were commonly used were crucifixion for men and enslavement for women (Memoirs of a secret Empire
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