Edo society

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. The majority of Edo society were commoners divided into peasant, craftsmen, and merchant classes, and various "untouchable" or Burakumin groups. The bakumatsu from 1853 on led to growing opposition to the Edo system and it was dismantled after the Meiji Restoration in 1868. Feudalism, social stratification, and explicit fine-grained ranking of people existed in Japan long before the Edo period, beginning with attempts as far back as the Taika Reforms in 645 AD, initiating the Ritsuryō legal system that was modeled from Chinese Tang dynasty legal code. The reforms were following a major and devastating coup d'etat attempt by Soga no Emishi, with the events not only exterminating entire clans, but tearing apart a gaping hole in the Japanese indigenous religion, Ko-Shintō, paving the way for a Buddhist-Shinto syncretism of religion. The Taika Reforms were the "legal glue" deemed necessary to thwart future coup d'etat attempts, and the Ritsuryō system led to the formation of castes in Japan. Nevertheless, frequent warfare and political instability plagued Japan in following centuries, providing countless opportunities to usurp, bend, and mobilize positions within social ranks. Even the ranks themselves, especially military ranks, became more respected if only out of necessity. Confucian ideas from China also provided the foundation for a system of strict social prescriptions, along with political twists and turns of the day.