Emperor

The Emperor of Japan was the official ruler of Japan at the very top of the Tokugawa class hierarchy. However, the Emperor was only a de jure ruler, functioning as a figurehead held up as the ultimate source of political sanction for the shōgun's authority. The Emperor and his Imperial Court located in Kyoto, the official capital of Japan, were given virtually no political power but their prestige was invincible.

Court nobility

The court nobility, the kuge, were the civil aristocracy of Japan. Similar to the Emperor, the kuge were incredibly prestigious and held significant influence in cultural fields, but wielded very little political power and served functions only for symbolic purposes.

Shōgun

The shōgun was the de facto ruler of Japan. Officially, the shōgun was a title for a prominent military general of the samurai class appointed by the Emperor with the task of national administration. Successive shoguns held the highest or near-highest court ranks, higher than most court nobles. They were made Shō ni-i (正二位, Senior Second Rank) of court rank upon assuming office, then Ju ichi-i (従一位, Junior First Rank), and the highest rank of Shō ichi-i (正一位, Senior First Rank) was conferred upon them upon their death.^[2] In reality, the shōgun was a military dictator with only a nominal appointment from the Emperor who held the ultimate political power in Japan, controlling foreign policy, the military, and feudal patronage. The shōgun was a hereditary position held by members of the Tokugawa clan who were direct descendants of Tokugawa Ieyasu. The shōgun was based in the Tokugawa capital city of Edo, Musashi Province, located 370 kilometres (230 mi) east of Kyoto in the Kanto region, and ruled Japan with his government, the bakufu. The Tokugawa shogunate established that the court ranks granted to daimyo by the imperial court were based on the recommendation of the Tokugawa shogunate, and the court ranks were used to control the daimyo.^[2]

Daimyō

The daimyō were samurai feudal lords. The daimyō were high-ranking members of the samurai, and, similar to the shōgun, held most of the real political power in Japan. The daimyō was responsible for administration through their large personal domains, the han, which served as unofficial administrative divisions in tandem with the legal provinces. A daimyō was determined if a samurai's domain was assessed at 10,000 koku (50,000 bushels) or more under the Tokugawa kokudaka system of taxation.

The daimyō held significant autonomy but the Tokugawa policy of sankin-kōtai required them to alternate living in Edo and their domain every year. The daimyō were separated into the shinpan, relatives of the Tokugawa, the fudai daimyō, who filled the ranks of the Tokugawa administration, and the tozama daimyō, those who only submitted to the Tokugawa after the Battle of Sekigahara.

Samurai

Samurai were the noble [warrior] class in Japan. The samurai constituted about 10% of the population and functioned as soldiers in the employment of a lord in a master-warrior feudal relationship. Other classes were prohibited from possessing long swords such as the tachi or katana, and carrying both a long sword and a short sword became the symbol of the samurai class. However, their services were in limited demand as the Edo period was largely free from both external threats and internal conflicts.

Instead, the samurai maintained their fighting skills more as an art form than to fight. Samurai were paid a stipend from their lord, limiting their ties to the economic base. In addition, samurai could not own land, which would have given them income independent from their duty. Samurai generally lived around their daimyō's castle, creating a thriving town or city environment around the middle of a domain.

There were social stratifications within the samurai class: upper-level samurai had direct access to their daimyō and could hold his most trusted positions, with some achieving a level of wealth that allowed them to retain their own samurai vassals. Mid-level samurai held military and bureaucratic positions, and had some interactions with their daimyō if needed. Low-level samurai could be paid as little as a subsistence wage and worked as guards, messengers and clerks.

Positions within the samurai class were largely hereditary and talented individuals could not rise above a few social steps beyond their birth.^[6]: 30

Peasants

According to Confucian philosophy, society could not survive without agriculture.^[6]: 45 Life for rural peasants focused on farming in and around their villages. Peasants rarely moved beyond their villages, and journeys and pilgrimages required a permit, but young people occasionally sought seasonal employment outside of their village. As a result, people were highly suspicious of outsiders. Social bonding, critical to the survival of the whole village, was also reinforced through seasonal festivals. Villages were highly collective; there were strong pressures to conform and no room to deviate from custom.^[6]: 12 Though there were conflicts, they were seen as disruptive to the village and order and were to be limited as much as possible.^[6]: 13

The peasant class owned land, but rights to tax this land were given to the local daimyō. Peasants worked to produce enough food for themselves and still meet the tax burden. Most agriculture during this time was cultivated by families on their own land in contrast to the plantation or hacienda model implemented elsewhere.^[6]: 45 Peasants could amass relatively large amounts of wealth but remained in the same class because of their association with the land. Wealthier families and those that held their own land and paid taxes were held in much higher regard and had more political influence in village matters. However, the survival of the village depended on every household cooperating to meet the tax burden and overcome natural disasters such as famines. During the reign of the third shōgun, Tokugawa Iemitsu, farmers were not allowed to eat any of the rice they grew. They had to hand it all over to their daimyō and then wait for him to give some back as charity.^{[citation needed]}

Artisans

Artisans typically lived in urban areas, and by 1800, as much as 10% of the population of Japan may have lived in large urban areas, one of the highest levels in the world at the time.^[6]: 43 The daimyō and their samurai did not produce any goods themselves, but they used the tax surplus from the land to fuel their consumption. Their needs were met by artisans, who moved to be around the castles and were restricted to living in their own quarter.

Merchants

Merchants grew increasingly powerful during the Edo period, in spite of their social standing, and the top merchants commanded a certain amount of respect, with Osaka and later Edo having concentrations of the merchant class.

Wealthy merchant houses arose to organize distributors and hold legal monopolies. As their wealth grew, merchants wanted to consume and display their wealth in the same manner as the samurai, but laws prevented them from doing so overtly. Still, their consumption combined with that of the samurai served to reinforce the growth of the merchant and artisan classes.

Burakumin

The burakumin ('hamlet people/village people' or 'those who live in hamlets/villages') were ethnic Japanese people whose occupations were considered impure or tainted by death, such as executioners, undertakers, slaughterhouse workers, butchers, and tanners. These occupations were seen to be kegare (穢れ, 'defilement') in the Shinto religion. In the Edo period, the social stigma of being a burakumin developed into a hereditary status.

Although technically commoners, the burakumin were victims of severe ostracism and lived in their own isolated villages or ghettos away from the rest of the population.

Ethnic minorities

Ethnic minorities in Japan were generally excluded from the class system, though certain individuals in service of the shōgun or daimyō were included. The Tokugawa isolationist policy of sakoku banned most foreigners from entering Japan.