Essay On Japanese Feudalism

Feudalism established in Europe by the 800s CE, later by the 1100s CE in Japan. European feudalism ended by the growth of stronger political states in the 16th century, but Japanese feudalism held on until the meji restoration of 1868. Feudal Japanese and European societies were built on a system of heredity classes. The nobles were at the top then knights and samurais, farmers or serfs below. There was a little bit of social mobility, the children of peasants became peasants, and the children of lords became lords and ladies.

At the top of the hierarchy was the king, the king or the monarch ruled the whole kingdom and owned all the land in the country. The king had all the control and he decides how much quantity of land to provide to the

The farmers played an important part in feudal Japan, especially for the shogun and emperor. They got most of their food from the Japanese farmers. This helped them avoid having to import much foreign produce. Merchants were also in the lowest class in feudal Japanese hierarchy. One of the reasons why people looked down on them was because they sold things that other people made, taking credit and money with dishonesty. Even though they were not popular with the others and were in the lowest social class, they were wealthy and therefore, were considered as one of the most benefiting classes of feudal Japan. Europe’s peasants were the same as Japanese’s peasants, they had the lowest social rank in the Middle Ages were the peasants. The peasant class included Freemen, who had some rights and land, serfs, who had no rights, and slaves, who were bought and sold. Were required to provide food to the superior classes in the society and hence they engaged themselves majorly in agriculture. Since they did not own the land and hence were required to pay certain taxes in both cash & kind to the people who gave them