Japan in the XII-XVI centuries

Chapters from the book: History of foreign Asian countries in the Middle Ages. M., 1970.

Craft and trade.

Tokuseiryo publication.

Growth of cities

From the 13th century The importance of crafts and trade increases, the number of cities that arose as a result of the separation of crafts from agriculture increases. Cities are beginning to play an increasingly important role in the economic life of the country.

Although craft continued to be an addition to the subsistence economy based on manual labor in a number of cities (Nara, Kyoto, Kamakura), in large feudal estates and monasteries from the XII-XIII centuries. craft workshops appear (“dza” - lit., “place”, “seat”). The very fact of the emergence of associations of artisans testified to the separation of crafts from agriculture; peasants who combined crafts with agriculture turned into professional artisans.

Corporations of small commodity producers, usually consisting of 10-50 members - masters, apprentices and students of one hereditary profession and high personal skill - were under the patronage of the government. They received monopoly the right to produce and sell goods manufactured by them in a certain territory, paying a special tax to the feudal authorities for these privileges.

The development of domestic trade contributed to the formation of merchant guilds (“kabu” or “kabunakama”). Unlike craft workshops, they had greater independence. They were also given privileges: Kamakura merchants were allocated special quarters where they could sell food (fish, vegetables, game) and other goods. At the same time, wholesale traders appeared, engaged in the transportation and sale of rice, maintaining warehouses and inns, and moneylending activities.

Usury caused especially great harm to the samurai, who mortgaged the lands granted to them at a high interest rate to obtain cash loans and sold not only the rice rations that they received for their service from their patrons, but also their titles of nobility. Since this practice destroyed the social support of the feudal regime, the government adopted emergency measures to prevent the ruin and declassification of the samurai. For this purpose, it became from the end of the 13th century. issue special “Edicts of merciful [virtuous] government” (“Tokuseiryo”), which annulled all samurai transactions for the sale and mortgage of lands and their usurious debt. However, moneylenders exposed in this way

expropriation, found various ways to circumvent this kind of moratorium decrees.

The development of crafts and trade was accompanied by an increased role of money. From the first quarter of the 15th century. in circulation were mainly Chinese copper coins (“eirakusen” - lit., “coins of the Eiraku years,” i.e. 1403-1424). Mutual financial aid guilds are emerging.

Cities become the center of commodity-money relations, handicraft production and trade. Their number (in particular, trading ones) is increasing; in the XII-XIV centuries. there were 40 cities, in the 15th century - 85, by the end of the 16th century. - 269. Almost 3/4 of the largest cities were located in the northeast of Honshu and on the coast of the Inland Sea of ​​Japan. Cities in Japan, as a rule, were created on a feudal basis at the gates of temples and monasteries, at post stations, along waterways or in port centers, on the territory of princedoms or around medieval castles. Unlike European, including Russian, cities, they were not surrounded by a wall. The largest cities of that time were Hyogo (part of present-day Kobe), Naniwa (now Osaka), Hakata (part of modern Fukuoka), Tsuruga (a port on the coast of the Inland Sea of ​​Japan) - a center of trade with Korea and China.

A considerable part of the urban population were feudal lords; the castle towns were dominated by small samurai and fugitive peasants who flocked here; professional artisans also lived in the cities, serving mainly princes and samurai, as well as merchants.

A characteristic feature of the Japanese Middle Ages was the relatively small number of “free cities” that had their own bodies of self-government, which were not as powerful as their European brothers. These cities included the largest trading center and port of Sakai, headed by a city council consisting of 36 rich and influential merchants, Hakata (Chikuzen Province), Matsuyama (Musashi Province), etc. In addition to Sakai, which received the common name “Venice of the East” ", in some self-governing cities, merchants organized weapons production and shipbuilding.

In a number of cities from the 15th century. The production of cotton and silk fabrics began to develop. Kyoto, Sakai, Hakata, Yamaguchi and other cities have become major centers textile industry. The spread of cotton in the 15th century, imported from Korea and used to make cotton fabrics, brought about great changes in Japanese clothing.

There is a specialization of individual regions by type of production. In some of them (Sado Island, Bitchu Province on Honshu, Bungo and Satsuma on Kyushu, Bessey on Shikoku), mining has achieved significant development, and the extraction of gold, silver, and copper has increased. In many feudal estates, the production of swords, blacksmithing, foundry, production of lacquerware, porcelain, fabrics and paper developed, and after the arrival of Europeans, the production of firearms. Ceramic production, borrowed from China (15th century) at the same time, had a great influence on the production of pottery and porcelain objects. The most famous in Japan and abroad are pottery products from the province. Owari, called "seto".

Thanks to the progress of agricultural technology and, consequently, cultivation of the land, rural farming has also achieved significant development.

husbandry; It became possible to harvest two harvests a year. Immediately after harvesting rice, they began to sow barley or wheat. Oxen and horses were used to cultivate the land to a greater extent than before, and water wheels were often used for irrigation.

The development of trade and cities was accompanied by the emergence of both temporary and permanent local markets, which were under the control of the feudal lords, as well as markets exempt from taxes and duties and withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the feudal lord. In the beginning, markets operated two to three times, one day each month; in the XIV-XV centuries. the number of market days gradually increased to six.

The development of crafts, domestic and foreign trade, and usury occurred faster in the southwest (Kansai) and to a much lesser extent in the northeast (Kanto) of Japan, although here at the end of the 15th century. there were already over 60 markets.

A certain rise in handicraft production contributed to the separation of crafts from agriculture and the further development of cities. Japanese cities, based on their origin, were divided into four types:

temple ones, which developed around Buddhist temples and monasteries (Nara and Heian); postal ones that arose on the main roads (Otsu); port (Hyogo, Sakai) and castle (Nagoya). IN April 1177 Heian burned to the ground. However, it was soon rebuilt, renamed Kyoto and did not lose its administrative, political, economic and religious significance.

The socio-economic changes that took place in society manifested themselves in the new stratification of Kyoto: in the XIII-XIV centuries. The city was clearly divided not along the north-south axis, but split into the northern part, the quarter of aristocrats, and the southern part of the townspeople. Such a compact territorial location of the craft and trading people reflected the process of deepening social demarcation and the increased economic role of the market. In the capital's market back in the 11th century. special associations of artisans emerged (za). In Japanese za, the artisan and the merchant were one person: trade at that time had not yet been separated from handicraft production. The term za (to sit) first referred to a place on the market where artisans of one specialty sold their products, then an association of persons of one profession, which had a monopoly on the production and sale of their products. The need for a monopoly was dictated by great competition with a relatively low demand for handicraft products. The monopoly was guaranteed by the feudal patron, who could be either a court aristocrat or a temple. Craftsmen paid for patronage with products

your craft or a one-time fee.

The first za arose in 1092 in the province of Yamashiro (the region of modern Kyoto), then the za of artists and artists began to form, the za of blacksmiths in the city of Nara at the Todaiji Temple. These were for serving the needs of the feudal lord, both secular and spiritual, an early type of craft association. These included special associations of suppliers to the court and church, which monopolistically supplied their overlords with food and handicrafts.

Oda Nobunaga abolished the private measures of liquid and granular bodies and introduced a unified Kyoto measure equal to 1.8 liters. He also established a fixed exchange rate, prohibited the use of rice as a single exchange equivalent, and stimulated the use of gold and silver for the import of yarn, silk, medicines, and tea utensils. Oda began to issue gold coins, but there was still not enough gold and silver to establish mass production money, although he captured the silver mines of Ikuno. Oda gave great importance cities as sources of treasury replenishment.

Three years after the sword hunting decree was issued, a new decree formalizes social differences. Installed; three-class division of society into samurai (shi), peasants (no) and townspeople (shimin). The latter consisted of merchants and artisans, who were not yet differentiated. In 1597, five- and ten-dvorki were introduced as a lower administrative unit, and a system of mutual responsibility was established. A year later, in order to increase the taxation of peasants, units of land area are reduced: tan from 0.12 hectares is reduced to 0.1 hectares, and those from 1.2 hectares to 1 hectare while maintaining the old taxation rates, as a result of which the tax burden of peasants increased by approximately thirty%. Hideyoshi confirmed the transfer of rent from monetary calculation to a product basis

(fig), which was practically carried out by his predecessor. Under Hideyoshi, missionary activity was prohibited. interests. As early as 1582, Hideyoshi abolished court control over the outposts in Kyoto, which was restored by Oda after numerous petitions. The uniform Kyoto measure of liquid and bulk solids continues to spread. Gold and silver coins are being issued, which was due to the development of commodity-money relations and the growth in the production of gold, silver and copper. From the very beginning of his career, Hideyoshi nurtured a dream of expanding boundaries. Back in 1583, he sent a special envoy to Korea demanding payment of tribute. Korea rejected this demand. In 1591, a demand was sent to Korea that the Korean king become a vassal of Japan. The Korean authorities refused. In May 1592, a 137,000-strong Japanese army landed in the south of the Korean Peninsula and, in three columns in less than 20 days, captured the most important strategic points and approached Seoul. The king fled abroad to China. The Korean campaign ended unsuccessfully and weakened the southwestern feudal lords and large merchants associated with the foreign market. The positions of the princes of North-Eastern and Central Japan, who suffered less from the hardships of the war, and representatives of trading capital operating in the domestic market, strengthened.

Introduction. 3

Origin, organizational structure and ideology of samurai. 4

Emperor. 6

Peasants. 9

Craftsmen. 12

Traders (merchants) 13

Temple servants (priests) and monks. 15

The lower strata of the population. 15

Ninja. 16

Yamabushi. 17

Theater actor. 17

Conclusion. 18

References: 20

Sakura flaunts among the flowers,

between people - samurai

Japanese proverb

Introduction

Before attempting to outline the social structure of medieval Japanese society, let us define the basic concepts.

Social structure is a stable connection of elements in a social system. Main elements social structure society are individuals occupying certain positions (status) and performing certain social functions (roles), associations of these individuals based on their status characteristics into groups, socio-territorial, ethnic and other communities, etc. Social structure expresses the objective division of society into communities, classes, strata, groups, etc., indicating the different positions of people in relation to each other according to numerous criteria. Each of the elements of the social structure, in turn, is complex social system with many subsystems and connections. Social structure in the narrow sense is a set of interconnected and interacting classes, social layers and groups.

To describe the social structure of medieval Japan, let us take the class system as a basis. si-no-ko-sho, installed in Japan at shogunate(military dictatorship) Tokugawa, because It was the period of shogunal rule (1192-1867) that is considered classic Japanese feudalism. Si– was presented samurai(military class) But- peasantry, co- artisans, that's it- traders.

At the top of the Japanese social pyramid was the deified emperor (tenno), who had formal power and performed primarily religious and ceremonial functions.

Immediately following him were the ancestral nobility - kuge, which (by the 17th century) did not have land, received support from the shogun - the highest rank of the samurai class, the military ruler of Japan, who had real power in Japan. The shogun owned the most big amount lands in Japan - considered state-owned.

The next step was occupied buke (samurai) – who were actually the upper class in feudal Japan. They were divided in turn into princes ( daimyo), who had private land holdings, and on bushi- ordinary samurai, vassals of the daimyo, who as a rule did not have land holdings. The daimyo did not pay taxes to the shogun.

Although Shinto priests and Buddhist monks did not constitute an official class; their social status was higher than that of peasants, artisans and traders.

Followed below peasants, most of them addicted. Peasants united into communities, which by the 17th century had greater independence.

Below the peasants in the social hierarchy were artisans who lived by the 17th century. mostly in cities and united into workshops.

The artisans were followed traders (merchants) united into merchant guilds.

This is where the class hierarchy ends. All other classes and strata are outside it and belong to the lower strata of the population. These included: eta (“untouchables”, burakamine), ronin, ninja, geisha, hermits (yamabushi, etc.), tramps, pirates and robbers, folk theater actors (kabuki), indigenous peoples of certain Japanese islands (Ainu), etc. .

Having described in general terms the layers of the population that existed in medieval Japan, we will move on to describe them in more detail, revealing, if possible, the history of their origin and features, for which we will sometimes have to touch upon issues of economic development of Japan medieval period. But first, let’s reveal the key concept of the classical Japanese Middle Ages - “samurai”.

Origin, organizational structure and the ideology of samurai

The samurai were the dominant military class in medieval Japan.

There were three sources for the formation of the samurai class. The bulk of the samurai came from the peasant elite, the wealthy peasantry, as a result of the deepening process of social differentiation.

The second way is to allocate land to household servants. Belonging to a family group, but not being in a kinship or inherent relationship with its head, they initially worked for rice soup and, in case of military necessity, defended the land holdings of this family with arms in their hands. Due to the lack of material incentives to conduct military operations, their combat effectiveness was low, which especially affected the northeast, where the ancestors of the modern Ainu carried out continuous raids. Then the heads of family groups began to allocate land to the servants, which immediately affected the increase in their combat effectiveness, because now they were fighting not for grub, but for their own land, which personally belonged to them.

Thirdly, the upper echelons of the samurai class were replenished at the expense of the governors, who, enriching themselves on the basis of the commendations they shoen(patrimonial estates), turned into large feudal owners. (Local landowners to guarantee the security of their property ( Shoena) commended their lands to the governor, stipulating for themselves either the position of clerk or manager on the lands that previously belonged to them. The governor, in turn, often donated this land either to a representative of the court aristocracy or to the emperor himself. With such double commendation, the governor became the owner, and the superior person became the patron, patron of the shoen).

According to other sources, samurai originated in the 8th century. in eastern and northeastern Japan. The basis of the early military squads (samurai) was made up of mid- and low-ranking aristocracy who specialized in military affairs (the fight against the Ainu in the east, pirates and robbers, etc.), hunters, fishermen, etc., who were not engaged in agriculture, although there were enough immigrants and from peasants. The formation of a special military class was facilitated by both the strengthening of the agricultural orientation of the entire economy and the spread of the ban on killing all living things (when entering the capital, warriors performed a special purification ceremony).

The first samurai squads did not yet have the conditions for independent existence; they entered into relationships of dependence with the capital's feudal lords and officials of provincial departments.

In the X-XII centuries. In the process of unabating feudal civil strife, the ruling samurai families finally took shape, leading squads that were only nominally in the imperial service.

Samurai united into units ( That) and into larger groups ( Dan). These formations consisted of blood relatives, in-laws, and their vassals and were led either by the head of the family group or by the eldest of the most influential samurai family in the area. Samurai units acted on the side of warring feudal factions seeking to gain support the largest number samurai, on whose combat effectiveness and numbers success or defeat in internecine wars depended. Later, with the weakening of the influence of the heads of large family groups and with the simultaneous strengthening of small families, a separation from the samurai associations occurs ( That) rebel leagues ( ikki). They consisted of younger sons who were hired out to one or another feudal lord. The success or defeat of the parties in internecine wars for land, for power, and for the sole right of the feudal lord to exploit the peasants often depended on the support of such leagues.

The ideology of the samurai class was reflected in military epics, the largest of which were “The Tale of the House of Taira” and “The Tale of the Great World.” The first told about the rivalry between two samurai groups Taira and Minamoto, the second - about the struggle for power between Western and Eastern feudal lords.

Military epics developed on the basis of folk oral tales recounted by wandering blind storytellers. By the X-XII centuries. The foundations of the unwritten moral code of the samurai “The Way of the Bow and the Horse” (“Kyuba no Michi”) also developed, which later turned into the famous code of the samurai class “The Way of the Warrior” ( bushido).

The norms of samurai behavior in the Bushido code glorified the vassal's loyalty to his master, courage, modesty, self-sacrifice, sincerity, politeness, and the priority of duty over feeling was affirmed (the same qualities that were glorified by chivalry in medieval Europe).

In “The Way of the Warrior” there was a synthesis of three ideological movements: Japanese Shinto with his idea of ​​patriotism, reaching the point of loyalty; Chinese Chan (Zen) Buddhism with the concept of self-control and self-control, developing a psychological attitude through self-concentration (meditation) and entering a state “above the fray” in the face of mortal danger; Confucianism with the preaching of fidelity to duty, obedience to the master, moral improvement, contempt for productive labor.

The influence of the Bushido code continues in Japan today, mainly in the army.

Later, when the ideology of samurai took deep roots, the “true samurai”, going on a campaign, made three vows: to forget his home forever, to forget about his wife and children, to forget about his own life. The suicide of a vassal (ripping open the abdomen) after the death of the overlord became a tradition. It is noteworthy that the term “ hara-kiri“has an ironic connotation for the Japanese in relation to the samurai who unsuccessfully “ripped open his stomach.” The true social meaning of this action is defined as a demonstration of the vassal’s boundless loyalty to the master and is associated with the term “ seppuku" - the characters are the same as in “hara-kiri”, but “ennobled” by reading in Chinese. It should be mentioned here that the samurai wore two swords (which was a sign of his belonging to the samurai class), one of them was short, which was used to commit seppuku. In general, the sword was the soul of the samurai, it occupied a special place in his home; a stranger could not even touch the sword.

In 1716, eleven volumes of the book “Hidden in Leaves” were published (“ Hagakure"), which became the "sacred scripture" of the samurai. This work belonged to Yamamoto Tsunetomo, a monk and former samurai of the Saga clan in south island Kyushu. "Hagakure" is a hymn to death. "Hidden in the Leaves" places death at the center of all ideas about the honor and duty of the samurai:

“The path of the warrior means death. In an either/or situation, choose death without hesitation. It is not hard. Be determined and take action...

Following the Path of Sincerity means living every day as if you were already dead...

When your thoughts constantly revolve around death, your life path will be straight and simple. Your will will fulfill its duty, your shield will turn into a steel shield.”

The test of the principles of samurai morality was the protracted war between the Taira and Minamoto clans, which ended in the 12th century. extermination of most of the samurai of the Taira house. In the civil war of the 12th century. the prerequisites necessary for establishing shogunate- rule of the samurai class with a supreme military leader ( shogun) at the head.

Shogun

Shogun is the title of military dictators who ruled Japan from 1192 to 1867, excluding the Kemmu period (1333-1336), when ex-Emperor Godaigo attempted to restore the political power of the imperial house.

The term "shogun" is short for seii tai shogun(Japanese for "generalissimo of the conquered barbarians"), was first used during the Nara period (early 8th century). This title was given to generals sent to conquer tribes in the northeast of the island of Honshu. According to other sources, in 413 Jingu (the widow of King Chuai) sent an embassy to China in order to achieve recognition of her son Ojin as the “King of Wa” (Japan). Similar embassies with tribute were sent under Odzin in 425 and under his younger brother Hansho in 438 to receive investiture from China and the title of commander-in-chief for the pacification of the East. The Chinese emperor granted Hansho, and then other Japanese kings, the rank not of commander-in-chief, but of general (“ Jiang juan" in Chinese, " shogun" in Japanese). This rank is apparently associated with the identification of Japanese and Chinese local rulers, who were granted a similar rank of general.

One way or another, the title "shogun" was not used until 1192, when Minamoto Yoritomo adopted it after defeating the rival Taira samurai clan in an internecine war. Minamoto, during the war with the Taira clan, was created in the east of the country in the village of Kamakura, which later grew into a city, a bakufu military government consisting of the Samurai Department ( samuraidokoro, 1180), Administrative Department ( kumonjo, later – mandokoro, 1184), Judicial Department ( monchujo, 1184).

Having pacified some, bribed others and won the selfless devotion of others, Yoritomo autocratically appointed and removed government officials, distributed fiefs (land for service), paid maintenance to the warriors in rice rations, and even supervised the conclusion of marriage alliances. The management of feudal houses was extended to the entire noble class. Rule was established in the country shogunate .

The shogun's power reached its apogee during the Tokugawa shogunate (Edo period: 1603-1867). The official doctrine of the Tokugawa shogunate stated that the shogun rules on the basis of the “mandate of Heaven” he received, is the supreme ruler of the country, the object of “great moral duty” on the part of his subjects. In the class system established by Tokugawa, shi-no-ko-sho ( si was represented by samurai, But- peasant farming, co– artisans and that's it- merchants) samurai occupied the highest level of society. However si was heterogeneous - its top was made up of the shogun and his immediate circle. The emperor, who lived in the old capital of Kyoto (the new capital since 1603 was Edo (modern Tokyo)), carried out only religious and ceremonial functions, all power was concentrated in the hands of the shogun.

Emperor

Although the emperor is tenno(Chinese " tian Juan" - heavenly ruler) - is the logical pinnacle of the social structure of Japan; in the Middle Ages he did not have real power in the country.

In the first chronicles of Japan: "Records of Ancient Deeds" (Kojiki, 712) and "Annals of Japan" (Nihon Shoki, abbreviated "Nihongi", 720), emperors are depicted as descendants of the gods, especially the Sun Goddess Amaterasu- the main deity of the Shinto pantheon. The beginning of the imperial dynasty was attributed to 660 BC, although in fact it appeared several centuries later.

From the 7th to the middle of the 8th century. There was an autocratic rule of idolized emperors, based on an extensive Chinese-style bureaucratic system based on ranks and government positions. (The latter were not formally hereditary). Throughout the subsequent history of Japan (with rare exceptions), the power of the emperor was either limited or formal.

Since 729, power in the country was concentrated in the hands of the Fujiwara priestly group. Since ancient times, this group has been associated with the Shinto religious cult and therefore enjoyed great influence. In 858, the Fujiwaras achieved the position of regent under the young emperor, and when he grew up, they seized the post of chancellor. The policy of the Fujiwara regents and chancellors resulted in the emperors losing their political influence, which manifested itself in the disappearance in the sources of the term “emperor” itself ( tenno), replaced by "abdicated emperor" ( in). The emperor abdicated the throne in favor of his young son and became a monk. But unencumbered by any restrictions, the abdicated emperor, using the support of the samurai (Japanese nobility), provincial officials and the church, acquired full power, weakening the influence of the Fujiwaras. Therefore, the period of Japanese history from 1068 to 1167 is called the reign of ex-emperors (Insei). The practice of self- tonsure of emperors as monks also existed later, when ex-emperors opposed the rule of the samurai (shogunate) and sought to regain full power.

Despite his formal power, the emperor, as a descendant of Amaterasu, is a sacred and inviolable person. It is clear that without enlisting his support, one could not count on real power in the country. Therefore, all the actual rulers of the country are from the regent chancellors ( sekkan) Fujiwara and Hojo, before the shoguns Minamoto, Ashikaga and Tokugawa, respected the emperor and always tried to get him to recognize their power.

Thus, the originality of the feudal relations of Japan was reflected in the dual structure of power: the emperor - the “living god” - reigned, but did not rule, his veneration was associated with the religious cult - Shintoism, while the shogun had real power.

Kuge

Directly below the emperor on the social ladder under the Tokugawa shogunate were the kuge - the court Kyoto (metropolitan) aristocracy - relatives of the emperor and descendants of the patrimonial aristocracy during the formation of the Japanese state (III-VI centuries). This social class was closely intertwined with the central government. The Kuge took part in detailed palace ceremonies, which occupied all their free time. The Kuge had no land and therefore had no economic or political power. They received a salary of rice from the shogun and were completely dependent on his actions.

The Kuge nominally constituted the highest rank of the feudal nobility ( si), the rest of it was classified as buke (military houses), which represented the dominant class of military-feudal nobility in the country.

Bouquet

From the second half of the XI-XII centuries. the main social unit of the ruling class became the “house”, in which blood ties did not play an important role, as in the previous patronymy uji(a group of related or small families that have a certain economic and social unity), and marriage and property. Houses were based on private ownership of land and property, they were inherited through the male line, and the role of the head of the family managing the property increased.

The Buke were divided into sovereign princes ( daimyo) and ordinary nobles ( bushi), who, as a rule, did not have land holdings. The ruling princes, the overwhelming majority of whom were dependent on the Tokugawa house, were divided into categories according to income - according to the amount of rice collected in their possessions (rice was the main measure of values). The topmost layer of daimyo were simpan, connected with the shogun's house by family ties. The rest, depending on their support in the war during the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate, were divided into two categories: fudai -daimyo And tozama -daimyo. Fudai are direct vassals of the shogun, over 150 princes associated with Tokugawa even before he came to power. The highest government bodies were formed from them, and the vacancies of governors in the province were filled. The Tozama daimyo were a disgraced group of high nobility. The 80 feudal princes, richer and more powerful than the fudai, and equal in economic power to the shogun's house, were regarded by the Tokugawa as constant and dangerous rivals. Tozama was not allowed to hold government positions; highest government bodies, government posts; in remote areas of Kyushu, Shikoku and southern Honshu, where the Tozama possessions were located, the government built castles and transferred individual principalities (Nagasaki, etc.) to the central government in order to make it difficult to create coalitions against bakufu(military government).

The hostage system made it possible to put very active pressure on the daimyo ( Sankinkotai). It was officially introduced by the third shogun Iemitsu in 1634, but its initial stage can be attributed to the years of the reign of shoguns Ashikaga (XV century) and Hideyoshi, who obliged the families of all daimyo to live not in the principalities, but under constant supervision in Osaka and Fushimi - official residences of a powerful dictator.

At the beginning of his reign, Tokugawa sought to force the tozama daimyo to come to Edo, seeking a demonstration of their recognition of the supreme power of the shogunal house. After 1634, conditions became more complicated - all princes were obliged to come to the capital every year with their family and retinue. After a year, the daimyo returned to the principality, his wife and children remained at the shogun's court as hostages. Disobedience and an attempt to create an anti-government coalition caused immediate repression against members of the daimyo's family. In addition, Sankinkotai placed an additional financial burden on the princes: constant travel, life in the capital, construction and maintenance of their own palaces there weakened the principality, while simultaneously enriching and beautifying Edo.

The shogunate did not tax the feudal principalities, but periodically, according to established custom, the princes presented the shogun with “gifts” - gold and silver coins (from several hundred to several thousand - the “gift” of the largest tozama Maeda Toshie)

Despite the existing supreme control of the bakufu, the prince had great independence, especially with regard to his relationships with representatives of other social strata - peasants, townspeople, merchants and artisans. The lower layer of the military-feudal nobility consisted of hatamoto- direct vassals of the shogun and appanage princes. They had no land and received wages in rice terms. From them the bureaucracy of the state apparatus was formed, an extensive system of investigation and supervision, and the shogun's army was recruited. Officials occupied a special place metsuke(overseers), whose activities were aimed at identifying violations of the interests of the shogun. Being independent from officials and combining the functions of police and prosecutorial supervision, metsuke carried out secret and overt surveillance not only of the serving samurai of the central and local apparatus, but above all of the princes.

Compared to the other three classes of “common people” - peasants, artisans and merchants - samurai enjoyed enormous privileges. On the other hand, their practical activities in the conditions of the long peace established during the Edo period were limited to guard duty or, in best case scenario, to participate in parade processions, because According to the code of samurai honor, a Japanese nobleman had no right to engage in anything in life other than military affairs. The princes no longer needed strong and numerous squads, and in addition, the decrees of the shogunate prescribed a significant reduction in them. Thus, losing their overlord, samurai of the lower ranks went bankrupt and became ronin(“wave man”, wandering samurai), whose ranks were replenished by impoverished samurai who left the prince due to the fact that they were no longer satisfied with the size of the rice ration. At the same time, the growth of productive forces in connection with the development of manufacturing production and the strengthening of the urban bourgeoisie led to the gradual economic degeneration of the samurai. More and more servicemen bushi and even influential daimyo fell into debt dependence on moneylenders. Yesterday's nobles renounced their class privileges and became people of liberal professions - teachers, doctors, artists, petty employees.

Peasants, artisans and merchants, who made up separate classes, constituted the category of commoners - Bonge .

Peasants

During the early Middle Ages, all land was considered the property of the state, therefore both peasants and feudal lords (tribal aristocracy) received land for temporary use. Peasants received plots depending on the number of family members, and feudal lords received Shoen(mostly in virgin lands) depending on social status (nobility of the family).

Since the main occupation of peasants is cultivating the land, the division of peasants into classes occurred according to the types of land ownership.

Initially, in the early Middle Ages, peasants could be divided into allotment and assigned. Allotment peasants cultivated land owned by the state ( Goryeo), they received an allotment for temporary use, for which they had to pay the state a grain tax and a tax on handicraft products, mainly fabrics. In addition to food rent, peasants performed corvée - they worked for the benefit of the state and its local authorities. Assigned peasants cultivated the land of feudal lords (tribal nobility), to whom the state allocated plots ( shoen) depending on their ranks, positions and merits. The assigned peasants had to give half of the grain tax to the treasury, and the other half to the feudal lord. Taxes and labor duties went entirely to the feudal lord. In the shoen, the main tax unit was the relatively wealthy peasant ( tato). The most common cultivation system is tato was a contract when an annual agreement for the ownership of land was usually concluded. Tato sought to turn the contract land into their own field, managed by them. As a result of the established practice of annual renewal of the contract, managed land tended to turn into the property of the contractor, into the so-called registered field, and its owner into the “registered owner”.

The allotment farming system was economically weak, because In addition to the heavy state tax, the peasants were exploited by officials, and when officials were replaced, land was often redistributed, i.e. The situation of the peasantry was difficult and unstable. Allotment peasants sought to move to shoen, which further eroded the system of allotment land use, which collapsed with the weakening of the emperor’s power.

With the development of commendation-type shōen, when shōen were sacrificed (commendated) by local feudal lords in favor of an aristocrat in exchange for his patronage and protection, the shōen system reached its zenith. At this time, several types of feudal property can be distinguished (classes of peasants can be distinguished accordingly):

1. Property of the official metropolitan aristocracy (patrimonial). It arose as a result of the division of state land property between the capital's powerful houses and existed under the protection government agencies. The peasants of such estates were considered hereditary, personally free holders of the land.

2. Property of small and middle feudal nobility. It had the same feudal character, but arose not from above, but from below as a result of the direct seizure, purchase, and alienation of peasant plots for debts. Personally dependent peasants were usually attached to such land holdings ( genin, shoju).

3. Land property of non-noble owners not guaranteed by feudal law, which arose through the purchase of wasteland developed by them from peasants, - jinushiteki shoyu(“landed property”). Its peculiarity was that there was formally no relationship of direct personal subordination of the peasant to the landowner. The exploitation of peasants was carried out in the form of leasing land, while the landowner himself was considered as a dependent peasant and paid rent to the feudal lord. Rent going jinushi, of course, usually exceeded the rent he had to pay for the same land. This type of property dates back to the law of 743 on hereditary ownership of the developed wasteland, and in the XIV-XV centuries. its spread accelerated during the collapse of large farms myosyu and the isolation of small peasant farms that were in patriarchal relations with them. This property did not have a feudal-class character; it was owned by feudal lords, monks, townspeople, and peasants. Of course, under feudalism this property was not absolute and required recognition by the feudal lords and the community.

In the 13th century. The erosion of the main tax unit in the shoen began - “nominal owners” - this intermediate social layer, at one pole of which “new names” were formed - small feudal lords and samurai who settled on the land, and at the other - the small peasantry. This marked the development of the process of social demarcation between the classes of peasants and nobles (samurai). The long existence of intermediate layers, combining the features of the exploiter and the exploited, suggests that the classes of feudal lords and peasants had not yet been fully formed until the 16th century. Only after the category disappears myosyu(large peasant farms combining the position of exploiter and exploited) by the 16th century. The classes-estates of feudal lords and peasants were clearly established. In Japan, throughout the entire period of development of feudalism, the borders between the nobility and the common people remained open. From the second half of the 13th century. a process of social stratification of myoshu is observed, when part of the layer myosyu moved into the ranks of the peasantry, into the category of middle peasants cultivating their plots with the labor of their family. To this layer in the XIV-XV centuries. belonged to the vast majority of peasants - 80-85%, 5% accounted for myosyu and 5-10% - for personally dependent peasants. (In general, the imbalance in the social structure of the medieval period is evidenced by the fact that 95% of the country’s population was fed and served by 5% of the elite - the ruling class).

Peasants in Japan, as in other countries, united into communities. In the X-XIII centuries. the rural community was weak. In the village called Shoen, officials were appointed mainly from the center to collect taxes and duties from the peasants. The peasants of this period were very mobile; there was a strong patchwork of plots that belonged to many supreme owners (the feudal lord received plots in different regions of the country). Such villages, in essence, broke up into separate isolated hamlets, which during the period of predominant dominance of the “nominal owners” were united only formally. Of course, where the production process required the collective efforts of a significant number of people (during irrigation, fishing, marine fishing), the social ties of the rural community were stronger. There was no self-government in the community of this period. Shogun administrator - "land chief" ( jito) held court and supervised the fulfillment of duties and the collection of taxes. Prosperous peasants showed some initiative, entering into tax contracts with feudal lords and the administration so that the tax would not be revised annually. Since the 14th century In connection with the spread of small independent peasant farms, the neighboring community is being strengthened ( with , yoriai).

The rural community of Japan reached its heyday in the 15th-16th centuries, the bulk of which were middle peasants. Under the leadership of the rich peasantry and small feudal lords, it received significant rights of self-government. This community actively resisted the owners of patrimonial estates (shoens) and patrimonial leaders, sought to weaken taxation and abolish labor service, took upon itself the obligation to pay a certain amount of tax, receiving in return the right to fully manage its internal affairs (from the middle of the 13th century), as well as orders known part of the excess product. The general meeting of the community decided such issues as the distribution of water through irrigation structures, the use of farmland, the distribution of labor duties and taxes. The right to vote, which was previously only enjoyed by rich peasants, is given to all peasants if they own land. Community rules began to be created regulating the use of land belonging to the community as a whole, fields (early communal lands ( sannya) were still the property of the feudal lord), the presence of strangers in the community, prohibition of gambling, etc. Community associations were created on different levels- in villages within the shoen, within the entire shoen, if necessary, territorial unions of peasant associations of various holdings arose.

With the development of productive forces and the strengthening of the peasant community, the shoen ceased to meet the requirements of the time, representing scattered plots of land, which made it difficult to manage the shoen. Since the 14th century The process of local village feudal lords renouncing the possession of positions and sources of income (which was previously considered the main form of ownership) in shōen scattered throughout the country begins, and a process of transition to the creation of unified territorial-land complexes - principalities, in many cases - on the territory of former shōen is outlined. There is an emerging trend towards the concentration of rights and income from land in the hands of one owner - the prince (daimyo).

During the Edo era (Tokugawa shogunate), land in Japan was both public (the estates of the shogun) and private (the estates of princes, temples and monasteries). Peasants attached to land plots, in the principalities they conducted independent farming on the basis of hereditary holdings. Characteristic feature Japan's feudal production relations lacked open forms of serfdom. The feudal lord could not sell or buy a peasant, although there was a personal dependence - attachment to a plot of land determined by the feudal authorities.

The main form of land use was rent, and the main form of duties was rice rent ( nengu); sometimes the feudal lord levied a tax in money. Corvée was not widespread in Tokugawa Japan, since for the most part the feudal lord did not manage his own household. Only in certain regions of Japan, on the lands of the samurai-liefs (vassals of the prince who received land for their service), did corvée exist. But even in this case, it was not a form of direct agricultural production. The labor rent played an auxiliary role here. This was servicing the personal needs of the feudal lord: repairing premises, procuring fuel, animal feed, as well as performing public works, which were assigned to the head of the principality by officials bakufu, - construction and repair of roads, bridges, etc.

The feudal authorities of the Tokugawa period tried to impose broad administrative and political control in the villages, making it possible to regulate all aspects of the life of the peasantry. The regulations prohibited peasants from eating rice, wasting it on flat cakes (which were considered a waste of rice) and sake(on non-holiday days food was prepared from mugi: oats, barley, millet), wear clothes made of silk (it was prescribed to use cotton and linen fabrics). The cut and coloring of the clothes were also precisely defined. Exceeding the established size of dwellings and their decoration were strictly prohibited; entertainment such as theatrical performances and magnificent ceremonies were also prohibited. Weddings, funerals and other events were to be arranged with “dignified modesty.”

An important element of the village management system during the Tokugawa period was mutual responsibility, introduced by government agencies everywhere. For the convenience of supervision, tax collection and control over the implementation of government orders, the village was divided into five-yards. The Pyatidvorka was responsible for the activities of all its members; it was headed by a headman, usually appointed by the authorities from among wealthy peasants. In extreme cases, for example, when a peasant escaped, the headman distributed the taxes of the escapee onto the rest of the members of the five-yard.

Craftsmen

Below the peasants in social status were artisans.

The 10th-13th centuries were characterized in Japan by a relatively high level of social division of labor, as evidenced by the separation of crafts from agriculture, the emergence of feudal cities or the transformation of early feudal or ancient ones on feudal principles. The functions of the city as an administrative and political center are weakened, and corporate ownership of small independent producers arises.

In Japan, the 10th-13th centuries were a time of transition from dependent forms of craft to freer ones. If at the stage of the early Middle Ages artisans were subordinated to state workshops, and then divided between the imperial court, government institutions, aristocratic houses and temples, then in the X-XI centuries. small producers in a city, such as Kyoto, gain considerable independence. Craftsmen already had their own workshops, tools, and were to some extent engaged in commodity production for the market, in contrast to the previous period, when they worked only for the owner, mainly the state.

A characteristic sign of the acquisition of a medieval character by a craft was the organization from the end of the 11th-12th centuries. craft workshops ( dza). In za in period its origins, the artisan and the merchant were one person: trade at that time had not yet been separated from handicraft production. The term “za” (to sit) first designated a place on the market where artisans of the same specialty sold their products, then associations of persons of the same profession who had a monopoly on the production and sale of their products. They were divided into service ones, created to perform certain services in favor of feudal lords and government agencies(an early type of craft associations, they included dza artists, painters, blacksmiths, etc.), and production, the purpose of which was primarily to obtain privileges and protect the corresponding craft and artisan. Over time, service dza were replaced by production ones or expanded their functions accordingly.

Early workshops of the XII-XIII centuries. were weak, were often built not on a territorial or production basis, but on a religious basis; in most cases they could perform their guild functions only by coming under the patronage of powerful feudal patrons.

Kyoto and Nara X-XIII centuries. although they performed city trade and craft functions, they were under the complete control of the feudal lords, craft corporations did not participate in city government. In the X-XIII centuries. The process of forming trade and craft districts was already underway, which in the future became administrative units of the city.

This stage in the development of urban crafts and cities corresponded to the inseparability of crafts and agriculture in the countryside, where rural artisans received plots of land from the owners of estates or local feudal lords to support their existence, since the market was narrow and there were not enough orders. This practice lasted until the end of the 13th century. These artisans did not necessarily become professional. Many of them eventually specialized in agriculture.

In the XIV-XV centuries. the process of separating crafts from agriculture was further developed. The number of craft workshops grew, covering more and more new types of crafts, emerging not only in the capital region, but also on the periphery. As before, they entered into patronage relationships with the Kyoto aristocracy, members of the imperial family and monasteries. However, if in the previous period service or production for the patron was the main thing, and hired labor or production for the market was a by-product, now it’s the other way around. If earlier patronage consisted of providing fields to maintain existence, now the patronage of powerful houses included guarantees of special, monopoly rights in the occupation of a certain type production activities, and the workshops, in turn, were obliged to pay certain amounts of money. The guilds became an important financial source for maintaining the imperial court and court aristocracy, and their important support in social terms. Since the 14th century workshops sometimes already represented armed formations.

Rural artisans move from a wandering lifestyle to a sedentary one, rural areas emerge, the inhabitants of which specialize in one type of craft. Craftsmen could retain their previous formal status as dependent people of a temple or other patron, but in fact their craft organizations were independent. Urban and rural centers for the production of silk fabrics, paper, porcelain tableware, and pottery arose. In Kyoto, specialized sake production developed (in the 15th century it was produced in 342 houses), in Oyamazaki - production vegetable oil. Thus, the bakufu guaranteed the butter press workshop, which had the status of a client of the Hachimangu Temple, special rights to purchase raw materials and sell goods throughout the central part of the country. In the vicinity of the capital, for example, there were numerous village workshops engaged in processing agricultural products. Craftsmen were also concentrated in the headquarters of military governors and in the estates of provincial feudal lords.

Production on the market dates back to the 17th century. to the fact that in different parts of the country there are areas specializing in a certain type of product. Merchant capital, helping to strengthen ties between individual regions, begins to gradually intervene in handicraft production. The merchant-buyer supplied artisans with raw materials and bought finished products. Acting as an intermediary between the artisan and the market, he dictated the type, quality, and quantity of products. Buying, for example, cotton from Kyushu, he distributed it to spinning shops in Osaka, and handed over the finished yarn to dyers, weavers, etc. Craftsmen thus specialized in a particular process of producing a particular product, increasingly subordinate to the merchant, who became a capitalist entrepreneur.

In the 17th century In certain branches of Japanese production, the first manufactories arose, and the initial forms of capitalist entrepreneurship arose.

However, the number of manufactories at this time (mainly textiles and food production) was very small. The predominant form of production remained work at home, subordinate to the buyer-trader, having the character of dispersed manufacture.

The position of artisans was strictly regulated and controlled. Craftsmen were organized into workshops that had a monopoly of production, had a clear hierarchy and heredity of the craft. The government granted the guilds certain privileges and protected their monopoly. At the same time, it actively pursued a policy of pressure - it introduced various restrictions and their activities, and carried out scrupulous supervision over the products being manufactured and their entry into the market.

In the Edo era (Tokugawa period), artisans were divided into 3 categories, which in turn had their own divisions:

Craftsmen who had their own shop;

Craftsmen performing work on site;

Traveling artisans (who had their own ranks depending on the reasons for their “wandering”).

Traders (merchants)

Merchants, like artisans, are an urban class. Merchants were below peasants and artisans in Japan's class hierarchy. This was due to the later identification of trade as an occupation, and to the fact that traders, without producing anything, profited from the labor of others.

In the IX-X centuries. during the period of domination subsistence farming trade was mainly carried out by luxury goods and exotic goods obtained from the Ainu delivered by Chinese and Korean merchants; the buyers were the court, the aristocracy and temples, and transactions were carried out by officials, but in the middle of the 11th-13th centuries. significant changes have occurred. Widespread trade in consumer goods began, which was no longer carried out by officials, but by merchants, who came primarily from artisans and other professional groups. From the middle of the 11th century. and Japanese traders began to actively export goods to the continent (to China).

Foreign trade accelerated the development of domestic trade. In the 12th century. rarely, but in the 13th century. patrimonial markets are beginning to appear more often, since from the 11th-12th centuries. the share of surplus agricultural and handicraft products remaining with local feudal lords and rich peasants increases. All of them go to patrimonial markets created by local feudal lords near their estates. The appearance of excess product in peasant farm, an increase in the amount of rent received by the feudal lords, and the development of crafts stimulated the growth of trade. From the 13th century city ​​merchants began to be taxed.

The presence of local markets made it possible to commute rent (from in kind to cash). Shoen owners increasingly began to depend on peripheral markets, since officials of their fiefdoms purchased in these markets those products and products that they could not obtain in their fiefdoms, and by selling the products of the fiefdoms, they received the necessary money. Wholesalers appear toimaru), who specialized in storing and sending products collected as taxes to the capital. From the second half of the 12th century. Moneylenders have been active since the end of the 12th century. money bills appear.

From the beginning of the 14th century. There is an expansion in the scale of trade. If in the previous period craft guilds were simultaneously engaged in trading activities, now specialized trade guilds are emerging ( kabunakama). At the same time, craft guilds continued to engage in trade. The activity of moneylenders, who often simultaneously produced sake, began to flourish; the bakufu used the warehouses of such moneylenders as storage facilities for rice received as tax payments. Taking advantage of the difficulties of the owners of the shōen in collecting taxes, moneylenders took the latter out, paying in advance the amount of the expected tax, and then, with the help of military governors and local feudal lords, extorted taxes from the peasants. Traders who specialized in transporting products paid to pay taxes toimaru significantly expanding the scope of their activities, gradually turning into intermediary merchants engaged in the sale and transportation of various goods, and usurious activities. The base of their operations became cities located on the coast, which combined the functions of territorial markets and transshipment points, i.e. acting as intermediaries between the center and the periphery. If before the XIV century. markets were temporary gathering places for traders, then in the XIV-XV centuries. merchants already lived in the territory of markets and permanent house-shops. The owners of such shops traced their origins to settled itinerant merchants, artisans and carters who had previously lived at provincial administrations and in shoen, peasants.

As already mentioned, with the development of production and trade by the 17th century, merchant buyers appeared, becoming over time capitalist entrepreneurs. Merchant capital gained more and more strong positions in the life of the city. Particularly influential were the guilds of wholesale traders of any one type of goods or those who monopolized trade operations in a certain part of the country.

The regulations of the Tokugawa government, which declared a “fight against luxury” and applied to the merchants, as well as to other citizens, prohibited the wearing of silk clothes, gold and silver jewelry, and the construction of spacious houses. In reality, the merchants concentrated significant capital and rare luxury goods in their hands. The Osaka merchants (Osaka city), bypassing regulations regarding residential premises, even created a special type of building - “Osaka goshi”, in which the regulated width of the facade (9 m) was strictly observed, but in the depths of the block the house had a length four times greater. In addition, in order not to pay tax on windows, they made a completely blank facade with one narrow door, closed like a window with a wooden lattice and letting light into the room. The modesty and artlessness of the façade was compensated by the richness and luxury of the interior.

The government, receiving loans from the merchants, in very rare cases tried to prevent the concentration of wealth in their hands. Therefore, the position of the merchants was characterized by less strict regulations than the position of artisans and peasants. They, like other classes, had a strict division into ranks/categories. But unlike peasants and artisans, who were divided into categories “from above” (the military government), merchants were divided into categories according to their own rules.

Merchants were guided in their activities by general rules/statutes, which required them to work hard and avoid certain things. For example, a merchant was not supposed to sponsor charity wrestling tournaments, travel to Kyoto, gamble, engage in poetry, enter into friendly relations with representatives of the lower classes (geisha, Kabuki actors, etc.), take Iai-yutsu lessons (the art of quick drawing) and swordsmanship.

Temple servants (priests) and monks

Although priests and monks were not considered a separate class, they had great influence in Japan. The traditional Japanese religion is Shintoism. Since the 6th century, Buddhism has been penetrating Japan from China. For centuries, religions have existed in parallel, interpenetrating each other (for example, Shinto deities are identified in Buddhism with the incarnations of Buddhas and bodhisattvas). Either one or another religion becomes dominant in the country, receiving support from the government. The daily life of the common man includes both Shinto and Buddhist rituals.

Shinto shrines and Buddhist monasteries have significant rights and property resulting from donations from both commoners and feudal lords. They have their own lands, which are cultivated both by the monks themselves (in monasteries) and by the dependent peasantry.

The life of monks and priests was less subject to regulation (although it intensified during the Tokugawa period) than the life of the rest of the population. Inside the monasteries, they live according to their own laws, developed over centuries or established by the founders of their teachings. For many centuries, priests and monks were a kind of intelligentsia of Japan; there were schools at the temples in which the nobility were trained. The monks were teachers, poets, musicians, and artists. Ritual performances in temples served as the beginning of the development of the art of dance and theater.

Lower strata of the population

People who did not belong to any of the 4 classes and who were not priests and monks were considered in Japan to be people of the lowest class, outcasts. Not being members of a rigid social hierarchy, they could not fulfill their duty - to serve their master.

Among the lower strata of society are the Japanese "untouchables" (etá). They settled separately, in “surplus villages” ( amabe , amari -bae), had a tiny piece of land, even smaller than that of ordinary peasants. They were mainly engaged in crafts, slaughtering cattle, and leather processing, which was prohibited by Buddhism.

The lower strata of the population also included the already mentioned ronin (wandering samurai).

Ronin

Masterless samurai who fell out of the subject hierarchy of feudal society in Japan. A samurai could become a ronin for various reasons: because of the natural death of his master, because of his death in battle, because of his own misconduct, because of a reduction in the number of troops by his overlord. Although some ronin became peasants and monks, many of them could not get used to their new status and often became outlaws, joining bandits and pirates. The famous case of 47 ronin occurred at the beginning of the 17th century. After one day their master received an unbearable insult and, trying to avoid shame, committed seppuku, 47 ronin decided to avenge him, and in the course of revenge they all die. How wonderful example bushido, the samurai code of ethics, the incident became a favorite theme in Japanese literature and theater.

One way or another, the ronins, losing their position in society, gained freedom, which they could use for self-improvement, not constrained by the previous class restrictions. As warriors, they represented the "renaissance" period in classical Japan. They were adventurers, striving for spiritual and physical renewal, and were a striking contrast to the rigidly stratified society of medieval Japan.

Ronins, settling in cities, joined the ranks of the “free professions” - they became teachers, artists, poets, and minor employees. They often joined the ranks of Japanese ninja spies.

Ninja

Ninja literally means “infiltrator”. The root of the word nin (or, in another reading, Shinobu) – “to sneak around.” There is another connotation of meaning - “to endure, to endure.” During internecine wars, ninjas carried out assignments that were beneath the dignity of samurai: sabotage, espionage, contract killings, penetration behind enemy lines, etc. The process of separating the ninja into a separate social stratum, into a closed caste, went in parallel with the formation of the samurai class and in almost the same way. The increased power of the samurai subsequently allowed him to take an independent position in public life Japan and even come to power, while scattered groups of ninjas never represented and could not represent any significant military and political force.

Ninjas united in secret clan organizations. Being excluded from state system feudal relations, ninjas developed their own hierarchical class structure that met the needs of this type of organization. The community was led by the military-clerical elite ( jonin). Sometimes jonin controlled the activities of two or three adjacent Ryu(clans related by blood ties). Management was carried out through middle management - Tyunin, whose responsibilities included the transmission of orders, training and mobilization of ordinary lower-level performers ( genin). The work of arranging appearances, building shelters, recruiting informants, as well as tactical leadership of all operations was in charge of Tyunin. They also came into contact with employers - agents of large feudal lords. However, the agreement was concluded between jonin and ourselves daimyo(prince). Ninjas, like samurai, were fluent in martial arts. By the 17th century There were about seventy ninja clans.

The image of the ninja grew into legends over time, in the 20th century. he became one of the heroes of popular action films, having little in common with his historical prototype.

Yamabushi

The declassed elements include various tramps and hermits. So in Japan in the Middle Ages, mountain hermits were popular yamabushi(“sleeping in the mountains”) followers of tradition shugendo– synthesis of esoteric Buddhism, Taoism, ancient cults (cult of mountains). The Yamabushi were healers, magicians, and sages who conveyed the teachings of Buddha to the common people. The influence has especially increased yamabushi on the people during the period of tightening regulations under the Tokugawa shogunate, when the main function of Buddhist priests became the performance of funeral cults. In the eyes of the peasants, the rector of the local temple increasingly became as alien a figure as the tax collector. They felt an incomparably greater closeness to the wandering yamabushi, who still healed, consoled, enlightened people, giving birth to a feeling of relief from their fate through their participation in their daily affairs and concerns.

Mentioned yamabushi and as spiritual guides ninja .

Geisha

Geisha are a class of women in Japan who professionally dance and sing. The word is of Chinese origin and denotes a person with developed artistic talents. Sometimes the word "geisha" is mistakenly used by Europeans to refer to a Japanese prostitute. Traditionally, until recently, a geisha began training at age 7 and, when she achieved sufficient skill, her parents entered into a contract with a geisha employer for several years. Geisha attended men's meetings and entertained guests with singing, dancing, reciting poetry and light conversation. In rare cases, she could break the contract by getting married. After World War II, the sale of daughters became illegal and the practice disappeared. The geisha profession still exists. Currently, geisha have more rights and many are united in unions.

Theater actor

Theater actors had different positions depending on which theater they played in. The actors of the Noo theater, which emerged in the 14th century and developed as a sophisticated aristocratic theater that enjoyed the support and patronage of the highest representatives of the samurai class, in the Edo era received civil status equal to the lower rank of samurai (which confirms the thesis that in Japan throughout the entire period of developed feudalism, the borders between the nobility and the common people remained open), and the rice ration was a salary that was paid to them by the shogun and daimyo. There were cases when the actor Noo was awarded the highest samurai rank - daimyo, but there are also facts when he was forced to commit seppuku for bad acting.

The actors of the Kabuki theater, which was very popular among the people, were subject to social restrictions, including the territorial isolation of Kabuki actors as the lower class.

Slave

Land ownership during the early Middle Ages developed in two forms: the state allotment system and large private-feudal land ownership (shoen). The allotment peasantry turned into an estate of feudal society. According to the Taihoryo code, they were called “good people” in contrast to slaves - “low people”. Thus, early feudal legislation recognized slavery, furnishing slave ownership with a number of legal guarantees, and determined the functions of categories of slaves. Owning slaves made it possible to obtain additional land: for each state slave the same allotment was given as for a free one, for each slave owned by a private individual - 1/3 of the free allotment. Individual families of the nobility owned a fairly large number of slaves, and therefore the feudal lord, at the expense of slaves, could significantly increase his land holdings. The largest number of slaves belonged to the royal court and the Buddhist church.

The ruling class sought to increase the number of slaves it had. The main source of slaves - captives from local "foreigners" - at that time could only be important on the outskirts. But this path also exhausted itself with the cessation of aggressive campaigns. Moreover, if a slave was accidentally captured, but then freed himself and returned to Japan, he was freed and classified as free. If foreign slaves voluntarily arrived in Japan, they were freed and classified as free. To replenish the number of slaves, they began to resort to forcible abduction, the abduction of peasants, especially children, and the purchase of their youngest children from the heads of families. One could be enslaved for a crime, for non-payment of a debt. Self-selling into slavery was also practiced. However, all these sources of slavery were limited. State slaves predominated. And although they were subjected to cruel exploitation (legislation prescribed that during their maintenance they should not allow “excessive expenditure of government allowances”), legally they still had the right to a day of rest every ten days, could marry people of the same social status, and children from the relationship of a slave with free were considered free. A slave could petition to join the free class. A slave who reached the age of 76 became free (which is also interesting from the point of view of life expectancy in Japan at that time). A slave who secretly became a monk, if he knew the holy books, was considered free. In other words, the position of the Japanese slave differed significantly from the Roman “instrumentum vocale” both in the regime of detention and in the field of law.

At the beginning of the 8th century. with a population of about 6 million, the number of slaves accounted for about 10% of the total population, and in some villages even less. An analysis of Taihoryo shows that of the entire body of the Code, only 2.86% of the articles concern the situation of slaves, which confirms their relative small number. Slave labor was used mainly in heavy construction work. The city of Nara was built by the hands of slaves and the corvee labor of peasants, and a colossal statue of Buddha was cast. However, by the middle of the 9th century. slave labor began to be used less and less, and the use of slaves in agriculture completely ceased (subsequently, slaves more often performed the duties of servants).

Conclusion

Medieval Japanese society had a complex structure. Both the ruling class of samurai and the exploited class consisted of different layers and were divided due to specific medieval features - the presence of consanguineous alliances, territorial communal associations at various levels, the presence of numerous class and intra-class gradations, and diverse connections of subordination of the lower to the higher. The life of each layer was strictly regulated both “from above” and “from below”, although, as already mentioned, the boundaries between commoners and nobility remained open.

The principle of community, corporate self-government has become widespread in Japan. In addition to the self-government of rural communities and samurai unions, there were self-governing territorial communities in cities, guilds had a communal organization, and even the poor and outcasts formed community-type organizations. The highest manifestation Free cities and self-government of entire provinces appeared as a self-governing community. These communal traditions, this corporatism, have received a new development in Japan today. The developed collectivism of Japanese workers and employees, their hard work and devotion to duty are widely known.

In general, the most important feature of feudal society is universal connectedness, personal dependence, community.

Personal dependence is the basis of feudalism. This means that, firstly, feudalism arises from relations of universal dependence. Secondly, for the successful functioning of feudalism, it is necessary that a form of “reciprocity” of services be maintained. (In a certain sense, not only the peasant depends on the feudal lord, but also the feudal lord on the peasant. The land belongs to the feudal lord. But the feudal lord also belongs to the land). Thirdly, the mysticism surrounding class relations under feudalism (the concepts of “duty”, “loyalty”, father-filial phraseology).

“General dependence” is a specifically feudal form of “community”. Feudalism is characterized by a large number and fragmentation of statuses, the absence of sharp edges, breaks in the social fabric, blurred class boundaries, although at the same time the degree of differentiation at the top and bottom of the social ladder is enormous. These features distinguish feudalism from a slave society with its sharp division of society into at least two poles: free and slaves, or citizens and non-citizens. In a slave society, all people are equal, but slaves are not people. In a feudal society, all people are people. But they are not all equal.

Based on the foregoing, the society of medieval Japan should be recognized as a feudal society, and some researchers believe that Japan, of all the countries of the East, most corresponds to the Western model of feudalism.

Despite restrictions in all areas of life in Japanese medieval society, the most significant achievements of Japanese culture date back to this period. It was at this time that classical Japanese poetry and painting, sculpture and architecture, martial arts, and Zen Buddhism reached their peak.

Strict regulation, poor “external” life, contributed to concentration on “internal” life, where there are no boundaries.

Bibliography:

1. Dolin A.A., Popov G.V. Kempo is a tradition of martial arts. – M.: Science. Main Editorial Board of Oriental Literature, 1992.

2. History of the East. T.2: East in the Middle Ages. – M.: Publishing company “Oriental Literature” RAS, 1995.

3. Kuznetsov Yu.D., Navlitskaya G.B., Syritsyn I.M. History of Japan. – M.: graduate School, 1988.

4. Radugin A.A., Radugin K.A. Sociology. M.: Publishing house "Center", 1996.

5. Svetlov G. (G.E. Komarovsky). The cradle of Japanese civilization: Nara. History, religion, culture. – M.: Art, 1994.

6. Japan: ideology, culture, literature. M.: Science. Main Editorial Board of Oriental Literature, 1989.

Medieval Japanese society had a complex structure. Both the ruling class of samurai and the exploited class consisted of different layers and were divided due to specific medieval features - the presence of consanguineous alliances, territorial communal associations at various levels, the presence of numerous class and intra-class gradations, and diverse connections of subordination of the lower to the higher.

The life of each layer was strictly regulated both “from above” and “from below,” although the boundaries between commoners and nobility remained open. To describe the social structure of medieval Japan, let us take as a basis the class system shi-no-ko-sho, established in Japan under the Tokugawa shogunate, because It was the period of shogunate rule (1192-1867) that is considered classic Japanese feudalism. Si - was represented by the samurai (military class), but - the peasantry, ko - artisans, sho - traders.

Briefly, the social pyramid of Japan looked like this.

At its top was the deified emperor (tenno), who had formal power and performed primarily religious and ceremonial functions.

Directly behind him was the clan nobility - kuge, who did not have (by the 17th century) land, and received support from the shogun - the highest rank of the samurai class, the military ruler of Japan, who had real power in Japan. The shogun owned the largest amount of land in Japan - considered state land.

The next level was occupied by the buke (samurai), who were actually the highest class in feudal Japan. They were in turn divided into princes (daimyo), who had private land holdings, and bushi - ordinary samurai, vassals of the daimyo, who as a rule did not have land holdings. Although Shinto priests and Buddhist monks did not constitute an official class, their social status was higher than that of peasants, artisans and merchants.

Below came the peasants, most of them dependents. Peasants united into communities, which by the 17th century had greater independence. Below the peasants in the social hierarchy were the artisans who lived by the 17th century. mostly in cities and united into workshops. The artisans were followed by traders (merchants), united in merchant guilds.

This is where the class hierarchy ends. All other classes and strata were outside it and belonged to the lower strata of the population. These included: eta (“untouchables”, burakamin), ronin, ninja, geisha, hermits (yamabushi, etc.), quinin (beggars), vagabonds, pirates and robbers, folk theater actors (kabuki), indigenous peoples of certain Japanese islands (Ainu), etc.

Let us characterize the named estates and feudal ranks in more detail.

Although the emperor - tenno (Chinese "tian huang" - heavenly ruler) - is the logical pinnacle of the social structure of Japan, he did not have real power in the country in the Middle Ages. In the first chronicles of Japan: “Records of Ancient Deeds” (“Kojiki”, 712) and “Annals of Japan” (“Nihon Shoki”, abbreviated as Nihongi, 720), the emperors are depicted as descendants of the gods, especially the sun goddess Amaterasu - the main deity of the Shinto pantheon. The beginning of the imperial dynasty was attributed to 660 BC, although in fact it appeared several centuries later.

From the 7th to the middle of the 8th century. There was an autocratic rule of idolized emperors, based on an extensive Chinese-style bureaucratic system based on ranks and government positions. (The latter were not formally hereditary). Throughout the subsequent history of Japan (with rare exceptions), the power of the emperor was either limited or formal.

Thus, the originality of the feudal relations of Japan was reflected in the dual structure of power: the emperor - the “living god” - reigned, but did not rule, his veneration was associated with the religious cult - Shintoism, while the shogun had real power.

The No. 2 man in medieval Japan was the shogun, the title of the military dictators who ruled Japan from 1192 to 1867, excluding the Kemmu period (1333-1336), when ex-Emperor Godaigo attempted to restore the political power of the imperial house.

The term "shogun", short for seii tai shogun (Japanese for "generalissimo of the conquered barbarians"), was first used during the Nara period (early 8th century). This title was given to generals sent to conquer tribes in the northeast of the island of Honshu. According to other sources, in 413 Jingu (the widow of King Chuai) sent an embassy to China in order to achieve recognition of her son Ojin as the “King of Wa” (Japan). Similar embassies with tribute were sent under Odzin in 425 and under his younger brother Hansho in 438 to receive investiture from China and the title of commander-in-chief for the pacification of the East. The Chinese emperor granted Hansho, and then other Japanese kings, the rank not of commander-in-chief, but of general (“jiang juan” in Chinese, “shogun” in Japanese). This rank is apparently associated with the identification of Japanese and Chinese local rulers, who were granted a similar rank of general.

One way or another, the title "shogun" was not used until 1192, when Minamoto Yoritomo adopted it after defeating the rival Taira samurai clan in an internecine war. The shogun's power reached its apogee during the Tokugawa shogunate. The official doctrine of the Tokugawa shogunate stated that the shogun rules on the basis of the “mandate of Heaven” he received, is the supreme ruler of the country, the object of “great moral duty” on the part of his subjects.

Directly below the emperor on the social ladder under the Tokugawa shogunate were the kuge - the court Kyoto (metropolitan) aristocracy

relatives of the emperor and descendants of the family aristocracy during the formation of the Japanese state (III-VI centuries). This social class was closely intertwined with the central government. The Kuge took part in detailed palace ceremonies, which occupied all their free time. The Kuge had no land and therefore had no economic or political power. They received a salary of rice from the shogun and were completely dependent on his actions. Kuge nominally constituted the highest rank of the feudal nobility (si), the rest of it was classified as buke (military houses), which represented the dominant class of military-feudal nobility in the country.

Buke were divided into sovereign princes (daimyo) and ordinary nobles (bushi), who, as a rule, did not have land holdings. The ruling princes, the overwhelming majority of whom were dependent on the Tokugawa house, were divided into categories according to income - according to the amount of rice collected in their possessions (rice was the main measure of values). The topmost layer of daimyo were the shimpan, who were connected to the shogun's house by family ties.

The rest, depending on their support in the war to establish the Tokugawa shogunate, were divided into two categories: fudai daimyo and tozama daimyo. Fudai are direct vassals of the shogun, over 150 princes associated with Tokugawa even before he came to power. The highest government bodies were formed from them, and the vacancies of governors in the province were filled. The Tozama daimyo were a disgraced group of high nobility. The 80 feudal princes, richer and more powerful than the fudai, and equal in economic power to the shogun's house, were regarded by the Tokugawa as constant and dangerous rivals. Tozama was not allowed to hold government positions; highest government bodies, government posts; in remote areas of Kyushu, Shikoku and southern Honshu, where the Tozama possessions were located, the government built castles, transferred individual principalities (Nagasaki, etc.) to the central government in order to make it difficult to create coalitions against the bakufu (military government) They did not have the right to build a second castle for themselves , and the repair of the first could only be carried out with the permission of the bakufu 11 Deinorov E. History of Japan M.: AST, 2008, p. 478.

The hostage system (sankinkotai) made it possible to put very active pressure on the daimyo. All princes were obliged to come to the capital every year with their family and retinue. After a year, the daimyo returned to the principality, his wife and children remained at the shogun's court as hostages. Disobedience and an attempt to create an anti-government coalition caused immediate repression against members of the daimyo's family. In addition, Sankinkotai placed an additional financial burden on the princes: constant travel, life in the capital, construction and maintenance of their own palaces there weakened the principality, while simultaneously enriching and beautifying Edo. The shogunate did not tax the feudal principalities, but periodically, according to established custom, the princes presented the shogun with “gifts” - gold and silver coins - from several hundred to several thousand.

The ruling princes differed in the degree of their wealth, which was calculated by annual income expressed in rice. Japan's total rice income at the beginning of the 17th century was estimated at 11 million koku (1 koku = 180.4 liters), of which 4 million koku belonged to the Tokugawa house. The other princes were significantly inferior to him in wealth. Only 16 feudal princes had an income of over 300 thousand koku of rice each. It was they (the top of the ruling daimyo princes) who were the largest appanage rulers, who had a large number of vassals and enjoyed independence in their principalities. The overwhelming majority of the princes (over 200) were completely dependent on the Tokugawa. Daimyo were considered those feudal lords whose lands generated income of more than 10 thousand koku (approximately 1500 tons) of rice.

The next stratum of feudal lords after the daimyo included the hatamoto (“banner”), whose lands yielded less than 10 thousand rice. As a rule, hotamoto were direct vassals of the shogun. From them the bureaucracy of the state apparatus was formed, an extensive system of investigation and supervision, and the shogun's army was recruited. A special place was occupied by metsuke (overseers) officials, whose activities were aimed at identifying violations of the shogun’s interests. Being independent from officials and combining the functions of police and prosecutorial supervision, the metsuke carried out secret and overt surveillance not only of the serving samurai of the central and local apparatus, but primarily of the princes.

The samurai were the dominant military class in medieval Japan. There were three sources for the formation of the samurai class. The bulk of the samurai came from the peasant elite, the wealthy peasantry, as a result of the deepening process of social differentiation. The second way is to allocate land to household servants. Belonging to a family group, but not being in a kinship or inherent relationship with its head, they initially worked for rice soup and, in case of military necessity, defended the land holdings of this family with arms in their hands. Due to the lack of material incentives to conduct military operations, their combat effectiveness was low, which especially affected the northeast, where the ancestors of the modern Ainu carried out continuous raids. Then the heads of family groups began to allocate land to the servants, which immediately affected the increase in their combat effectiveness, because now they were fighting not for grub, but for their own land, which personally belonged to them. Thirdly, the upper ranks of the samurai class were replenished at the expense of governors, who, enriched by based on the shoen (fiefdoms) he commended, they turned into large feudal owners. Local landowners, to guarantee the security of their possessions (shoen), commended their lands to the governor, stipulating for themselves either the position of clerk or manager on the lands that previously belonged to them. The governor, in turn, often donated this land either to a representative of the court aristocracy or to the emperor himself. With such a double commendation, the governor became the owner, and the superior person became the patron, patron of the shōen 11 History of Asian and African countries in the Middle Ages in 2 parts Moscow Moscow University Publishing House 1987, part 1, p. 243.According to other sources, samurai originated in the 8th century. in eastern and northeastern Japan. The basis of the early military squads (samurai) was made up of mid- and low-ranking aristocrats who specialized in military affairs (the fight against the Ainu in the east, pirates and robbers, etc.), hunters, fishermen, etc., who were not engaged in agriculture, although there were enough immigrants and peasants. The formation of a special military class was facilitated by the strengthening of the agricultural orientation of the entire economy and the spread of the ban on killing all living things (when entering the capital, warriors performed a special purification ceremony). The first samurai squads did not yet have the conditions for independent existence; they entered into a relationship of dependence on the capital's feudal lords, provincial government officials. In the X-XII centuries. In the process of ongoing feudal feuds, the sovereign samurai clans finally took shape, leading squads that were only nominally in the imperial service. The samurai united into detachments (to) and into larger groups (dan). These formations consisted of blood relatives, in-laws, and their vassals and were led either by the head of the family group or by the eldest of the most influential samurai family in the area. Samurai units acted on the side of warring feudal factions that sought to enlist the support of the largest number of samurai, on whose combat effectiveness and numbers success or defeat in internecine wars depended. Later, with the weakening of the influence of the heads of large family groups and the simultaneous strengthening of small families, rebellious leagues (ikki) were separated from the samurai associations (to). They consisted of younger sons who were hired out to one or another feudal lord. The success or defeat of the parties in internecine wars for land, for power, and for the sole right of the feudal lord to exploit the peasants often depended on the support of such leagues.

By the X-XII centuries. The foundations of the unwritten moral code of the samurai “The Way of the Bow and the Horse” (“Kyuba no Michi”) were formed, which later turned into the famous code of the samurai class “The Way of the Warrior” (Bushido). The norms of samurai behavior in the Bushido code glorified the vassal's loyalty to his master, courage, modesty, self-sacrifice, sincerity, politeness, and the priority of duty over feeling was affirmed (those qualities that were glorified by chivalry in medieval Europe).

The suicide of a vassal (“seppuku”) after the death of a suzerain became a tradition. The samurai wore two swords (which was a sign of his belonging to the samurai class), one of them was short, which was used to commit seppuku. In general, the sword was the soul of the samurai, it occupied a special place in his home; a stranger could not even touch the sword.

Compared to the other three classes of “common people” - peasants, artisans and merchants - samurai enjoyed enormous privileges. On the other hand, their practical activity in the conditions of the long peace established during the Edo period was limited to guard duty or, at best, to participation in ceremonial processions, because According to the code of samurai honor, a Japanese nobleman had no right to engage in anything in life other than military affairs. The princes no longer needed strong and numerous squads, and in addition, the decrees of the shogunate prescribed a significant reduction in them.

Thus, losing their overlord, samurai of lower ranks went bankrupt, became ronin (“wave man,” wandering samurai), whose ranks were replenished by impoverished samurai who left the prince because they were no longer satisfied with the size of the rice ration.

Peasants, artisans and merchants, who made up separate classes, constituted the category of commoners - Bonge.

Since the main occupation of peasants is cultivating the land, the division of peasants into classes occurred according to the types of land ownership. Initially, in the early Middle Ages, peasants could be divided into allotment and assigned. Allotment peasants cultivated land owned by the state (koryo); they received an allotment for temporary use, for which they had to pay the state a grain tax and a tax on handicrafts, mainly textiles. In addition to food rent, peasants performed corvée - they worked for the benefit of the state and its local authorities. Assigned peasants cultivated the land of feudal lords (tribal nobility), to whom the state allocated plots (shoen) depending on their ranks, positions and merits. The assigned peasants had to give half of the grain tax to the treasury, and the other half to the feudal lord.

Taxes and labor duties went entirely to the feudal lord. In the shoen, the main tax unit was the relatively wealthy peasant (tato). The most common system of cultivation among the Tatos was contract farming, usually involving an annual agreement to own the land. The Tatos sought to turn the contracted land into their own field, managed by them. As a result of the established practice of annual renewal of the contract, managed land tended to turn into the property of the contractor, into the so-called registered field, and its owner into the “registered owner”.

In the 13th century. The erosion of the main tax unit in the shoen began - “nominal owners” - this intermediate social layer, at one pole of which “new names” were formed - small feudal lords and samurai who settled on the land, and at the other - the small peasantry. This marked the development of the process of social demarcation between the classes of peasants and nobles (samurai). The long existence of intermediate layers, combining the features of the exploiter and the exploited, suggests that the classes of feudal lords and peasants had not yet been fully formed until the 16th century. Only after the disappearance of the category of myoshu (large peasant farms that combined the position of exploiter and exploited) by the 16th century. The classes-estates of feudal lords and peasants were clearly established. In Japan, throughout the entire period of the development of feudalism, the borders between the nobility and the common people remained open. From the second half of the 13th century. there is a process of social stratification of the Myoshu, when part of the Myoshu layer moved into the ranks of the peasantry, into the category of middle peasants cultivating their plots with the labor of their family. To this layer in the XIV-XV centuries. belonged to the overwhelming majority of peasants - 80-85%, 5% belonged to the peasants and 5-10% to personally dependent peasants.

Peasants attached to land plots in the principalities conducted independent farming on the basis of hereditary holding. A characteristic feature of Japan's feudal production relations was the absence of open forms of serfdom. The feudal lord could not sell or buy a peasant, although there was a personal dependence - attachment to a plot of land determined by the feudal authorities. The main form of land use was rent, and the main form of duties was rice rent (nengu); sometimes the feudal lord levied a tax in money. Corvée was not widespread in Tokugawa Japan, since for the most part the feudal lord did not manage his own household. Only in certain regions of Japan, on the lands of the samurai-liefs (vassals of the prince who received land for their service), did corvée exist. But even in this case, it was not a form of direct agricultural production. The labor rent played an auxiliary role here. This was servicing the personal needs of the feudal lord: repairing premises, procuring fuel, animal feed, as well as performing public works, which were the responsibility of the head of the principality by bakufu officials - the construction and repair of roads, bridges, etc. The feudal authorities of the Tokugawa period tried to impose in the village there is broad administrative and political control, which makes it possible to regulate all aspects of the life of the peasantry. Regulations prohibited peasants from eating rice, spending it on cakes (which were considered a waste of rice) and sake (on non-holiday days, food was prepared from flour: oats, barley, millet), wearing clothes made of silk (it was prescribed to use cotton and linen fabrics). The cut and coloring of the clothes were also precisely defined. Exceeding the established size of dwellings and their decoration were strictly prohibited; entertainment such as theatrical performances and magnificent ceremonies were also prohibited. Weddings, funerals and other events were to be arranged with “dignified modesty.”

Below the peasants in social status were artisans. In Japan, the 10th-13th centuries were a time of transition from dependent forms of craft to freer ones. If at the stage of the early Middle Ages artisans were subordinated to state workshops, and then divided between the imperial court, government institutions, aristocratic houses and temples, then in the X-XI centuries. small producers in a city, such as Kyoto, gain considerable independence. Craftsmen already had their own workshops, tools, and were to some extent engaged in commodity production for the market, in contrast to the previous period, when they worked only for the owner, mainly the state.

A characteristic sign of the acquisition of a medieval character by a craft was the organization from the end of the 11th-12th centuries. craft workshops (dza). In the dza during the period of its inception, the artisan and the merchant were one person: trade at that time had not yet been separated from handicraft production. The term “za” (to sit) first designated a place on the market where artisans of the same specialty sold their products, then associations of persons of the same profession who had a monopoly on the production and sale of their products. The need for a monopoly was dictated by great competition with a relatively low demand for handicraft products. The monopoly was guaranteed by the feudal patron, who could be either a court aristocrat or a temple. Craftsmen paid for patronage with products of their craft or a one-time fee 11 History of Asian and African countries in the Middle Ages in 2 parts Moscow Moscow University Publishing House 1987 part 1, p. 245.

Early workshops of the XII-XIII centuries. were weak, were often built not on a territorial or production basis, but on a religious basis; in most cases they could perform their guild functions only by coming under the patronage of powerful feudal patrons.

In the XIV-XV centuries. the process of separating crafts from agriculture was further developed. The number of craft workshops grew, covering more and more new types of crafts, emerging not only in the capital region, but also on the periphery. As before, they entered into patronage relationships with the Kyoto aristocracy, members of the imperial family and monasteries. However, if in the previous period service or production for the patron was the main thing, and hired labor or production for the market was a by-product, now it’s the other way around. If earlier patronage consisted of providing fields to support subsistence, now the patronage of powerful houses included guarantees of special, monopoly rights when engaging in a certain type of production activity, and the workshops, in turn, were obliged to pay certain sums of money. The guilds became an important financial source for maintaining the imperial court and court aristocracy, and their important support in social terms. Since the 14th century workshops sometimes already represented armed formations.

Rural artisans move from a wandering lifestyle to a sedentary one, rural areas emerge, the inhabitants of which specialize in one type of craft. Craftsmen could retain their previous formal status as dependent people of a temple or other patron, but in fact their craft organizations were independent. Urban and rural centers for the production of silk fabrics, paper, porcelain tableware, and pottery arose.

In Kyoto, specialized sake production developed (in the 15th century it was produced in 342 houses), and in Oyamazaki, the production of vegetable oil. Thus, the bakufu guaranteed the butter press workshop, which had the status of a client of the Hachimangu Temple, special rights to purchase raw materials and sell goods throughout the central part of the country. In the vicinity of the capital, for example, there were numerous village workshops engaged in processing agricultural products. Craftsmen were also concentrated in the headquarters of military governors and in the estates of provincial feudal lords.

Merchant capital, helping to strengthen ties between individual regions, begins to gradually intervene in handicraft production. The merchant-buyer supplied artisans with raw materials and bought finished products. Acting as an intermediary between the artisan and the market, he dictated the type, quality, and quantity of products. Buying, for example, cotton from Kyushu, he distributed it to spinning shops in Osaka, and handed over the finished yarn to dyers, weavers, etc.

The position of artisans was strictly regulated and controlled. Craftsmen were organized into workshops that had a monopoly of production, had a clear hierarchy and heredity of the craft. The government granted the guilds certain privileges and protected their monopoly. At the same time, it actively pursued a policy of pressure - it introduced various restrictions and their activities, and carried out scrupulous supervision over the products being manufactured and their entry into the market.

In the Edo era (Tokugawa period), artisans were divided into 3 categories, which in turn had their own divisions:

• - artisans who had their own shop;
• - artisans performing work on site;
• - wandering artisans (who had their own categories depending on the reasons for their “wandering”).

Merchants, like artisans, are an urban class. Merchants were below peasants and artisans in Japan's class hierarchy. This was due to the later identification of trade as an occupation, and to the fact that traders, without producing anything, profited from the labor of others.

In the IX-X centuries. During the period of dominance of the subsistence economy, trade was mainly carried out by luxury goods and exotic goods obtained from the Ainu delivered by Chinese and Korean merchants; the buyers were the court, the aristocracy and temples, and transactions were carried out by officials, but in the middle of the 11th-13th centuries. significant changes have occurred. Widespread trade in consumer goods began, which was no longer carried out by officials, but by merchants, who came primarily from artisans and other professional groups. From the middle of the 11th century. and Japanese traders began to actively export goods to the continent (to China).

Foreign trade accelerated the development of domestic trade. In the 12th century. rarely, but in the 13th century. patrimonial markets are beginning to appear more often, since from the 11th-12th centuries. the share of surplus agricultural and handicraft products remaining with local feudal lords and rich peasants increases. All of them go to patrimonial markets created by local feudal lords near their estates.

The emergence of a surplus product in the peasant economy, an increase in the amount of rent received by the feudal lords, and the development of crafts stimulated the growth of trade. From the 13th century city ​​merchants began to be taxed.

The presence of local markets made it possible to commute rent (from in kind to cash). Shoen owners increasingly began to depend on peripheral markets, since officials of their fiefdoms purchased in these markets those products and products that they could not obtain in their fiefdoms, and by selling the products of the fiefdoms, they received the necessary money.

Wholesale traders (toimaru) appeared, specializing in storing and sending products collected as taxes to the capital. From the second half of the 12th century. Moneylenders have been active since the end of the 12th century. money bills appear.

From the beginning of the 14th century. There is an expansion in the scale of trade. If in the previous period craft guilds were simultaneously engaged in trading activities, now specialized trade guilds (kabunakama) are emerging. At the same time, craft guilds continued to engage in trade. The activity of moneylenders, who often simultaneously produced sake, began to flourish; the bakufu used the warehouses of such moneylenders as storage facilities for rice received as tax payments. Taking advantage of the difficulties of the owners of the shōen in collecting taxes, moneylenders took the latter out, paying in advance the amount of the expected tax, and then, with the help of military governors and local feudal lords, extorted taxes from the peasants.

The regulations of the Tokugawa government, which declared a “fight against luxury” and applied to the merchants, as well as to other citizens, prohibited the wearing of silk clothes, gold and silver jewelry, and the construction of spacious houses. In reality, the merchants concentrated significant capital and rare luxury goods in their hands. The merchants of Osaka, bypassing regulations regarding residential premises, even created a special type of building - “Osaka goshi”, in which the regulated width of the facade (9 m) was strictly observed, but in the depths of the block the house had a length four times greater. In addition, in order to avoid paying tax on windows, they made a completely blank facade with one narrow door, closed like a window with a wooden lattice and letting light into the room. The modesty and artlessness of the facade was compensated by the wealth and luxury of the interior. The government, receiving loans from the merchants, in very rare cases tried to prevent the concentration of wealth in their hands. Therefore, the position of the merchants was characterized by less strict regulations than the position of artisans and peasants. They, like other classes, had a strict division into ranks/categories. But unlike peasants and artisans, who were divided into categories "from above" (the military government), merchants were divided into categories according to their own rules. Merchants were guided in their activities by general rules/statutes, which required them to work hard and avoid certain things. For example, a merchant was not supposed to sponsor charity wrestling tournaments, travel to Kyoto, gamble, engage in poetry, enter into friendly relations with representatives of the lower classes (geisha, Kabuki actors, etc.), take Iai-yutsu lessons (the art of quick drawing) and swordsmanship.

Although priests and monks were not considered a separate class, they had great influence in Japan. Shinto shrines and Buddhist monasteries have significant rights and property resulting from donations from both commoners and feudal lords. They have their own lands, which are cultivated both by the monks themselves (in monasteries) and by the dependent peasantry.

The life of monks and priests was less subject to regulation (although it intensified during the Tokugawa period) than the life of the rest of the population. Inside the monasteries, they live according to their own laws, developed over centuries or established by the founders of their teachings. For many centuries, priests and monks were a kind of intelligentsia of Japan; there were schools at the temples in which the nobility were trained. The monks were teachers, poets, musicians, and artists. Ritual performances in temples served as the beginning of the development of the art of dance and theater.

People who did not belong to any of the 4 classes and were not priests and monks were considered in Japan to be people of the lowest class, outcasts. Not being members of a rigid social hierarchy, they could not fulfill their duty - to serve their master.

Among the lower strata of society are the Japanese "untouchables" (eta). They settled separately, in “surplus villages” (amabe, amari-be), and had a tiny piece of land, even smaller than that of ordinary peasants. They were mainly engaged in crafts, slaughtering cattle, and leather processing, which was prohibited by Buddhism.

The lower strata of the population also included the already mentioned ronin (wandering samurai). Masterless samurai who fell out of the subject hierarchy of feudal society in Japan. A samurai could become a ronin for various reasons: because of the natural death of his master, because of his death in battle, because of his own misconduct, because of a reduction in the number of troops by his overlord. Although some ronin became peasants and monks, many of them could not get used to their new status and often became outlaws, joining bandits and pirates. The famous case of 47 ronin occurred at the beginning of the 17th century. After one day their master received an unbearable insult and, trying to avoid shame, committed seppuku, 47 ronin decided to avenge him, and in the course of revenge they all die. As a remarkable example of bushido, the samurai code of ethics, this incident became a favorite theme in Japanese literature and theater productions. One way or another, ronin, losing their position in society, gained freedom, which they could use for self-improvement, not constrained by the former restrictions of class. They were adventurers, striving for spiritual and physical renewal, and were a striking contrast to the rigidly stratified society of medieval Japan. Ronins, settling in cities, joined the ranks of the “free professions” - they became teachers, artists, poets, and minor employees. They often joined the ranks of Japanese ninja spies. Ninja literally means “infiltrator.” The root of the word nin (or, in another reading, shinobu) is “to sneak.” There is another connotation of meaning - “to endure, to endure.” During internecine wars, ninjas carried out assignments that were beneath the dignity of samurai: sabotage, espionage, contract killings, penetration behind enemy lines, etc. The process of separating the ninja into a separate social stratum, into a closed caste, went in parallel with the formation of the samurai class and in almost the same way. However, if the increased power of the samurai subsequently allowed it to take an independent position in the public life of Japan and even come to power, scattered groups of ninjas never represented and could not represent any significant military and political force. Ninjas united in secret clan organizations. Having been excluded from the state system of feudal relations, the ninja developed their own hierarchical class structure that met the needs of this type of organization. The community was headed by the military-clerical elite (jonin). Sometimes jonin controlled the activities of two or three adjacent ryu (clans related by blood ties). Leadership was carried out through the middle level - tyunin, whose responsibilities included the transmission of orders, training and mobilization of ordinary lower-level performers (genin). Tyunin was in charge of organizing appearances, building shelters, recruiting informants, as well as tactical leadership of all operations. They also came into contact with employers - agents of large feudal lords. However, the agreement was concluded between the jonin and the daimyo (prince) himself. Ninjas, like samurai, were fluent in martial arts. By the 17th century There were about seventy ninja clans.

The declassed elements include various tramps and hermits. Thus, in Japan in the Middle Ages, mountain hermits Yamabushi (“sleeping in the mountains”), followers of the Shugendo tradition - a synthesis of esoteric Buddhism, Taoism, and ancient cults (cult of mountains) were popular in the Middle Ages. The Yamabushi were healers, magicians, and sages who conveyed the teachings of Buddha to the common people. The influence of yamabushi on the people especially increased during the period of tightening regulations under the Tokugawa shogunate, when the main function of Buddhist priests became the funeral cult. In the eyes of the peasants, the rector of the local temple increasingly became as alien a figure as the tax collector. They felt an incomparably greater closeness to the wandering yamabushi, who continued to heal, console, and enlighten people, giving birth to a feeling of relief from their fate through their participation in their daily affairs and concerns. Yamabushi are also mentioned as spiritual mentors of ninjas.

Geisha are a class of women in Japan who are professional dancers and singers. The word is of Chinese origin and denotes a person with developed artistic talents. Sometimes the word "geisha" is mistakenly used by Europeans to refer to a Japanese prostitute. Traditionally, until recently, a geisha began training at age 7 and, when she achieved sufficient skill, her parents entered into a contract with a geisha employer for several years. Geisha attended men's meetings and entertained guests with singing, dancing, reciting poetry and light conversation. In rare cases, she could break the contract by getting married.

Theater actors had different positions depending on which theater they played in. The actors of the Noo theater, which emerged in the 14th century and developed as a sophisticated aristocratic theater that enjoyed the support and patronage of the highest representatives of the samurai class, in the Edo era received civil status equal to the lower rank of samurai (which confirms the thesis that in Japan throughout the entire period of developed feudalism, the borders between the nobility and the common people remained open), and the rice ration was a salary that was paid to them by the shogun and daimyo. There were cases when the actor Noo was awarded the highest samurai rank - daimyo, but there are also facts when he was forced to commit seppuku for bad acting. The actors of the Kabuki theater, which was very popular among the people, were subject to social restrictions, including the territorial isolation of Kabuki actors as inferior class.

In the early Middle Ages, slaves were a special group of the population. Land ownership during the early Middle Ages developed in two forms: the state allotment system and large private-feudal land ownership (shoen). The allotment peasantry turned into an estate of feudal society. According to the Taihoryo code, they were called “good people” in contrast to slaves - “low people”. Thus, early feudal legislation recognized slavery, furnishing slave ownership with a number of legal guarantees, and determined the functions of categories of slaves. Owning slaves made it possible to obtain additional land: for each state slave the same allotment was given as for a free one, for each slave owned by a private individual - 1/3 of the free allotment.

Individual families of the nobility owned a fairly large number of slaves, and therefore the feudal lord, at the expense of slaves, could significantly increase his land holdings. The largest number of slaves belonged to the royal court and the Buddhist church. The ruling class sought to increase the number of slaves it had.

The main source of slaves - captives from local "foreigners" - at that time could only be important on the outskirts. But this path also exhausted itself with the cessation of aggressive campaigns. Moreover, if a slave was accidentally captured, but then freed himself and returned to Japan, he was freed and classified as free. If foreign slaves voluntarily arrived in Japan, they were freed and classified as free. To replenish the number of slaves, they began to resort to forcible abduction, the abduction of peasants, especially children, and the purchase of their youngest children from the heads of families. One could be enslaved for a crime, for non-payment of a debt. Self-selling into slavery was also practiced. However, all these sources of slavery were limited.

State slaves predominated. And although they were subjected to cruel exploitation (legislation prescribed that during their maintenance they should not allow “excessive expenditure of government allowances”), legally they still had the right to a day of rest every ten days, could marry people of the same social status, and children from the relationship of a slave with free were considered free. A slave could petition to join the free class. A slave who reached the age of 76 became free. A slave who secretly became a monk, if he knew the holy books, was considered free. In other words, the position of the Japanese slave differed significantly from the Roman “instrumentum vocale” both in the regime of detention and in the field of law.

At the beginning of the 8th century. with a population of about 6 million, the number of slaves accounted for about 10% of the total population, and in some villages even less. An analysis of Taihoryo shows that of the entire body of the Code, only 2.86% of the articles concern the situation of slaves, which confirms their relative small number. Slave labor was used mainly in heavy labor construction work. The city of Nara was built by the hands of slaves and the corvee labor of peasants, and a colossal statue of Buddha was cast. However, by the middle of the 9th century. slave labor began to be used less and less, and the use of slaves in agriculture completely ceased (subsequently, slaves more often performed the duties of servants).

Relations between Japan was the absence of open forms of serfdom. The feudal lord could not sell or buy a peasant, although there was a personal dependence - attachment to a plot of land determined by the feudal authorities.

The main form of land use was rent, and the main form of duties was rice rent (nengu); sometimes the feudal lord levied a tax in money. Corvée was not widespread in Tokugawa Japan, since for the most part the feudal lord did not manage his own household. Only in certain regions of Japan, on the lands of the samurai-liefs (vassals of the prince who received land for their service), did corvée exist. But even in this case, it was not a form of direct agricultural production. The labor rent played an auxiliary role here. This was servicing the personal needs of the feudal lord: repairing premises, procuring fuel, animal feed, as well as performing public works, which were assigned to the head of the principality by bakufu officials - construction and repair of roads, bridges, etc.

The feudal authorities of the Tokugawa period tried to impose broad administrative and political control in the villages, making it possible to regulate all aspects of the life of the peasantry. The regulations prohibited peasants from eating rice, spending it on cakes (which were considered a waste of rice) and sake (on non-holiday days, food was prepared from mugi: oats, barley, millet), wearing clothes made of silk (it was prescribed to use cotton and linen fabrics). The cut and coloring of the clothes were also precisely defined. Exceeding the established size of dwellings and their decoration were strictly prohibited; entertainment such as theatrical performances and magnificent ceremonies were also prohibited. Weddings, funerals and other events were to be arranged with “dignified modesty.”

An important element of the village management system during the Tokugawa period was mutual responsibility, introduced by government agencies everywhere. For the convenience of supervision, tax collection and control over the implementation of government orders, the village was divided into five-yards. The Pyatidvorka was responsible for the activities of all its members; it was headed by a headman, usually appointed by the authorities from among wealthy peasants. In extreme cases, for example, when a peasant escaped, the headman distributed the taxes of the escapee onto the rest of the members of the five-yard.

Craftsmen

Below the peasants in social status were artisans.

The 10th-13th centuries were characterized in Japan by a relatively high level of social division of labor, as evidenced by the separation of crafts from agriculture, the emergence of feudal cities or the transformation of early feudal or ancient ones on feudal principles. The functions of the city as an administrative and political center are weakened, and corporate ownership of small independent producers arises.

In Japan, the 10th-13th centuries were a time of transition from dependent forms of craft to freer ones. If at the stage of the early Middle Ages artisans were subordinated to state workshops, and then divided between the imperial court, government institutions, aristocratic houses and temples, then in the X-XI centuries. small producers in a city, such as Kyoto, gain considerable independence. Craftsmen already had their own workshops, tools, and were to some extent engaged in commodity production for the market, in contrast to the previous period, when they worked only for the owner, mainly the state.

A characteristic sign of the acquisition of a medieval character by a craft was the organization from the end of the 11th-12th centuries. craft workshops (dza). In the dza during the period of its inception, the artisan and the merchant were one person: trade at that time had not yet been separated from handicraft production. The term “za” (to sit) first designated a place on the market where artisans of the same specialty sold their products, then associations of persons of the same profession who had a monopoly on the production and sale of their products. They were divided into service ones, created to perform certain services in favor of feudal lords and state institutions (an early type of craft associations, these included artists, painters, blacksmiths, etc.), and production ones, the purpose of which was primarily to obtain privileges and protection corresponding craft and artisan. Over time, service dzas gave way to production ones or expanded their functions accordingly.

Early workshops of the XII-XIII centuries. were weak, were often built not on a territorial or production basis, but on a religious basis; in most cases they could perform their guild functions only by coming under the patronage of powerful feudal patrons.

Kyoto and Nara X-XIII centuries. although they performed city trade and craft functions, they were under the complete control of the feudal lords, craft corporations did not participate in city government. In the X-XIII centuries. The process of forming trade and craft districts was already underway, which in the future became administrative units of the city.

This stage in the development of urban crafts and cities corresponded to the inseparability of crafts and agriculture in the countryside, where rural artisans received plots of land from the owners of estates or local feudal lords to support their existence, since the market was narrow and there were not enough orders. This practice lasted until the end of the 13th century. These artisans did not necessarily become professional. Many of them eventually specialized in agriculture.

In the XIV-XV centuries. the process of separating crafts from agriculture was further developed. The number of craft workshops grew, covering more and more new types of crafts, emerging not only in the capital region, but also on the periphery. As before, they entered into patronage relationships with the Kyoto aristocracy, members of the imperial family and monasteries. However, if in the previous period service or production for the patron was the main thing, and hired labor or production for the market was a by-product, now it’s the other way around. If earlier patronage consisted of providing fields to support subsistence, now the patronage of powerful houses included guarantees of special, monopoly rights when engaging in a certain type of production activity, and the workshops, in turn, were obliged to pay certain sums of money. The guilds became an important financial source for maintaining the imperial court and court aristocracy, and their important support in social terms. Since the 14th century workshops sometimes already represented armed formations.

Rural artisans move from a wandering lifestyle to a sedentary one, rural areas emerge, the inhabitants of which specialize in one type of craft. Craftsmen could retain their previous formal status as dependent people of a temple or other patron, but in fact their craft organizations were independent. Urban and rural centers for the production of silk fabrics, paper, porcelain tableware, and pottery arose. In Kyoto, specialized sake production developed (in the 15th century it was produced in 342 houses), and in Oyamazaki, the production of vegetable oil. Thus, the bakufu guaranteed the butter press workshop, which had the status of a client of the Hachimangu Temple, special rights to purchase raw materials and sell goods throughout the central part of the country. In the vicinity of the capital, for example, there were numerous village workshops engaged in processing agricultural products. Craftsmen were also concentrated in the headquarters of military governors and in the estates of provincial feudal lords.

Production on the market dates back to the 17th century. to the fact that in different parts of the country there are areas specializing in a certain type of product. Merchant capital, helping to strengthen ties between individual regions, begins to gradually intervene in handicraft production. The merchant-buyer supplied artisans with raw materials and bought finished products. Acting as an intermediary between the artisan and the market, he dictated the type, quality, and quantity of products. Buying, for example, cotton from Kyushu, he distributed it to spinning shops in Osaka, and handed over the finished yarn to dyers, weavers, etc. Craftsmen thus specialized in a particular process of producing a particular product, increasingly subordinate to the merchant, who became a capitalist entrepreneur.

In the 17th century In certain branches of Japanese production, the first manufactories arose, and the initial forms of capitalist entrepreneurship arose.

However, the number of manufactories at this time (mainly textiles and food production) was very small. The predominant form of production remained work at home, subordinate to the buyer-trader, having the character of dispersed manufacture.

The position of artisans was strictly regulated and controlled. Craftsmen were organized into workshops that had a monopoly of production, had a clear hierarchy and heredity of the craft. The government granted the guilds certain privileges and protected their monopoly. At the same time, it actively pursued a policy of pressure - it introduced various restrictions and their activities, and carried out scrupulous supervision over the products being manufactured and their entry into the market.

In the Edo era (Tokugawa period), artisans were divided into 3 categories, which in turn had their own divisions:

Craftsmen who had their own shop;

Craftsmen performing work on site;

Traveling artisans (who had their own ranks depending on the reasons for their “wandering”).

Traders (merchants)

Merchants, like artisans, are an urban class. Merchants were below peasants and artisans in Japan's class hierarchy. This was due to the later identification of trade as an occupation, and to the fact that traders, without producing anything, profited from the labor of others.

In the IX-X centuries. During the period of dominance of the subsistence economy, trade was mainly carried out by luxury goods and exotic goods obtained from the Ainu delivered by Chinese and Korean merchants; the buyers were the court, the aristocracy and temples, and transactions were carried out by officials, but in the middle of the 11th-13th centuries. significant changes have occurred. Widespread trade in consumer goods began, which was no longer carried out by officials, but by merchants, who came primarily from artisans and other professional groups. From the middle of the 11th century. and Japanese traders began to actively export goods to the continent (to China).

Foreign trade accelerated the development of domestic trade. In the 12th century. rarely, but in the 13th century. patrimonial markets are beginning to appear more often, since from the 11th-12th centuries. the share of surplus agricultural and handicraft products remaining with local feudal lords and rich peasants increases. All of them go to patrimonial markets created by local feudal lords near their estates. The emergence of a surplus product in the peasant economy, an increase in the amount of rent received by the feudal lords, and the development of crafts stimulated the growth of trade. From the 13th century city ​​merchants began to be taxed.

The presence of local markets made it possible to commute rent (from in kind to cash). Shoen owners increasingly began to depend on peripheral markets, since officials of their fiefdoms purchased in these markets those products and products that they could not obtain in their fiefdoms, and by selling the products of the fiefdoms, they received the necessary money. Wholesale traders (toimaru) appeared, specializing in storing and sending products collected as taxes to the capital. From the second half of the 12th century. Moneylenders have been active since the end of the 12th century. money bills appear.

From the beginning of the 14th century. There is an expansion in the scale of trade. If in the previous period craft guilds were simultaneously engaged in trading activities, now specialized trade guilds (kabunakama) are emerging. At the same time, craft guilds continued to engage in trade. The activity of moneylenders, who often simultaneously produced sake, began to flourish; the bakufu used the warehouses of such moneylenders as storage facilities for rice received as tax payments. Taking advantage of the difficulties of the owners of the shōen in collecting taxes, moneylenders took the latter out, paying in advance the amount of the expected tax, and then, with the help of military governors and local feudal lords, extorted taxes from the peasants. Specializing in the transportation of products paid for taxes, Toimaru merchants significantly expand the scope of their activities, gradually turning into intermediary merchants engaged in the sale and transportation of various goods, and usurious activities. The base of their operations became cities located on the coast, which combined the functions of territorial markets and transshipment points, i.e. acting as intermediaries between the center and the periphery. If before the XIV century. markets were temporary gathering places for traders, then in the XIV-XV centuries. merchants already lived in the territory of markets and permanent house-shops. The owners of such shops traced their origins to settled itinerant merchants, artisans and carters who had previously lived at provincial administrations and in shoen, peasants.

As already mentioned, with the development of production and trade by the 17th century, merchant buyers appeared, becoming over time capitalist entrepreneurs. Merchant capital gained more and more strong positions in the life of the city. Particularly influential were the guilds of wholesale traders of any one type of goods or those who monopolized trade operations in a certain part of the country.

The regulations of the Tokugawa government, which declared a “fight against luxury” and applied to the merchants, as well as to other citizens, prohibited the wearing of silk clothes, gold and silver jewelry, and the construction of spacious houses. In reality, the merchants concentrated significant capital and rare luxury goods in their hands. The Osaka merchants (Osaka city), bypassing regulations regarding residential premises, even created a special type of building - “Osaka goshi”, in which the regulated width of the facade (9 m) was strictly observed, but in the depths of the block the house had a length four times greater. In addition, in order to avoid paying tax on windows, they made a completely blank facade with one narrow door, closed like a window with a wooden lattice and letting light into the room. The modesty and artlessness of the façade was compensated by the richness and luxury of the interior.

The government, receiving loans from the merchants, in very rare cases tried to prevent the concentration of wealth in their hands. Therefore, the position of the merchants was characterized by less strict regulations than the position of artisans and peasants. They, like other classes, had a strict division into ranks/categories. But unlike peasants and artisans, who were divided into categories "from above" (the military government), merchants were divided into categories according to their own rules.

Merchants were guided in their activities by general rules/statutes, which required them to work hard and avoid certain things. For example, a merchant was not supposed to sponsor charity wrestling tournaments, travel to Kyoto, gamble, engage in poetry, enter into friendly relations with representatives of the lower classes (geisha, Kabuki actors, etc.), take Iai-yutsu lessons (the art of quick drawing) and swordsmanship.

Temple servants (priests) and monks

Although priests and monks were not considered a separate class, they had great influence in Japan. The traditional Japanese religion is Shintoism. Since the 6th century, Buddhism has been penetrating Japan from China. For centuries, religions have existed in parallel, interpenetrating each other (for example, Shinto deities are identified in Buddhism with the incarnations of Buddhas and bodhisattvas). Either one or another religion becomes dominant in the country, receiving support from the government. The daily life of the common man includes both Shinto and Buddhist rituals.

Shinto shrines and Buddhist monasteries have significant rights and property resulting from donations from both commoners and feudal lords. They have their own lands, which are cultivated both by the monks themselves (in monasteries) and by the dependent peasantry.

The life of monks and priests was less subject to regulation (although it intensified during the Tokugawa period) than the life of the rest of the population. They live inside monasteries

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