Classes, Ranks, and Titles of Feudal Japan [Kamakura and Muromachi Periods]
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 พ.ย. 2019
- A deep dive into the classes of feudal Japan and the internal governing structure of the Kamakura and Ashikaga Shogunates
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Sources Used:
"Samurai Battles" By Michael Sharp
"Samurai: The Way of the Warrior" by Stephen Turnbull
"The Samurai Warrior" by Ben Hubbard
"War in Japan: 1467 - 1615" by Stephen Turnbull
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Music from:
"Raise a Prayer" by Masako Otsuka (Owned by Koei Tecmo)
Artwork:
Classical art, which in most cases can be considered public domain.
Art from Osprey Publications.
Other modern artist renditions, if you see your work in this video please contact me so that I can give you proper credit!
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Social Media:
Facebook: / theshogunateyoutube
Twitter: / shogunatethe
#Samurai #Japan #History
If anyone's confused, shugo is a predecessor word for daimyo. Their role is the same but the title was changed. Ok, now back to the video.
Thanks homie!
Instablaster.
Thank you!
No?
@@Reroseshi😮
Level 1: Merchant
Level 100: Shogun
Samurai City 😂
Level 0: MADAO 😜
Toyotomi Hideyoshi: *Reaches Level 100* "Now to prevent others from reaching this level." *Freezes level cap*
Level 35: Ashigaru
That’s how Japan works.
These videos are SAVING MY LIFE IN COLLEGE right now! My classes on Japanese history are kicking my butt! Thank you very much, super helpful and simplify what you really need to know!
You are very welcome!!
same here
Same with me 😢 thank you
@ I am amazed you said that after calling me out for having no idea what I am talking about :) (so, random troll-bot?)
@CorvinusPakku Not really, the shogunate effectively was a secondary emperor whos main authority was over the military. Theres a reason they made a second emperor (whos a semi distant descendant of the single line or emperors) instant of just outright abolishing and getting rid of the emperor and the office itself.
I wait every week for your videos and I’m never disappointed!
So youtube noticed I've been playing quite a lot of ghost of tsushima...
Me to
Google hates Samurai culture because Google is run by communists.
My case is Total War: Shogun 2 lol
@@michaell10 This is true ngl
Awesome! I like your videos. One thing I would say is that the hierarchy among farmers/fishermen, artisans, and merchants is questioned today because of evidence that those people were able to change their classes easily and fluidly. Many modern historians think that it was not a social hierarchy but just an occupation classification, so most Japanese history textbooks today have been revised to delete it as a hierarchy.
Social hierarchies are not always static ones.
I know next to nothing about Japanese history (school doesn’t exactly teach the actually cool and interesting stuff) and now I am suddenly immensely intrigued
Probably because of ghost of Tsushima
that's sad
@@ProfessorRinzler means Ghost of Tsushima has done it's job in getting gamers interested in Japanese culture. Now we know where Lord Shimura stands as a Jito which actually is merely a steward just below Shugo
Nothing wrong with it man. Enjoy the video and check out from every thing else sometimes. I'll have to check that game out though.
@@LonelyOasis3132 nah i think he is a shugo.
@@LonelyOasis3132 jitos could be the families serving lord shimura.
It's always a treat when I can finally get the time to watch these. Keep up the good work.
I love the fact that you go into details, while also showing the carved wooden blocks as it is one of the few historical portrays of events and stories that rarely changed over time.
I recently discovered your channel and subscribed immediately. Thoroughly enjoy the in-depth format. Am so over the 142 character approach to disseminating such informative material. Presently am enjoying binging on all of your videos. Great job!
Just recently came across this channel, and I've been enjoying the videos a lot. Thanks for the content!
Very glad I eventually found your channel; always providing very succinct and nice info on the eras. Hoping if you continue these spin-off extra videos you eventually cover the army compositions of the time periods ;D
Very fine video. I love that background music.It matched the beautiful narration.
just found your video's, fascinating, and full of information often otherwise not known of.
Superb video. Subd and gona binge watch your series as soon as i wake up!
I can't wait for a new Video! my book heart of a samurai questions is kicking me over japan!
Great video. Clear and concise.
Playing Way of the Samurai brought me here. Pretty cool.
first time watcher, i enjoyed listening to the tone of your voice change while switching between Japanese words to English words
Thank you for an other awesome video.
You’re videos are great!
The Kamakura shogunate was actually known as a dyarchy, sharing power with emperor and kuge.
Such a great channel
What about ranks or jobs right in army like ashigaru, lower samurai, archers gunners , cavalry , taisho and others for next video
Lower samurai would be Ji-samurai
Archers are called Yumi-samurai/ashigaru
Gunners are called Teppo-samurai/ashigaru
I wonder where should priest or monk belongs to, upper class, middle class, or lower class?
That would depend on what you mean by monk or priest. Some samurai were monks, for instance the very famous daimyō Uesugi Kenshin. Some monks - though not samurai - were fighting monks, such as the yamabushi. Other priests belonged to the Kuge (noble) families and were tasked to perform important rituals and maintain certain shrines. Even the Japanese Emperor can be regarded this way, since he is - according to tradition - descended from the Gods. The Shōwa Emperor had to denounce this publicly after the Second World War.
@@riccardomeloni77 Thanks for your information. Does this mean that monk is for the Buddhist and priest is for the Shinto practitioners? I always thought that both of them are the same, differ only by call. Japanese culture is quite unique, and that's why I love them so much.
@@manjitahzan9577 Well, that's a western interpretation of Japanese concepts really. Shintō is the Japanese system of animist beliefs. The whole origin story of Japan is tied into Shintō: Amaterasu-ō-mikami, Izanagi & Izanami, Susanōo. So, a Shintō 'priest' is a completely different thing from the western, monotheistic concept.
Keep it up!
Thank you so much! I just wanted to find out what the formal rank of Jin Sakai from Ghost of Tsushima was, but I went down a rabbithole of sooooo many words that sound so similar to my western brain
Learning this for school👍
Funny enough is that merchants were the lowest social link, but then they turn intu the biggest when MONEY becomes the true power, when swords were the power in the world Samurai/Knights ruled.
Very Good info👍
Would you ever consider exploring the later impact of class and societal stratification during the Bakumatsu, and how Japan was shaped by the early Meiji Restoration?
I’ve read about the Eta class who were lower than Merchants. Is this historically accurate? And would you be willing to go over the classes of prostitution? The Yoshiwara is a fascinating part of the Tokugawa period. Thank you for these videos, I’m addicted! Very objective and articulate presentations
Hello from Japan. "Eta" and "Hinin" refer to people whose ancestors committed crimes or whose occupations have been considered unclean since ancient times (executioners, leather craftsmen, butchers, some entertainers). refers to Currently, efforts are being made to eliminate discrimination against such people, but it seems that there are still some people whose ability to get married or get a job is still affected. Near my grandmother's house, there is a place called a ``buraku'' where such people gather together, but it seems that not many people are very happy with it. In addition, these people have been discriminated against for a long time and could only marry within their own tribe, so they may have genetic diseases or have a unique culture that makes them shunned by the general public.
With regards to listed positions in the Local and Central Administration was any entry and later promotion within them avaiable on the basis of merit? Did pre Meiji Era Japan have any form of civil service examinations, even if limited to persons of particular categories of classes?
Great video.
Is there a way to get a copy of presentations?
The Muromachi Shogunate had 15 generations of Ashikaga shoguns.
In fact, the shoguns of the Muromachi Shogunate were only able to manage politics properly until about the 5 generation.
In the Kamakura Shogunate(Dynasty？ before the establishment of the Muromachi Shogunatetoo), the shogun after Yoritomo was a decoration and the regent, Hojo, held the real power.
Excellent video and all true. The westerners slowly began to realize that the Shogun was more king and court to the country while the Emperor was less king and more like the Pope as a spiritual leader of the country. Which is why so many Samurai consistently fought one another similar to how Italy felt about being ruled: to be ruled by one man or many(emperor or Senate). In essence the shogun(true military decision maker) and his retainers, or the Emperor(as a pedigree honor system). In a funny way Italy and Japan had the same issues with the same figureheads, but the roles were slightly reversed.
And there was one more class below the merchants who treated as 2nd and even 3rd class citizens. The burakumin: tanners, undertaker, and butchers. Jobs that would be labeled "unclean" along with other undesirables in Japan that they lived in hamlets outside the protected walls of the cities. And the systematic racist/socialist viewpoint for these people in Japan carried on almost into the 1990s.
Cool stuff being a descendant of the Ogasawara clan this give me prospective as where the Daimyo fit in.
would it be possible to make the muromachi period thanks ?
Love your videos where do you find your pictures
Can you make a video on samurai names?
For example, Sanada Yukimura: he was called Benmaru during his childhood, then after the genpuku ceremony obtained the name Sanada Genjirou Nobushige. Sometimes he's also refered as Sanada Saemonnosuke. It appears Yukimura could have been a name crafted years later after his death, or probably he used "Yukimura" only at Seige of Osaka. But anyway, the question would be: why the "Genjirou" name? From where came the "Saemonnosuke" name? Was this one actually a title, and for what? I understand better where the Nobushige (and even the Yukimura) name came from, the same with Benmaru, but it would be nice to explain the samurai naming estructure during the Sengoku Era.
And then there are also those Insertword-no-Kami titles, just to further confuse things :D
Just for curiosity and not knowing anything: Are different families under the same Clan? For example Oda clan, there are people with Oda for last names that are part of the Clan but can people without that last name be consider part of that Clan? Would they have less power than the people with the Oda name? Say if your family is Tofu but you're a middle class samurai you would be under the Oda Clan or serving for a lord with the Oda name?
Hi, I am going to be playing The Ghost og tshiuminia PS4 game which is based on the time when the Mongols invaded and got destroyed pretty much lol. What videos (if you have any:) would you recommend which are all set in that era?, as I want to be knowledgable exactly of the time I will be playing the game in! Any recommendations? Etc.. thanks, love your videos
th-cam.com/video/bxF1svMUhOc/w-d-xo.html
A question: Did the Eta/Burakumin class not exist at this time period? Was there a societal change at some point that created them similar to when Toyotomi Hideyoshi (Spoilers!) solidified the class structure and disarmed the peasants?
jtilton5 They started to appear as one of the punishments handed out was that of hinin.
@@user-tg7fp8yc6o Thanks, I was unaware of that.
@@jtilton5 It's not true. This claim arises from a confusion between hinin and eta.
Great Videos! Really enjoy your channel, it surely deserves more views and subscribers! Hope that the hype over Ghost of Tsushima helps the channel to grow!
So are the Shugo the same as Daimyo?
I do respect the effort that people put into to create videos which provide educational content.
Unfortunately, this particular case is possibly the worst-researched video I have seen in a long time.
Some glaring points of critique (skip to the tl;dr at the bottom if the wall-of-text scares you):
1. The social structure here attempts to describe the Edo-period, and significantly deviates from the medieval society this video is supposed to be about. For example:
a) There was no difference in status between commoners before the Edo period, when the Confucian-influenced four-caste-system with warriors on top and merchants on bottom was forced upon society; also, I do think that it is more appropriate during the early medieval period to think of bushi (=warriors; its better to speak of samurai only for the Edo-period) as low-ranked nobles within the court-centric social order who did serve as officials in provincial governments and the managers of villages and estates - and well, whose profession(!) was that of warrior.
b) Different from *foot soldiers*, "ashigaru" did not exist until the Sengoku period.
c) The concept of rônin is also an Edo-thing.
2. Likewise, the descriptions of offices and structures of the shogunates are mired with superficially researched tidbits of information, which stitched together produce a multitude of inconsistencies. Some examples:
a) Provincial governors and shugo are conceptionally different and were appointed to provinces in parallel, by court and shogunate respectively. The authority of shugo during the Kamakura period was quite limited and needs to be conceptually separated from what scholarship refers to as "shugo daimyô" - a pre-evolutionary stage of Sengoku daimyô - of the Muromachi period.
b) The central administration diagrams are a mess, some Kamakura examples:
- the hikitsukeshû should be directly placed below the hyôjôshû, who together composed the core elite of Kamakura
- the yoriai - the highest decision-making organ within the late (~1280s onward) Kamakura shogunate - is missing entirely
- the Kyoto shugo was abolished(!) and replaced by the Rokuhara tandai in 1221 as a result of the Jôkyû Disturbance
- of course, many of these institutions should exist next to each other instead of being stacked vertically (no hierarchy)
. . . the list goes on.
3. Only pre-war (=before the 1950s) scholars would ever even consider that the court during this period was "powerless" and is a refuted piece of nonsense that for some reason lingers on in popular "myth". The scholarly term - in English - to describe the Kamakura period is "dual polity" for a reason.
I will stop here.
tl;dr:
Don't use this video as a reference for your exams (or for anything else, probably).
And to the author, I'd honestly take this down, read a few good books, and redo it from scratch.
He seems to do this a lot lately.
I wouldn't trust anything Stephen Turnbull has written on the Sengoku Jidai.
@@-shikajin-4078 indeed, when I first started out looking into post-Heian history I thought Turnbull was the best historian to refer to. I know better now.
As someone taking courses on Kamakura and Muromachi Japan, this comment scratches so many itches for me. Thank you.
@@johnnylooi2727 As far as I'm concerned, Turnbull specializes in Japanese religion. And the few books he wrote on that topic are actually pretty good. But then he moved on to the far more popular (and profitable) topic of the Sengoku and the rest is history.
Can you please do one on the Kuge and Imperial Court
The lowest were the burakumin. Please do a video about them. I find that class interesting.
what are the sources for this video?
BRO SO NICE BRO
so what of these titles were held by clan and which were held by individual people
Thx
What about the Burakumin/Eta/Hinin?
Wonderful and accurate video report. Ironically, it was the merchants who "financially" out ranked everyone, including the Emperor, making millions of dollars.
nice video, still sad that many people pronounce shogun wrong
I'm kind of confused regarding the shugo, are the shugo and daimyo the same thing or is the daimyo some independent hostile warlord?
The daimyo evolved from the shugo, and then later went on to become their own position.
@@TheShogunate did the daimyo developed during the late muromachi period?
@@minamotonokuroyoshitsune3237 After watching the video, my assumption is that a Daimyo is a Shugo who does not treat the Shogun as his overlord, but I've got no idea how accurate the assumption is.
@@michaelrobinson2687 i think your assumption is correct
@@minamotonokuroyoshitsune3237 If this Wikipedia page (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daimyo#Shugo-daimyo) is right then my assumption is flawed. Instead a Daimyo would be someone who rules a territory in their own right, while a Shugo was an official posted to a province as a general by a Shogun. Unfortunately, every time I tried to look up Shugo, my computer autocorrected it to Shogun. Damn it Autocorrect.
I got interested in this topic after watching an anime series called The Ambition of Oda Nobuna.
Very informative but whats going on with the cadence of your speech? Very Charlie Chanish
Well done video but one big thing missing. We need the Kanji in parenthesis under the romanji.
Where did the priests and monks fit in the hierarchy of feudal Japan? I'm guessing somewhere between the samurai and the commoners but would like to know from someone more educated than me in this topic. Also, what about the various forms of artists, such as poets, actors, etc.? Were they considered artisans or merchants of some sort and thus treated accordingly or were they something else entirely?
In fact, the class system of "samurai, farmers, artisans, and merchants" was a propaganda created by the later Meiji government.
In reality, the system was more ambiguous and consisted of aristocrats, warriors, and commoners.
Merchants sometimes bought the status of warriors with money, and warriors often became commoners.
In the dojo of swordsmanship, not only warriors but also townspeople and farmers learned swordsmanship.
So by the end of the Edo period, there are many samurai from peasant backgrounds.
2:28 *DISHES, YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!*
Was there a samurai equivalent of a squire?
6:55
Are the Ronin under all the gerarcic position?
浪人はクラスではありません。
簡単に言えば、浪人は戦士になりたいが武士としての仕事を得ることができない人です。ステータスの面では、彼らは商人や農民と同じです。
現代の日本でも。
お好みの学校や会社に入るために。
働いていないが勉強し、機会を探している人は浪人と呼ばれる。
Is shugo a daimyo? Or are they different.thnx for the reply.
In the Kamakura period, shugo were essentially high ranking police administrators. They were people who were in charge of military affairs in a province - policing the province, raising troops when needed, sending troops for guard duty in Kamakura. But the shugo daimyo nomenclature didn't come around until at least the Muromachi period, and the shugo during the Kamakura period definitely did not have the same level of autonomy and power as Sengoku daimyo did. They had to work much more closely with the bakufu than Muromachi and Sengoku daimyo did. But they were, not like the video suggests, exclusive to Kamakura, but were appointed both by Kyoto and Kamakura. But it was Kamakura that made the shugo position a prominent part of the Japanese political scene - the title was never that important in the Imperial Court.
@@johnnylooi2727 ohh. Okay. Thank you sir. Appreciate it. Im playing again SHOGUN 2 TOTAL WAR. i just want to learn more about the origin of the daimyo position. To get the feel of being a lord of province. Thank you again.
@@ImrikGames that's how i started getting into the topic a bunch of years back, so I feel you. It's a pity Rise of the Samurai barely explores the origins of the samurai, and a lot of what they have isn't accurate
@@johnnylooi2727 to he honest that part of the game bores me after like, 20 turns. Hahaha... they clearly did not put love into it.
Maybe its because the sengoku jedai setting, is where most of the famous figures and events actually came from. I mean majority of the westerners window through japanese history came from that era. And the company capitalize on it.
Me? I got interested into japanese history. Because of the japanese movie called. ZATOICHI. i actually watch it from part 1 to 15. Haha. Never get bored. still my number 1 japanese movie.
What about the Eta?
can you do this for the edo period one, especially for the overall positions within the bakufu govt
shits too confusing especially when youre trying to make a lego community out of this
❤️
You forgot the Eta...the untouchables below the merchants
Man I found myself watching 5 vídeos on a roll...lol
What about Kampaku?
Love this video. Awesome. But the music doesn't fit and is distracting. Constructive crit, not trying to be a jerk
I always try to use music by Japanese Composers. For this video I used a piece from a samurai video game made in Japan called "Nobunaga's Ambition: Sphere of Influence" and is composed by Masako Otsuka.
@@TheShogunate First off, I love your channel, so this is not meant as a harsh crit. I just feel this music choice was not right and it was actually distracting to me. Doesnt matter who composed it. But what the hell do I know. ;)
As remarked by japanese historians regarding the case of Hachiman, the Emperor was above the hierarchy of Ritsuryō-ikai, not apart from it, therefore not in the pyramidal structure but above it (the pyramide was an Axis Mundi, the pyramidion ontop is not necessarily Heaven itself but the Holy of holies, which in japanese could ironically be rendered as Kamitsumiya). The pyramide is also misleading in the Shogun's case : several were Shinnō, and all the others were officially Kuge.
I thought the undertakers, those who took care of the dead, were considered the lowest of the low. Or was that later?
Do you have the economical structure, did they pay tax to the Emperor to sustain his living?
No Eta?
This music is 『Nobunaga's ambition(calling in JAPAN "Nobunaga no yabou")』
from JAPAN/Tokyo.
Nobunaga's ambition is Japanese Video game soft series,since 1983.
To Mr,contributor
Did you played Nobunaga,s ambition？
Did you enjoy？
I felt you were studying hard.
I'm sorry for my bad English.
I Love to play Nobunaga's Ambition games!
@@TheShogunate
I wondered if you learned Japanese and started the game, but there is also an overseas version.
I checked it now.
I'm glad you like the game that deals with the Sengoku period in Japan.
❤❤❤
👍👍👌
I Love History
Wasn't there a class below even merchants called Burakumin or by the prejorative "Eta"? They were kinda like the "Untouchable" class.
That’s what I thought too.
I heard that this was a caste introduced sometime in the Tokugawa Edo Period
No Jizamurai? I guess they'd be somewhere between Ronin and Samurai.
what about Ninja? , Warrior Monk?
I know about ashigura from Total war. Yari ashigura best unit!
Music of Uesugi!
Why not mentioning about Daimyo rank sir?
I think they were a subdivision which included Daimyo Sutata in the Shugo rank
What about the lowest of the low.....the ETA?
What about the eta
One thing that has me curious here, is where would have scholars, monks, priests, engineers, astronomers, and intellectuals in general fall in feudal Japan?
So scholars and intellectuals fall under both court and shogunate jurisdiction - but during the Kamakura period, more with the court. The Kamakura shogunate was a very warrior-centric society, and did not share the same level of involvement with intellectual pursuits as the Edo bakufu did. Priests and monks were in a totally different power structure. During the Heian (period b4 the Kamakura) and the Kamakura period, and to a much lesser extent the Muromachi and Sengoku ages, certain Shinto, and many Buddhist institutions (Enryakuji, Daikakuji, Ishiyama Honganji for example) were regarded as one of the three (four with the introduction of the shogunate) great powers in the land, the others being the imperial court and wealthy owners of private estates. This was bc they monopolized the ritual practices that the court depended on, allowing monks and priests to be very influential in the court and individual courtiers.
In middle ages, the Lords and thier subordinates were on equal terms.(the Lord-subordinates terms is like Shogun and the suzerains, the suzerains and their retainer or domains.)
The Lords assured the subordinates of the ownership of their territory . And instead the subordinates also served by the military service or cultivation.
In other words, their relationship weren't conposed of the ranking but the give-and-take relationship. If the Lords should betray thier subordinates ,the relationship would collapse and a rebellion would brake out.Even the marchants and farmers prepared weapons for wars not only Samurais up to 1588.
In 1588, Hideyohi Toyotomi forbited people to arm except for Samurai and separated Samurais and the others. Afterwards Tokugawa Shognate made this ranking. So there was not such a ranking before edo priod.
Therefore the ranking is like this in Kamakura-priod.
1st Emperor
2nd Aristocrat,Shougun,Samurai,Ashigaru,Farmers,Fishermen,Artisans,Merchants
in which class ninjas come in??
As a samurai, they are of the same low class as the Ashigaru, etc.
Where does the Daimyo rank?
I'm pretty sure that's a subdivision included in the Shugo class including Daimyo Sutata
The author forgot to put the Eta under the merchants, and above the Samurai should be the Daimyo. The Daimyo were under the domination of the Shogunate, but not part of the Shogunate apparatus.
Yush
I think these classes are -although not fully fair- but a bit better than those of feudal europe
My ancestor is upper class samurai and part of daimyo's family.
It's kind of sad that people weren't able to centralize Japan as a country properly for a significant period of time until the Tokugawa government Edo period, and even then the Tokugawa gov't was not 100% properly centralized b/c there were still the provincial rulers (daimyo) from the civil war
Why do you say shogun "ate" and not sho gu na te?
Shogunate is an English term that combines on the words Shogun and Governorate. The official Japanese term is called Bakufu.
Oh shoot...yeah that is surprising that an entire labor class that upholds physical life is not at like rock bottom..who would have thought
where all the Administrators also samurai warriors themselves??
Toyotomi Hideyoshi: "If you aren't a Samurai NOW you NEVER will be!"
Emperor: "K."