Low Class Samurai

W DID THE MARRIAGES TAKE PLACE DURING THE EDO PERIOD

Most of the time marriages during the Edo period were arranged by the elders whose opinion was considered to be better and more important the the preference of the people who were getting married. The process of match making was referred to as Omiai, which though was acceptable to the commoners, was resented by the Leaders or samurai as they considered it beneath their honour to evaluate girls and be infatuated by them.

Among the higher class Samurai such as Daimyo and Shogun , if both the families belonged to the same class, the parents and the elders in the family decided among themselves, if they had children of marriageable age. Also if a Shogun decided to take the offer of marriage to a family of any class no one dared to reject it.

Lower class Samurai , such as Hatamoto and Gokenin , had some limitations while choosing a partner for marriage. They were not allowed to marry in the same ranks or posts and neither could they

In order to keep up the high class status the bride’s family gave the most expensive gifts to the latter. Divorse is another important aspect that needs to be discussed while discussing the loss and gains after the marriage. If the marriage continued until death of one of the partner there was not much problem in wealth distribution as it was generally all transferred to the surviving partner who later on divided it among the children, but if separation and divorse occurred. The longevity of the marriages very often depended upon the amount of dowry received. In case of a divorse, the dowry was to be returned to the family of the bride which usually had to be done by borrowing money because the dowry had all been spent by the time of divorse. Usually after divorse, the family of the groom searched for a bride who was willing to offer a higher amount of dowry in order to pay off their