Japanese feudalism left a large impact on the world during the roughly 700 year span in which it was the prominent social system in Japan. The Kamakura period in Japan took place from 1192 to 1333. The Kamakura Shogunate was led by one leader, with the title of “shogun”, meaning they had military power over everyone else. The shoguns had a feudal society and government. In 1185, Minamoto Yoritomo defeated the rival Taira family in the Genpei war over the Imperial Court and he rose to power. He was granted the title of shogun in 1192. As the Kamakura Shogunate introduced feudalism and it carried through to the Tokugawa, Japan begs the question of how the implementation of feudalism impacted Japan. The introduction of feudalism in Japan impacted society because there were more rigid social classes, the warriors became the most emphasized people in Japan, and Japan isolated itself from other countries with its closed country policy.
Feudalism impacted society in
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Artisans were in the second lowest class, called the “komin”. There was a large artisan population during the Kamakura and Tokugawa shogunates because there were lots of new cities near the Daimyo’s castles which means artisans had to populate them and work there (PBS). Below artisans in the “shomin” caste were merchants. They were in lowest class of the Japanese feudal society. People viewed the merchants as parasites because they dealt with money in their occupation (PBS). Another reason that merchants were in the lower class was because Confucian beliefs taught that people should not take credit for work that is not theirs, and that is exactly what merchants did. Despite being at the bottom of the social pyramid, the merchants had a rise in socioeconomic status during the Tokugawa period as a result of being able to afford education and luxuries. Their new affluence encouraged the growth of art in Japanese society