P2+Moore+Artisans+and+Merchants

By: Mary Grace S. and Joe M.

 In the Tokugawa period of Japan, most low classes were misunderstood. The artisans and merchants were one of these lower classes who had low respect, but lots of money. Without them, what would Japan Do?

 In the Tokugawa Society and time period Merchants and Artisans were in the lower class of respect, but had lots of money. For example, when a Samurai of high class passed by them on the streets, Merchants and Artisans would have to bow to them to keep their honor to their clan and family. Merchants were the lowest class in respect. Artisans were next. Samurai described Merchants as people who are very cheap and make people pay high prices. Also because samurai believe they don’t make anything of their own. Peasants were second highest. Most likely they are high in class because Peasants grew food like rice. Samurai also started as peasants or farmers, before the concept of samurai existed. And finally the highest class was the samurai. Even though there were many different classes of samurai, all were respected, but maybe not equally. Even if you thought they were stuck up and didn’t like them, you had to respect them, especially the Shogun.

 What are artisans and merchants? Artisans are carpenters and craftsmen, making swords and armor for samurai. Merchants sell necessary items to people. During the Edo or Tokugawa period Japan was almost closed from the rest of the world, so the society couldn’t survive without them and their goods. Because they lived in big cities, also known as castle towns, merchants and artisans highly benefited from the growth of the towns. Work started around six a.m. each day and ended late in the afternoon. None of the employees received salaries, only what they made was their payment.

 Artisans and merchants also had a very different lifestyle from everyone else. They had certain privileges like being able to see a kabuki play when Samurai can’t, but they also had many things they couldn’t do. Clothing took a major role in society in the Edo Tokugawa period. Merchants and artisans mainly wore a simple brown cotton coat with a woven straw hat. Another importance of merchants and artisans were their entertainment. Free time was mostly spent going to see a kabuki play or rich merchants and artisans went to the floating world. The floating world or ukuyoe was where women of high importance, meaning they could be related to the emperor, would “hang out” or relax. Ukuyoe could be a restaurant, theater, game house, or bar. Merchants and Artisans lived in Castle Towns. Their houses were very big compared to other people. Because they ranged from poor to very rich, all the houses they lived in were very different.

Even though people didn’t respect artisans and merchants, without them life would be a lot more difficult. It would be hard finding resources and shelter. Without artisans it would be hard to live because we would have build your own resources. They samurai wouldn’t have their swords because the artisans make the swords. The artisans make clothes so if there weren’t in japan there wouldn’t be any clothes for peasants, samurai, the shogun or the emperor. The artisans also made houses and fixed up houses. It would be hard to fix up your house because you didn’t have the right tools. It would be a hard life if merchants weren’t around.

It would be hard to live without merchants because it would be harder to get food and clothes because the merchant usually buy things from other people. The merchant would then sell the things that they bought and make money from it. It would be hard to live without merchants because you would have to travel a lot to get all of the supplies that you would need, instead of having a merchant in your town where you can buy all of the products that you need. Japanese society would be a lot different if merchants weren’t around.

 Merchants and artisans would have to travel in order to sell the things. They would sell things like sword blades, copper, sulphur, important porcelain, silk, books, and other high value items. Artisans wouldn’t travel that much, but when they did they would travel overseas on boats. Merchants would travel all the time to sell products. They would travel from kago, to walking, to riding on boats. When wheeled vehicles came around it made trading a lot more easy, it aloud merchants and artisans to travel farther every day. Traveling was very important to Japan so merchants and artisans could sell things.

 As you can see artisans and merchants were very important to Japan. Without them the Japanese citizens wouldn’t have their necessary items to live a good life. Artisans and merchants were very important.

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Citations:

=Deal, William E. __//Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan//__. New York: Facts on File Ink. 2006. =

==__// Life in the Floating World: Ukiyo-e Prints and the Rise of Merchant Class in Edo Period Japan. //__ National Endowment for the Humanities. 24 Dec 2004. 26 march 2009. .==