P2+Artisans+and+Merchants

P2 Artisans and Merchants

by: Taf L. and Emily W.

The Artisans and Merchants were the richest classes in the castletowns because they sold goods for money. During the Tokugawa Period Merchants were at the bottom of the social structure and Artisans were not much higher. As merchants grew richer they traveled more and supported more entertainment. Merchants traveled around Japan to get goods that they need. Swordsmiths were of the highest morale and crafted the samurai swords. There were many other artisans that contributed to the castletowns life. The Artisans were the craftsmen of the castletowns and Merchants did not contribute to life, because they sold other peoples work for money.
 * __INTRODUCTION__**

__**SOCIAL STRUCTURE**__ The social structure of ancient Japan is made up of 4 branches. The first branch is the samurai, the most honored. The second is the peasants, which are low, but still higher than the 2 that were hated the most. The 2nd to last were the artisans, who were dishonored because they made no food, but at least they made something. The merchants of society were the last in the social structure and were treated like scum. Even though the merchants were usually the wealthiest people in the social structure, they were hated because they didn’t make the goods that they sold to other people. The social structure judged people by what they do and not who they were. Seikei for example, from **//__The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn__//** is the son of a merchant, but has the heart of a samurai. He is treated differently because of his family heritage and not how he acts. The artisans and merchants of the social structure were often called **//chonin//** – or townspeople. Sometimes, a powerful person would arrest a merchant for flaunting his wealth in front of them too obviously. The social structure changed Japan because it controlled the way society saw a person that they didn’t even know until the moment they met. Merchants would sometimes hire someone to work for them, and usually an artisan. This is because they travel a lot and it helps make money if they are 2 or 3 places at once. There are other less important people outside of the social structure, like the Buddhist and Shinto clerics who are responsible for maintaining and administering local temples and shrines. The Japanese social structure is similar to ours, because if someone looks like a bad person, then we believe what we see with our eyes, but we don’t know what they're like on the inside. The social structure can control what people portray you to be by looking at you from the perspective of what you do, and how you look.

__**MERCHANTS IN DAILY LIFE**__ During the times of Castletowns Merchants were growing in size, wealth and power. Even though last in the social structure because they did not make goods but only traded them for goods and money. Merchants had very few restrictions unlike other classes so they were able to move around as they pleased. As merchants grew rich they started to support Kabuki Theater which had rotating stages and Bunraku which had life size puppets. In Edo which was the Capital city, people there made money by setting up booths for men to eat and drink while visiting. Public baths, barber shops, books stores were also very popular. Even though Merchants were richer than other classes what they did for their recreational time was disgraceful.

__**MERCHANTS**__ Merchants sell goods that were made from other people or countries. They set up stalls along the traveling streets and sell their goods to passerby looking for something to wear, eat, or drink. Merchants are rich, and they travel around Japan to get the goods they need and so they can sell their goods. If you or your family members are merchants, you are banned from being a samurai. This makes Seikei, from __**//The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn//**__ want to be a samurai even more.

__**ARTISANS/CRAFTS MEN OF THE SWORD**__ Artisans weren't at the bottom of the social structure, but they were close. Artisans weren't at the bottom because they contributed to life with objects necessary to survive. They were the suppliers for the samurai at the Castletowns. Sword smiths were usually blacksmiths, making samurai swords was a highly skilled craft. The swords were designed to swipe swiftly and precisely. The sword smith’s personality would appear in the blade of the sword, for that reason sword smiths would have the highest morale. That is why sword smiths make the swords in semi religious atmospheres; their workshops would be surrounded with boundary like ropes like a Shinto shrine. The sword has over a dozen folds in the metal, with two types of steel are combined to produce a sword with a soft, flexible core and hard outer shape. The blade has a curved shape because it is hardened when the red hot blade is dipped into cool water. The sword weighs less the 3 pounds. Sword markers were only one of the Artisans in Japan there were also over 200 other Artisans in Japan.

__**ARTISANS - MAIN**__ The other main artisans of ancient Japan are armor smiths, sawyers, carpenters, and roofers. The armor smiths made armor for samurai that needed it in the Castletowns. The armor was made out of leather, iron, bamboo, and silk, and took over a year to make. The sawyers cut wood for castles, and they cut it so when the beams leaned together perfectly, they would need no nails to stand up together and hold on their own. The carpenters put together the wood inside of the castle that the sawyers cut for them. They created a design for the floorboards that was called a nightengale design, so you couldn’t walk across the floors without making chirping noise. The roofer put the roofs onto the castles and buildings and make sure they are perfect and can stand under an attack. They did this because the emperor or whoever is in charge calls upon them to do this job, and they get an earning off of doing this job the right way.

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__**CITATIONS**__

Deal, William E. Handbook to life in medieval and early modern Japan. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Print.

Dunn, Charles James. //Every day life in traditional Japan [by] C.J. Dunn. Drawings by Laurence Broderick.// Boston: C.E. Tuttle Co., Print.

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Tames, Richard. Exploration into Japan. Parsippany, M.J.: new discovery books 1995, print