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by chelsey

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contents page rise of the samurai the craftsmen the merchants the farmers index glossary sources 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 2

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the rise of the samurai more than 500,000 years ago japan was ruled by an emperor he had lived in a jeweled and shiny palace he was almost treated like a god he didn t care about his people he only cared about himself years past and the emperor grew weak for his power so there were more robbers in japan rich people in japan did not have protection so they recruited there own personal armies the type of armies were called samurai warriors the samurai warriors made an oath to be very loyal to their lords the samurai warriors were unstoppable the emperor was very impressed so he began to use samurai instead of his useless solders one of the best samurai became samurai leaders the samurai leaders became to be rival clans that sometimes fought wars with each other the first of these wars was the gempei war the gempei war was between year 1180 and 1185 that war was won by the minamoto clan the minamoto clan s leaders name was yoritomo yoritomo was given the title shogun that meant commander and chief the shogun ruled japan instead of the emperor by chelsey 3

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the craftsmen lots of people in japan who lived in the countryside came to live in the city of edo so the job of the craftsmen became to be really important because lots of buildings had to be built before craftsmen can learn how to work they started out as apprentices when they were young they had to leave their own families behind and go to the city of edo when they get there to the city of edo they would live with their master who would teach them to be a craftsman if one of the craftsmen were lucky they can take over the master s job everyday the people who lived in edo went to a public bath the type of craftsmen were indigo dyers carpenters plasters sawyers smiths cypress woodworkers scabbard maker tatami makers founders chandler cooper those are all the craftsmen by chelsey 4

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the merchants according to the government of japan merchants had the lowest jobs they were not like craftsmen or farmers or the samurais but however they got houses by selling other peoples inventions but also merchants had a very important role during the edo period because they were supposed to set up their shop and they also help to trade precious things the government tried to make laws that were not nice for example they were never allowed to wear expensive bright colored silk but the merchants secretly broke the law by wearing brightly colored clothes under their coats the most powerful merchant family was they mitsui family in 1700 their shop was the biggest shop in japan by chelsey 5

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the farmers people who grew rice were called farmers they grew lots and lots of rice farmers were so important because they grew rice for the country all day these farmers worked in the fields sometimes if they had enough time they would eat a little bit of food farmers also had to work in bad weather being a part of a farmers family meant everyone had to work farmers work has been going on this very day on very cold days farmers wore a cloak made out of straw and sandals made out of straw and a bamboo hat by chelsey 6

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glossary samurai japanese soldier craftsmen people who made things merchants shop keepers farmers people who made food for japan edo was the capital city of japan recruited hired 7

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index emperor pg 1 yoritomo pg1 gempie war pg 1 apprentice s pg 2 inventions pg 3 edo pg 3 5 4 bamboo pg 4 straw pg 4 8

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sources where we found the information books how they lived ­ a samurai warrior by anne steel edo the city that became tokyo by akiro naito look into the past ­ the japanese by clare doran 9

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