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by momoka 1

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table of contents the rise of the samurai the farmers the craftsmen the merchants glossary index sources pg3 pg4 pg5 pg6 pg 7 pg 8 pg 9 2

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the the rise of the samurai when it was the earliest times in japan japan was ruled by an in kyoto his government was not organized very well when it was the 12 century he began to lose his power and couldn t ht emperor a rich and splendid palace was where he lived it was and they refused to give the emperor soldiers for his army the crime the country was filled with groups of robbers rich make the rich and powerful lords obey him they didn t pay taxes emperor s government became very weak so he couldn t control landlords needed protection so they began to recruit their own private armies the word samurai means one who serves in japanese the men who served in such armies were called samurai the warriors promised complete loyalty to their lords use them instead of his soldiers the best samurai sometimes were powerful lords samurai leaders grouped together for these samurai s were really powerful that the emperor started to forming rival clans which often fought wars against each other the first of these were the gempei wars in 1180 and 1185 it was won by the minamoto clan yorimoto their leader was given the title shogun it meant commander in chief the head of all the samurai warlords was him the shoguns ruled japan for the next 7 centuries although the emperor was still in charge by momoka 3

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farmers the farmers farmers grew lots of plants but the most important thing was rice farmers wore straw cloaks and bamboo hats in the cold winter they wrapped their legs and lower arms with warm fabrics to be warm the roofs mostly made of cooking and having families sit around for the warmth farmers were the largest groups in edo japan the farmer s lives were hard and they were busy working thatch were low so snow could fall off they used fire for outdoors even if everyone in a family grew rice it took but their lives were more difficult in horrible weathers their houses were designed differently depending on lots of time to grow rice people were united to grow rice where they lived so they would have perfect homes all land can grow because rice was so precious rice rice still grows the same way now the time people s wealth was decided by how much their needed water to grow so rice grew in flooded water and by momoka 4

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craftsmen the craftsmen the craftsmen made things more people came from the countryside and came to live in the city edo as more people came the job of being a craftsman became important because a lot of new buildings were needed to be built first they were all apprentices when they were young so they can learn their job they went to live with the apprentice would take the master s business if he their master so they could learn more when he grew old had luck people lived in small houses and went to public baths every day at the public baths people would get clean meet their friends and catch up on the local gossip in edo there were lots of types of craftsmen many jobs were like building buildings such as plasterers carpenters stonemasons or roofers in the beginning of the development in the city the people in the town were ruled maintained by the government shogunate if the craftsmen had the same job they would live in the same area by momoka 5

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the merchants in edo merchants sold and made things about the government merchants were in the lowest position in edo who weren t important they didn t make things that were work but during that time merchants had to do very society that means that merchants were the most people useful but they earned their living by selling other peoples important jobs which were to lend the merchant money set up shops and to help trade grow the governments tried to stop the merchants who were showing off how much rich bright colored silk inside the clothes even though they they were one thing was that they wore clothes that had weren t allowed to wear silk that means they broke the law merchants used a thing that you could calculate called abacus they used it so they could calculate money quickly they could do different kinds of math on the abacus back then there were different kinds of money the kinds were only very special occasions and it was called oban gold silver copper and iron large gold coins were used in by momoka 6

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glossary recruit to hire someone emperor a person who is important and who rules the country apprentice a person who learns a job by listening and watching a master of the job he wants to learn lend the opposite of to borrow 7

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index apprentice page 5 commander page 3 craftsmen page 5 emperor page 3 farmers page 4 landlords page 3 merchant page 6 samurai page 3 8

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

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