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contents page the samurai pg 3 the farmers the craftsmen the merchants glossary index pg 4 pg 5 pg 6 pg 7 pg 8 sources pg 9 2

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rise of a samurai a long time ago before edo the government was not organized very well he had been living in a big palace and was almost treated like god the emperor was rich but he was not very good at his job the best samurai started to be powerful lords themselves a samurai is someone who serves the emperor s government and army was not powerful any more they could not control crime because the country had many robbers so they started to recruit their own private armies they would not pay their taxes and they refused to give the emperor soldiers for his armies the samurai leaders often fought wars against each other the first wars were between 1180 and 1185 their leader yoritomo had the name shogun the shoguns ruled japan for the next seven centuries by hina 3

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the farmers farmers were the biggest group of people in the edo period farmers were very important because back in the edo time there was not that much food and farmers were the people who worked hard and made food for the town they needed a lot of farmers to help to make food for the whole town they would grow rice land that rice can grow on was nearly more important than money life was not easy for farmers farmers had been working all day day to night and did not have a time to rest their body most of the time they only had a little bit of food to eat and bad weather would make their jobs very hard all of the family members had to help because making rice takes a lot of time if they wanted rice they would have to flood the field to make it to make rice the family would have to work together rice is still grown like in the edo period farmers houses would look different depending were it was the farmers hat is pointy so when it is snowing the snow could just fall off the hat the family will cook with a big fire that can also keep the family very warm if it is cold outside the farmers would wear coats made out of straw and a hat made out of bamboo he wore sandals that are made out of straw and cloths that are tied around his legs and arms for more warmth by hina 4

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the craftsmen back in the edo time craftsmen were people who made furniture craftsmen were people who made things for the people in the town craftsmen became very important because many new buildings were needed there were a lot of craftsmen because a lot of people moved into the town in the edo time there were not many buildings so the craftsmen would leave there family when they are very young and go live with a master the master would teach the craftsmen skills that the master had learnt the master will teach them how to make things and also teach them how to fix things to in edo there were many different craftsmen many of the craftsmen had to help to get one building done very fast so they can move on to the next building the people of the whole town lived in small narrow houses all of the people went to a public bath every single day they were in the same bath everyday so the people became good friends by hina 5

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the merchants the government thought the merchants were the lowest in society they did not make things that were very useful like for the samurai who needed swords and the craftsmen were people who had to make those kind of things but they had still earned a lot of money by selling other people s work during that period the merchants had a very important job merchants were not allowed to wear very expensive clothes the merchants would break the law by lining the inside of the clothes with color that is very brightly colored silk the mitsui family was a very powerful merchant family in 1700 their shop called echigoya had became the biggest store in japan they sold materials and they would cut it the size the costumer wants it to be instead of taking home one big piece and taking it home and cutting it out the size the costumer wants it to be in japan when it still was in the edo time they had a lot of different kind of money like silver gold copper and iron coins were used these different types of coins were each used on different kind of things this very large gold coin is called an oban and was only to be used on very special occasions inside of the shop the way they would count money is they would use abacus the shopkeeper would be able to add subtract multiply and division without taking a long time by hina 6

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glossary craftsmen someone who makes pottery and other things samurai a japanese soldier from the edo time farmers a person that grows rice 7

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index armies pg 3 costumer pg6 depending government master oban pg5 pg 6 pg4 pg 3 and pg 6 8

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sources where we found our 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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