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by julia 1

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

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the rise of the samurai samurai were people who protected rich landowners and sometimes they fought war against each other early time in japan they were ruled by an emperor the emperor lived in a rich and splendid place in kyoto long time ago in kyoto the government was badly organized in the 12th century the emperor started to lose his power the emperor s government and armies were so weak that he can t control groups of robbers the country filled with robbers rich people needed protection so they recruited their own private armies that was the start of the samurai samurai means one who serves in japanese the first war was the gempei wars in 1180 to 1185 the minamoto clan won that war the leader yoritomo was given a title called shogun because he won that war shogun means commander in chief for the next 7 centuries the shogun ruled japan but the emperor was still in charge by julia 3

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the farmers the farmers were the largest group in old japan edo the farmers were the 2nd important people in japan because they grew the country s rice it took a long time to grow rice family members work together their job was to plant water weed and harvest famers had no time to rest they are always outside when the weather was bad like rain it makes it hard for the farmers the house roofs were built by a material called thatch farmers wore a cloak made out of straw also their sandals were made out of straw and a hat was made out of bamboo they also have cloth around their legs and lower arms for more warm farmers wore this when they were cold by julia 4

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the craftsmen craftsmen were people who built things like buildings the job of the craftsmen became more important because more building was needed craftsmen started as apprentices with a master who could teach them craftsmen left their families when they were young and then they lived with a master apprentices will take the master s business when the master grows older an ordinary person lives in small and narrow houses there were different types of craftsmen in edo builders plasterers carpenters stonemasons roofers and some things were the job of craftsmen indigo dyers lived in kanda minami nishi and kita kon yacho carpenters lived in moto daikucho minami daikucho kanda yokodaiku and tate daikucho these were some of the places where indigo dyers and carpenters lived the headmen of craftsmen were allowed to wear a sword by julia 5

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the merchants in edo the merchants had the least important job because they did not make useful things like swords the merchants were not supposed to wear silk clothes but they broke the rule by wearing silk inside the clothes there was a family called mitsui family the family were powerful merchants and the family s shop was called echigoya echigoya became the largest store in japan in 1700s.they sold goods at only the same price they didn t change the price for each customer echigoya cut the material that the customer s wanted the size of gold silver copper and irons were the types of money in japan there were large and gold coins called oban oban was used in very special times only in a merchant s shop there are abacuses but in japanese it is called soroban by julia 6

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index carpenters echigoya indigo dyers kyoto rice page5 page6 page5 page3 page4 7

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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 8

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