20 Japan used the feudal system in rolling their government. Feudal system was a
way of the lord or the king made obligations with the vassal.
2.2.1 Japanese Culture in the 12
th
– 19
th
Century
Feudalism in Japan happened since the 12
th
to 19
th
centuries. Japan divided the society into different classes. Unlike the European feudal system in which
farmers or slaves were at the bottom, Japan placed merchant on the lowest class. Japan divided the society based on their productivity. That is why farmers had
higher status
than shopkeeper
in Japan
www.regentsprep.orgRegentsglobalthemespoliticalsystemsfeudalism.cfm. According
to The
Four-Tiered Class
System of
Feudal Japan
http:asianhistory.about.comodjapanpShogJapanClass.htm, Japan
was divided the society into four classes. Those classes had their own contribution to
the country. The four classes were the Emperor as the first class, the second class was the farmers, the third was the artisans, and the last was the merchants. There
were not only the farmers in the second class but also the fisherman. Both of them had a very important role for Japan. They produced the food so all the society
depended on them. Although they were considered an honored class, they still had to pay the taxes which burdened them.
Japan feudalism is very interesting to be discussed. It was the Emperor in the first class but the Japan Emperor had a little power in role the country.
However, there was the Shogun, as the minion of the Emperor, who took control of the country for the political and military situations. The Shogun ruled the
21 country in the military way which was closely related to the absolutism. The
Shogun distributed lands to his loyal vassal, called daimyo, and daimyo granted the lands to their warrior, the samurai.
Those samurais were the warrior of Japan lived according to a code, called Bushido. Bushido was very strict because to protect the country and family’s
honor. If a warrior failed in protecting the country or the family, the warrior was expected to perform a suicide. As time gone by, in the end the role of the feudal
and emperor system in Japan, the samurai had gone, Bushido remains until now. Bushido becomes the code ethics and moral of the Japanese.
2.2.2 The Seven Principles of Bushido
According to Inozen Nitobe, Bu-shi-do means Military-Knight-Ways – the ways which fighting nobles should observe in their daily life as well as in their
vocation 205. In other words, Bu-shi-do means the “Precepts of Knighthood”, the nobleness oblige of the warrior class.
In this study, I prefer to use the original term of Bushido. Bushido is the code of moral principles which the Japanese knights were required to observe
206. This code is unwritten. This code consists of a few norms carried out from mouth to mouth or coming from the well-known warrior. Although the code is
unwritten and unuttered, the sanction is very deep and powerful. Moreover, the code will be written deep inside of the heart. There is no exact time and place
which is showing the code is said. That is why the way of teaching Bushido is so
