The Four-Tiered Class System of Feudal Japan

The Four-Tiered Class System of Feudal Japan Between the 12th and 19th centuries, feudal Japan had an elaborate four-tiered class system. Unlike European feudal society, in which the peasants (or serfs) were at the bottom, the Japanese feudal class structure placed merchants on the lowest rung. Confucian ideals emphasized the importance of productivity, so farmers and fishermen had higher status than shop-keepers in Japan, and the samurai class had the most prestige of all. Samurai Feudal Japanese society was dominated by the samurai warrior class. Although they made up only about 10 percent of the population, samurai and their daimyo lords wielded enormous power. When a samurai passed, members of the lower classes were required to bow and show respect. If a farmer or artisan refused to bow, the samurai was legally entitled to chop off the recalcitrant persons head. Samurai answered only to the daimyo for whom they worked. The daimyo, in turn, answered only to the shogun. There were about 260 daimyo by the end of the feudal era. Each daimyo controlled a broad area of land and had an army of samurai. Farmers and Peasants Just below the samurai on the social ladder were the farmers and peasants. According to Confucian ideals, farmers were superior to artisans and merchants because they produced the food that all the other classes depended upon. Although technically they were considered an honored class, farmers lived under a crushing tax burden for much of the feudal era. During the reign of the third Tokugawa shogun, Iemitsu, farmers were not allowed to eat any of the rice they grew. They had to hand it all over to their daimyo  and then wait for him to give some back as charity. Artisans Although artisans produced many beautiful and necessary goods, such as clothes, cooking utensils, and woodblock prints, they were considered less important than farmers. Even skilled samurai sword makers and boatwrights belonged to this third tier of society in feudal Japan. The artisan class lived in its own section of the major cities, segregated from the samurai (who usually lived in the daimyos castles) and from the lower merchant class. Merchants The bottom rung of feudal Japanese society was occupied by merchants, which included both traveling traders and shopkeepers. Merchants were often ostracized as parasites who profited from the labor of the more productive peasant and artisan classes. Not only did merchants live in a separate section of each city, but the higher classes were forbidden to mix with them except when conducting business. Nonetheless, many merchant families were able to amass large fortunes. As their economic power grew, so did their political influence, and the restrictions against them weakened. People Above the Four-Tiered System Although feudal Japan is said to have had a four-tiered social system, some Japanese lived above the system, and some below. At the very pinnacle of society was the shogun, the military ruler. He was generally the most powerful daimyo; when the Tokugawa family seized power in 1603, the shogunate became hereditary. The Tokugawa ruled for 15 generations until 1868. Although the shoguns ran the show, they ruled in the name of the emperor. The emperor, his family, and the court nobility had little power, but they were at least nominally above the shogun, and also above the four-tiered system. The emperor served as a figurehead for the shogun, and as the religious leader of Japan. Buddhist and Shinto priests and monks were above the four-tiered system as well. People Below the Four-Tiered System Some unfortunate people also fell below the lowest rung of the four-tiered ladder. These people included the ethnic minority Ainu, the descendants of slaves, and those employed in taboo industries. Buddhist and Shinto tradition condemned people who worked as butchers, executioners, and tanners as unclean. They were known as the eta. Another class of social outcasts was the hinin, which included actors, wandering bards, and convicted criminals. Prostitutes and courtesans, including oiran, tayu, and geisha, also lived outside of the four-tiered system. They were ranked against one another by beauty and accomplishment. Today, all of these people are collectively called burakumin. Officially, families descended from the burakumin are just ordinary people, but they can still face discrimination from other Japanese in hiring and marriage. The Transformation of the Four-Tiered System During the Tokugawa era, the samurai class lost power. It was an era of peace, so the samurai warriors skills were not needed. Gradually they transformed into either bureaucrats or wandering troublemakers, as personality and luck dictated. Even then, however, samurai were both allowed and required to carry the two swords that marked their social status. As the samurai lost importance, and the merchants gained wealth and power, taboos against the different classes mingling were broken with increasing regularity. A new class title, chonin, came to describe upwardly mobile merchants and artisans. During the time of the Floating World, when angst-ridden Japanese samurai and merchants gathered to enjoy the company of courtesans or watch kabuki plays, class mixing became the rule rather than the exception. This was a time of ennui for Japanese society. Many people felt locked into a meaningless existence, in which all they did was seek out the pleasures of earthly entertainment as they waited to pass on to the next world. An array of great poetry described the discontent of the samurai and the chonin. In haiku clubs, members chose pen names to obscure their social rank. That way, the classes could mingle freely. The End of the Four-Tiered System In 1868, the Floating World came to an end, as a number of radical shocks completely remade Japanese society. The emperor retook power in his own right, as part of the Meiji Restoration, and abolished the office of the shogun. The samurai class was dissolved, and a modern military force created in its stead. This revolution came about in part because of increasing military and trade contacts with the outside world, (which, incidentally, served to raise the status of Japanese merchants all the more). Prior to the 1850s, the Tokugawa shoguns had maintained an isolationist policy toward the nations of the western world; the only Europeans allowed in Japan were a tiny camp of Dutch traders who lived on an island in the bay. Any other foreigners, even those ship-wrecked on Japanese territory, were likely to be executed. Likewise, any Japanese citizen who went overseas was not permitted to return. When Commodore Matthew Perrys U.S. Naval fleet steamed into Tokyo Bay in 1853 and demanded that Japan open its borders to foreign trade, it sounded the death-knell of the shogunate and of the four-tiered social system.

Heres a Wide Pool of Topics for Exploratory Essays

Heres a Wide Pool of Topics for Exploratory Essays Are you struggling to find a good topic for your paper? Choosing or phrasing a topic for an exploratory essay can be a challenging task. You need to have a researchable topic for your paper. Alongside, you need to ensure that you can access good sources of information about it. Probably you have been trying hard to find a good topic for your paper. Worry no more because we are here for your assistance. In this article, we propose good exploratory essay topics related to the themes of health, education, and parenting. Feel free to use our suggested topics for your essays or ask our expert writers to generate a fresh, unique, and customized topic for your paper. How to Decide Interesting Exploratory Essay Topics Finding interesting topics for your paper is not easy. It is a skill that you have to master. Our guidelines will be definitely helpful for you in this regard. To begin with, think about the area you want to select your topic from. The range of fields is literally countless. Some of the fields you can choose the topic from include fitness, engineering, human body, psychology, food, traveling, and education. These are obviously broad categories. If your teacher gives you the leverage to choose topics for exploratory essay of your choice, and you come up with a paper on such broad categories, the teacher is not likely to welcome this approach. The prime reason behind this is that the field is too vast. A one-word topic anyway doesn’t qualify to be selected for a paper. Consider yourself as a reader of the paper rather than a writer for a moment. You’d like to spend time reading a paper that you know what it’s about. Will you care to read a paper titled ‘education’? Sure, you have tons of information about education already. Likewise, your paper’s readers will like to have a clear idea of what the content is about. So the key is to narrow it down. That brings us to the discussion of sub-categories. Talking about education, its sub-categories can be high-school education, college education, coeducation, virtual education, and home tuition. While you are free to choose the sub-category, you still need to identify interesting and at the same time, academically strong topics within your selected sub-category. In this article, we share with you best exploratory essay topics for three areas – health, education, and parenting. We’ll start by identifying sub-categories for each of these areas, and then you can read five topics. Five Best Topics for Paper Writing On Health Health is an outstanding field to select your topic from. That’s because there’s a lot of room for research work in this area. Medical research papers represent a significant proportion of academic articles. Sub-categories for the field of health can be animal rights as subjects of medical testing, sleep, diet, and the aging process. Here are five suitable college exploratory essay topics related to health: Are mobile phones safe for our ears? The workout is beneficial for blood circulation. The demerits of being a vegetarian. How much sleep is too little sleep? How does the aging process start? Five Easy Paper Topics Related to Education Education is one of the best topics to write a paper on. It is the favorite subject of exploration for most teachers. Some of its sub-categories are online education, knowledge, and spiritual education. Find five good topics for an exploratory essay on it below: Coeducation prepares students for professional life challenges. Can we get educated without attending schools? How is online education different from campus studies? Can schools do spiritual counseling of students? What is the minimum education every person should get? Top Five Paper Topic Ideas On Parenting Parenting is a fascinating and important subject for exploration. Its sub-categories include single parenting, blended families, and gay marriages. Here are five interesting topics to write an exploratory essay on: Nuclear family structure is the best for effective parenting. Parents should never scold their children. Gay parents’ children’s understanding of intimacy. Should children be forced to accept the parents’ religion? How parenting changes a person? The Do’s and Don’ts of Exploratory Essay Topics for College Students As you select the topic of your paper, feel free to phrase it as a question or a statement. You might have observed that the topics we have suggested include both questions and statements. While deciding on a topic, the writers should take care of the following things: Make your topic-specific and narrow. Find a topic that discusses the unique aspect of an area. Read the topic at least three times to ensure that it’s easily understandable. Alongside, there are certain things you don’t want to include while writing your topic. We have created a list of them. While thinking your paper’s title: Don’t make the title longer than 70 characters, including spaces. Don’t use difficult vocabulary in your topic. Don’t insert commas in the topic. Still Need Help? You Can Count On Our Guru’s Assistance We’re sure you will find our suggested easy exploratory essay topics interesting. However, it’s possible that you are writing a paper on an area other than the topics we have discussed on. Let’s say you want to select the topic from the field of technology, and you didn’t find topic suggestions for it in this article. No problem! We can help you out. Place your order going through a simple process on our website. We’ll instantly find a writer for you who is qualified in your own field. Our help is instant, so you will get the topic finalized and suggested within your stated deadline. Just let us know your desired area. Rely on us.

Business Plan for a Coffee House Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Business Plan for a Coffee House - Assignment Example The main purpose of my business plan is to start a coffee house venture as I feel that this is a very viable option. In California today, there are a large number of coffee houses that run because of a demand created by people to have a place where they can sit, relax and enjoy beverages and eatables. Most people are willing to pay a certain amount of money as they would rather meet their friends and family at such locations and enjoy a nice morning, afternoon or evening with them. The sales for coffee have kept on increasing over the last decade despite a time of financial downturn. This is because this is a beverage that has a lasting demand among the community. Therefore, the main purpose of my business plan is to provide people with a place to enjoy their beverages in, coupled with European style food so that they are attracted by the quality and creativity that I have attempted to bring about with the help of my plan. (Weitzman, H. 2006) Other than this, the purpose is also to provide employment, generate profits as well as bring about a fair trade where the farmers who I import my coffee from will be guaranteed at least $1.26 per pound which is twice the going rate for coffee. (Weber, Jeremey 2007) (Weitzman, H. 2006) My products will include a number of meals and beverages as well as desserts, mostly European ones so that people find some amount of differentiation and this is what helps to set my venture apart from the already established coffee houses in the country. I wish to provide the age bracket of 14-28 years a place, with free wireless internet so that they are able to come, relax and enjoy good food and coffee, and at the same time, get their work done, meet their friends and just have a bit of change away from home. I feel I will be able to carry out this project very well since I have excellent interpersonal skills and also a very dynamic personality. I am aware that there are many competitors in this  industry such as Starbucks.

Latin American Women, Gender and Sexuality Assignment

Latin American Women, Gender and Sexuality - Assignment Example He, Zapata, is Samuel Brunk’s leading figure in his literary work entitled â€Å"Zapata and the City Boys: In Search of a Piece of the Revolution† (Brunk 33 – 65). It is the case that this article has been produced in many forms. From its original text, it had undergone revisions before the printing and circulation. Aside from the print version, technological innovation has also made it possible to have the text’s electronic version in the pdf format. The main goal of this paper is to write an analytical bibliography of the text through having a close examination of the thirty – three (33) page text of â€Å"Zapata and the City Boys: In Search of a Piece of Revolution† as a physical object. This paper aims to critically analyze the manuscript of the Brunk’s text in order to have a closer reading, understanding and analysis of it. From the title of the article itself, Brunk had recognized that Zapata was not alone in the midst of the revolution. There were these city boys who had played a very significant role Zapata’s rebellion. These city boys were the ones who had assisted Zapata in his fight for his revolutionary movement for an agrarian reform against the Mexican government. Nonetheless, Brunk has divulged to me the shortcomings of the relationship between Zapata and his city boys that made its way for Zapatismo’s failure on achieving a share of the national power. First of all, Zapanta’s heroism especially his capacity to become a leader was questioned. The issue had come from his literacy. Brunk has stated that he was not as a revolutionary Mexican was not an educated one (33). But despite his lack of education, he was able to rise himself to recognition as a hero of the Mexican political arena regardless of the fact that he was not literate (Brunk 33). He was considered by his supporters as literate while his detractors had regarded him as otherwise. This debate was long on – going but there are evidences that Zapata had the capacity to read and write. Nonetheless, based from my analysis of the text, I could say that his intellectual power had its very own limitations. Zapata’s national prominence had begun in 1911 but he had realized that this prominence at a national level was indeed necessary for a piece of a national revolution. He must have this in order for him to have a share of national power in order for the demands for land reform and municipal independence to be passed. However, to begin with this search for power, he must have enough education to be able to in such a political project. Even the concept of what a Mexican nation is was something that Zapata did not fully understand. This is because of the fact that he had not even travelled further than the south – central Mexico. This education was something that was lacking him being the leader of the Liberation Army of the South (Brunk 34). Given that Zapata was lacking the wisdom to completely take charge of his Zapatismo, the city boys had filled up this need for him. By city boys, Brunk has meant that these people who were mostly male and young of that sort

Planning and Enabling Learning Essay Example for Free

Planning and Enabling Learning Essay This rationale focuses on the four areas of ‘Negotiating with Learners’, ‘Inclusive Learning’, ‘Integrating Functional Skills’ and ‘Communication’. During my research I will draw upon a range of sources which include the internet, books, organisation media (leaflets) and lessons learned. Teaching processes should be cooperative between the student and tutor. To this end tutors should plan strategies like initial assessments, agreeing on learning goals and possible actions to be taken by in order to empower learners to achieve these goals. Petty, G (2009, p530) states: â€Å"Each learner is unique and has individual needs. If the needs of our learners are discovered, the chances of success are greatly increased.† thus as a starting point initial assessments should be carried out prior to commencing a programme of education. Different learners have different learning needs and tutors must know their learners well to judge these requirements. This could be undertaken via a range of questions during the enrolment process, forms or/and questionnaires. Information obtained should be kept confidential so learners feel free to disclose as much information about themselves and their learning needs as possible. Agreeing goals and actions should be accomplished between learners and tutors. The effect being the learner will also feel that his/her views and opinions are being heard and taken into consideration. The advantages to the tutor being that the learner understands their responsibility to advance their own education and tasks/objectives/deadlines required to do so. The tutor should monitor the process to make sure learners reach their learning targets along the way and amend goals by agreement setting new actions when objectives are not reached.

The Development of Ancient Medicine & Influences Essay -- essays resea

Many different cultures have tried different methods as to find out about the causes of disease and how to treat different kinds of diseases. Various countries have come up with alternate cures and treatments for various diseases. These ancient societies compromise of China, Greece, Egypt and South America. They practiced a wide range of cures for their patients, and they specialize in different fields. For example, meditation and acupuncture were practices in China. Dissection, operations and drug therapy were also performed. But how did theses societies – who did not have as much technology as today – found out about the different illnesses and their cures? The western medicines usually compromise the use of folk remedies and prayers. They now believed that sickness was not a result of punishments sent from gods, but something ‘natural’. Dissection was performed and thus, they knew more about the internal organs of animals – although they were not allowed to dissect humans yet. Plants were also used as medicines. These were known as herbal medicines. In the eastern countries, there seem to be more on religious treatments, and healing the entire body – not just the deformed part. They believed that the whole body is to be treated to maintain a healthy body and prevent disease. Various kinds of treatments were discovered throughout the ancient societies. These cures includes trepanning, surgery, herbal medicines, religious or agricultural remedies, and sacrifices. These were the forms of treatments undertaken by the patients. One interesting fact includes the operated remains, especially the trepanning of the skull. A number of these patients survived the treatment, as some of the wounds have signs of healing. Therefore, they... ...se include the use of a doctor’s observance to decide whether a person needs treatment or not. Another type of cure that has survived to today, are surgery and herbal medicines. Operations are an important part in medicine to keep on healthy. When cures are needed, the body is sometimes operated to take out the diseased part. Herbal medicines – especially Chinese medicine – are still available for use in the modern world. Although most of the world now relies on western medicine, some diseases may not be effective with western medicine, but works with Chinese medicine. Overall, medicine is always changing, but the useful areas of medicine never stop. The development of medicine will continue to improve, hoping that the best and effective medicines are delivered to patients. However, many medicines still follow the ancient ideas, and some treatments even go on.

Characteristic of a research study Essay

1. Reliability is a subjective term which can not be measured precisely but today there are instruments which can estimate the reliability of any research. Reliability is the repeatability of any research, research instrument, tool or procedure. If any research yields similar results each time it is undertaken with similar population and with similar procedures, it is called to be a reliable research. Suppose a research is conducted on the effects of separation between parents on class performance of the children. If the results conclude that separation causes low grades in class, these results should have to be reliable for another sample taken from similar population. More the results are similar; more reliability is present in the research. 2. Validity is the strength with which we can call a research conclusions, assumptions or propositions true or false. Validity determines the applicability of research . Validity of the research instrument can be defined as the suitability of the research instrument to the research problem or how accurately the instrument measures the problem. Some researchers say that validity and reliability are co-related but validity is much more important than reliability. Without validity research goes in the wrong direction. To keep the research on-track define your concepts in the best possible manner so that no error occur during measurement. 3. Accuracy is also the degree to which each research process, instrument and tool is related to each other. Accuracy also measures whether research tools have been selected in best possible manner and research procedures suits the research problem or not. For example if a research has to be conducted on the trans-gender people, several data collection tools can be used depending on the research problems but if you find that population less cooperative the best way is to observe them rather than submitting questionnaire because in questionnaire either they will give biased responses or they will not return the questionnaires at all. So choosing the best data collection tool improves the accuracy of research. 4. Credibility comes with the use of best source of information and best procedures in research. If you are using second-hand information in your research due to any reason your research might complete in less time but its credibility will be at stake because secondary data has been manipulated by human beings and is therefore not very valid to use in research. A certain percentage of secondary data can be used if primary source is not available but basing a research completely on secondary data when primary data can be gathered is least credible. When researcher give accurate references in research the credibility of research increases but fake references also decrease the credibility of research. 5. Generalizability is the extent to which a research findings can be applied to larger population. When a researcher conducts a study he/she chooses a target population and from this population he takes a small sample to conduct the research. This sample is representative of the whole population so the findings should also be. If research findings can be applied to any sample from the population, the results of the research are said to be generalizable. 6. Empirical nature of research means that the research has been conducted following rigorous scientific methods and procedures. Each step in the research has been tested for accuracy and is based on real life experiences. Quantitative research is more easy to prove scientifically than qualitative research. In qualitative research biases and prejudice are easy to occur. 7. Systematic approach is the only approach for research. No research can be conducted haphazardly. Each step must follow other. There are set of procedures that have been tested over a period of time and are thus suitable to use in research. Each research therefore should follow a procedure. 8. Controlled-in real life experience there are many factors that effect an outcome. A single event is often result of several factors. When similar event is tested in research, due to the broader nature of factors that effect that event, some factors are taken as controlled factors while others are tested for possible effect. The controlled factors or variables should have to be controlled rigorously. In pure sciences it is very easy to control such elements because experiments are conducted in laboratory but in social sciences it becomes difficult to control these factors because of the nature of research.