Compare And Contrast Samurai And Daimyo

The Japanese feudal system is structured from the importance of the person. People who were trained to fight in war, people who grew food and those who built structures were considered more important than those who sold things or who was very wealthy. The samurai and daimyo were both part of the warrior class. Each class had certain rights (things they could expect) and responsibilities (work they had accomplish in return). A person’s social class was determined at birth, if your parents were peasants, then you would be a peasant. You could not change your social class. Each person knew what the rest of the community expected from them. There were even rules set for the amount of communication allowed between each group.
Emperor
The emperor and his family were on top of the social hierarchy. He was the spiritual and symbolic head or figurehead of the entirety of Japan. He was thought to have descended from the gods. Even though from 1185 onwards, he had very little power, he was an important religious leader. He mainly had ceremonial roles. The emperor was very rich. He was a greatly respected figure, but he couldn’t control the regions that were further away. To do this, he needed the daimyos to support him. So, he gave them land in return for their support.
Shogun
The most powerful of the …show more content…
A daimyo’s army is available to the shogun when needed. They were allowed rule provinces in return for their loyalty and military support to the shogun. This was what made them so powerful. The 25% of land that the shogun owned was divided into 275 regions that were all ruled by different daimyos. Daimyo were lords who controlled the land. They had to obey the shoguns. They lived under s strict set of rules that were set so they could not threaten the position of the shoguns. These rules included, seeking permission from a shogun to marry and a limit of the number of samurais that they could