Talk:History of Japan/Social

The Tokugawa shogunate rigidified long-existent class divisions, placing most of the population into a neo-Confucian hierarchy of four occupations, with the ruling elite at the top, followed by the peasants who made up 80% of the population, then artisans, and merchants at the bottom. Court nobles, clerics, eta (or burakumin) outcasts, entertainers, and workers of the licensed quarters fell outside this structure. Different legal codes applied to different classes, marriage between classes was prohibited, and towns were subdivided into different class areas. The social stratification had little bearing on economic conditions: many samurai lived in poverty and the wealth of the merchant class grew throughout the period as the commercial economy developed and urbanization grew. The Edo-era social power structure proved untenable and gave way following the Meiji Restoration to one in which commercial power played an increasingly significant political role.

Beggars, prostitutes, and others outside the accepted social structure were considered hinin, or "non-people". Hinin could re-integrate with society as commoners, except the burakumin caste whose status was inherited and who were considered "untouchable". Many of these worked as butchers, leatherworkers, or sanitary workers, whose occupations were considered defilement due to taboos related to death and uncleanliness.

Chinese Confucian-style patriarchy was first codified in the 7th–8th centuries with the ritsuryō system, which introduced a patrilineal family register with a male head of household. Women until then had held important roles in government which thereafter gradually diminished, though even in the late Heian period women wielded considerable court influence.

Archaeological evidence suggests a prehistorical preference for female rulers in western Japan. Chinese sources speak of a third-century Queen Himiko, and the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki describe several legendary female leaders and assert the Imperial line descends from the sun goddess Amaterasu. Female emperors appear in recorded history until the Meiji Constitution declared strict male-only ascension in 1889.