What Was the Structure of Medieval Japan?- Guide to the Shogun TV Show
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Kings and Generals animated historical documentary series on the history of Japan continues with a video on the Edo Japan’s social order and the bakuhan system, as we deduce what the feudal structure of the Japanese society is in FX's Shogun TV Show. We discuss the social pyramid, non-feudal classes like peasants, craftsmen and merchants, as well as the samurai
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Script: Dimitris Koutsoumis
Animation: Michael Merc, Kate Korolko
Artwork: Vadym Berkutenko
Narration: Officially Devin ( / @offydgg & / @gameworldnarratives )
Sources: docs.google.com/document/d/1H...
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#Documentary #Japan #Shogun
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Hearing you mispronounce 'sakura' so many times was painful lol
@@keoniborge2498 but you survived and are stronger for it
@@KingsandGeneralsYou guys have the best comebacks 😂 🫡👍
I just want to warn anyone from the EU wanting to try the box, I am from an EU country and tried the sakuraco box back in march of last year and the things in the box were nice but apparently sakuraco didn't comply with EU customs. As a result I had to pay almost 20 EUR extra for the customs procedure, per box (this has to be paid for every separate import) which made it VERY expensive. To fix this Sakuraco has to register online with the EU, but for some reason they don't. I brought this up with their support but it never got fixed. @KingsandGenerals would you know more if this is fixed already or are you able to pick this issue up with SakuraCo?
In Confucianism, money is considered dirty and thus Merchants are at a lower place in society than peasants and artisants. Yet they managed to become as wealthy sometimes as some of the Daimyo or even wealthier than them which involved some marriages with poorer daimyo families (they wanted their social status and the others their wealth). PD: By 1800s, the Samurai were broke because they could only be paid with Rice and no money.
Thomas Sowell has some great writing on this.
No wonder capitalism never flourish in Ancient East Asian countries like Japan,China and Korea.
It's also problematic to tie merchants to one area.
for them@@brianpeck4035
Similar relationship in Late Republican Rome between the Patricians and the Plebs. Patrician and Plebeian status was determined by blood and could not change, over the centuries some Patrician families would fall on hard times while some Plebieans became extremely wealthy. Gauis Marius a wealthy and popular general of Plebian descent married into the impoverished Patrician Julii family by marrying the aunty of Julius Caesar. Marius gained the prestige of a patrician marriage while the Julii gained much needed wealth. A very benificial marriage as the Julii family had been irrelevant for a long time by that point, but would soon become the greatest family in rome under Julius Caesar, the nephew of Marius.
This was very educational - I just came back from Japan and can barely imagine Tokyo today as a feudal city centuries ago.
History loves to hide it's sins.
@@BlackPillVillainbe careful with that edge son
It still is, in a roundabout sense!
@@BlackPillVillainIt's how society manages to keep doing all the wrong things in the present as they can look back and pretend it never happened in the past.
I guess the same could be said about european cities. In some parts of europe, literal serfdom existed until the mid 1800s.
The illustrations in this video are an eclectic mix of Japanese and Chinese styles. As a Japanese, I love the current drama because it is the first Western production without such mistakes.
what do you think about the 80s miniseries?
@@sebastianwolfmayr I was not aware of any videos of the 80's mini-series, so I checked KZhead. In at least some of the videos, the portrayal of Japan is the same as in the historical dramas produced in Japan in the past, and it looks like Japanese personnel were involved.I have not seen all of the 80's mini-series, so it is possible that some of the scripts or character actions or dialog may seem strange to the Japanese, but from a visual standpoint, they seem fine.
For a layman, would you care to point out some of the Chinese illustrations in the video?
@gorotv5826 thanks mate
@@gorotv5826the 80s series was 100% produced in Japan. All the scenes were actually shot in Japan. So for that the series earned good points. It was panned in Japan because all the actors used *modern-day Japanese.* Unlike 2024 Shogun, which uses medieval Japanese language, 1980s Shogun did not bother. American viewers could not tell the difference. It didn't help that the 1980s version did not have any subtitles or translations for Japanese, ON PURPOSE, to try to immerse the American viewers in Blackthorne's character. This left viewers confused about what was going on the first time they saw the series given that they couldn't understand what the characters were saying and hadn't picked up enough Japanese to understand even characters' names let alone their dialogue yet.
Kudos for mentioning the sankin-kotai system. AFAIK, it was specifically intended to keep the daimyo too poor to threaten the Shogunate, so it was definitely not a coincidence.
This is one of those 15 minute videos that takes 30 minutes to watch because there’s so much information in it.
It took me 3 hours with two breaks. One break to finish watching the 7th episode of Shōgun. 😂
6:33 nice meme Speaking of Shogun TV, my fundamental knowledge of post Hideyoshi era has been stirred due to its story haha.
mariko would totally get it.
RIP
The policy of forcing Daimyos to live in Edo has parallels with France under Louis XIV forcing nobles to spend part of year at Versailles.
Absolutely, and that is no coincidence...
Toyotomi Hideyoshi, remarkably, did rise from a peasant to a role of supreme military leader. Because he was not of noble blood, he could not be acclaimed shogun, and was thus titled kampaku and taiko - imperial regent. An intresting comparison would be Tamerlane - while leading many campaigns across Eurasia and being the de facto ruler of the mightiest empire of his time, he could not claim the title of khan, since he was not of the house of Genghis, and was thus only an emir.
keep this title so people don't get confused best title ever lol
When you release 3 videos+ per week, you kinda run out of title ideas :D
hahaha nah its dope i can see a lot of people trying to assume your talking about shogun itself hahaha but that title gives a good idea :D @@KingsandGenerals
yeah sure, the title is for the people lol
What was it?
Yeah what was it?
0:25 The struggle of many Samurai during the bureaucratisation of their rank imo wasn't a romantizised longing for combat, although many dressed it up like that, but the longing for what combat in the civil war enabled: amassing wealth and cultivating a social rank as well as transcending hierarchies way faster than in peace time. Obviously many also impoverished over time after the war and had to take loans from the lowest social class: merchants.
I’m currently watching the tv series Shogun and thoroughly enjoying it. Beautiful costumes, photography, a great story with a fine script and some great actors. Cosmo Jarvis the British actor reminds me of the late great Richard Burton with a commanding presence on screen. The Japanese cast are also excellent although Toshiro Mifune will always be my favourite Japanese actor.
Hiroyuki Sanada and Ken Watanabe are worthy contemporary actors.
Shi-No-Ko-Sho translates to Sĩ - Nông - Công - Thương in Vietnamese, and was viewed as the four pillars of a Confucian society, though Sĩ-Shi also include the learned classes, i.e. students, teachers, officials, doctors, etc. not just warriors. They are more revered in society due to being educated and being able to read and write.
It feels to me that master Confuxi might have traveled to India cause the similarities between the philosophies is striking. As an outsider to both of these cultures I can clearly see the sameness.
@@kb.e3762 Chinese values ideologies are spread throughout the Sinosphere, with varying degrees of adaptations. Vietnamese took a lot from Chinese culture (sometimes forcefully) and tweaked it to our liking. For example, the caste system above wasn't as strict in Vietnam as it was in Japan, the social stigma was there for the lower classes, but it was not forbidden to move out of the class you were born into.
It also spread across southeast asia, mercant was "undiserable" and that void was filled with merchant from Chinese mainland, Indian and Arabs. If we look today social hierarchy in most southeast asia countries the most wealthiest Business family are Chinese, Indian and Arabs.
@@thomasjuniardi3559some native ethnic group like Minangkabau and buginese actually involved in trade too
Warrior actually outside the system and pretty much blurred because despite of their high status they mostly come from peasant background but their statur become equal with gentry(scholars) along with them and even become main ruling class like happening in japan when nobi aka samurai toppled kuge as main ruling class japan or just coexisting and blended with gentry class like what happened in China, Korea and Vietnam.
The quality of the illustrations are great. Continue like that. It is better then before.
banking on the shogun tv series, smart
So hyped for this miniseries
Very interesting! Thanks for uploading!
Binged all first five episodes yesterday, loving it so far!
I’m not sure if you just made a typo, but there are six episodes so far. If you haven’t watched the sixth please do, it’s great like the others!
@@twowheelunicycle8603 Watched it too, great episode
Wow, the artwork in this is off the hook!
Such a great video. Learned something.
WOW, that was a lot of Information to try and make sense of. I'll have to watch it again.
This art is fantastic, really brings the story to life
Thank you guys for your great job. 👍👍👍
Great video keep it up you're doing amazing things 😁💯
thanks for the video
Great video. I look forward to the upcoming Video: on the Meiji restoration and Meiji society.
I got the notification for this while watching the new episode 🙏
A great video packed with basic info about Edo period. It would be nice to have more about the mobility between "castes" or its reason, developed finances
The idea is to check if the topic is viable in terms of views, if it is we will go into more deeper topics.
@@KingsandGeneralscan you do a video about korean caste system, european caste system, indian caste system and japanese caste system. The similarity and the differences?
Great educational video on feudal Japan social classes
Great use of side hustle in an educational video
Indeed, smiles are infectious.
Love this!!!
The graphics are on point!
I've not seen the TV show but thanks for a deeply fascinating video!
Sankin-Kotai was a decisive factor made Tokyo became the largest city in Japan. This rule concentrated most of the high-end consumers (Shogun families & Daimyo families) into Edo/Tokyo, as once Emperor did for Kyoto thousand years ago.
Thanks for the video
Smooth animations, I see!
Nice job ancient Japan is always a joy!
Great topic
Thank you!!!
This show is so good I got both Shogun books on Audible to fill the void between episodes
Could you make a playlist collecting all of your Feudal Japan related videos? They are so great and I keep finding more. A playlist would make it easier and so I don’t miss one
It would be good to actually make this type of video a whole series, focussing on different societies at different times in history, i.e. how did the Indian varna system really run in the year 1000 or how did feudalism operate in medieval Persia, or even giving us a better understanding of how European feudalism existed at different times as I think today many of us have a stereotypical view of how even our own societies operated in the past, all interesting things to learn
This video was a great look into Feudal Japan. Nice job KnG.
Excellent Indeed.
Amazing. Thank you. Love this show. Love the channel(s). I can't wait for the next video on the Horus Heresy in the Warhammer 40K universe on the Wizards and Warriors channel!
I really enjoy this series!!! I very much enjoyed your video and I gave it a Thumbs Up
Man, learning about the eta is depressing. You never learn about them in school.
In Japan,we learn about "eta" and "hinin" in junior high school same as William Adams.
Guess why so few Non-Japanese know about eta and bunrakumin (or things like nanshoku and wakashu) but everyone "knows" about samurai and geisha ...
Kuge，used to be bureaucrats, only served as Emperor’s retainers and diplomats to Daimyos. The image used in this video was inaccurate as they never liked samurai hair/cloth style. They just stay with their own style for hundreds of years until Meiji reformation.
Thank you for the video & information 👊🏻
Awesome 👍👍👍
The Edo period is odd for being kind of pseudo feudal. Inherently the fact that the samurai do not directly possess any land and live separately largely denies it one of the defining elements of feudalism; extreme independent military authority. And yet the daimyo divison of land and class system still enforced a superficial semblance as if it was a feudal system.
江戸時代の統治システムは徳川家による任命型委任統治システムです。現代の地方自治体の首長に相当する人物を任命する形式と考えれば理解が早いでしょう。
I used to always think Japan the moment it got a shogun was a stratocracy. The Daimyos were just glorified generals, the samurais the household units and the peasants your levies. Then again, I based this knowledge of shogun 2 and the FOTS DLC back then
@@adambrande I would broadly describe the defining element of true feudalism over other forms of stratocracy is that lower echelons of the military also possess fiefs, providing the military ruling class extensive political, economic and military independence from the rulers. e.g. a family of knights or samurai who own a single small castle, have the taxes, manpower and legal authority to raise a small independent army (even if it's only a few hundred strong), that is beholden only to the head of the family and that heads direct superior. The practical effect is that a feudal state is more akin to a confederation of mostly independent states, themselves composed of smaller independent states composed of smaller states in a highly decentralized political/military structure. It's difficult to stop an individual family in your region from waging war on their neighbour because they posses their wealth and power independently enabling them to act on their own as they see fit. By contrast the Edo system aimed specifically to strip Samurai of land and independence so that they had no ability to wage independent war. They were now dependant on their Daimyo for an income, and had no manpower to recruit peasants from. The Daimyo themselves were still independent but the samurai below them were not and so the system aimed to maintain the illusion of feudalism while stripping the mechanics behind it.
@@alias-wave そんなおかしな純形式上の比喩(～現代の議会制に裏打ちされた地方自治と土地制度において所有権が曖昧な幕藩体制を比較しても意味がない)では誤解を招くよ。中世欧州型の封建制度と近世移行期の絶対主義の中間形態、限りなく絶対主義的統治に近づきながらも地方的割拠を払拭できなかった状態とした方が理解を得やすいだろう。言うまでもなく「関ケ原」と「大坂の陣」の戦況に歴史的根源を有しているが。
The ETA in Japanese society is linked similarly to the Parayias in Scheduled Castes in India, but I'm unsure of the connection
All society has caste system, all others simply banned the caste system but india went a further and even gave lower caste or oppressed caste affirmative actions.
@@SafavidAfsharid3197- No, not all socities had/have caste systems. There are higher and lower classes but classes are not the same as castes.
Awesome Show and awesome channel. Lol very specific title though
Great video
I need to know more about the Ninja!
Thanks!
excellent
Well, I've never heard the Edo period described as 'feudal'... normally, that would refer more to the Sengoku Jidai, Muromachi and Kamakura periods, IIRC.
As much as the Tokugawa Shogunate has all the powers of government, they still rely on the loyalty of their most loyal Daimyo lords for support. "Feudalism" as a system of government is built on cooperation between the head of state and its subdivisions...
@@theotherohlourdespadua1131 As a usage of the term feudal, maybe. However, if you go to a historian and ask about 'feudal Japan' they are not going to talk about the Edo period. K&G actually use the correct term, historically, in the video: the early modern period. I just think the name is quite confusing as it doesn't match the content of the video.
Probably due to the technological stagnation during then
@@inconemay1441 But there wasn't a technological stagnation during the Edo period in Japan?
I love this, if theres any other videos like this about medieval Japan maybe focus on the lives of the regular people?
That was really interesting. But isnt the TV Series depicting the society shortly before the unification of Japan?
Great video! Japanese history is quite interesting. For a more detailed view of the history of Japan from its inception to the Meiji Restoration I recommend reading George Samson's hefty trilogy - A HISTORY OF JAPAN TO 1334, A HISTORY OF JAPAN 1334 - 1615, and A HISTORY OF JAPAN 1615 - 1867. It's a bit dated, but still a very high quality history.
Thats why i love japanese history
Would love to see an episode about Ōoka Tadasuke.
Fine, I'll watch the show!
"Give the peasants neither life nor death." -- Tokugawa Ieyasu
Wasn't the dude a real pos.
@@saymyname2417 All aristocrats are,,,
@@Shadowman4710 - Probably not all. But many. It's just their mindset. Whereas except for the emperials the Japanese never even had any nobility. But a caste system instead. But while other figures of history are criticised for their medieval mindset and actions this dude is still glorified to no end - together with his and his descendants' unholy reign. Not that he is the only one. See Napoleon. But especially when it comes to the land of the rising sun people are wilfully ignorant. I really don't mean to be rude but the obligatory "But others weren't any better" is no argument, just a lame excuse. When there is no counter argument possible.
pls do a video on feudal society of south east asia too
So much like the HRE…before Napoleon…frieherrs…and conflicts between Adel and Herr…and Emperor who varied in strength…Peasants…not serfs…Peasants owned their land and had much influence…merchants were important but definitely not respected as much…it’s amazing the similarities…
Fascinating!!! I wonder, was this 4 caste system imported from India?
Oh, my goodness, can't I watch ANY channel without being hit with a commercial barely a minute in?!
Feudal Japan was very similar to medieval Europe. How interesting that two societies a world apart ended up developing similar social systems.
9:04 Even Toshiro Mifune is confused by this
I knew its!
I sr to ask but is there any plan on making a video about how samurai warfare actually look like? We know how the Roman fight, know how the medieval army with heavy calvary fight but I don't see much talking about how the samurai fight. They use spear and matchlock a lot, so did they use something similar to Pike and shot. How they move into battle, what formation they would use?
Yep, one of the upcoming videos will cover aspects of this topic
"There is an aspect in which 'Eta' and 'Hinin' were, in a sense, a privileged class that had certain occupations guaranteed. There are theories suggesting that 'Shinoukoushou' (the Samurai, Farmers, Artisans, and Merchants) is not a caste system but merely a classification of occupations today, and fitting it into the concept of a Western-style caste system risks significant misunderstanding."
Uhm... WTF?!
In case my original comment is gone: just no to the statements of the oc.
Do Philippine History next!
9:32 toshiro mifune spotted
Tokyo Treat "customer service" is diabolical.
Bad experience?
I had a 1 year subscription. I told them not to renew. They did anyway, then refused to stop or refund my money. It took numerous emails and pressure over weeks to finally get them to stop.
@softsofasoftsofa It's called "customer succubus".
Something I heard was that the 'untouchables' actually had their lives sort of ruined by the Meiji Restoration since they lost the monopoly on 'dirty' jobs. By removing the stigma from their work, their work became devalued while they remained unintegrated into regular communities and thus unable to compete in the open job market.
I never understood why Japan had an emperor if a Shogun was truly the one running the nation.
It's like England having a king even though there's a prime minister ruling the country.
Politics
The emperor was a semi-divine chief priest that held enormous cultural significance to the people and legitimatized the military rule of the Shogun. Also, the Shogun's daughters were frequently married to the emperor so current and future emperors were all related to the Shogun.
@@wafflione3211 but prime ministers are not hereditary positions like Shogun. Japan basically had two monarchs.
@@HughR3GO You're right, so I should probably clarify that the Japanese emperor was the head Shinto priest based on his claim that he had direct divine lineage and maintained the purity of his lineage through a well-planned marriage. He may have lost control of his country like the Pope lost his position as King of Rome, but he was still its spiritual leader.
Not allowed to wear shoes or even a hat I would have gone rouge ninjastyle fighting the evil Shogun!
I find that the profession of butcher fell into the class of Eta. In most European societies and I would guess other continents too, butchers were almost revered for their art of turning an animal carcass into so many parts. For father’s, the prospect of marrying his daughter to the town butcher was almost like a present from above because it meant she would never go hungry and would make sure her family wouldn’t either with food often scarce in many past ages..
That Edo period was quasi-feudal is unusual. Because the samurai live independently and do not own land, they lack severe independent military authority, a hallmark of feudalism. However, the daimyo land and class division still resembled a feudal structure.
Make a video on shah ismail of safawid
Despite being allied to the Tokugawa, the Date clan were classified as tozama.
When can we see how the society is like in the crusader states how they interact with each other and how they are viewed by other kingdoms.
Japan has many skilled swordsmen And one of them is responsible for the Brazilian Samurai known as The Winds of Brazil 🇧🇷
I always admired some aspects of Japan's culture, like the ones presented in literature and arts (honor, honesty, perseverance etc.) Learning about their political system from that times makes their principles mentioned above seem like a bitter joke. On the other hand I'm aware that you can't judge people from another era based on current values and ideologies.
From what did the Kuge make their livelyhood? How was it prevented that e.g. Samurai families just overtook their possession given that they were not warriors?
Muito bom
11:31 man, you burning Hideyoshi in his replies.
We Would be really Grateful if we could know how Such Difficult Videos are Made in a Manner Not Seen Anywhere Else on the Entire KZhead
When you watch a channel talking about history and see it portraying people wearing kimono like they are dead... 😅
If you love Shogun, I have some other recommendations set in the orient - 1. Tales of the Otori book series by Lian Hearn - a low-fantasy re-imagination of the Sengoku era. 2. The Twelve Kingdoms book series by Fuyumi Ono - set in a fantastical land reminiscent of feudal China, Japan and Korea. The later books are not officially localized, but there are very competent fan translations by a guy called Eugene Woodbury. First four books have an animated adaptation, also very good. 3. Under Heaven and River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay - inspired by two periods of Chinese history, beautifully written by a masterful author. 4. Conqueror series by Conn Iggulden - (loosely) based on Mongol Conquests.
1:20 → 2:30 How many shots did you take after hearing this?
Can you do a 3D tour of Edo?
Good question. Will consider!
no
How do you make your war videos
I wish the info is presented in a simple hierarchical chart.
For a period of 260 years of relative prosperity and peace that solidified Japan's highly educated workforce that continued to this day, and many innovations including tree conservation that the early Meiji government took a while to pick up again, I think you tried your best. There is only one youtube channel focused on Tokugawa Shogunate era, in Japanese. I highly recommend. Tera Sen.
Nice video, but... I'm confused. Is it about medieval Japan or about Edo period Japan? Is Edo considered medieval here? When I look elsewhere, usually it is considered early modern or transitional. I mean, both medieval and Edo Japan were feudal, but it seems to me pre-Edo feudalism and its formation is a little skimmed over here and transition to late feudalism of Edo seems to be the focus. Maybe I am missing something.
There is a debate among historians regarding the eras. In this case, we contend that the transition from medieval to early modern happens when capitalist mode of production becomes prevalent. For Japan, that is still down the road.
@@KingsandGenerals Thank you for your prompt answer. Being from Central Europe/Carpathian region, where feudalism was also only slowly abolished towards the end of 18th century and throughout the 19th century with the fall of HRE and formation of Austria-Hungary and Theresian reforms, my thinking was dragging me to the direction how much this seems to parallel the development in Japan with maybe the period from Hussite wars to 30y war being parallel to Sengoku period. It's the same centuries of turmoil cca 1450-1650, then conservative late feudalism and then finally collapse of feudal elites around 1800 and opening up to market and industrial changes in 19th century ending up with rising nationalism and eventually fascism in wwii, Germany forming axis with Japan. Remarkably parallel history.