Talk:History of Japan/Social
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The Tokugawa shogunate rigidified long-existent class divisions,[1] 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.[2] Court nobles,[3] clerics, eta (or burakumin) outcasts, entertainers, and workers of the licensed quarters fell outside this structure.[4] Different legal codes applied to different classes, marriage between classes was prohibited, and towns were subdivided into different class areas.[1] The social stratification had little bearing on economic conditions: many samurai lived in poverty[4] and the wealth of the merchant class grew throughout the period as the commercial economy developed and urbanization grew.[5] 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.[6]
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".[7] Many of these worked as butchers, leatherworkers, or sanitary workers, whose occupations were considered defilement due to taboos related to death and uncleanliness.[8]
Chinese Confucian-style patriarchy was first codified in the 7th–8th centuries with the ritsuryō system,[9] which introduced a patrilineal family register with a male head of household.[10] 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.[11]
Archaeological evidence suggests a prehistorical preference for female rulers in western Japan.[11] 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. [12] Female emperors appear in recorded history until the Meiji Constitution declared strict male-only ascension in 1889.[11]