The+Rise+of+the+Merchants

How do woodblock prints from Tokugawa Japan illustrate key themes in the history of the period? The beginnning of the Tokugawa period saw a revival of interest in Confucianism. In many ways this happened because of the interest in China sparked by Zen Buddism.In Japan there was not the interest in metaphysics that was seen in China, rather confucian ideas regarding human societal organization were viewed as offering a system legitimizing a feudal structure. The Shogunate divided into four classes: 1. samurai 2. peasants 3. artisans 4. merchants

Merchants were considered to be at the bottom of society because they did not gather anything, but instead they only traded in goods and money. In many ways, merchants were the class with the fewest restrictions on getting personal wealth. Unlike farmers, merchants were able to move freely about the country, from town to town, in order to pursue their destinies.