EAS100Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Terakoya, Tokugawa Ieyasu, Sumptuary Law
Document Summary
Mar14/2013: by mid-18th c. , many non-samurai were going to school, terakoya (temple schools) offering primary school education in most villages. Printing: guide books, novels, picture prints, poetry, cookbooks. Castle towns: edo bureaucratic center, osaka industrial/merchant centre, kyoto cultural center, castle towns in each domain with their own system (mini-edos) Post-towns: pit stops for travellers/daimyo/vassals to rest and replenish, they become thriving cities on their own. Merchants at bottom (but not in reality) At the start of the tokugawa period, the focus was on the samurai and the agricultural class. Not much distinction between merchants and artisans. Merchants considered less because they made nothing. Movement between class was prohibited but we know merchants did buy samurai status because it was prohibited by yoshimune. Ingratiated themselves to lords make themselves necessary. Organizations which held monopolies over some industries to protect their interests. Prevented from engaging in trade, therefore needed merchants: merchants were left with a monopoly over internal trade.
