Gono

• Japanese: 豪農 (gounou)

Gônô, literally wealthy or luxurious farmer, is a term used to refer to wealthy peasant entrepreneurs or landlords, who were often quite prominent and powerful figures politically and economically in rural areas or regional towns.

They are distinguished from the gôshi, wealthy rural peasants or commoners who enjoyed some degree of samurai privileges.

References

• Luke Roberts, Mercantilism in a Japanese Domain: The Merchant Origins of Economic Nationalism in 18th-Century Tosa, Cambridge University Press (1998), 51.