Goshi

• Japanese: 郷士 (goushi)

Gôshi (lit. "countryside/village warrior") were Edo period samurai who remained situated in the countryside rather than residing in castle towns. This was possible only in a few parts of the archipelago, including chiefly in Satsuma han, which had the highest samurai to non-samurai ratio of any domain, and which was powerful enough to exact from the Tokugawa shogunate exceptions to policies such as that removing samurai from the land.

Gôshi thus had more personal, direct power over the peasants of their local area, though many also worked the land themselves.

Famous Gôshi

• Sakamoto Ryoma
• Kiyokawa Hachiro
• Serizawa Kamo
• Yagi Gennojo
• Saito Yakuro

References

• Conrad Schirokauer, David Lurie, and Suzanne Gay, A Brief History of Japanese Civilization, Wadsworth Cengage (2013), 155.