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*mibunsei, four classes of society, rise of merchant class, decline of samurai (warrior class in a peaceful time)
*mibunsei, four classes of society, rise of merchant class, decline of samurai (warrior class in a peaceful time)
Samurai are believed to have comprised, during the Edo period, roughly six percent of the population of the archipelago.<ref>*Craig, Teruko (trans.). ''Musui's Story: The Autobiography of a Tokugawa Samurai''. University of Arizona Press, 1988. p.xii.</ref>
Samurai are believed to have comprised, during the Edo period, roughly six percent of the population of the archipelago. Government work was the chief avenue seen as an honorable path for samurai, while most forms of merchant or artisan (craftsman/manufacture) work, as well as agricultural labor, were seen as being beneath them, unfitting for someone of samurai status. Since samurai were so numerous, however, and there were only so many government positions, by [[1705]], it is believed that roughly one-quarter of the shogun's vassals were unemployed.<ref>*Craig, Teruko (trans.). ''Musui's Story: The Autobiography of a Tokugawa Samurai''. University of Arizona Press, 1988. p.xii.</ref>
Samurai earned their incomes as stipends paid by their lords in fixed amounts of rice (measured in ''[[koku]]''). As stipends were not reassessed and rarely increased (without a promotion in rank or position), by the late Edo period, many samurai became impoverished, even as many members of the commoner townsman class (''[[chonin|chônin]]'') became wealthier and wealthier, earning their incomes off economic activity (i.e. manufacture and trade).
==Notes==
==Notes==
