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''Gôshi'' (lit. "countryside/village warrior") were [[Edo period]] [[samurai]] who remained situated in the countryside rather than residing in [[castle town]]s. 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 [[han|domain]], and which was powerful enough to exact from the [[Tokugawa shogunate]] exceptions to policies such as that removing samurai from the land. ''Gôshi'' could also be peasants or commoners who have been granted certain privileges of the samurai, similar to ''[[goyo shonin|goyô shônin]]'', such as the right to bear swords, the right to audience with the lord, or the right to use of a family name in official documents, albeit without being actually made members of the samurai class.<ref>[[Luke Roberts]], ''Mercantilism in a Japanese Domain: The Merchant Origins of Economic Nationalism in 18th-Century Tosa'', Cambridge University Press (1998), 11n26, 51.</ref>
''Gôshi'' (lit. "countryside/village warrior") were [[Edo period]] [[samurai]] who remained situated in the countryside rather than residing in [[castle town]]s. 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 [[han|domain]], and which was powerful enough to exact from the [[Tokugawa shogunate]] exceptions to policies such as that removing samurai from the land. ''Gôshi'' could also be peasants or commoners who have been granted certain privileges of the samurai, similar to ''[[goyo shonin|goyô shônin]]'', such as the right to bear swords, the right to audience with the lord, or the right to use of a family name in official documents, albeit without being actually made members of the samurai class.<ref>[[Luke Roberts]], ''Mercantilism in a Japanese Domain: The Merchant Origins of Economic Nationalism in 18th-Century Tosa'', Cambridge University Press (1998), 11n26, 51.</ref>
Unlike in many areas (such as Satsuma) where ''gôshi'' were retainers to the ''daimyô'', ''gôshi'' in [[Fukuoka han]] were those who refused to swear loyalty to the lord, choosing to instead remain in, or relocate to, the countryside. The ''gôshi'' of Fukuoka retained some degree of elite status, and were considered of a separate class from the villagers around them, but were not retainers in service to the domain.<ref>Arne Kalland, ''Fishing Villages in Tokugawa Japan'', University of Hawaii Press (1995), 19.</ref>
''Gôshi'' thus had more personal, direct power over the peasants of their local area, though many also worked the land themselves.
''Gôshi'' thus had more personal, direct power over the peasants of their local area, though many also worked the land themselves.
