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The hereditary stipends provided to the samurai by their formal feudal lords (and assumed by the central government in 1871) were likewise abolished in 1873. The prohibition on wearing swords was controversial with the Meiji oligarchy but the argument, that it was an anachronism not in keeping with the westernization of Japan, won out. [2]
A samurai in his armour in the 1860s. Hand-colored photograph by Felice Beato. Samurai or bushi (武士, [bɯ.ɕi]) were members of the warrior class in Japan.They were originally provincial warriors who served the Kuge and imperial court in the late 12th century.
Furthermore, hereditary stipends to their samurai retainers were paid out of the prefectural office by the central government, and not directly by the governor, a move calculated to further weaken the traditional feudal ties. The term daimyō was abolished in July 1869 as well, with the formation of the kazoku peerage system.
The actual ruling class were Japanese military figures: the shōgun (military dictator), daimyo (feudal lords) and the samurai (military nobility and officers). [192] The samurai were idolized and their conduct was role model behavior for other social classes. This resulted in Japanese culture to have a long militaristic heritage.
Throughout Japan at the time, the samurai numbered 1.9 million. For comparison, this was more than 10 times the size of the French privileged class before the 1789 French Revolution. Moreover, the samurai in Japan were not merely the lords, but also their higher retainers—people who actually worked.
In 1871, extensive reforms were passed and executed, abolishing the han system and thus ending feudalism and the class system. In 1876, samurai were banned from carrying daishō. Peasants and townspeople were banned from carrying wakizashi. A standing army was created, as was a police force.
Bakumatsu (幕末, ' End of the bakufu ') were the final years of the Edo period when the Tokugawa shogunate ended.Between 1853 and 1867, under foreign diplomatic and military pressure, Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy known as sakoku and changed from a feudal Tokugawa shogunate to the modern empire of the Meiji government.
The Shizoku were abolished in the revised civil code in 1947 after the Japanese defeat ... Harootunian, Harry D. (1959). "The Progress of Japan and the Samurai Class ...