During the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was character ...

Japanese history The first human inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago have been traced to prehistoric times around 30,000 BC. The Jōmon period, named after its cord-marked pottery, was followed by the Yayoi period in the first millennium BC when new inventi ...

, were self-governing administrative units, led by the .

Description

The development of mura reflected specific changes that show the transition of the Edo community from medieval agricultural to mature administrative unit. Before the Edo period,

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They ...

administered the villages, but during the

sword hunt Several times in Japanese history, the new ruler sought to ensure his position by calling a . Armies would scour the entire country, confiscating the weapons of all potential enemies of the new regime. In this manner, the new ruler sought to ensure ...

they were put to a choice: give up their sword and status and remain on the land as a peasant, or live in a as a paid retainer of the local ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and nominall ...

'' (lord). Villages were also manufacturing units: In western Japan,

cottage industries The putting-out system is a means of subcontracting work. Historically, it was also known as the workshop system and the domestic system. In putting-out, work is contracted by a central agent to subcontractors who complete the project via remote ...

developed, with each family of the village taking over a one step of the production process. Villages were taxed as a unit, with the village headman responsible for taxation. Taxes were paid in rice, often 40 to 50% of the harvest. Criminal punishments could also be imposed on the village as a unit. Prior to the emergence of religious authorities such as the

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

establishment, ''mura'' - along with the family ('' ie'') - helped establish Japanese cultural practices such as ancestral veneration and funerary rites. Some of the villages served as enclaves or base-villages for the ''

miko A , or shrine maiden,Groemer, 28. is a young priestess who works at a Shinto shrine. were once likely seen as shamans,Picken, 140. but are understood in modern Japanese culture to be an institutionalized role in daily life, trained to perfor ...

'' or female shamans.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Edo Period Village Edo period Villages in Japan Economy of feudal Japan