Samurai

The role of the samurai changed over time. In the medieval period, warriors were closely associated with military service, landholding, lord-vassal ties, and local authority. Under the Tokugawa shogunate, prolonged peace and domain government transformed the warrior estate into a hereditary status and administrative class. Many samurai served as officials, police, teachers, or domain administrators while retaining privileges such as stipends, status distinction, access to office, and the right to bear arms. After the Meiji Restoration, the abolition of the domains, conscription, the commutation and abolition of hereditary stipends, and the removal of privileges such as sword-wearing dismantled the institutional basis of samurai status; former samurai feudal lords were reorganized as kazoku (nobility) along with court nobles, while most former warriors became shizoku. These classes remained legally recognized until 1947; in the 1918 census, kazoku and shizoku accounted for approximately 0.01% and 4.06% of the population, respectively.