ABSTRACT
In the hierarchic Tokugawa society, the privileged class was the samurai, the governing class. The peasantry theoretically ranked next to the samurai in the social hierarchy, but in reality their status was lower than that of the townspeople. The third and fourth classes in the social hierarchy were the artisans and the merchants collectively called chonin. Later in the Tokugawa era, as regional specialties were developed, a large number of wholesale merchants and shippers dealing in interhan trade grew in importance and wealth. Regarding the role and status of women, the long Tokugawa era was very different in practice than it appeared to be if one considered only what the founders of the Bakufu intended. Justice in Tokugawa Japan was administered according to "rule by status", in which discretionary powers were held by superiors within a multistatus social structure.
