ABSTRACT
During the Tokugawa era, the shogunal government used legal and economic means to grimly maintain a large laboring class and a tiny connoisseur class. Beginning with the
1591 Edict Restricting Change of Status, social classes were prescribed and hermetic, with very limited opportunities for moving between ranks. Society broke down into nobility, warrior, merchant, artisan and peasant classes. Custom and regulation tied families, except for the warrior class, to their communities. Yoked by inflexible circumstances to both location and work, artisans were generally not well compensated. Since trades were hereditary and families poor, there was also a strong incentive to begin learning crafts at a young age. Even so, apprentices spent the initial years of formal preparation in mundane chores, and when training commenced, it was rudimentary. Apprenticeship conventionally took ten years or more. The apprentice learned by stealthy observation over time. This ultimately encouraged an ability to independently innovate, as proficiency advanced through trial and error.
