Life in Tokugawa Japan was strictly hierarchical with the population
divided among four distinct classes:
samurai, farmers, craftspeople, and traders.
Prior to the Tokugawa period there was some movement among these classes,
but the Tokugawa shoguns, intent upon maintaining their power and privilege,
restricted this movement. In particular they tried to protect the samurai,
making upward mobility from the farming class to the samurai impossible.
The shogun Hideyoshi decreed in 1586 that farmers must stay on their land.
In 1587 he decreed that only samurai would be allowed to carry the long sword,
which would later define them as a class.
As economic conditions changed, the shoguns were less successful,
however, in maintaining the rigid boundaries separating the other classes.
