> Starting in 1603, which country experienced the Edo period, during whichcitizens were labeled either as a warrior, farmer, artisan, or merchant?And the answer: Japan. Photo courtesy: Cowardlion/Dreamstime.comAlso known as the Tokugawa period, theEdo period lasted between 1603 and 1867 and represents the final era oftraditional Japan. Following a century of warfare, this new era aimed forstabilization through a military dictatorship, establishing a feudal society andfour social classes for its citizens.Like many other social realities at that time, the Tokugawa family instated anintensely rigid social structure. As part of the systematic plan to maintainstability, the social order was officially frozen, and mobility between the fourclasses (warriors, farmers, artisans, and merchants) was prohibited. Even thoughthe emperor was at the top of the hierarchy, the shogun had the effective power,which made him the actual head of the state. Below him ranked the daimyo, whoensured the control of the regions that Japan was divided into, collecting taxesand ruling over local samurai. It was in this period of Japanese history thatthe samurai as a class began its steady decline. Thanks to the relativestability and peace of the Edo period, there was less use for the samurai’sinfluence, and many began to drop the code to join the ranks of the commoners orjoined the palaces as bureaucrats. At the bottom of the social hierarchy ranked merchants, peasants and artisans,who were free of any moral code or judgement and could spend their free timeindulging in amusements such as gambling. As the economic interests of thedaimyo moved into centralized locations, however, artisans and merchantsfollowed them to begin to create what we now can identify as modernmetropolises. Edo transformed from a town of a few thousand to a booming citycenter of over 400,000 in only a number of years. Did you know?During the Edo period, trade with other nations was highly limited. Tokugawa'sconcern for political stability came with a fear of foreign ideas and militaryintervention, leading to Japan’s isolationist policies. From 1633 on to the endof the Edo period, Japanese subjects were forbidden to travel abroad or toreturn from overseas, and foreign contact was limited to a few Chinese and Dutchmerchants still allowed to trade through the southern port of Nagasaki.