Feudalism in Japan?

Technically, feudalism implies a series of vertical relationships,
where one is connected ONLY with the ones directly above and below.
Thus, I believe in Japan we can talk about feudalism perhaps only in
the Tokugawa era. The whole Kamakura-Muromachi period was in fact a
continuous attempt from every part to "cut the middle man."

The ***idealized*** structure should have been something like:
emperor/court - shogun - daimyo - kokujin - dosô - peasants. As a
matter of fact, each party tried to do whatever possible for its own
convenience.

Considering the convulsion of the period, and the fact that there is no
accepted theory on KK-MM institutional history, I would stay away from
it. Tokugawa period seems much more approachable, because of the
Confucian ideology layer, and the police-state that managed more or
less to control people at least fro two centuries.

cepo

Hi Cepo -

Was this not because feudalism found its structure in the late
Sengoku - and that structure was the Edojidai - or rather
'Takugawanism'? Until then we see a constant striving towards
that 'ideal' interruptd by the incursions of one's neighbours, but it
was there.

Tokugawa feudalism was not a product of Ieyasu, it was an
incipient feudalism instituted on a national scale; both Hideyoshi
and Nobunaga were working towards that end with themselves
at the top of the tree - and every daimyo instituted and
maintained a feudal regime as much as he was able.

Thomas