Compare and Contrast Essay on Feudal Japan and Feudal Europe

           The feudal societies of Europe and Japan are geographically separated by a great distance, however they both developed the system of feudalism. Suggesting at length that the development of feudalism, when triggered by key components, is human nature. The social systems in both Feudal Japan and Feudal Europe were militaristic hierarchies, however there were some differences in the ideals of their composition. The Economic systems of Feudal Japan and Feudal Europe were both based on agricultural systems, however the structures of these systems were some times composed of different elements. The composition of the feudal systems in Japan and Europe, is affecting the world today. Because the merchant class in Feudal Japan was so low on the social scale it led to a deprivation on their part. As trade in Europe and Mainland Asia flourished the European states gained power and money, leaving Japan in the dust. It took many years for Japan to catch up with Europe, as Europe of then housed the strong powers of the world.

        

The social systems of both Feudal Japan and Feudal Europe were regionalized, militaristic hierarchies. In these social systems the higher officials offered land, money, or protection in turn for the land holders loyalty, militaristic power, or a portion of their produce. The peasants or vassals would give their knight/samurai  or lord their loyalty and a portion of their crop in return for protection and a small piece of land. The knights in turn would receive their land from their lord in return for loyalty. This quid pro quo process also proceeded through the higher rankings of, lords/daimyos, and the emperors/kings/shoguns. Both of these society's had 'warrior' codes that depicted the way that they acted in public and among women. These "warrior" codes ( The Code of Chivalry, and the Code of Bushido) asked the knights and higher officials of these social systems to have carefully controlled polite behavior. Each small fiefdom was a part of a bigger fiefdom that was generally part of a larger fiefdom that gave it's loyalty to the king. Therefore each little fiefdom was like a little regional kingdom under a larger kingdoms control. Life in the lower halves of these fiefdoms was not always easy. The serfs, vassals, and peasants who worked here had to produce food not only for themselves, but for their lord too. Women in the lower classes had more important positions in the families because their work was needed to keep the household running, women's work in the upper classes was often not needed and this led to a decline in their position.

However these Feudal societies both expressed some major differences. One of these was in the education of women. Women in feudal Europe were looked down upon, they were often seen as possessions and were married to strangers so that their kingdom, fiefdom, or family, could have ties with another. Noble women in Japan were well educated in literature and the arts. This gave them more cultural equality and greater influence. Another difference between these two societies was the position of merchants. In Europe merchants flourished. They experienced freedoms that the serfs and vassals could not and often found themselves wealthy. Because of the formation of the artisan guilds, prices were often fair allowing trade to grow rapidly. In Japan merchants were lower than even the serfs. They were thought of as lying cheats and generally received very little business. In Europe the Hierarchical system was very complex, most major positions were divided into smaller hierarchies. For example their were many different levels of lordship, their were the barons, the middle lords, and the higher lords. Their level of lordship generally depended on the amount of land, power, and money they had. There were also different levels of knight hood, the squires, the pages, and the knights. Europe even had a hierarchical system in their church, the pope being the leader of the church, with the the bishops, priests, and preachers falling in step behind him. Japan had a very simple Hierarchical system, with every thing basically appearing the way that it truly was, the peasants answering to the samurai, the samurai answering to the daimyos, and the daimyos answering to the shogun.

        

The economic systems of both feudal Japan and Feudal Europe were both agriculturally based. This was because of the when Lords received their land and wished to make it a fiefdom they often cultivated it. This way they could earn money off of their serfs produce and have to work very little, which was of course ideal. They could also increase their power by breaking off some of their land and giving it to lesser lords, even though they had less land to make money off of, they had the lesser lords loyalty and power under their control. Because this system was often very regionalized, the crop production in a region had much to do with the economic welfare of that region. Regions that had healthy and plentiful produce often were well off economically, whereas regions who had poor unhealthy produce often were not so well off. The condition and amount of the crop produced also had a large affect on the life of the serfs and vassals. If the crop was plentiful, they would give the requested amount to their lord and then keep the rest for themselves. This allowed them to eat more, to sell what they didn't need and make some money, which would possibly allow them to advance the technology of their tools. The serfs and vassals who didn't have a good crop production, often suffered from hunger, had very little possessions, and had to work extra hard to keep their lords happy.

        

However the economic systems of both Feudal Japan and Feudal Europe had some large differences. One of these was in their agricultural technology. Until the ninth century most of the plows  in Feudal Europe were copied from Mediterranean models, this meant that they were light, and not  made for the heavier soils of Western Europe. The vassals and serfs of feudal Europe also used a system of field rotation called the Three-field system. In this system they would leave a third of their field uncultivated so that it could regain fertility. Where as in Japan they had proper plows and often did not have to worry about the fertility of their soil. A large influencing factor in the economies of Feudal Japan and Feudal Europe was the placement of their merchant class. In Europe the merchants made a middle class, they had more freedoms than the serfs and vassals, and earned their respect among the people with which they traded. Because the merchant class was supported it caused a flourishing of trade which gave a boost to the feudalistic European economy. In Japan merchants were the lowest position in the hierarchical system. They were heavily looked down upon, and thought of as lying and deceitful.

       

The social and economic systems of Feudal Japan and Feudal Europe were both composed by very similar ideas, however in some instances the elements of these systems were contrasting. Both Feudal Japan and Feudal Europe had social systems that were composed of regionalized militaristic hierarchies, even though the major composition of these social systems were different. These differences included the position of merchants and the complexity of their social hierarchy. Both of the economic systems of Feudal Japan and Feudal Europe were agriculturally based, but the agricultural technology and the position of merchants in these societies changed their economic position. It therefore can be concluded that even though Feudal Europe and Feudal Japan had distinct differences in some elements of their economic and social systems, they were both composed of and based on very similar ideals.