I am trying to learn about Japan’s transition from the feudal era to the modern. I understand that noble families organized themselves into clans. (1) Does the clan system still exist in modern Japan? (2) If so, what does this mean to the average Japanese? (3) If not, at what point did clans fall out of use?
We don’t do homework.
The BBC recently had an article on modern day treatment of the burakumin. That would be a good place to start in answering the first part of your question, which does indeed sound suspiciously like a homework assignment.
There are enough japanophiles out there that I don’t see the urgency for jumping to “We’re not doing your homework for you”-type replies.
OP, I’m reasonably sure the average Japanese think about as much of their clan as the average Scot does (i.e. not much at all), but some sense of “old money” vs “new money” doubtless still exists. Here’s a reddit thread on the topic.
Also anyone in a business that needs a logo might keep the clan mon in mind when designing it.
That explains our grades.
If you must know, I’m writing fiction and I thought I would have a better chance of finding a SME here than on Nanowrimo.
I thought I would have a better chance of getting a complete answer if I wrote my question in a complete and cogent format. What is the standard for writing a question so that I don’t get accused of asking for homework help?
Okay, so let me try again:
Hey bitches wassup I got a question about Japanese clans because I like ninjas and shit so if you can tell me if they still do that or what it would be cool pps not homework peace out
Is that better?
Moderator Note
usedtobe, please don’t junior mod. If you think there is a problem with the question then report it.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
(1) Does the clan system still exist in modern Japan?
Yes and no.
Formally, no, absolutely not, no sirree.
But informally, many of the old warrior caste families shifted into either professional politics or big commerce & industry so in practice the old elite is still fairly elite today (since the new system allows for more social mobility however, I expect they’re less and less represented, proportionally speaking).
Also, I’m not sure how true it is today, but for a long while after the reform of the caste system people still introduced themselves as “former samurai” or “descendant of a samurai family” to establish a social hierarchy. Even though that hierarchy had officially been abolished.
Furthermore, the descendants of the lowest feudal caste (the burakumin, Japan’s “untouchables”) as well as the people who today perform jobs that used to be reserved to that caste still face non-negligible social discrimination today. But hey, they’re not alone : so do the descendants of the people who got nuked !
(3) If not, at what point did clans fall out of use?
Officially, in the 19th century. Google/Wiki the Meiji Restoration and you should get the gist of it.
But to TL;DR it : Americans forced the country to open up to foreign trade & presence via gunboat diplomacy (the country had officially been closed off since the end of the Sengoku Jidai in the 17th century), bright thinkers in Japan collectively realized that they had to centralize and modernize pronto if they wanted to stay relevant on the world stage (or just not get pushed around by asshole gaijin with big guns). Cue revolution and civil war between the progressives and the conservatives/reactionaries.
The progressives won.
Then the new Meiji government dismantled the feudal provinces, took away all administrative power from the local daimyos (to give it back to the Emperor and his government) and redrew the entire map of Japan, doing their level best to break up old power centres.
As well, they abolished the more social aspect of the feudal system : they abolished the rigid caste system, forbade everybody from wearing swords or the distinctive hairdo of the samurai, did away with all previous titles of nobility (replacing them with new ones) and basically tried to erase any collective symbol that could be used to identify and unify the old guard against the new.
From 1947 onwards the American administration also tried to further break the hold the “old guard” had on the country as part of their comprehensive “let’s rebuild Japan into not_genocidal_fuckwads” project, but I don’t really know how much of an effect that had in practice. Not the least because that project was soon put on indefinite hold by the nascent Cold War.