The Governmental Hierarchy
- The Empire of Tokugawa Shogunate had Feudalistic form of government
- The Emperors of the Tokugawa Shogunate period in Japan really did not do anything, they were just figureheads for the people to look up to and was relatively powerless.
- The Supreme Military Commander was the Tokugawa Shogun who made all of the important decisions for the empire, but only controlled a small part of Japan. The Shogun distributed lands to vassal lords called Daimyos.
- Below the Shogun were the Daimyos who controlled certain areas of land to be limited form gaining too much power and overthrow the Shogun, and would support the Shogun in a time of need with their armies.
- The Samurai, meaning "those who serve" were the lowest rank in the government and were the fighting aristocracy. For serving they were granted lesser amounts of land from the Daimyos than the higher ranking members. The Samurai were very heavily armed, trained in skills of fighting, and had their own code of values called the Bushido meaning "way of the warrior" which emphasized honor, bravery, and absolute loyalty to their lords.