Term
| What were the four main themes of Tokugawa Merchant house codes? |
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Definition
- Promotion of diligence/ work ethic
- Frugality
- Absolute obedience to the government/ avoiding becoming entangled in official affairs.
- Protection of the houses reputation.
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Term
| Tougawa Merchant house codes |
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Definition
| Although the merchant class was traditionally of low social status in Japan, their wealth and influence grew steadily witht the stability and peace of the tokugawa era. Previously only military houses had possessed written codes, but beginning in the 17th century (and growing in number since the 18th) the heads of wealthier and longer established merchant houses took to creating their own house codes, lists of instructions intended to help regulate and guide the behavior or their descendants and the ensure the continued prosperity of the family business. |
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Term
| What were the risks of showing wealth as a merchant? |
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Definition
| On occasion the government had confiscated the entirety of a merchant's estate and sent them in to exhile , the given excuse being that they had upset the social order by ostentaious display of wealth. In actuality the merchants so punished tended to be those to whom daimyo were greatly indebted to. |
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Term
What were one of the key things that the house codes promoted?
[merchant codes] |
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Definition
House codes often promoted scrupulus honesty and politeness in all dealings with customers and the careful cultivation of an image of virtue.
However it is known that some merchants would do things such as sell an octopus but remove one of it's legs and sell that seperatly which does not abide fully true ot the honesty promoted in the house codes. |
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Term
| What did the house codes favor? |
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Definition
The codes also favour caution and the guarding of accumulated wealth to entrepreneurial risk taking.
"play not to win, but to avoid losing"
"preserve family tradition"
"do not change the family trade" |
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Term
| What were the Merchants attitudes towards themselves? |
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Definition
| Although they were officially members of the lowest of society's 4 castes (samurai, peasant, artisan, merchant) the codewriters appear to have rarely attempted to justify their supposedly parasitical behavior nor adopted noticeably servile attitudes, suggesting a degree of quiet confidence and/ or a lack or respect for the confucian heirarchy. |
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