European & Japanese Feudal Systems

F.L. Ganshof, in Feudalism, defines the term in general by listing a number of its prominent features:

a development pushed to extremes of . . . personal dependence . . . , with a specialized military class occupying the higher levels in the social scale; an extreme subdivision of the rights of real property; a graded system of rights over land . . . ; and a dispersal of political authority amongst a hierarchy of persons who exercise in their own interest powers normally attributed to the State and which are often

. . . derived from its break-up (Ganshof xix).

In fact, though this study will focus on the differences between European and Japanese feudalism, Ganshof applies this description to both systems and finds that "the parallelism is very close" (Ganshof xx).

The same author offers another description for feudalism: "a body of institutions creating and regulating the obligations of obedience and service---mainly military servic

. . .
t in Harold Bolitho's Treasures Among Men: The Fudai Daimyo in Tokugawa Japan, the advance of the age of feudalism in Japan saw a steady increase in the relative independence of the daimyo from the ruling political class which corresponded to the class of the lords in European feudalism. Bolitho writes first that "Despite the waning of control over the daimyo, the forms of authority remained, and the survival of the . . . sankin kotai attests to . . . feudal cohesion, despite all other evidence of fragmentation" (Bolitho 21). This is saying only that the "forms" persisted, not that the power was exercised or that the ruling class was able to exercise it. In fact, as Bolitho goes on to say, this persistent "form" of authority "must not distract us from recognizing that other centralized powers of the Bakufu were to be diminished to a greater or lesser degree as the Edo period progressed." In Japanese feudalism, the power held by the class corresponding to the lords of Europe, "although seemingly awesome enough . . . were only pieces of paper" (Bolitho 21-22). In History and Life, by T. Walter Wallbank, et al., once again we read first of the similarities between the two feudal systems: In 1156 outright civil war burst out bet
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
European Japanese, Unlike European, Obviously Japanese, Tokugawa Japan, Ganshof Feudalism, Ages Europe, Oda Nobunaga, Walter Wallbank, Europe Japanese, Ancient Capital, samurai class, european feudalism, et al, feudal system, japanese feudalism, loyalty samurai, feudal systems, samurai class japan, land power, power individuals, power shoguns, wallbank et al,
Approximate Word count = 1515
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)