

While the system of feudalism appears similar in Europe and Japan, the rugged terrain of Japan further weakened the control of the emperor of Japan than the Monarchs in Europe.What is the difference between Feudal Japan and Feudal Europe? Daimyos gave away rights of lands to Samurai, who were Japanese warriors and got the land cultivated with the help of peasants or serfs. Just as in Europe, Shogun distributed land at his disposal to vassals that were referred to as daimyo. The emperor was at the top of the hierarchy though it was Shogun who held the real power. Like Europe, there was a vertical division of society with an established hierarchy.

This feudalism had nothing to do with the rise of feudalism in Europe that originated much earlier in 9th century. It was mainly characterized by a system of land ownership.įeudalism in Japan arose in the 12th century and continued till 19th century. The feudal system in Europe had little scope for social advancement. These nobles provided protection to the serfs who were allowed to keep part of the produce for their living.
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This political and social hierarchical system was called feudalism that was based upon the principle of exchange where the monarch gave honorary titles and piece of lands to the nobles who in turn made use of the manual labour of the serfs to get the land cultivated. Powerful lords divided the land at their disposal into smaller pieces to hand over to less powerful lords who further handed their portions to knights.The knights made use of peasants to get the land cultivated and gave them protection and also a part of the agricultural produce. Kings gave large tracts of lands to these lords who provided military service to the monarch. Whether we read development of societies by Karl Marx or talk about feudalism in general, most of us believe that the roots of feudalism lie in medieval Europe where countries ruled by weak kings at centers led to the development of powerful local lords. These differences will be highlighted in this article. Despite a social hierarchy and a pyramid-like structure, the feudalism in Europe had many differences with the one in Japan. However, a similar political and social system developed a little later in Japan though there was no direct contact between Europe and Japan. The conditions for feudalism were ripe with weak monarchs at centers in most of the European nations. Feudalism is believed to have originated in Medieval Europe and is believed to be a direct result of the weakening of the Roman Empire. There is a huge interest in finding the difference between feudal Japan and feudal Europe because of the appearing similarity between both.
