Economics of feudal Japan

In Feudal Japan between 1185 CE and 1868 CE , vassals offered their loyalty and services (military or other) to a landlord in exchange for access to a portion of land and its harvest. In such a system, political power is diverted from a central monarch and control is divided up amongst wealthy landowners and warlords. The initial widespread practice of feudalism in Japan coincided with the instatement of the first shogun, Minamoto no Yoritomo, who acted as the de facto ruler of Japan over the Japanese Emperor. At the same time, the warrior class (samurai) gained political power that previously belonged to the aristocratic nobility (kuge). The shogunates distributed estates (shoen) to loyal subjects, the most powerful of whom became daimyo, or governors of vast land masses who often had private armies.

Unlike in Medieval European feudalism, the supervisors of the land, known as jitos (stewards) and shugos (constables), did not initially own the land themselves, which remained under the shogunate's control. The daimyo used a portion of their income from taxation of peasants to pay the samurai, usually in rice. Over time, however, the most powerful jito and shugo (daimyo) began challenging the authority of the shogun, eventually leading to the collapse of the feudal system in the 19th century.