Samurai Ranks and Residences around Kaga Castle 加賀城下町の侍の階級と住居

Official explanation

In this hub of the Kaga domain (feudal-era Ishikawa Prefecture, centered on Kanazawa), samurai retainers were allotted land for their residences appropriate to their stipend, which was determined according to rank. Residential areas around the castle were divided and redistributed several times in the early years of the Edo period (1603–1867), but after 1659 there were no further major changes. In principle, the higher a samurai's rank, the closer his residence was to the castle and the larger the residential site assigned to him. Lower-ranking samurai were placed further out and allocated less land. This was both a political and strategic arrangement that kept high-ranking samurai close and made attacking the town from outside more difficult.

In Kanazawa, the area inhabited by samurai made up nearly seventy percent of the town. This included the castle, domain facilities, samurai residences, and accommodation for ashigaru (foot soldiers). Samurai of middle rank (heishi) were especially numerous and occupied roughly 25 percent of this land. It is thought that a high proportion of heishi was one reason that Nagamachi, in which many heishi lived, never suffered serious fire damage. The land they occupied was roughly seven times the area allotted to common townsfolk, and these expansive grounds were connected by gardens interspersed with water channels. Thus, fire could not spread as quickly as in areas with the higher densities more typical of the Edo period.

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Ashigaru, the lowest-ranking samurai class, lived in designated wards called kumichi in various parts of the city. Unlike those in other domains, Kaga’s ashigaru were given detached residences, which—on top of plentiful business opportunities—is thought to have made the domain attractive to many ashigaru.

出典: 地域観光資源の多言語解説文データベース（観光庁） — www.mlit.go.jp/tagengo-db. この英語解説文は観光庁の地域観光資源の多言語解説整備支援事業で作成しました。
Source: Japan Tourism Agency, Multilingual Explanation Database. This English text was produced by the Japan Tourism Agency's multilingual explanation project and is shown unedited. Opening hours and services may have changed since it was written.