The Tokugawa status order was founded on the idea of service. The samurai served the realm by providing good government and the moral and ethical example necessary to good government; farmers by growing the food necessary to life, etc. Merchants, too, developed an ethic of service, frequently captured in codes or instructions meant to guide the members of a merchant household. One early example of such a code, for the Shimai family, is attached.
Write on: How do the ideas expressed in that code compare with the stories Saikaku tells about merchants?
What commentary does Saikaku offer on the place that merchants established in the Edo social system?
Please include an intro (with thesis), Body Paragraph (include quotes from attached readings), and conclusion.
