Every Samurai Rank Explained

You are holding one bag of rice. It is heavy, it smells like damp straw, and it has to feed you until next autumn. Samurai rank was not a title. It was a number: how many bags of rice a man got every year. In this video we climb the whole ladder, from the foot soldier with one bag to the shogun at the top, and see what each rank really meant: what you ate, what you owed, and who could take it all away. Chapters: 0:00 The Bag 1:44 Step 1: The Foot Soldier 3:41 Step 2: The Shogun's Lowest Man 5:42 Step 3: The Lord's Retainer 7:51 Step 4: Under the Banner 9:56 Step 5: The House Elder 11:49 The Morning the Rice Stops 14:11 Step 6: The Lord 16:04 Step 7: The Shogun 17:50 The Whole Ladder If you enjoyed the climb, subscribe for a new story from old Japan every week. #samurai #japan #history