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by Paul Hendrik Schmidt-Engelbertz
4/2/2014, Hiroshima
A Comparison of Feudalism in Medieval Japan and the Holy Roman Empire
I. Introduction
“Feudalism is a test through which every nation must pass, if it aspires to become
a well organized body at all.” (An Introduction to the History of Japan) Today, feudalism
is mainly taught and thought of in connection with Medieval Europe. However,
Feudalism did not just appear with the rise of Charlemagne, but instead it had already
been around since 1100 BC in China. Throughout history, feudalism has appeared almost
everywhere, including all over Europe, Japan, India, China, the Ottoman Empire, the
Saracen Empire and even in Mesoamerica and South America prior to the arrival of the
European colonists. This essay will be comparing the feudalism that defined the Holy
Roman Empire from the 8th century all the way to its collapse in 1806, to the feudalism
that shaped Japan’s history since the 13th century. It will cover an introduction to the
ideology of feudalism, the beginnings of feudalism in both countries, their vassal
structures, the relationship between the main religious and the military leaders and the
end of feudalism in both countries. Although Tokyo, former Edo, seat of the shogun since
the 17th century, and current capital of Japan, and Frankfurt, former city of election of
the Holy Roman Emperor, are almost 9500km apart and the periods in which feudalism
appeared in either place varied drastically, the societal structure developed in both places
took a quiet similar form.
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II. Introduction to Feudalism
Feudalism may be regarded as all societies in which higher ranked landowners
lend land to a lower ranked individual, in order for them to become their vassal. As an
example, the king lends the land of his territory to the nobility, the Vassals, who in turn
lends it to their warriors, the minor vassals, who in turn lend it to peasants to work the
land. In return for land and protection, the vassals have certain duties to their lord, for
instance, peasants have to give a big part of their yearly harvest to their landowner as
well as follow their lord into battle. Since vassals are not paid with money, but instead
with a hereditary lone of land, their social status is passed on to their progeny. This
obviously causes very limited social mobility. However, usually with the rise of a money
economy and the rise of independent cities, feudalistic societies begin to crumble.
III. Beginnings of Feudalism
The Holy Roman Empire was officially founded on Christmas 800, when Pope
Leo in Rome crowned Charlemagne emperor. At that point, Charlemagne had already
conquered most of what we now know as France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium,
Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Austria and northern Italy. Since the pope
feared to lose Charlemagne’s protection he crowned him emperor in 800. However, the
founding stone of feudalism in the Holy Roman Empire was already laid 300 years earlier
by Clovis I., the chieftain of the powerful Franks, when he converted to Roman
Catholicism in order to justify his rulership over the territory he ruled upon after his
unification of the tribes in the area that should one day become France. Over the next 200
years, however, ‘France’, as we want to call it for the simplicity’s sake, was ruled by
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several incompetent kings of the Merovingian dynasty that was founded by Clovis. Since
the kings proved incapable of ruling, their ‘mayor domus’, a position that could be
compared to the modern prime minister, usually regulated the kingdom. In the 8th
century, the ‘mayor domus’ name was Charles Martell. Since the Arabs had conquered
all of modern Spain, which they called the emirate of Cordoba, and were now trying to
take over France as well, Charles Martell had to make several reforms in the military. To
strengthen the defense and raise the morality, he established a new system of payment for
the soldiers. Instead of paying them with coins, as it was the custom since the ancient
Roman Empire, he decided to lend the officers that did particularly well in conflicts land,
which they, in turn, would loan to their best soldiers and so forth. Thanks to these
reforms, the French were eventually able to defeat the Arabs at Tours and Poitiers in 732.
When, Pippin I., son of Charles Martell and father of Charlemagne, finally had enough of
the Merovingian dynasty, put the old king in a monastery and became King of the Franks
himself, this new form of payment had already spread in all other social areas as well.
After Charlemagne ‘exported’ these policies in the areas mentioned above, this new
system of mutual loyalty and loaning of fiefs eventually developed into feudalism and its
clear social order.
In Japan, the beginnings of feudalism came about in 1192 when “Yoritomo
became the first shogun, established his bakufu (headquarters) at Kamakura, and
rewarded his retainers with estates strategically located throughout the country. These
fiefs later became the basis of the power of the daimyo.” (Yoritomo) Shoguns were the
military leaders of Japan from 1192, the beginning of Yoritomo’s reign, until 1868, the
end of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Shoguns were named by the emperor. Daimyo’s were
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the local lords of ancient Japan, one of them, usually the most powerful one, being the
Shogun himself. However, although feudalism in Japan itself was first established in
1192, its origins can be traced back to “the early patriarchal system” and show “the
influence of Chinese political theory.” (Japan: A Short Cultural History) Although China
was never in an entirely feudalistic state, the first signs of feudalistic theory in China can
be traced back to 1100 BC, which then, about 2300 years later, showed its influence on
Japan.
While feudalism in the Holy Roman Empire was ‘developed’ by Charles Martell,
Japanese feudalism shows distinct Chinese roots. Additionally, while feudalism had
already existed for several decades, when the Holy Roman Empire was founded in 800,
Japanese feudalism only came about 400 years later in 1192. In both situations, however,
feudalism was not first established by the emperor/king himself but instead by their
representatives, Charles Martell, the ‘mayor domus’, in France, and Yoritomo as the
shogun in Japan. Furthermore, in Japan as well as in the Holy Roman Empire, feudalism
was originally developed as a medium to pay and control the military, which then
eventually spread over to all other areas of society as well.
IV. Feudalist Structure
As already stated, Japan as well as the Holy Roman Empire maintained a
feudalistic social structure for a long time. The basics, which defined both societies as
feudalistic, were the same. Both were based on the loaning of land, also known as fiefs,
in exchange for services and mutual loyalty. In the Holy Roman Empire, these services
ranged from part of the vassal’s own harvest, over the vassal accompanying his lord on
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travels, advising the lord in important matters, to being the lord’s cupbearer at festivals
(Being a cupbearer was actually a very honorable and high position during that time
period since it meant that the lord had enough trust in his vassal not to poison him). This
concept of serving became known as ‘auxilium et consilium’, Latin for ‘help and advice.’
However, “a vassal's chief obligation to his lord was military service. The better service
one could render, the greater the fief one could expect to receive. Feudal society thus
developed, in other words, as a military regime—a society organized for war.” (The
Worlds of Medieval Europe) This also relates back to the fact that feudalism in both the
Holy Roman Empire as well as Japan were originally developed only for the military and
then eventually managed to spread over all other areas of life as well.
In Japan, “The 'daimios' and the 'bushi' or 'samurai' can be compared to vassals,
and land which was granted to them is comparable to the fief.” (Feudalism) The given
services were essentially the same. Next to minor ones, such as accompaniment during
travels, the main duty of a vassal to his lord in medieval Japan was the military service as
well.
“Asakawa Kan’ichi states that in a feudal society ‘the ruling class should exist of
fighting men, each group chained together by links of an exhaustive personal
bond of mutual service – a bond so personal that, in the last analysis, it should
obtain, in each link, between two armed men only, lord and vassal: and so
exhaustively personal that the one should swear to the other fidelity even unto
death.” (Warriors of Japan)
This again shows that feudalism is developed as “a society organized for war.” (The
Worlds of Medieval Europe) Additionally, in both Japan and the Holy Roman Empire,
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these vassals that subsidized as warriors were paid with a loan of land, which they in turn
could loan to their vassals. However, only with the rise of the Tokugawa Shogunate to
power in the 17th century, this practice changed in Japan. Instead of being paid with a
loan of land, Samurais, the warriors of the daimyos, were now generally being paid with
rice, a common system of payment, instead. Additionally, although both societies
promoted loyalty up to death, “It was also common in Japanese feudalism, at least until
1600, for warriors to have more than one lord.” (Warriors of Japan) The same statement
could be made for the Holy Roman Empire. However, in Japan, this also changed with
the rise of the Tokugawa Shogunate:
“The above edict merely forbade a samurai to transfer his services from one chief
to another, and was the legal expression of the feudal principle that a man must be
true to one master, just as a wife must be faithful to one husband, in life and in
death.” (Japan: A Short Cultural History)
This promoted “seppuku”, the common ritual suicide in Japan, since Samurai were
expected to commit suicide after their master had passed away, due to their own dishonor
or the possibility of being captured. Those Samurais without a master were called ‘Ronin’
and it was nearly impossible for them to find a new superior.
Another similarity is the very limited social mobility. In the Holy Roman Empire,
“the bonds that held feudal society together were sacred oaths and sacred oaths could not,
by definition, be altered.” (The Worlds of Medieval Europe) About ninety percent of the
entire medieval population were farmers that were the serfs of their local lord, and
“Serfdom is distinguished from slavery [only] by the body of rights the serfs held
by a custom generally recognized as inviolable, by the strict arrangement that
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made the peasants servile in a group rather than individually, and by the fact that
they could usually pass the right to work their land on to a son.” (serf)
Additionally,
“In general the feudal lord kept a close watch over the movements of his subjects,
and dictated their private arrangements in an astonishing way, not allowing them
to marry, to adopt a child, to employ a servant, or to make a journey, without his
consent.” (serf)
This means that about ninety percent of the entire population of the Holy Roman
Empire lived very similarly to the conditions of a slave. Since all the military power was
centered in the top ten percent and the penalty of betrayal was death, rebellions were
frequent but unsuccessful.
Japan had the same limited social mobility due to the same reason mentioned
above, meaning that the ruling class was the military. Additionally, during the Tokugawa
period from the 17th to the 19th century, defined laws and regulations that prohibited
movement between social classes were established.
“It is dated 1586, and decrees that a samurai may not become a townsman, that a
farmer may not leave his land and work for hire, and that no landowner may give
protection to vagrants and men who do not cultivate the soil.” (Japan: A Short
Cultural History)
However, due the long period of peace as well as the rise of a money economy during the
Tokugawa Shogunate, these structures quickly began to decline.
Another similarity is a further common trait of feudalism: Due to their increased
independence, the local nobility holds the majority of the power. Although the emperor
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or king was technically on top of the social pyramid, he had quite limited power and
abilities since he was entirely dependent on the loyalty of his lords, which all had their
own estates with a private army. This often led to long periods of fighting over the
rulership of the country. In Japan, for instance, “for more than fifty years after the fall of
the Kamakura government the country was torn by the rivalry of great barons, usually
under the mask of wars to decide the imperial succession.” (Japan: A Short Cultural
History) One could even argue that it reached the very extreme in Japan since the empire
was officially ruled by the most powerful landlord, the shogun, while the actual emperor
had virtually no power. “Although theoretically at the apex of feudal power, the medieval
monarchs were in fact weak and dependent upon the nobility for much of their power.”
(monarchy)
Except minor differences, such as the merchants being the very bottom class in
Japanese feudalism, the feudal concept and the similarities that accompany it, such as the
ruling of the land nobility, the limited social mobility as well as being societies organized
for war, remain the same in both places.
V. Relationship between Military and Religious Leaders
Another important aspect that needs to be compared is the relationship between
the religious leader, the pope in the Holy Roman Empire and (for most of the time) the
emperor in Japan, and the military leader, the emperor in the Holy Roman Empire and the
shogun in Japan.
In the Holy Roman Empire, “Strong popes, notably Gregory VII, worked for a
reinvigorated Europe guided by a centralized church, a goal virtually realized under
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Innocent III.” (Middle Ages) Up to the 14th century, the pope generally held the power of
the emperor since he was elected and could only be made legitimate by the pope himself.
This lead to several power struggles between the two, the most famous and longest
between Henry III, the emperor, and Gregory VII, the pope, in the 11th century, when the
pope deposed Henry III in two occasions. A few centuries later, however, in 1356, the
‘Golden Bull’ was written, a document that determined the exact election process for the
emperor and eventually excluded the pope (as well as the Austrians, which then took over
in the late 15th century and made the throne hereditary again). Since then, the pope and
the emperor went separate ways and did not affect each other very much.
In Japan, the shogun, the military leader, ruled over the emperor, the religious
leader, from the beginning of feudalism on all the way to its collapse with the start of the
Meiji Restoration in 1858. Although the shogun had to be named by the emperor, the
emperor was unable to play out his power over the shogun since in Japan the strongest
daimyo was named shogun instead of the lord that would do the least damage to the
power and independence of the local lords, as it became the practice in the Holy Roman
Empire. The term shogun itself is defined by the Columbia Encyclopedia “as the
emperor's military deputy, the actual ruler of Japan.” (Shogun) His position contained so
much power that not even the emperor was able question it. This position got even
stronger with the rise of the Tokugawa Shogunate in the early 17th century.
“Shortly after the battle of Sekigahara (in 1601) he [Tokugawa Ieyasu] obliged
the feudatories to sign a written oath of loyalty, by which they swore to obey all
orders from Yedo, and not to give protection or shelter to the enemies of the
Shōgunate.” (Japan: A Short Cultural History)
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By introducing written oaths/contracts, as had already been the common practice in the
Holy Roman Empire, Tokugawa managed to bind the local lords even closer to him,
which enabled his dynasty to rule for an over 250 years long period of peace.
While the pope, the religious leader, controlled the military leader, the emperor, in
the Holy Roman Empire, the shogun, the military leader, managed to out rule the
emperor, the religious leader, in Japan entirely. The relationship between the military
leader and the religious leader in Japan was therefore the complete opposite to their
relationship in the Holy Roman Empire.
VI. Decline of Feudalism
In both England and France, “there emerged ‘new monarchs’ who broke the
power of the nobility and centralized the state under their own rigid rule.” (Monarchy)
They managed to replace feudalism by a new form of centralized absolutism, in which
the monarch held all the power. Absolutism generally increased social mobility and
decreased the power of the local lords by establishing a new “court-nobility.” In order to
get into positions that would result in power and wealth, the local nobility now had to live
at the court and impress the monarch or high officials. Since these positions at the court
were often open to rich, powerful but non-noble citizens as well, it increased social
mobility and weakened the nobility. Some examples of monarchs that implemented these
policies are Louis XIV of France, also known as the ‘Sun King’, and Henry VII and VII
of England. In the Holy Roman Empire, however, no strong, hereditary dynasty of
monarchs managed to develop since the pope, the religious leader, held most of the
power of the emperor as well as due to the fact that emperors in the Holy Roman Empire
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were elected during most of its existence. This caused the Holy Roman Empire to remain
a feudalistic empire, made up of up to 1,800 semi-sovereign, princely states, until its
dissolution through Napoleon in 1806. From the ashes of the former empire, the
Confederation of the Rhine developed. It was made up of 16 German states and
controlled by the French Empire of Napoleon. The feudalistic structures of the Holy
Roman Empire were replaced by the ‘Code Napoléon’, equality in front of the law,
freedom of thought and religion as well as a new excellent administration. The
Confederation of the Rhine, however, already dissolved seven years later after Napoleon
was defeated in the “Battle of Leipzig’ in 1813.
However, the classic feudalistic structures already started to decline quiet early in
the Holy Roman Empire, though never officially abolished. From the early centuries on,
cities were allowed to become independent and self-governing against a fee to the local
lord. Most local lords were willing to take this deal, in order to provide an agricultural
market for the harvest of their farmers nearby. These, so called, “free cities” were
generally split up in only two separate classes, the families that were allowed to become
members of the city council, also known as the patricians, and the ordinary citizens, who
organized themselves in guilds. This political organization within the cities was very
similar to the structure of the ancient Roman Republic. Additionally, due to the
increasing amount of free cities and markets, the merchants, most of them being
patricians, began to overpower the traditional land nobility. Furthermore, “A money
economy weakened serfdom, and an inquiring spirit stimulated the age of exploration.”
(Middle Ages) Since many serfs were now also able to earn money with their own parts
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of the harvest, they slowly were able to buy land themselves without having to be
allegiant to a lord.
In Japan, Feudalism officially lasted until the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate
with the begin of the Meiji Restoration in 1868, after the United States under the
American Navy Commodore Mathew C. Perry forced Japan in 1854 to end its over 250
years long seclusion and open its harbors to the West. After that, imperial rule was
restored and an area of rapid expansion, industrialization and modernization began.
Although feudalism did not officially collapse until 1868, its structures had already
started to decline in the 17th century. As in the Holy Roman Empire, many merchants,
though being at the very bottom of Japanese social class structure, became very wealthy,
while most samurais and daimyos started to have great debts. Additionally, “There were
guilds of all descriptions in the country as well as at the capital, and it appears that there
was some liaison between guilds of the same trade in different localities. Indeed the za in
Japan and the hanse in Europe show a parallel growth, and the relationships subsisting
between za have been described as a kind of Hanseatic league.” (Japan: A Short Cultural
History) This slowly started to undermine the feudalistic social structure that was
enforced by the Tokugawa Shogunate. However, it was not until the downfall of the
Tokugawa Shogunate in 1868 that those structures fully disappeared and were officially
abolished.
In both the Holy Roman Empire and Japan, feudalism officially ended due to both
an external influence, the invasion of Napoleon Bonaparte and the opening to the West
forced by the United States, as well as internal social change, such as a rising money
economy and the rise of independent cities.
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VII. Conclusion
The different types of feudalism practiced in Japan and the Holy Roman Empire
had several differences, such as their beginnings and the relationship between the
religious and the military leaders. However, their feudalistic structures and decline,
contained major similarities, which defined entire periods. Although Tokyo, current
capital of Japan, and Frankfurt, former city of election of the Holy Roman Emperor, are
almost 9500km apart and the periods in which feudalism appeared in either place varied
drastically, the societal structure developed in both places took a quiet similar shape. The
influence of feudalism can still be seen today in both regions. “As statesmen, soldiers,
and businessmen, former samurai took the lead in building modern Japan.” (Samurai)
Still today, many Japanese follow ‘bushido’, the way of the warrior, in their daily lives
and the remains of medieval etiquette, such as the bowing in front of superiors, as
farmers were required by law to bow for the Samurai during the Tokugawa Shogunate,
can be seen everywhere. For Germany, which was formerly called the Holy Roman
Empire, many argue that the extended period of decentralized feudalism caused the
German liberal and national movements to separate, which many regard as one of the
main causes of both World War I and II, two events that have had an incredible yet
horrible impact on Germany and all of Europe in the past century.
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