nonsamurai

Nonsamurai is a term used in English-language scholarship to refer to individuals who did not belong to the samurai warrior class in feudal and early modern Japan. It encompasses all groups outside the samurai, including peasants, artisans, merchants, and other non-samurai communities, as well as those outside the formal four-class system such as certain outcast groups.

In the Edo period (1603–1868), Japanese society was organized around a four-tier hierarchy known as shinōkōshō: samurai, farmers, artisans, and merchants. Nonsamurai thus included the vast majority of the population. The samurai enjoyed hereditary status and privileges, while nonsamurai were subject to different duties and restrictions, such as land taxes, urban regulations, and limits on weapon possession. Although social mobility existed in limited forms—through marriage, adoption, or economic influence in towns—the samurai class remained distinct in law and custom.

The Meiji Restoration and subsequent reforms radically altered the distinction. The formal caste system was dismantled, samurai privileges were repealed, and a modern, centralized state with universal conscription emerged. The concept of being outside the samurai class shifted as Japan moved toward industrialization and Western-style institutions. Today, nonsamurai primarily appears in historical discussions to describe the non-warrior portions of premodern Japanese society, rather than as a contemporary identity.