Laurie had just gotten home from school when Grandpa appeared, holding a tray of tea and cookies.
"Welcome home, Laurie! You're just the girl I'm looking for.
May I invite you to the study for a snack?"
"Okay . . ." Laurie answered with a suspicious smile. What was Grandpa up to now?
"How do Japanese cookies and tea sound?" Grandpa asked, grinning.
"Good."
"Please follow me." Grandpa led the way upstairs and into the study.
"Whoa! What's all this?" Laurie exclaimed. On the floor was a large, colorful map.
Small buildings, ships, bridges, and figurines were scattered around it.
"I need to attach all these bits and pieces to this map . . . by tomorrow! Can you help me?"
"Sure!" Laurie replied. "What's it for?"
"I'm presenting a unit at the high school on the social order of Japan during the Tokugawa period—
from 1600 to 1867—when Japan was ruled by the powerful Tokugawa family.
I'm going to use this map of Japan to show where things took place."
Grandpa picked up a small wooden bridge.
"For example, we'll use this to mark the capital, Edo, which is now called Tokyo.
Edo was a busy place; merchants, craftsmen, and lots of samurai crossed over this bridge.
So we'll need to put those figures around here."
"Samurai were warriors," Laurie stated. "Why were there so many of them?"
"Because the shogun—the top leader in Japan at the time—lived in Edo.
He was a warlord who held even more power than the emperor.
This is his castle, actually," Grandpa said, picking up a castle replica.
"The shogun required that samurai lords from all across Japan live in Edo for part of every year.
That was his way of keeping an eye on them."
"This is a samurai, right?" Laurie asked.
She held up a man carrying a sword.
"Yep. Samurai could easily be recognized by their armor, swords, and hairstyles.
This one was probably a middle-ranking samurai.
He would have been employed by one of the samurai lords, who were landowners.
For centuries there was no central government to keep Japan stable.
So there were constant civil wars between lords to expand their land and power.
Samurai were not only highly respected, they were considered necessary!
The warrior samurai and their lords made up the highest social class in Japan back then."
Laurie picked up a figure of a skinny man wearing a triangular straw hat. "Where does this one go?"
"He's a rice farmer. We'll put him in the farmlands surrounding Edo.
Farmers were in the next highest class.
They were important because they took care of the crops that fed the nation.
Rice was, and still is, the main food eaten by the Japanese.
During the Tokugawa period, rice was so valuable that it was used to pay rent!
"This is a craftsman. Since he's holding this small bowl, he probably makes lacquerware."
Grandpa pointed to the tray he had brought up with the tea and cookies.
"This is Japanese lacquerware. The Japanese carved items out of wood and then coated them with a shiny gloss.
They perfected this art on their bowls and boxes and things.
Anyway, this craftsman would be in the third social class, along with weavers, sword makers, and carpenters . . .
That guy you're holding would probably fit into the last class."
"It looks like he's carrying lots of stuff," Laurie said.
"He's a merchant. In ancient and medieval Japan, merchants were at the bottom of the social hierarchy.
In a culture that valued hard work, making money off someone else's labor wasn't as respectable as doing the labor yourself.
But people began realizing that merchants were a key part of the economy, and merchants' value grew.
Without them, cities might not have developed so quickly."
Laurie nodded as she added a cherry tree near the shogun's castle.
"This medieval Japanese society had a rigid class system, but it was also peaceful.
The civil wars ended when the Tokugawa family claimed control over all the other warlords.
Big cities developed and prospered; universities were built for high-ranking samurai;
and arts like poetry, literature, painting, and lacquerware expressed Japanese culture.
The Tokugawa shogun thought the best way to preserve this peace and stability was to close Japan off from other countries,
particularly Western countries, which had a history of creating Christian empires and trading colonies.
So foreigners weren't usually allowed in Japan."
"Then who's this guy? He doesn't look Japanese!"
Laurie exclaimed, picking up a white man dressed in a military uniform.
"Ha! You found him! That's Commodore Perry," Grandpa said.
"Despite Japan's wishes, the United States really wanted Japan to open its ports to their traders and sailors.
In 1853 they sent Perry over with four armed, black naval ships.
They warned the Japanese that if ports weren't opened, they would fire!"
"What did the Japanese do then?"
"Intimidated by the guns and steamships—which were new to the Japanese—they signed an agreement with the U.S. After that things changed rapidly.
In 1867 the shogun resigned, and the emperor suddenly died.
Then a young emperor called Meiji came to power.
Emperor Meiji realized that if Japan wanted to keep itself safe in the modern world, it would need Western technology.
So the Japanese imported ideas about education, politics, and science from the United States and Europe.
But this map only covers the Tokugawa era.
What do you say—are we finished?"
Laurie scanned the map, now speckled with people and buildings. "I think so," she replied.
"Tokugawa Japan looks like it might have been an interesting place to visit . . . except I wouldn't have been allowed to enter the country!"
Grandpa chuckled. "You're absolutely right. Well, thank you, Laurie.
I couldn't have done it without you.
Now how about our snack?" he said.
"In Japan, before you begin eating, you say itadakimasu!
So on the count of three, ready? One, two, three—"
"Itadakimasu!" they both cried and reached for their cookies.