Chōnin

Chōnin (町人, "townsman") was a social class that emerged in Japan during the early years of the Tokugawa period.

[2] While chōnin are not as well known to non-Japanese as other social classes in Japan, they played a key role in the development of Japanese cultural products such as ukiyo-e, rakugo, and handicrafts.

[5] Low-ranking samurai (kachi) could change jobs and move into the lower classes, such as chōnin.

[6] By the late 17th century the prosperity and growth of Edo had begun to produce unforeseen changes in the Tokugawa social order.

The chōnin, who were theoretically at the bottom of the Edo hierarchy (shinōkōshō, samurai-farmers-craftsmen-merchants, with chōnin encompassing the two latter groups), flourished socially and economically at the expense of the daimyōs and samurai, who were eager to trade rice (the principal source of domainal income) for cash and consumer goods.