Japanese caste system

right|thumb|The mounted archer represented the quintessential samurai. The were members of the professional warrior class in pre-industrial Japan, who served as retainers to the lords. These men came from warrior families and trained from a young age in military arts through private instruction. Swordsmanship, archery, and horsemanship were the primary martial skills; and often in Japanese history, only samurai had the right to even possess these weapons. These weapons required years of training to master, and this commitment made the samurai superior to conscripts and militia, the latter who

thumb|Staged photo by Suzuki Shin'ichi I depicting burakumin leather workers, 1873 Burakumin (, "people of the hamlet/village") are an outcaste group in Japan, residing at the bottom of the traditional Japanese social hierarchy. The burakumin's ancestors were outcastes of the pre-modern era, primarily from the Edo period, who were associated with occupations considered impure or tainted by death, such as executioners, undertakers, slaughterhouse workers, butchers, or tanners. They traditionally lived in their own hamlets and neighbourhoods. Although legally liberated in 1871 with the abolition

is an area in the Taitō and Arakawa wards of Tokyo, located south of the Namidabashi intersection, around the Yoshino-dori. A neighborhood named "San'ya" existed until 1966, but the area was renamed and split between several neighborhoods.

Itinerant groups

The Bemin (部民) was a caste during the Yamato period of ancient Japan. Most of them were farmers, but some had special skills and were known as Shinabe. They paid tribute and performed labor for the powerful families, but unlike servants, they lived a family life. The "bemin system" was a social system in Japan prior to the Taika Reforms. It divided the population into and "", with the bemin being governed by the nobility and the heimin being governed directly by the central government. The bemin were divided into three categories: those governed by the nobility, those governed by the central g