Page:The Awakening of Japan, by Okakura Kakuzō; 1905.djvu/65

 a ronin, and supported himself by teaching. The ronins retained all the rights and privileges of the samurai, while their state of independence gave them an individuality and freedom of thought unknown among their more orthodox brethren. It was through the ronin scholars that the first message of the Restoration was to be announced to the nation.

Fourth in the social scale came the commoners, ranked in the order of farmers, artisans, and traders. As in the case of the rise of European monarchies the populace ever came to the help of the sovereign against the nobles, so in Japan the Tokugawas found in the commoners their best allies against the daimios, and consequently granted them many privileges hitherto unknown. Then life and