Quoting from Confucius’s The Analects

Confucius influenced the development of Japan in many ways, namely in the structure of Japan s early political system and in the idea of ie, or house. Ie became the foundation of Tokugawa Japan s social organization. In Tokugawa Japan, the house, another name for family, formed the smallest economic, political, and spiritual unit. To keep the organization simple: samurai families stood at the top,…