[applfanboysbgon]

> The samurai class could chop up any commoner at any time, for any reason, or no reason.

This is a pop history misconception. It was always a rare criminal act, and to the extent it did happen, it was specifically more common in the Sengoku era. Article 71 of the Tokugawa Shogunate's 1742 penal code explicitly specifies public execution as the designated penalty for this crime.

[johnea]

> The Kujikata Osadamegaki, promulgated in 1742 under Shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune, embedded hierarchical principles in judicial outcomes by calibrating punishments according to the perpetrator's and victim's social status