I have a short-ish presentation to prepare on the subject, so I'm trying to narrow it down to a few concrete questions to answer. I already have a fair amount of info which seems pretty good on the matter from easily accessible sources (Wikipedia and a couple articles on the subject) but I'd like a couple of solid sources to back it up. Here's the sub-questions I'm trying to answer:
What were class divisions like in the late Edo era, both in terms of formal status and economics?
How clear was the distinction between the samurai and daimyo as classes? It seems like daimyo were pretty well-defined noble families while the samurai class was defined mostly by their service to daimyo and not their own inherent nobility. Is that correct? In popular culture it often seems like daimyo are simply "top-level samurai" rather than a clear distinction between the two.
How did samurai get their revenue, concretely, in the late Edo era? What kind of standards of living did that afford them? (Obviously all samurai didn't have equal access to revenues, so roughly what divisions existed in that regard?)
After the formal abolition of the samurai class, most former samurai were part of the new "shizoku" class. Sometimes I read that the shizoku had virtually no privileges and it was entirely a symbolic distinction, but it seems like they were granted a stipend, later changed to government bonds. Roughly what quality of life did that afford them if they didn't find a job immediately?
Comparatively, what quality of life did the kazoku class enjoy from their titles alone?
What sort of job could the average former samurai expect to have access to? How many of them were forced to become craftsmen or merchants rather than more prestigious or honorable occupations?
Those are some pretty big questions and obviously in the context of a short presentation I'm looking to give short, summarized answers, so I'm perfectly fine with being given short answers as well, or even just pointed to good sources I might have access to.
First up, if you are looking for a good source, look up a Comprehensive history of Japan, it goes into details in this.
Edo society was essentially separated into 2 distinct groups. The First were the commoners, and the Samurai, which had a monopoly on carrying weapons and occupied the positions in the Shogunate's bureaucratic system or served as retainers for more powerful samurai. While all Daimyo are Samurai, the difference is usually that unlike the vast majority of Samurai, Daimyo own lands, rather then just a stipendia of rice. The smallest loan a person would get, and be allowed to call himself a Daimyo was 10.000 Koku. The system that the First Tokugawa implemented essentially remained the same until its fall and the meji restoration. In short, with the final sword hunt, all Samurai were turned into fulltime, hereditary professional soldiers that were not allowed to do anything besides training to fight and occupying certain positions within the Shogunate's bureaucratic system. In return for their service, each Samurai would receive a stipendia of Rice, measured in Koku, which is about the amount of rice 1 person needs to feed itself for a year, (roughly 180 liters). The basic fixed stipendia depended on the position said Samurai had. A Retainer recieved less then a Daimyo, etc. In addition to this, a non regular stipendia was rewarded when samurai performed special duties. The major problem with this system was that during the Edo period, the Stipendia remained the same, while the society became increasingly based on hard currency. The problem was compounded that over time, improved farming techniques made rice less profitable. This had the effect of financially ruining the entire samurai class. The Shogunate attempted to solve this with several edicts returning the shoen (or land that was purchased by commoners) back to the original Samurai owner. However, these measures, along with price controls only worked briefly. For powerful Samurai and Daimyo the resulted in them becoming landlords for lower ranking samurai, while the bottom rung tried to make up its shortfall with the sale of housecrafts like making paper lantarns and umbrellas. Even with those measures, most, if not all Samurai were forced to go deep into debt and selling off their future stipendia in an effort to cross the gap between their first lump pay out and the next.Because of this financial troubles, it wasn't unheard of merchants being wealthier then some of the foremost Daimyo.