The Tokugawa shogunate institutionalized a rice-based economy where samurai received stipends measured in koku of rice rather than cash, tying warrior status to agricultural surplus. This system created chronic liquidity problems as samurai were forced to sell rice to merchants for cash, gradually transferring wealth from the military elite to urban commercial classes. The tension between nominal status and actual purchasing power defined Edo-period social dynamics.

Haikai poets like Bashō and Issa often came from impoverished samurai backgrounds, and their verses reflect the dissonance between inherited prestige and material precarity. Kyōka and senryū genres flourished among merchants who used witty verse to critique samurai poverty and celebrate commercial pragmatism. The rice economy's contradictions generated rich satirical traditions that questioned the relationship between social rank and economic reality.