The cities independence and their direct relationship with the emperor, which was designed to liberate them from the cupidity of lords and princes closer to home, was implicitly under threat.
The hereditary stipends provided to the "samurai" by their formal feudal lords (and assumed by the central government in 1871) were likewise abolished in 1873.
Often, eminent lords and knights at their decease would leave articles of their finery to their servants -- much of it unseemly for servingmen and women to wear.
