What is "shizoku"

Shizoku \Shi*zo"ku\, n. sing. & pl. [Jap. shi-zoku, fr. Chin. ch' (chi) branch, posterity + tsu kindered, class.] The Japanese warrior gentry or middle class, formerly called samurai; also, any member of this class.

The was a social class merged with former Samurai on 25 July 1869, as part of the Meiji Restoration. It was a class distinct from the Kazoku (a merger the former Kuge and Daimyo classes), and heimin (commoners). Shizokus had no special privileges, so the title of Shizoku was solely on the register. After the Empire of Japan lost World War II, the name Shizoku disappeared under the revised civil code in 1947.