Here some glossaries and names which were commonly used in the Bakufu or Edo era. All of it was in Japanese language and so I tried to translate it in English as best as I could. However, if you still didn't catch its mean please contact me ^_~

Bakufu (shogunate)
It was the government of the Shogun or popularly known as the Shogunate. There are 3 bakufu i.e. Kamakura bakufu, Muromachi bakufu and Edo or Tokugawa bakufu. The Tokugawa Bakufu began in year 1600 right after Tokugawa Ieyasu won the civil war in Sekigahara, and ended in year of 1868 at the Boshin War in Toba-Fushimi. Shogun Ieyasu was a man of outstanding ability, if not genius, had been an associate of both Nobunaga and Hideyoshi, his predecessors. Under Hideyoshi he had held the east Japan, having a fortress at Edo (now, Tokyo). After the death of Hideyosi's son in his stronghold of Osaka Castle, taken in 1615, the greatest immediate threat to Ieyasu's power was removed. He died the next year, but members of the Tokugawa family succeeded one after another in the position of Shogun (which in effect became a hereditary one), having full control of all the land of Japan. Whatever threats there remained to this control, whether from the Emperor, religious groups or military lords, were met with cunning and ruthless efficiency, the government being above all determined to keep the country at peace.

Bakumatsu (period)
Literally means "The End of Curtain", the 'curtain' of course refers to the Bakufu (Shogunate). It's a word used to describe the times just before the Meiji restoration which ended the Bakufu in year 1868. There is no explicit timeline of it, but it was 'began' when Commodore Perry's black ship appeared in Edo bay in 1853 and forced the government to open some ports. The Tokugawa regime, already under internal pressure, with the country great restlessness, lasted only another 15 years before rule passed back to the young Emperor Meiji and the loyalist; new idea flooded in, bringing an end to the feudalism of traditional Japan. The worst turmoil happened between 1863 and 1868 when the Ishin Shishi who opposed the Bakufu launched their massive threats to the Sabaku as pro-Bakufu party.

Daimyo (rank)
The great landholder or feudal lord. In Edo era there were many domains and each domain has its lord, a daimyo. A daimyo usually has retainers, the samurai. Daimyo got their income from the tax paid by the peasants in form of rice (1 koku = 5 bushels of rice). For instance, the Lord of Kaga received 1,300,000 koku, Shimazu (of Satsuma) had 730,000, and altogether there were, at the beginning of the period, some 270 lords with 10,000 koku or over. The daimyo kept some of his income for himself and his family and allotting the rest to his vassals in sub-fiefs.

Dappan (rank)
Meaning "Out of Han". It is secession from one's clan. A dappan had not the previous approval from the Han's chief and thus could be compared to a pariah, never allowed to go back to his fief again. Though the Shinsengumi was a party of Roushi, there were many dappan in it too, such as Okita Shouji was a Shirakawa dappan, Nagakura Shinpachi was a Matsumae dappan, even Kondou Isami and Hijikata Toshizou were Edo Gyofunai dappan. (taken from Serizawa Kamo's Biography)

Edo (city)
After the restoration of Meiji it was called Tokyo (as we all know now). When Tokugawa Ieyasu formally became Shogun in 1603, it was Edo that transferred the seat of government, partly so that it should be surrounded by his supporters and partly because, like some military rulers of earlier times, he considered that the atmosphere of the capital Kyoto, with its devotion to the fine arts and its sophisticated living, would corrupt the simple virtues of his followers. Edo was famous by its pleasure quarter, Yoshiwara, where you could find the geisha ^_~. However Edo was more political than Kyoto, it's because almost all governmental matter was centered in Edo. Meanwhile in Kyoto lived the Emperor so it was more religious and artistic, you could find a lot of priests in the street of Kyoto and also many shrines and temples.

Eta (outcast)
A group of people who were deliberately excluded from the classes, either because of some personal disqualification, or on account of the trade or profession that they followed. They were debarred by heredity from being accepted by society and had no way out of their predicament, being doomed by birth to their outcast status (poor them...). They were organized, and their head in Edo had the hereditary name of Danzaemon. They were marked off by their trade, being concerned with the disposal of animal carcasses, with their skins, and with leather goods made from them. They lived in certain quarters of towns, or in separate settlements in the country, and could be quite prosperous and live comfortable lives. But it was a crime for them to conceal their origins, or to move from the restricted areas where they resided. In 1871 a law of the new administration removed all social disabilities due to birth, but the eta have taken longer to disappear. Their name is no longer used, except historically, but their descendants are still identified by some members of society and would find it difficult, for example, to marry into a conservative family.

Geisha (prostitute)
My...my...don't tell me you didn't know about them?! Well, okay here some clues for you. Geisha is women in pleasure quarters whose job is to accompany the guest drinking sake, eating, joking, singing and dancing. The guest would be prevailed upon to do their party pieces, there might be games, like blindman's buff, and other revelries that go with intoxication. Her grade depending on the price a man was ready to pay, the most expensive one was the tayu. However, it was possible to get a certain amount of fun in pleasure quarter without spending any money at all ^_~. At the front of the houses, bordering on the street, there were rooms with wooden grills; as an advertisement for the delights available within, geisha of the the lower grades would sit here, and sometimes engage in conversation and banter with the passerby. It was not advisable, however, to make too much of a habit of being a mere spectator, for this would soon expose a man to abuse from the girls and even violence from their employers. There is an examplary novel entitled Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden, published by Random House, Inc. Too bad, the setting is not in Bakufu but it's a perfect choice if you want to know more about geisha and their life, there are many Japanese glossaries too.

Genbuku (ceremony)
A ceremony to mark the entrance to full adult life for the children of court aristocrats and superior warriors. This was more important for boys, from whom it took place at some time between the ages of ten and 15. The significant action was the shaving of the forehead, and the arrangement of the hair to allow the wearing of a court headdress, which was assumed from this time. For aristocrats' daughters, it was the time from which they blackened their teeth (Jeez!!!) and shaved their eyebrows (?), as it was the fashion to have them painted in an unnaturally high position in the forehead (what an odd fashion...). Young women in warrior families also had their hair arranged in adult style from the time of this ceremony.

Genmai (food)
Meaning "black rice". It was the brown rice with the husk still on which was left after the grains were winnowed by being scooped up in flat baskets and thrown in the air. It was at this stage that sufficient was selected as seed for sowing next year, and put aside. It was also as genmai that most of rice went to the samurai, after it had been sorted over by hand, and packed into barrel-shaped bales, which were made of rice-straw and of double thickness to minimize spillage.

Geta (footwear)
A very typical clog, you might often see it in classic Japanese drama. It was made of wood with 2 high pegs and usually worn for walking in mud or light fall of snow. But it seemed it was also being worn in everyday life, after the straw sandals of course.

Gion (pleasure quarter)
The most famous pleasure quarter in Kyoto at that time. As another pleasure quarters in somewhere else, it has many geisha houses and 'teahouse' where you could drink, eat or sleep with the geisha of many level. It laid in the riverside of Kamo river, in daylight it seemed to be "dead" but it'll come alive in the night (dark day, bright night, ne?). The customer who went to pleasure quarter sought entertainment at many levels, most went with the intention of sleeping with a geisha. Who came there were not only the townsmen but also the samurai, though there's one rule in samurai code that they were not allowed to have leisure time (hey hey, they were human too...).

Gion (festival)
A festival which still trundles its great wagons through the Kyoto streets in July. The wars had dispersed many of the adherents of the Imperial court, so that there were far fewer who resided in the capital, now called Kyoto, and the great annual festival which had been carried on by these courtiers came to a halt. They were restarted by the townsfolk, and a wave of enthusiasm for participation in this sort of gay ceremonial spread through the cities, the Gion festival is an instance of this. The wagons with the shoulder-borne floats that alternate with them, date from the Tokugawa period, though the Festival is much older, having been started in the tenth century in an attempt to terminate an epidemic. Each vehicle belongs to a ward of the city, whose men don traditional dress for the occasion. A real big and festive one, though not as big and festive as the Ozz Fest of course ^_^

Go (game)
A traditional Japanese game in which the players, one using the black counters and the other white counters, tried to surround their opponent's pieces. Pieces were kept in the round lacquer containers, and they in their turn could be stored in box. Tokoro de, there was a festival on the fifteenth of the eleventh month called Shichigosan or "Seven-Five-Three", from the ages of children who took part in it. On that day in his fifth year a boy was dressed for the first time in a version of adult clothes. He was made to stand on a Go board - a platform about 18 inches square, raised from the ground, used in the game of Go - facing a lucky direction. Then he was dressed in his first hakama, the left leg being put in first. This was followed by a visit to the shrine. More details about GO, check out my Hikaru no GO project : Let's GO!!!

Haiku (poem)
The composition of a 17-syllable verse. There is a story of a wellknown poet named Bashou, his real name is Matsuo Munefasa. Matsuo was the name of his family and, as befitted a person of samurai descent, he had the usual array of names used at various times and for various purposes (as well as an unusually large contain of 15 pen-names (Wow, he has more than I had!) which he used at different periods of his life). His reputation as a poet was growing all the time and collections of his work were being published. He got the name Bashou from a sort of decorative banana tree, a bashou, that was presented by one of his friends to plant outside his hut in Fukugawa, Edo.
Here is one of Bashou's famous classic haiku: Natsugusa ya Tsuwamonodomo ga Yume no ato (The summer grasses, All that has survived from Brave Warrior's dream)

Hakama (clothes)
Here comes my fave clothing ^_~. Hakama is more like a divided skirt; the trousers had a very low crotch, and an opening on the sides, and were held in place by two sets of ties on the front and rear part, fastening around the waist. It was made of hemp at that time and was usually worn by the samurai. Recently I learned how to wear a hakama from my pal, Kirimaru ^_^, first put in your legs in each hole, then fasten the tie of the front part around your waist to your rear, then do the same thing with the tie of the rear part (tie it up to your belly). Well...it's not that easy, believe me, cause it took more than an hour for me to held it neatly on my waist. It's a simple but quite "elaborate" too indeed.

Han (fief)
A samurai must have someone he served to, as his Lord or Master who was chief of han. Han can be literally translated as "fief", or "feudal clan". When someone seceded himself from his clan/fief he became a dappan, but if he had the approval from the chief of han he became a roushi. There were some of famous han in Bakufu period, i.e. Satsuma (Kogashima), Choushuu (Yamaguchi), Mito, Aizu (Fukushima), Hizen (Saga), Fukuoka, Tosa (Kochi) but the most famous ones were Satsuma and Choushuu as they were the patriot of Meiji restoration, the Ishin Shishi. Japan's current prefectures were built from 270 han during the Bakufu.

Haori (clothes)
And this is my 2nd fave clothing ^_^, seems like it'll be incomplete to wear a kimono without it. Haori is a three-quarter-length kimono-shaped coat, this was held together by a tie at chest-level. It was usually worn for public duties. Samurai wore a haori with mon (crest) of their clan, the crest lies on the bothside of the chest near the shoulder, on each mid side of the sleeves, and one on the back close to the nape of the neck (total 5 mon). My fave haori? Of course the one belonged to the Shinsengumi! It was light blue-colored (or yellow?) with white-jagged mountain shapes on the tip. It looked so glaring, thus at that time people who wore that haori was feared by many Japanese.

Hashi (chopsticks)
It is simply known as chopsticks, I guess you know what it is (I used it everyday to eat soba or buckwheat-noodles and salad). Hashi were often made of untreated wood, and these were thought of as expendable, but others were made, for individual use, of lacquer, or even of ivory or precious metal, and might be kept in case for security or for travel. A house where the appointments were a little superior would have decorated rests on which to place the chopsticks to avoid dirtying the tray.

Hatamoto (rank)
Meaning "banner-men", samurai who had direct access to the shogun, whose duties were very light but who still had comfortable income. There is a story about them in 1600s, they formed gangs, one of which, for example, was called the "White Hilt Mob", who wore white obi and white fittings to their swords, which were longer than usual. They adopted eccentricity of dress, wearing a single short kimono in winter, and three long ones in summer (insane #1). They put lead along the bottom edge of their clothes, to make them swing (insane #2). When they were short of funds they would not pay their bills; when they had money, they loftily paid in large coins and grew violent if change were offered (insane #3). A member of the gang is said to have been grappled with from behind to stop him attacking someone, and to have retailed by stabbing the intervener with a blow that pierced his own body first, thus putting an end both to himself and to the man who tried to restrain him (insane #4).

Jitte (police staff of office)
Lower-grade samurai, known as doushin ('companions') worked under the yoriki, and each magistrate had 120 of them. The doushin formed the lowest rank of peace officer, and it was they that patrolled the streets of Edo, carrying as their symbol of office the jitte, the steel wand with a hook. The purpose of which was to catch the blade of sword or knife of an attacker.