I was trying to estimate the number of warriors who were part of the samurai class. I am mainly interested in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Trying to search for that, I came across this. It states that in the end of the Tokugawa period, samurai and their family members comprised 5-6% of the total population. Which actually raises the question of whether the expression "family members" of the samurai class includes children, women and elders or not. And please remember, my question here is about the number of capable samurai warriors who were ready to join battles under their Daimyo's command. Also please note that the end of the Tokugawa period is closer to 19th century than to the 17th century, but I am also clueless on how to account for the time difference on the number of the samurai class.
Another important question is the population of Japan during this period. Any numbers would actually be useful.