There existed 'Genin' (underlings) as a close parallel to Shoju and two of them were often used in pair as 'Genin - Shoju'; generally, Genin meant the slaves of upper class farmers and were called 'Hyakusho Genin' (Genin of farmers), while Shoju meant the slaves of a military family and was called 'Jito Genin' (Genin of jito - manager and lord of manor.)
同類身分として「下人」があり、「下人・所従」と総称されることが多いが、下人は「百姓下人」などと上層農民に付属する隷属民を指すのに対し、所従は「地頭所従」などと主に武家の隷属民を指すことが多かった。