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The 侍]] were members of the professional warrior class in pre-industrial Japan, who served as retainers to the lords. These men came from warrior families and trained from a young age in military arts through private instruction. Swordsmanship, archery, and horsemanship were the primary martial skills; and often in Japanese history, only samurai had the right to even possess these weapons.Harald Kleinschmidt. Warfare in Japan, p. 79: "However, the Kamakura bakufu prohibited those of bonge status to ride horses or to carry swords, bows, and arrows within the city limits of Kamakura. ... In it we can detect the intention of the bakufu to make archery, swordmanship, and horsemanship, the major martial skills of the bushi class, the exclusive attribute of those of bushi status." These weapons required years of training to master, and this commitment made the samurai superior to conscripts and militia, the latter who were typically given only days of training.Louis G. Perez. A History of Japan, p. 34: "One mounted samurai armed with a longbow, a good razor-sharp steel long sword, and protected (as was his horse) by lacquered armor and helmet cost more than 50 ashigaru armed with iron pikes and protected by thick twisted straw rope layered over leather armored vests. A samurai took years to train, an ashigaru, only days." The samurai also studied literature, calligraphy, and Confucianism, befitting their roles as bureaucrats under the .
In 1853, the United States forced Japan to open its borders to foreign trade, dragging the insular country into the industrial age. The adoption of modern firearms rendered the traditional weapons of the samurai obsolete. Firearms require only one or two weeks of training to master, which was something that could feasibly be done with conscripts. Japan therefore had no more need for a specialized warrior class whose men dedicated their lives to martial training.Gwynne Dyer (1985). War, p. 58:
"It is not doing too much violence to history to compare the warrior class of samurai in Japan with the feudal nobility of Europe. Both were groups who owed their wealth, power, and social position to their proficiency with arms and derived their own self-respect from it. But proficiency with arms is only an important distinguishing mark if it takes long and arduous training to achieve and has a direct relationship to a man's chances of success and survival in battle—as it does with the sword, the spear, or the bow. Firearms take far less time to master and are much more democratic in their effects: samurai and commoners died with equal speed and equal futility in Takeda's desperate charges at Nagashino." Furthermore, Japan's transition from feudalism to capitalism left the samurai without any lords to serve, ending their traditional social role. By 1876 the special rights and privileges of the samurai had all been abolished.
The word "samurai" is thought to come from the word "saburau" and means "one who serves their", and therefore the samurai are generally defined as retainers or vassals. The warlords who ruled Japan (the daimyo and the shogun) were members of the bushi class but were not referred to as samurai.
English scholars frequently treat samurai and bushi as synonyms. In translating Japanese texts, 武士 often gets translated to samurai.
A ronin was a samurai who had lost his master. He could no longer be properly called a samurai as he served nobody, but he did retain some rights as a warrior such as the right to carry weapons and use a surname.
Taxation during the 8th century was high but temples, monasteries, shrines, and certain aristocrats obtained tax exemptions through their connections to the imperial court. To evade taxes, many landowners in the countryside donated their lands to these tax-exempt entities. The land would be registered in the name of said noble or temple and would become part of their tax-exempt estate ( shōen) but would still be used by the same person who originally owned it. The former owner, now a steward on his lord's estate, had to pay his lord an annual tribute that was less than what he would have had to pay the emperor in tax had he been the landowner. There was usually an agreement that when the steward died, his children would inherit his position. If the temple or lord cheated the steward somehow, the farmer could retaliate by exposing the scheme, which might have cost the temple or noble its tax-exempt privilege.Stephen Turnbull. The Samurai: A Military HistoryEiko Ikegami. The Taming of the Samurai. p. 52: "Because local reclamation landownership at this stage was still unstable, and restricted by the framework of the ancient codes, local reclamation landowners sometimes sought the protection of the power-holders in Kyoto by “commending” their own land to them. Thus the actual local owners were able to secure not only their control over land but also immunity from the local government." The growth of the shōen led to a loss of tax revenue for the imperial court, and a heavier tax burden on those farmers who worked the remaining taxable land. These farmers often could not cope and abandoned their lands, which were bought up by the landowning magnates.Mikiso Hane. Premodern Japan, p. 57: "The rise of the shōen meant a steady decline in the authority of the central government. Taxes collected by the government decreased, and police and military power in the provinces fell increasingly into the hands of the local magnates. ... The deterioration of the peasantry resulted in part from the fact that, as tax-free estates proliferated, the tax burden grew heavier upon those who worked the little-remaining taxable land. ... Unable to pay their debts and unable to bear the burden of heavy taxes, they left the land and joined the ranks of vagrants. The land they abandoned was taken over the rising local landowning magnates."
In the middle of the 8th century, the imperial government instituted a major reform which allowed individuals to claim private ownership of new farmland that they had reclaimed from the wilderness. This spurred wealthy people to start reclaiming farmland, which was necessary to feed Japan's growing population. During the 11th and 12th centuries, bushi became conspicuously involved in land reclamation, thereby becoming a landowning class.Eiko Ikegami. The Taming of the Samurai, pp. 52-53: "During the eleventh and twelfth centuries, however, the level of samurai activity in land reclamation became conspicuous. With their active participation in the process of land reclamation, the samurai clearly emerged as a class of landed lords." And like many landowners, the bushi often donated their lands to a shōen to avoid taxes. This had the effect of enriching the bushi while simultaneously depriving the imperial treasury.
In the Heian period it was the habit of emperors to keep harems, and consequently the imperial family got so large, it burdened the treasury. In the early 9th century AD, Emperor Saga expelled several dozen members from the imperial family, who formed two new clans: the Minamoto clan (814 AD) and the Taira clan (825 AD). Many wealthy provincial families married into the Minamotos and Tairas in order to acquire aristocratic status, gaining prestige and often tax exemptions. And so the Tairas and Minamotos became big and wealthy clans with lots of warrior retainers.Jonathan Clements. A Brief History of the Samurai: "Sons of the Taira and Minamoto were promising matches for the daughters of provincial strongmen, adding a noble cachet to outer clans. The daughters were similarly highly thought of, and many husbands took on the surname of their wives in recognition. Even those Taira and Minamoto fallen on hard times still had their name to trade; numerous noble-born debtors adopted their provincial creditors as their heirs as a form of payment in kind, ensuring that the Taira and Minamoto names were soon firmly ingrained in provincial landholdings."
Thus with the downsizing of the national army and the decline in tax revenue, the emperors delegated the matter of security in the countryside to the burgeoning class of landed warriors. They had a personal incentive to suppress lawlessness in their own lands as it directly impacted their revenue.
In 1156, the former emperor Sutoku attempted to take back the throne from his brother, Emperor Go-Shirakawa, in what is remembered as the Hōgen rebellion. It failed and Sutoku was exiled. Members of the Minamoto and Taira clans had fought on both sides of the rebellion, but the Minamoto loyalists received smaller rewards than the Taira loyalists, and the Minamoto rebels received worse punishments than the Taira rebels. All this angered the Minamotos, and consequently political factions in the imperial court began to reform around clan affiliations rather than personal allegiances.Jonathan Clements. A Brief History of the Samurai, chpt. 3: "Members of the Fujiwara, Minamoto and Taira clans had fought on both sides, but the punishments caused the disparate factions to begin uniting along lines of clan affiliation, instead of personal allegiance." The next rebellion would be a direct Taira/Minamoto clash.
The Minamotos took part in the Heiji Rebellion of 1160 in the hopes that they could have the Taira leader Taira no Kiyomori banished.Stephen Turnbull. The Samurai: A Military History: "This time any rebellion was bound to turn into a direct Taira/ Minamoto clash. Taira Kiyomori was a loyal subject of both Emperor and ex-Emperor, so to avoid being branded as rebels the Minamoto would have to kidnap both sovereigns while Kiyomori was out of town, and then make the Emperor declare Kiyomori a rebel." This rebellion also failed, and in the aftermath the Tairas ended up with even more influence in the imperial court. Their leader, Taira no Kiyomori, became the first bushi ever to be given a senior rank in the imperial court (chief minister in 1167).Jonathan Clements. A Brief History of the Samurai, chpt. 3: "Kiyomori wasted no time in insinuating himself into the capital, and in 1160 became the first samurai to be awarded a senior courtly rank."
In 1180, Taira no Kiyomori installed his two-year-old grandson (Emperor Antoku) on the throne, pushing aside older male heirs whose mothers were from the Minamoto family. This sparked a rebellion by the Minamotos, leading to the Gempei War (1180-1185). Minamoto no Yoritomo promised lands and administrative rights to warriors who swore allegiance to him. The Minamotos won the war and the Taira clan was effectively destroyed. In April 1185, the controversial child emperor was drowned by his own grandmother, who then committed suicide.
In 1192, the shogun created the gokenin class, who were his warrior vassals. They owed the shogun military service in exchange for various privileges. The service in question often included "guard duty" or apprehending criminals.
This is how the gokenin were defined in the Sata mirensho, a 14th century guide to shogunate laws and legal procedures:
The samurai class, as the word was used during the Kamakura period, was the warrior subclass below the gokenin. Some samurai were sub-vassals to a gokenin and therefore served the shogun indirectly. Like the gokenin, the samurai were mounted warriors and had surnames. Below the samurai class was the chūgen, footsoldiers who had no surname.William E. Deal. Handbook To Life In Medieval And Early Modern Japan, p. 110:
"Below gokenin was the samurai class. Although we tend now to think of the term samurai (literally, “one who serves”) as a generic term for warrior, during the Kamakura period samurai referred to a specific social ranking. Samurai, though less powerful than gokenin, also commanded subvassals who were loyal to them. Like gokenin, samurai were cavalry soldiers."
The shogun created the offices of jitō and shugo. The shugo and jitō were typically members of the gokenin class. A shugo was a military governor and among his responsibilities was registering and managing the shogun's gokenin. The jitō were military stewards of the estates.
During the Kamakura shogunate (1185 AD – 1333 AD), it was expected for a member of the bushi class to own land where he had his ancestral home and from which he made a living, although this was not required by law.Harald Kleinschmidt. Warfare in Japan, p. 80: "To possess a base holding (konpon shiryō or honryō), namely the "place of myōji," was the most fundamental criteria of bushi status and the source from which his honor stemmed. ... a bushi was supposed to make a living from his own land. The same source says that a landless bushi who lives off the support of another cannot be regarded as a bushi in his own right; his dependence subjugates him to his patron much as a horse or ox is subordinate to its master."
The southern court, descended from Emperor Godaigo, and the northern court, descended from Emperor Kōgōn, were established side by side. This period of coexistence of the two dynasties is called the Nanboku-chō period, which corresponds to the beginning of the Muromachi period. The Northern Court, supported by the Ashikaga shogunate, had six emperors, and in 1392 the Imperial Court was reunited by absorbing the Southern Court, although the modern Imperial Household Agency considers the Southern Court to be the legitimate emperor.
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> 天皇陵. Imperial Household Agency The de facto rule of Japan by the Ashikaga shogunate lasted until the Onin War, which broke out in 1467.
From 1346 to 1358 during the Nanboku-cho period, the Ashikaga shogunate gradually expanded the authority of the , the local military and police officials established by the Kamakura shogunate, giving the Shugo jurisdiction over land disputes between and allowing the Shugo to receive half of all taxes from the areas they controlled. The Shugo shared their newfound wealth with the local samurai, creating a hierarchical relationship between the Shugo and the samurai, and the first early , called , appeared.
During the Nanboku-chō period, many lower-class foot soldiers called began to participate in battles, and the popularity of increased. During the Nanboku-chō and Muromachi periods, and became the norm, and senior samurai also began to wear by adding (helmet), (face armor), and gauntlet.
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> 甲冑の歴史（南北朝時代～室町時代） Nagoya Japanese Sword Museum Nagoya Touken World.
Issues of inheritance caused family strife as primogeniture became common, in contrast to the division of succession designated by law before the 14th century. Invasions of neighboring samurai territories became common to avoid infighting, and bickering among samurai was a constant problem for the Kamakura and Ashikaga shogunates.
Daimyo who became more powerful as the shogunate's control weakened were called , and they often came from shugo daimyo, , and . In other words, sengoku daimyo differed from shugo daimyo in that a sengoku daimyo was able to rule the region on his own, without being appointed by the shogun.
During this period, the traditional master-servant relationship between the lord and his vassals broke down, with the vassals eliminating the lord, internal clan and vassal conflicts over leadership of the lord's family, and frequent rebellion and puppetry by branch families against the lord's family. These events sometimes led to the rise of samurai to the rank of sengoku daimyo. For example, Hōjō Sōun was the first samurai to rise to the rank of sengoku daimyo during this period. Uesugi Kenshin was an example of a Shugodai who became sengoku daimyo by weakening and eliminating the power of the lord.
This period was marked by the loosening of samurai culture, with people born into other social strata sometimes making a name for themselves as warriors and thus becoming de facto samurai. One such example is Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a well-known figure who rose from a peasant background to become a samurai, sengoku daimyo, and kampaku (Imperial Regent).
In 1543, Portuguese explorers taught the Japanese how to make matchlock muskets. The Japanese took a quick liking to this new weapon. Initially, they were items of prestige wielded only by samurai, but certain daimyo noticed that muskets took only a week or two of training to master and therefore should be used in large numbers by peasant infantry.Stephen Turnbull. Samurai Armies 1467–1649, 26: "When first introduced to Japan the arquebus was regarded as a prestige weapon to be carried by samurai, but was daimyō such as Oda Nobunaga who realized very soon that the most effective way for them to be used was by issuing them in large numbers to ashigaru (foot soldiers) and then delivering controlled volleys of bullets."
From this time on, infantrymen called , who were mobilized from the peasantry, were mobilized in even greater numbers than before, and the importance of the infantry, which had begun in the Nanboku-chō period, increased even more. 歴史人 September 2020. pp.40–41. When were introduced from Portugal in 1543, Japanese swordsmiths immediately began to improve and mass-produce them. The Japanese matchlock was named after the Tanegashima, which is believed to be the place where it was first introduced to Japan. By the end of the Sengoku Period, there were hundreds of thousands of in Japan and a large army of nearly 100,000 men clashing with each other.
On the battlefield, began to fight in close formation, using (spear) and . As a result, , (bow), and became the primary weapons on the battlefield. The , which was difficult to maneuver in close formation, and the long, heavy fell into disuse and were replaced by the , which could be held short, and the short, light , which appeared in the Nanboku-cho period and gradually became more common. The was often cut off from the hilt and shortened to make a . The , which had become inconvenient for use on the battlefield, was transformed into a symbol of authority carried by high-ranking samurai.
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Basic knowledge of naginata and nagamaki. Nagoya Japanese Sword Museum, Touken World
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Arms for battle – spears, swords, bows. Nagoya Japanese Sword Museum, Touken WorldKazuhiko Inada (2020), Encyclopedia of the Japanese Swords. p42. Although the had become even more obsolete, some sengoku daimyo dared to organize assault and kinsmen units composed entirely of large men equipped with to demonstrate the bravery of their armies.Kazuhiko Inada (2020), Encyclopedia of the Japanese Swords. p39.
These changes in the aspect of the battlefield during the Sengoku period led to the emergence of the style of armor, which improved the productivity and durability of armor. In the history of Japanese armor, this was the most significant change since the introduction of the and in the Heian period. In this style, the number of parts was reduced, and instead armor with eccentric designs became popular. 日本の甲冑 Costume Museum
By the end of the Sengoku period, allegiances between warrior vassals, also known as military retainers, and lords were solidified. Vassals would serve lords in exchange for material and intangible advantages, in keeping with Confucian ideas imported from China between the seventh and ninth centuries. These independent vassals who held land were subordinate to their superiors, who may be local lords or, in the Edo period, the shogun. A vassal or samurai could expect monetary benefits, including land or money, from lords in exchange for their military services.
Oda Nobunaga made innovations in the fields of organization and war tactics, made heavy use of arquebuses, developed commerce and industry, and treasured innovation. Consecutive victories enabled him to end the Ashikaga Bakufu and disarm of the military powers of the Buddhist monks, which had inflamed futile struggles among the populace for centuries. Attacking from the "sanctuary" of Buddhist temples, they were constant headaches to any warlord and even the emperor, who tried to control their actions. He died in 1582 when one of his generals, Akechi Mitsuhide, turned upon him with his army.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu, who founded the Tokugawa shogunate, were loyal followers of Nobunaga. Hideyoshi began as a peasant and became one of Nobunaga's top generals, and Ieyasu had shared his childhood with Nobunaga. Hideyoshi defeated Mitsuhide within a month and was regarded as the rightful successor of Nobunaga by avenging the treachery of Mitsuhide. These two were able to use Nobunaga's previous achievements on which build a unified Japan and there was a saying: "The reunification is a rice cake; Oda made it. Hashiba shaped it. In the end, only Ieyasu tastes it." (Hashiba is the family name that Toyotomi Hideyoshi used while he was a follower of Nobunaga.)
Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who became a grand minister in 1586, created a law that non-samurai were not allowed to carry weapons, which the samurai caste codified as permanent and hereditary, thereby ending the social mobility of Japan, which lasted until the dissolution of the Edo shogunate by the Meiji revolutionaries.
The distinction between samurai and non-samurai was so obscure that during the 16th century, most male adults in any social class (even small farmers) belonged to at least one military organization of their own and served in wars before and during Hideyoshi's rule. It can be said that an "all against all" situation continued for a century. The authorized samurai families after the 17th century were those that chose to follow Nobunaga, Hideyoshi and Ieyasu. Large battles occurred during the change between regimes, and a number of defeated samurai were destroyed, went rōnin or were absorbed into the general populace.
During the Azuchi–Momoyama period (late Sengoku period), "samurai" often referred to , the lowest-ranking bushi, as exemplified by the provisions of the temporary law Separation Edict enacted by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1591. This law regulated the transfer of status classes:samurai ( wakatō), , , and . These four classes and the ashigaru were and peasants employed by the bushi and fell under the category of . In times of war, samurai ( wakatō) and ashigaru were fighters, while the rest were porters. Generally, samurai ( wakatō) could take family names, while some ashigaru could, and only samurai ( wakatō) were considered samurai class. Wakatō, like samurai, had different definitions in different periods, meaning a young bushi in the Muromachi period and a rank below and above ashigaru in the Edo period.
In this politically unstable situation, Maeda Toshiie, one of the Gotairō, died of illness, and Tokugawa Ieyasu, one of the Gotairō who had been second in power to Hideyoshi but had not participated in the war, rose to power, and Ieyasu came into conflict with Ishida Mitsunari, one of the Go-Bukyō and others. This conflict eventually led to the Battle of Sekigahara, in which the led by Ieyasu defeated the led by Mitsunari, and Ieyasu nearly gained control of Japan.
Social mobility was high, as the ancient regime collapsed and emerging samurai needed to maintain a large military and administrative organizations in their areas of influence. Most of the samurai families that survived to the 19th century originated in this era, declaring themselves to be the blood of one of the four ancient noble clans: Minamoto, Taira, Fujiwara clan, and Tachibana. In most cases, however, it is difficult to prove these claims.
Following the passing of a law in 1629, samurai on official duty were required to wear two swords. However, by the end of the Tokugawa era, samurai were aristocratic bureaucrats for their daishō, becoming more of a symbolic emblem of power than a weapon used in daily life. They still had the legal right to cut down any commoner who did not show proper respect ( kiri-sute gomen), but to what extent this right was used is unknown.Michael Wert9780190685102, Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780190685102 When the central government forced daimyōs to cut the size of their armies, unemployed rōnin became a social problem.
Theoretical obligations between a samurai and his lord (usually a daimyō) increased from the Genpei era to the Edo era, strongly emphasized by the teachings of Confucius and Mencius, required reading for the educated samurai class. The leading figures who introduced Confucianism in Japan in the early Tokugawa period were Fujiwara Seika (1561–1619), Hayashi Razan (1583–1657), and Matsunaga Sekigo (1592–1657).
Pederasty permeated the culture of samurai in the early seventeenth century. The relentless condemnation of pederasty by Jesuit missionaries also hindered attempts to convert Japan's governing elite to Christianity. Pederasty had become deeply institutionalized among the daimyo and samurai, prompting comparisons to ancient Athens and Sparta. The Jesuits' strong condemnation of the practice alienated many of Japan's ruling class, creating further barriers to their acceptance of Christianity. Tokugawa Iemitsu, the third shogun, was known for his interest in pederasty.
From the mid-Edo period, wealthy and farmers could join the samurai class by giving a large sum of money to an impoverished to be adopted into a samurai family and inherit the samurai's position and stipend. The amount of money given to a gokenin varied according to his position: 1,000 ryo for a and 500 ryo for an Some of their descendants were promoted to and held important positions in the shogunate. Some of the peasants' children were promoted to the samurai class by serving in the office. Kachi could change jobs and move into the lower classes, such as chōnin. For example, Takizawa Bakin became a chōnin by working for Tsutaya Jūzaburō.
In 1612, Hasekura Tsunenaga, a vassal of the daimyo Date Masamune, led a diplomatic mission and had an audience with King Philip III of Spain, presenting him with a letter requesting trade, and he also had an audience with Pope Paul V in Rome. He returned to Japan in 1620, but news of the Tokugawa shogunate's suppression of Christianity had already reached Europe, and trade did not take place due to the Tokugawa shogunate's policy of sakoku. In the town of Coria del Rio in Spain, where the diplomatic mission stopped, there were 600 people with the surnames Japon or Xapon as of 2021, and they have passed on the folk tale that they are the descendants of the samurai who remained in the town.
At the end of the Edo period (Bakumatsu era), when Matthew C. Perry came to Japan in 1853 and the sakoku policy was abolished, six diplomatic missions were sent to the United States and European countries for diplomatic negotiations. The most famous were the US mission in 1860 and the European missions in 1862 and 1864. Fukuzawa Yukichi, who participated in these missions, is most famous as a leading figure in the modernization of Japan, and his portrait was selected for the 10,000 yen note.
The Japanese began importing large quantities of European and American weapons and hiring European and American veterans to train their armies. The new weapons included modern rifles with caplock and breechloader mechanisms. These new firearms were more versatile and deadly than the matchlock arquebuses the Japanese had been using for three centuries. Their rifling gave them better accuracy and range, their mechanisms were less fiddly, they had a better rate of fire, they worked even in wet weather, and they could be fitted with to double as spears. Whereas arquebuses had been used alongside spears and bows on the battlefield, the new rifles became the standard infantry weapon.Hoya Toru, in Hellyer et al. The Meiji Restoration
p. 155: "Until the late Edo period, smoothbore muskets had been used in conjunction with other weapons such as bows and spears. Furthermore, engagements involved hand-to-hand combat with weapons such as the short spear."
p. 161: "the government effectively disbanded units of archers and spearmen, key components of the early modern military structure. Moreover, the mounted cavalry, which had been the backbone of samurai military organization, was completely eliminated." and became the self-defense weapons of choice, supplanting knives and swords. These firearms were also much easier to use than the traditional weapons of the samurai, requiring about two weeks of practice to master as opposed to years.An 1860 British rifle training manual, Drill and Rifle Instruction for the Corps of Rifle Volunteers, on p. 75 recommends one week of drilling followed by one week of target practice. Regulations for conducting the musketry instruction of the Army (1859) "At the several head-quarter stations of the Royal Artillery, and at places where detachments of 500 men and upwards are quartered, there is to be a duly qualified officer-instructor; and two half batteries are to be struck off duty at a time to be exercised in the prescribed annual course of rifle instruction, which can be accomplished efficiently in nine working days. The recruits are to be handed over for rifle-carbine training (which will only occupy fifteen working days)"
"According to Kawaguchi, it requires some 3 years to learn to handle the sword with natural ease, and no less than 10 years to tentatively master all aspects of the art."Ellis Amdur. Old School: Essays on Japanese Martial Traditions, Expanded Edition: "To learn the fundamental techniques of spear fighting takes a strong body and perhaps two to three months of practice."Stephen Turnbull. The Samurai, chpt. 8: "Now whereas it took years of practice and the development of strong muscles to shoot well with the bow, a peasant could be taught within a few days to shoot an arquebus with all the accuracy of which the weapon was capable." An army based on the gun does not require men who dedicate their lives to the martial arts, which is what the samurai essentially were. Commoners of any profession could be turned into effective soldiers on an as-needed basis.Gwynne Dyer (1985). War, p. 58:
"It is not doing too much violence to history to compare the warrior class of samurai in Japan with the feudal nobility of Europe. Both were groups who owed their wealth, power, and social position to their proficiency with arms and derived their own self-respect from it. But proficiency with arms is only an important distinguishing mark if it takes long and arduous training to achieve and has a direct relationship to a man's chances of success and survival in battle—as it does with the sword, the spear, or the bow. Firearms take far less time to master and are much more democratic in their effects: samurai and commoners died with equal speed and equal futility in Takeda's desperate charges at Nagashino."Mark Ravina. To Stand with the Nations of the World pp. 24–25: "A well-disciplined deployment of peasant musketeers could destroy an elite brigade of mounted archers, whose skills reflected years of training and noble privilege."
European armies relied on commoners. The development of firearms had done away with knights and men-at-arms. From their own history, the Japanese remembered that peasant soldiers had been just as effective with arquebuses as samurai.Noel Perrin. Giving up the Gun, p. 73: "So could Lord Matsudaira, Warden of Kami Province, who said disgustedly of the 1637 rebellion. ‘In this there is no difference between soldiers and peasants, because firearms are used.’" So even before the Meiji Restoration, the shogun and the other feudal lords emphasized commoners when they set about rebuilding their armies.Jaundrill. Samurai to Soldier, p. 71: "On the national level, the Tokugawa shogunate had inaugurated an ambitious attempt to create a new kind of army: one composed primarily of commoner soldiers and solidly under the control of Tokugawa authorities—not vassal warriors, as had been the case early in the regime’s history."Hoya Toru, in Hellyer et al. The Meiji Restoration, p.153: "In the wake of armed internal conflicts, almost every domain embraced modern, military organizational methods modeled after those of contemporary Europe. The key trigger to these reforms was the adoption of modern firearms, notably rifles, which decisively reshaped the military organizations of the day." There were also political advantages to using commoners. Commoners tended to be more submissive as they came from humbler backgrounds, did not inherit any military tradition, and were easier to replace.Jaundrill. Samurai to Soldier, p. 47: "Because the soldiers recruited through the 1863 conscriptions ranked as the lowest members of the warrior status group, Tokugawa military leaders were free to use them as test subjects in their experimental effort to create a Westernized military. Unlike the warriors who had attended (or avoided) the Martial Arts School, the new recruits had no prior experience with military service, and thus no preconceptions about the limits of their superiors’ authority." They were less resistant to social reform because they had little to lose and a lot to gain. They typically came without any political baggage or conflicting loyalties, which became especially important later on when the Meiji government sought to create a national army that cut across feudal domains. During the Meiji era, conscription into the national army exposed men across Japan to nationalist indoctrination, a way to build unity and national identity.Jaundrill (2019). Samurai to Soldier, p. 44: "Others domains like Choshu and Saga recruited on and outside the margins of the warrior status group in order to avoid sparking political conflicts within the domain."Gabriele Esposito. Japanese Armies 1868-1877, p. 13: "The peasant conscripts would be trained in regular, disciplined units with modern firearms; there would be no place for the selective loyalties of traditional samurai entourages in any future wars."Edward J. Drea. Japan's Imperial Army, pp. 22, 29
The Japanese realized that in order to match the industrial and military might of the Western imperial powers, Japan had to abandon feudalism for a capitalist economy with a strong central government.Jaundrill. Samurai to Soldier, p. 31: "Thus the Ansei (1854–1860) round of reforms aimed to graft new technology onto existing organizational frameworks. The setbacks encountered in the Ansei reform era led shogunal and domainal leaders to conclude that technological reform was not possible without organizational reform—a political act that most authorities were unwilling to undertake unless absolutely necessary."Ravina. To Stand with the Nations of the World, p. 106: "...the crisis of 1866 prompted one of the most remarkable reform efforts in Japanese history. Defeat by Chōshū had discredited defenders of the shogunal status quo. Yoshinobu seized this chance to push through the most radical Japanese reform project in a millennium. Yoshinobu sought nothing less than the complete reorganization of the shogunate “from a feudally organized suzerain regime into a unified national regime organized along the bureaucratic lines of Napoleonic France." In November 1867, the unpopular shogun relinquished his authority to the emperor, who was seen as a unifying figure by the Japanese. Thus began the Meiji Restoration.Ravina. To Stand with the Nations of the World, p. 116: "Yoshinobu’s move was tactically brilliant. By agreeing to restore political power to the court, he stole the issue from Chōshū and Satsuma. At the same time, his “surrender” allowed Yoshinobu to reposition himself in the emerging political order. The imperial court accepted Yoshinobu’s “return of political authority” on 10/15 but also called for a meeting of the daimyo to decide the course of reform. Since Yoshinobu had deftly manipulated daimyo councils before, he had every reason to expect substantial power in any national assembly. Between 1869 and 1871, the daimyo (Japan's feudal lords) were stripped of their lands and titles. Their domains became prefectures subject to the authority of the imperial government. Some former daimyo were given government jobs, but most retired with lavish pensions.Ravina. To Stand with the Nations of the World, p. 122: "Rather than fight in defense of noble privilege, many of the last generation of daimyo were eager to be coopted: a handful received positions in the new Meiji government, but most simply accepted lavish pensions and disappeared from political life. The dissolution of the daimyo class made the samurai defunct as a feudal retainer caste. The central government took responsibility for paying their rice stipends.
The samurai were now defunct and obsolete, so the Meiji government began repealing their special rights and privileges. In 1869, the government reclassified high-ranking samurai as shizoku (warriors) and lower status samurai as sotsuzoku (foot soldiers).Ravina. To Stand with the Nations of the World, p.131: "As vassals of vassals, Inada samurai were to be classified as soldiers (sotsu) rather than samurai (shi), resulting in a reduction in both income and status." In 1872, the sotsu rank was abolished and the sotsuzoku were reclassified as shizoku.Ravina. To Stand with the Nations of the World, p. 181: "It eliminated the distinct rank of “sotsu” for lower samurai and classified all retainers with heritable income as “shizoku,” a neologism for “former samurai.”" In 1871, the government banned the samurai topknot (the chonmage). From 1873 to 1879, the government started taxing the stipends and transformed them into interest-bearing government bonds. The main goal was to provide enough financial liquidity to enable former samurai to invest in land and industry. In 1876, the government forbade anyone outside the military to wear swords even if they were of samurai lineage, and repealed the right of a samurai to strike an insolent commoner with potentially lethal force ( kiri-sute gomen).Laurence Winkler. Samurai Road: "In 1876, the wearing of swords was forbidden to anyone except members of the national armed forces, and all samurai stipends were converted to government bonds, at significant financial loss. The samurai right of kirisute gomen, which allowed them to execute commoners who paid them disrespect, was abolished."
Most samurai accepted these reforms. In fact the Meiji leadership was composed mostly of former samurai. Many were offered positions in the new civilian government because they were typically well-educated. Others were offered teaching positions in the new public education system. During the Edo period, many samurai lived in poverty because there were few jobs for warriors and they were barred from working as tradesmen or merchants. The Meiji liberalization allowed these men to seek better economic opportunities in other professions.Eiko Ikegami. The Taming of the Samurai, pp. 360-361
For some samurai, the reforms were humiliating. The new military doctrine emphasized infantry, and samurai did not see themselves as infantrymen.Conrad Totman. The Collapse of the Tokugawa Bakufu (1862–1868) p. 470: "The foreigners' arrival presented a radical new demand for a dramatic rise in the level of that absolute effectiveness, and the entire samurai class found that rise extremely hard to achieve because it required fundamental and humiliating changes in fighting techniques. To say it baldly, samurai did not want to become infantrymen." Historically, the quintessential samurai had been a mounted warrior. Making effective use of firearms required drilling, and drilling was historically done by ashigaru, not samurai.Conrad Totman. The Collapse of the Tokugawa Bakufu (1862–1868) p. 29: "For another thing the attempt to make firearms the main weapon of bakufu forces was confounded by the reluctance of men to drill like common foot soldiers and the failure of reformers to make that drill compulsory." The sword, namely the two-handed katana, was sacred to the samurai. It was not just a status symbol, it had spiritual significance. It was bad enough to be told that swords were obsolete and to stop training with them,Conrad Totman. The Collapse of the Tokugawa Bakufu (1862–1868) p. 259: "In line with the policy of total conversion to firearms, on 8/8 1866 Osaka officials instructed those at Edo to halt all practice with swords and pikes and switch instead to firearms." but to be forbidden from even carrying them was intolerable.
This led to sporadic samurai rebellions. The largest of these was the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877. Many disgruntled samurai flocked to Satsuma where the radical samurai Saigo Takamori had set up academies where he taught samurai the ways of modern war and his militant right-wing beliefs. The Meiji reforms of 1873 gave farmers ownership rights so that the government could tax them directly. This eliminated the traditional feudal role of the samurai landowners, of which Satsuma had an exceptionally high number. The Cambridge History of Japan Volume 5: The Nineteenth Century, p. 395: "In most fiefs the gōshi had lost their warrior status at the beginning of the Tokugawa period and were assimilated into the wealthy farmer ( gōnō) class. However, the Satsuma gōshi were accorded elite status and continued to think and act as warriors. ... More concretely, the 1873 land tax revision threatened their socioeconomic power in the village. By conferring ownership rights on peasant farmers and taxing individual proprietors, the Meiji land tax eliminated the feudal role of the Satsuma gōshi as petty overlords." Saigo therefore found a lot of sympathetic samurai in Satsuma. The imperial government feared an insurrection and sent a task force to disarm Takamori's growing paramilitary force. In response, Takamori marched his army on Tokyo. The rebel samurai were defeated by the imperial army, which was composed mostly of commoners. Both armies were equipped with modern weapons. After this rebellion was quashed, the Meiji government faced no further challenges to its authority.Ravina. To Stand with the Nations of the World, p. 196: "A primary cause of the 1877 rebellion was the government’s attack on samurai privilege."
In 1947, the shizoku class was abolished.
The translator of Hagakure, William Scott Wilson, observed examples of warrior emphasis on death in clans other than Yamamoto's: "he (Takeda Shingen) was a strict disciplinarian as a warrior, and there is an exemplary story in the Hagakure relating his execution of two brawlers, not because they had fought, but because they had not fought to the death".Wilson, p. 91
Literature on the subject of bushido such as Hagakure ("Hidden in Leaves") by Yamamoto Tsunetomo and Gorin no Sho ("Book of the Five Rings") by Miyamoto Musashi, both written in the Edo period, contributed to the development of bushidō and Zen philosophy.
According to Robert Sharf, "The notion that Zen is somehow related to Japanese culture in general, and bushidō in particular, is familiar to Western students of Zen through the writings of D. T. Suzuki, no doubt the single most important figure in the spread of Zen in the West."
However, despite the popular Western conception that Zen was important to all samurai, even at the height of Zen's prominence it remained merely one of many various Buddhist schools followed by the warrior caste. As Japanologist Martin Collcutt writes in Five Mountains: The Rinzai Zen Monastic Institution in Medieval Japan,
Even at the height of its influence in the last fourteenth century, Zen–including the more widely diffused Sōtō Zen–probably had still not replaced devotion to Kannon, Jizō Bodhisattva, the Lotus Sutra e.g., or the Pure Land of Amida in the hearts of most ordinary, and many high-ranking, Japanese samurai... Zen in the Kamakura and Muromachi periods can be called “the religion of the samurai” only in the sense that most patrons of Zen were samurai, not in the sense that it was practiced assiduously or exclusive by all, or even perhaps the majority, of those who would be described as warriors.
Waka poems were also used as . Hosokawa Gracia, Asano Naganori, and Takasugi Shinsaku are famous for their jisei no ku.
Noh and kemari were promoted by the Ashikaga shogunate and became popular among and samurai. During the Sengoku period, the appreciation of noh and the practice of tea ceremonies were valued for socializing and exchanging information, and were essential cultural pursuits for daimyo and samurai. The view of life and death expressed in noh plays was something the samurai of the time could relate to. Owning tea utensils used in the tea ceremony was a matter of prestige for daimyo and samurai, and in some cases tea utensils were given in exchange for land as a reward for military service. The was also used as a place for political meetings, as it was suitable for secret talks, and the tea ceremony sometimes brought together samurai and townspeople who did not normally interact.
Some samurai had buke bunko, or "warrior library", a personal library that held texts on strategy, the science of warfare, and other documents that would have proved useful during the warring era of feudal Japan. One such library held 20,000 volumes. The upper class had Kuge bunko, or "family libraries", that held classics, Buddhist sacred texts, and family histories, as well as genealogical records.Murray, S. (2009). The library : an illustrated history. New York: Skyhorse Pub.; Chicago : ALA Editions, 2009. p. 113
There were to Lord Eirin's character many high points difficult to measure, but according to the elders the foremost of these was the way he governed the province by his civility. It goes without saying that he acted this way toward those in the samurai class, but he was also polite in writing letters to the farmers and townspeople, and even in addressing these letters he was gracious beyond normal practice. In this way, all were willing to sacrifice their lives for him and become his allies.Wilson, p. 85
In a letter dated 29 January 1552, St Francis Xavier observed the ease of which the Japanese understood prayers due to the high level of literacy in Japan at that time:
In a letter to Father Ignatius Loyola at Rome, Xavier further noted the education of the upper classes:
The Nobles send their sons to monasteries to be educated as soon as they are 8 years old, and they remain there until they are 19 or 20, learning reading, writing and religion; as soon as they come out, they marry and apply themselves to politics.
For example, the full name of Oda Nobunaga was "Oda Kazusanosuke Saburo Nobunaga" (織田上総介三郎信長), in which "Oda" is a clan or family name, "Kazusanosuke" is a title of vice-governor of Kazusa province, "Saburo" is a formal nickname ( yobina), and "Nobunaga" is an adult name ( nanori) given at genpuku, the coming of age ceremony. A man was addressed by his family name and his title, or by his yobina if he did not have a title. However, the nanori was a private name that could be used by only a very few, including the emperor. Samurai could choose their own nanori and frequently changed their names to reflect their allegiances.
Samurai were given the privilege of carrying two swords and using 'samurai surnames' to identify themselves from the common people. (2026). 9780190932947, Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780190932947
A samurai could take , but their backgrounds were checked by higher-ranked samurai. In many cases, taking a concubine was akin to a marriage. Kidnapping a concubine, although common in fiction, would have been shameful, if not criminal. If the concubine was a commoner, a messenger was sent with betrothal money or a note for exemption of tax to ask for her parents' acceptance. Even though the woman would not be a legal wife, a situation normally considered a demotion, many wealthy merchants believed that being the concubine of a samurai was superior to being the legal wife of a commoner. When a merchant's daughter married a samurai, her family's money erased the samurai's debts, and the samurai's social status improved the standing of the merchant family. If a samurai's commoner concubine gave birth to a son, the son could inherit his father's social status.
A samurai could divorce his wife for a variety of reasons with approval from a superior, but divorce was, while not entirely nonexistent, a rare event. A wife's failure to produce a son was cause for divorce, but adoption of a male heir was considered an acceptable alternative to divorce. A samurai could divorce for personal reasons, even if he simply did not like his wife, but this was generally avoided as it would embarrass the person who had arranged the marriage. A woman could also arrange a divorce, although it would generally take the form of the samurai divorcing her. After a divorce, samurai had to return the betrothal money, which often prevented divorces.
A samurai's daughter's greatest duty was political marriage. These women married members of enemy clans of their families to form diplomatic relationships. These alliances were stages for many intrigues, wars and tragedies throughout Japanese history. A woman could divorce her husband if he did not treat her well and also if he was a traitor to his wife's family. A famous case was that of Oda Tokuhime (daughter of Oda Nobunaga); irritated by the antics of her mother-in-law, Lady Tsukiyama (the wife of Tokugawa Ieyasu), she was able to get Lady Tsukiyama arrested on suspicion of communicating with the Takeda clan (then a great enemy of Nobunaga and the Oda clan). Ieyasu also arrested his own son, Matsudaira Nobuyasu, who was Tokuhime's husband, because Nobuyasu was close to his mother Lady Tsukiyama. To assuage his ally Nobunaga, Ieyasu had Lady Tsukiyama executed in 1579 and that same year ordered his son to commit seppuku to prevent him from seeking revenge for the death of his mother.
Though women of wealthier samurai families enjoyed perks of their elevated position in society, such as avoiding the physical labor that those of lower classes often engaged in, they were still viewed as far beneath men. Women were prohibited from engaging in any political affairs and were usually not the heads of their household. This does not mean that women in the samurai class were always powerless. Samurai women wielded power at various occasions. Throughout history, several women of the samurai class have acquired political power and influence, even though they have not received these privileges de jure.
After Ashikaga Yoshimasa, 8th shōgun of the Muromachi shogunate, lost interest in politics, his wife Hino Tomiko largely ruled in his place. Nene, wife of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, was known to overrule her husband's decisions at times, and Yodo-dono, his concubine, became the de facto master of Osaka castle and the Toyotomi clan after Hideyoshi's death. Tachibana Ginchiyo was chosen to lead the Tachibana clan after her father's death. Yamauchi Chiyo, wife of Yamauchi Kazutoyo, has long been considered the ideal samurai wife. According to legend, she made her kimono out of a quilted patchwork of bits of old cloth and saved pennies to buy her husband a magnificent horse, on which he rode to many victories. The fact that Chiyo (though she is better known as "Wife of Yamauchi Kazutoyo") is held in such high esteem for her economic sense is illuminating in the light of the fact that she never produced an heir and the Yamauchi clan was succeeded by Kazutoyo's younger brother. The source of power for women might have been that samurai left their finances to their wives. Several women ascended the Chrysanthemum Throne as a female imperial ruler (女性天皇, josei tennō)
As the Tokugawa period progressed more value became placed on education, and the education of females beginning at a young age became important to families and society as a whole. Marriage criteria began to weigh intelligence and education as desirable attributes in a wife, right along with physical attractiveness. Though many of the texts written for women during the Tokugawa period only pertained to how a woman could become a successful wife and household manager, there were those that undertook the challenge of learning to read, and also tackled philosophical and literary classics. Nearly all women of the samurai class were literate by the end of the Tokugawa period.
Samurai figures have been the subject for legends, folk tales, dramatic stories (i.e. gunki monogatari), theatre productions in kabuki and noh, in literature, movies, animated and anime films, television shows, manga, video games, and in various musical pieces in genre that range from enka to J-Pop songs.
Jidaigeki (literally historical drama) has always been a staple program on Japanese movies and television. The programs typically feature a samurai. Samurai films and Western movie share a number of similarities, and the two have influenced each other over the years. One of Japan's most renowned directors, Akira Kurosawa, greatly influenced western film-making. George Lucas' Star Wars series incorporated many stylistic traits pioneered by Kurosawa, and takes the core story of a rescued princess being transported to a secret base from Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress. Kurosawa was inspired by the works of director John Ford, and in turn Kurosawa's works have been remade into westerns such as Seven Samurai into The Magnificent Seven and Yojimbo into A Fistful of Dollars. There is also a 26-episode anime adaptation ( Samurai 7) of Seven Samurai. Along with film, literature containing samurai influences are seen as well. As well as influence from American Westerns, Kurosawa also adapted two of Shakespeare's plays as sources for samurai movies: Throne of Blood was based on Macbeth, and Ran was based on King Lear.Roland Thorne, Samurai films (Oldcastle Books, 2010).
Most common are historical works where the protagonist is either a samurai or former samurai (or another rank or position) who possesses considerable martial skill. Eiji Yoshikawa is one of the most famous Japanese historical novelists. His retellings of popular works, including Taiko, Miyamoto Musashi and The Tale of the Heike, are popular among readers for their epic narratives and rich realism in depicting samurai and warrior culture. The samurai have also appeared frequently in Japanese comics (manga) and animation (anime). Examples are Samurai Champloo, Shigurui, Requiem from the Darkness, , and Afro Samurai. Samurai-like characters are not just restricted to historical settings, and a number of works set in the modern age, and even the future, include characters who live, train and fight like samurai. Some of these works have made their way to the west, where it has been increasing in popularity with America.
In the 21st century, samurai have become more popular in America. Through various media, producers and writers have been capitalizing on the notion that Americans admire the samurai lifestyle. The animated series, Afro Samurai, became well-liked in American popular culture because of its blend of hack-and-slash animation and gritty urban music. Created by Takashi Okazaki, Afro Samurai was initially a dōjinshi, or manga series, which was then made into an animated series by Studio Gonzo. In 2007, the animated series debuted on American cable television on the Spike TV channel. The series was produced for American viewers which "embodies the trend... comparing hip-hop artists to samurai warriors, an image some rappers claim for themselves".Charles Solomon, "Way of the sword" Los Angeles Times Feb 2, 2009 The story line keeps in tone with the perception of a samurai finding vengeance against someone who has wronged him. Because of its popularity, Afro Samurai was adopted into a full feature animated film and also became titles on gaming consoles such as the PlayStation 3 and Xbox. Not only has the samurai culture been adopted into animation and video games, it can also be seen in comic books.
The tokusatsu television series Samurai Sentai Shinkenger is inspired by the way of the samurai.*
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