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{{Short description| |
{{Short description|Warriors in pre-industrial Japan}} | ||
{{Other uses}} | {{Other uses}} | ||
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{{more citations needed|date= September 2021}} | |||
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}} | {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}} | ||
] in the 1860s |
] in the 1860s. ] by ]]] | ||
{{Nihongo|'''Samurai'''|]|}} were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of ] and ] Japan from the late 12th century to their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the ] (the great feudal landholders). They had high prestige and special privileges such as wearing two swords. They cultivated the ] codes of martial virtues, indifference to pain, and unflinching loyalty, engaging in many local battles. During the peaceful Edo era (1603 to 1868) they became the stewards and chamberlains of the daimyo estates, gaining managerial experience and education. In the 1870s samurai families comprised 5% of the population. The ] ended their feudal roles, and they moved into professional and entrepreneurial roles. Their memory and weaponry remain prominent in ]. | |||
{{Nihongo|'''Samurai'''|]}} or '''bushi''' (武士, ) were members of the warrior ] in ]. They were originally provincial warriors who served the ] and imperial court in the late 12th century, although it is debated when they became a class.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Jevsejevas |first1=Tomas |title=How did the Bushi evolve as a class ? |url=https://www.academia.edu/3438534/How_did_the_Bushi_evolve_as_a_class_}}</ref> These warrior eventually came to play a major political role until their abolition in the late 1870s during the ].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Vaporis |first1=Constantine Nomikos |title=Samurai An Encyclopedia of Japan's Cultured Warriors |date=14 March 2019 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=9798216141518 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iwTHEAAAQBAJ}}</ref><ref>Samurai: The Story of a Warrior Tradition, Harry Cook, Blandford Press 1993, ISBN 0713724323</ref> | |||
In the ], powerful regional clans were relied on to put down rebellions. After power struggles, the ] defeated the ] in ].<ref name="nhkgenpei">{{cite web|url=https://www.nhk.or.jp/kokokoza/nihonshi/assets/memo/memo_0000000570.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240314105156/https://www.nhk.or.jp/kokokoza/nihonshi/assets/memo/memo_0000000570.pdf|script-title=ja:平氏政権の登場|language=ja|publisher=]|date=|archive-date=14 March 2024|access-date=14 March 2024}}</ref> After the Minamoto defeated the Taira in ], ] established the ], a parallel government that did not surplant the imperial court.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Spafford |first1=David |title=Emperor and Shogun, Pope and King: The Development of Japan's Warrior Aristocracy |journal=Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts |date=2014 |volume=88 |issue=1/4 |pages=10–19 |doi=10.1086/DIA43493624 |jstor=43493624 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43493624}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Shigekazu |first1=Kondo |title="The 'Horse-Race' for the Throne: Court, Shogunate, and Imperial Succession in Early Medieval Japan," |work=Die ‚Alleinherrschaft‘ der russischen Zaren in der ‚Zeit der Wirren‘ in transkultureller Perspektive |date=2021 |page=105 |publisher=Göttingen: V&R unipress |url=https://www.academia.edu/68103696}}</ref> The warriors who served the Shogunate were called gokenin, landholding warriors whose retainers were called samurai.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Conlan |first1=Thomas |title=The Rise of Warriors During the Warring States Period. |work=Japan: Past and Present, published by the Axel and Margarate Ax:son Johnson Foundation. (Stockholm), pp. 314-27 |date=2020 |publisher=Axel and Margarate Ax:son Johnson Foundation |location=Stockholm |url=https://www.academia.edu/42268590}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Deal |first1=William |title=Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan |date=2007 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780195331264 }}</ref> Gokenin were regulated by the ]. | |||
During the ], the term was vague and some samurai owned land, others were retainers or mercenaries.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cummins |first1=Anthony |title=In Search of the Ninja |date=2012 |publisher=History Press |isbn=9780752483559}}</ref> Many served as retainers to lords (including '']'').{{citation needed|date=November 2024}} There was a great increase in the number of men who styled themselves samurai by virtue of bearing arms.<ref>{{cite book | last=Birt | first=Michael P. | editor-last=Kleinschmidt | editor-first=Harald | title=Warfare in Japan | date=2017 | publisher=Routledge | chapter=Samurai in Passage: The Transformation of the Sixteenth-Century Kanto |orig-date=1st pub. 1985 | page = 338 | isbn=9780754625179}}</ref> During the ], 1603 to 1868, they were mainly the stewards and chamberlains of the ''daimyo'' estates, roles they had also filled in the past. During the Edo period, they came to represent a hereditary class.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Howland |first=Douglas R. |date=May 2001 |title=Samurai Status, Class, and Bureaucracy: A Historiographical Essay |url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/journal-of-asian-studies/article/60/2/353/338440 |journal=The Journal of Asian Studies |language=en |volume=60 |issue=2 |pages=353–380 |doi=10.2307/2659697 |jstor=2659697 |issn=0021-9118}}</ref> On the other hand, from the mid-Edo period, {{nihongo3|townsman||]}} and farmers could be promoted to the samurai class by being adopted into {{nihongo3|||]}} families or by serving in {{nihongo3|||]}} offices, and low-ranking samurai could be transferred to lower social classes, such as ''chōnin'', by changing jobs.<ref name="yamamoto">{{cite web|url=https://imidas.jp/jidaigeki/detail/L-57-110-08-04-G252.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240719202919/https://imidas.jp/jidaigeki/detail/L-57-110-08-04-G252.html|script-title=ja:武士(ぶし)/侍(さむらい)|language=ja|publisher=]|date=|archive-date=19 July 2024|access-date=19 July 2024}}</ref><ref name="ocha"/> | |||
In the 1870s, samurai families comprised 5% of the population.{{citation needed|date=August 2024}} As modern militaries emerged in the 19th century, the samurai were rendered increasingly obsolete and very expensive to maintain compared to the average conscript soldier. The ] formally abolished the status, and most former samurai became ]. This allowed them to move into professional and entrepreneurial roles. | |||
==Terminology== | ==Terminology== | ||
In Japanese, |
In Japanese, historical warriors are usually referred to as {{nihongo|'''''bushi'''''|武士||extra={{IPA|ja|bɯ.ɕi||}}}}, meaning 'warrior', or {{nihongo|'''''buke'''''|武家}}, meaning 'military family'. According to translator ]: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning 'to wait upon', 'accompany persons' in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, '']''. In both countries the terms were nominalized to mean 'those who serve in close attendance to the nobility', the Japanese term '']'' being the nominal form of the verb." According to Wilson, an early reference to the word ''saburai'' appears in the '']'', the first imperial anthology of poems, completed in the early 900s.<ref name="Wilson 1985 17">{{Cite book |last=Wilson |first=William Scott |title=Ideals of the Samurai: Writings of Japanese Warriors |publisher=Black Belt Books |year=1985 |isbn=978-0-89750-081-4 |location=United States |page=17 |oclc=634240939}}</ref> | ||
The proper term for Japanese warriors is {{nihongo|'''''bushi'''''|武士||extra={{IPA|ja|bɯ.ɕi||}}}}, meaning 'warrior',<ref name="History of the Samurai">{{cite book |last1=Lopez-Vera |first1=Jonathan |title=History of the Samurai |date=2020 |publisher=Tuttle |isbn=9781462921348 }}</ref> but also could be interchangeable with {{nihongo|'''''buke'''''|武家}}, meaning 'military family', and later could refer to the whole class of professional warriors.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Louis-Frédéric |title=Japan encyclopedia |date=2002 |publisher=Belknap Press of Harvard University Press |isbn=9780674017535 }}</ref> Especially in the west, samurai is used synonymous with bushi, but they can have different meanings depending on context.<ref>{{cite book |title=World History Encyclopedia Band 2 |date=2011 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=9781851099306}}</ref> | |||
By the end of the 12th century, ''samurai'' became almost entirely synonymous with ''bushi'', and the word was closely associated with the middle and upper echelons of the warrior class. The samurai were usually associated with a ] and their lord, and were trained as officers in military tactics and grand strategy. While the samurai numbered less than 10% of then Japan's population,<ref>" {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090929090922/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/520850/samurai |date=29 September 2009}}". Encyclopædia Britannica.</ref> their teachings can still be found today in both everyday life and in modern ]. | |||
Samurai originally meant servant to nobility, and did not have military connotations, although bushi in the Heian period who served courtiers were called samurai.<ref name="Wilson 1985 17"/><ref name="History of the Samurai"/> According to Michael Wert, "a warrior of elite stature in pre-seventeenth-century Japan would have been insulted to be called a 'samurai'".<ref>{{Citation |last=Wert |first=Michael |title=Becoming those who served |date=2021-04-01 |work=Samurai: A Very Short Introduction |pages=4–11 |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/32797/chapter/274542399 |access-date=2024-07-05 |edition=1 |publisher=Oxford University Press |language=en |doi=10.1093/actrade/9780190685072.003.0002 |isbn=978-0-19-068507-2}}</ref> In the Tokugawa period, the terms were roughly interchangeable, as the military class was legally limited to the retainers of the Shogun or Daimyo. However, strictly speaking samurai referred to higher ranking retainers, although the cut off between samurai and other military retainers varied from domain to domain.<ref name="Vaporis">{{cite book |last=Vaporis |first=Constantine Nomikos |title=Samurai. An Encyclopedia of Japan's Cultured Warriors |date=2019 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-4408-4270-2 |publication-place=Santa Barbara, California |page=114}}</ref> Also usage varied by class, with commoners referring to all sword carrying men as samurai, regardless of rank.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tokitsu |first1=Kenji |title=Introduction to the Complete Book of Five Rings |date=2010 |publisher=Shambhala |isbn=9780834821996 }}</ref> | |||
==History== | |||
In modern usage, ''bushi'' is often used as a synonym for ''samurai''.<ref><span class="book">'''1988''', <cite>{{lang|ja|国語大辞典(新装版)}} (Kokugo Dai Jiten, Revised Edition)</cite> (in Japanese), ]: ]</span></ref><ref><span class="book">'''1995''', <cite>{{lang|ja|大辞泉}} ('']'')</cite> (in Japanese), ]: ], {{ISBN|4-09-501211-0}}</span></ref><ref><span class="book">'''2006''', <cite>{{lang|ja|大辞林}} ('']'')</cite>, Third Edition (in Japanese), ]: ], {{ISBN|4-385-13905-9}}</span></ref> | |||
=== The changing definition of "samurai" === | |||
The definition of "samurai" varies from period to period. From the ] to the ], ''bushi'' were people who fought with weapons for a living.<ref name="nagoya170524">{{cite web|url=https://www.meihaku.jp/sword-basic/bushi-samurai/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240517073025/https://www.meihaku.jp/sword-basic/bushi-samurai/|script-title=ja:武士と侍(サムライ)の違い|language=ja|publisher=The Nagoya Japanese Sword Museum Nagoya Touken World|date=|archive-date=17 May 2024|access-date=17 May 2024}}</ref><ref name="nagoya200920">{{cite web|url=https://www.touken-world.jp/tips/21046/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200920113308/https://www.touken-world.jp/tips/21046/|script-title=ja:武士の上位階級 侍とは|language=ja|publisher=The Nagoya Japanese Sword Museum Nagoya Touken World|date=|archive-date=20 September 2020|access-date=17 May 2024}}</ref> In the Heian period, on the other hand, the definition of samurai referred to officials who served the emperor, the imperial family, and the nobles of the imperial court, the upper echelons of society. They were responsible for assisting the nobles in their daily duties, guarding the nobles, guarding the court, arresting bandits, and suppressing civil wars, much like secretaries, butlers, and police officers today.<ref name="nagoya170524"/><ref name="nagoya200920"/> Samurai in this period referred to the {{nihongo|Fifth||go-i}} and {{nihongo|Sixth Ranks||roku-i}} of the ]. | |||
During the ], the definition of samurai became synonymous with {{nihongo3||御家人|]}}, which refers to ''bushi'' who owned territory and served the ]. However, some samurai of exceptional status, {{nihongo3||]|hi-gokenin}}, did not serve the shogun. Subordinate ''bushi'' in the service of the samurai were called {{nihongo3||]|rōtō, rōdō}} or {{nihongo3||郎従|rōjū}}. Some of the ''rōtō'' were given a territory and a family name, and as {{nihongo3||侍品|samuraihon or saburaibon}}, they acquired a status equivalent to that of a samurai. In other words, a high-ranking person among the ''bushi'' was called a samurai.<ref name="nagoya170524"/><ref name="nagoya200920"/> | |||
During the ], as in the Kamakura period, the definition of samurai referred to high-ranking ''bushi'' in the service of the shogun. ''Bushi'' serving {{nihongo3|feudal lords|守護大名|]}} were not considered samurai. Those who did not serve a particular lord, such as the {{nihongo3||浪人|]}}, who were vagabonds, the {{nihongo3||]|nobushi}}, who were armed peasants, and the {{nihongo3||足軽|]}}, who were temporarily hired foot soldiers, were not considered samurai.<ref name="nagoya170524"/><ref name="nagoya200920"/> | |||
During the ], the traditional master-servant relationship in Japanese society collapsed, and the traditional definition of samurai changed dramatically. Samurai no longer referred to those serving the shogun or emperor, and anyone who distinguished themselves in war could become samurai regardless of their social status.<ref name="nagoya200920"/> {{nihongo3||地侍|]}} came from the powerful {{nihongo3||]|myōshu}}, who owned farmland and held leadership positions in their villages, and became vassals of {{nihongo3||戦国大名|]}}. Their status was half farmer, half ''bushi'' (samurai).<ref name="ndjiza">{{cite web|url=https://crd.ndl.go.jp/reference/entry/index.php?id=1000314356&page=ref_view|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240728000706/https://crd.ndl.go.jp/reference/entry/index.php?id=1000314356&page=ref_view|script-title=ja:戦国時代に帰農した武士はいたか、知りたい。|language=ja|publisher=]|date=|archive-date=28 July 2024|access-date=28 July 2024}}</ref> On the other hand, it also referred to local ''bushi'' who did not serve the shogun or ''daimyo''. According to Stephen Morillo, during this period the term refers to "a retainer of a lord - usually ... the retainer of a ''daimyo"'' and that the term ''samurai'' "marks social function and not class", and "all sorts of soldiers, including pikemen, bowmen, musketeers and horsemen were samurai".<ref name=":2">Morillo, Stephen. “.” In ''The Normans and Their Adversaries at War'', ed. Richard Abels and Bernard Bachrach, 167–84. Woodbridge: Boydell, 2001.</ref> | |||
During the ] (late Sengoku period), "samurai" often referred to {{nihongo3||若党|wakatō}}, the lowest-ranking ''bushi'', as exemplified by the provisions of the temporary law ] enacted by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1591. This law regulated the transfer of status classes:samurai (''wakatō''), {{nihongo3||中間|chūgen}}, {{nihongo3||小者|komono}}, and {{nihongo3||]|arashiko}}. These four classes and the ''ashigaru'' were {{nihongo3|townspeople|町人|]}} and peasants employed by the ''bushi'' and fell under the category of {{nihongo3|servants of the ''buke''|]|buke hōkōnin}}.<ref name="asukak">{{cite web|url=https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/aichikenshikenkyu/5/0/5_123/_pdf/-char/ja|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240719201334/https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/aichikenshikenkyu/5/0/5_123/_pdf/-char/ja|script-title=ja:天正拾九年六月廿三日付 豊臣秀次条目について|page=126|language=ja|publisher=]/]|date=|archive-date=19 July 2024|access-date=19 July 2024}}</ref><ref name="yamamoto"/> 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.<ref name="asukak"/><ref name="yamamoto2">{{cite web|url=https://imidas.jp/jidaigeki/detail/L-57-114-08-04-G252.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240719201412/https://imidas.jp/jidaigeki/detail/L-57-114-08-04-G252.html|script-title=ja:若党(わかとう)/中間(ちゅうげん)|language=ja|publisher=Shūeisha|date=|archive-date=19 July 2024|access-date=19 July 2024}}</ref> ''Wakatō'', like samurai, had different definitions in different periods, meaning a young ''bushi'' in the Muromachi period and a rank below {{nihongo3||]|kachi}} and above ''ashigaru'' in the Edo period. | |||
In the early ], even some {{nihongo3|feudal lords|大名|]}} with territories of 10,000 '']'' or more called themselves samurai.<ref name="yamamoto"/> At the beginning of the ], there was no clear distinction between {{nihongo3||旗本|]}} and ''gokenin'', which referred to direct vassals of the shogun, but from the second half of the 17th century a distinction was made between ''hatamoto'', direct vassals with territories of 10,000 ''koku'' or less who were entitled to an audience with the shogun, and ''gokenin'', those without such rights. Samurai referred to ''hatamoto'' in the Tokugawa shogunate and to {{nihongo3||]|chūkoshō}} or higher status ''bushi'' in each {{nihongo3|domains|藩|]}}. During this period, most ''bushi'' came to serve the shogun and the ''daimyo'' of each domains, and as the distinction between ''bushi'' and ''chōnin'' or peasants became stricter, the boundaries between the definitions of samurai and ''bushi'' became blurred. Since then, the term "samurai" has been used to refer to "''bushi''".<ref name="nagoya170524"/><ref name="nagoya200920"/> Officially, however, the high-ranking ''bushi'' were called samurai and the low-ranking bushi were called {{nihongo3||]|kachi}}. Samurai and ''kachi'' were represented by the word {{nihongo3||]|shibun}}, a status that can be translated as warrior class, ''bushi'' class, or samurai class. Samurai were entitled to an audience with their lord, were allowed to ride horses, and received rice from the land and peasants under their control, while ''kachi'' were not entitled to an audience with their lord, guarded their lord on foot, and received rice from the stores of the shogunate and each domain. ''Gokenin'', the status of ''kachi'', were financially impoverished and supported themselves by making bamboo handicrafts and umbrellas and selling plants. The ''shibun'' status of samurai and ''kachi'' was clearly distinguished from the {{nihongo3||軽輩|keihai}} status of the ''ashigaru'' and ''chūgen'' who served them, but it was more difficult to rise from ''kachi'' to samurai than from ''ashigaru'' to ''kachi'', and the status gap between samurai, who were high-ranking ''bushi'', and ''kachi'', who were low-ranking ''bushi'', was quite wide. During the Edo Period, samurai represented a hereditary social class defined by the right to bear arms and to hold public office, as well as high social status.<ref name=":3" /> From the mid-Edo period, ''chōnin'' and farmers could be promoted to the samurai class by being adopted into ''gokenin'' families, or by serving in {{nihongo3|||]}} offices, and ''kachi'' could be transferred to lower social classes, such as ''chōnin'', by changing jobs. | |||
==History== | |||
===Asuka and Nara periods=== | ===Asuka and Nara periods=== | ||
] helmet, gilt copper, 5th century, ] |
] helmet, gilt copper, 5th century, ]]] | ||
As part of the ] of 702, and the later ],<ref name="HOJ GS">''A History of Japan'', Vol. 3 and 4, George Samson, Tuttle Publishing, 2000.</ref> the population was required to report regularly for the census, a precursor for national conscription. With an understanding of how the population was distributed, ] introduced a law whereby 1 in 3–4 adult males were drafted into the state military. These soldiers were required to supply their own weapons, and in return were exempted from duties and taxes.<ref name="HW">William Wayne Farris, ''Heavenly Warriors – The Evolution of Japan's Military, 500–1300'', ], 1995. {{ISBN|0-674-38704-X}}</ref> | |||
The Taihō Code classified most of the Imperial bureaucrats into 12 ranks, each divided into two sub-ranks, 1st rank being the highest adviser to the emperor. Those of 6th rank and below were referred to as "samurai" and dealt with day-to-day affairs. Although these "samurai" were civilian public servants, the modern word is believed{{by whom|date=September 2010}} to have derived from this term. Military men, however, would not be referred to as "samurai" for many more centuries. | |||
The Taihō Code classified most Imperial bureaucrats into 12 ranks, each divided into two sub-ranks, 1st rank being the highest adviser to the emperor. Those of 6th rank and below were referred to as "samurai" and dealt with day-to-day affairs and were initially civilian public servants, in keeping with the original derivation of this word from {{transliteration|ja|saburau}}, a verb meaning 'to serve'.<ref name="SMK5">'']'', fifth edition, 1997</ref> | |||
===Heian period=== | ===Heian period=== | ||
] ''Sanjō Kokaji'', the 10th-century blacksmith Munechika, aided by a ], forges the '']'' (samurai sword) ''Ko-Gitsune Maru''.]] | ] ''Sanjō Kokaji'', the 10th-century blacksmith Munechika, aided by a ], forges the '']'' (samurai sword) ''Ko-Gitsune Maru''.]] | ||
] | |||
] | |||
In the early ], during the late 8th and early 9th centuries, ] sought to consolidate and expand his rule in northern ] and sent military campaigns against the ], who resisted the governance of the ]-based imperial court. Emperor Kanmu introduced the title of ''sei'i-taishōgun'' ({{lang|ja|征夷大将軍}}), or '']'', and began to rely on the powerful ] to conquer the Emishi. Skilled in mounted combat and archery (]), these clan warriors became the emperor's preferred tool for putting down rebellions; the most well-known of which was ]. Though this is the first known use of the title ''shōgun'', it was a temporary title and was not imbued with political power until the 13th century. At this time (the 7th to 9th centuries), officials considered them to be merely a military section under the control of the ]. | |||
In 792, the gundan, or provincial garrisons, in most of the country were abolished. This was a part of a shift from general conscription to conscripting only the rural elite. This came after the garrisons had their numbers reduced and recruitment focused on skilled horse archers.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Friday |first1=Karl |title=Teeth and Claws. Provincial Warriors and the Heian Court |journal=Monumenta Nipponica |date=1988 |volume=43 |pages=153–185 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2384742?read-now=1&seq=4#page_scan_tab_contents}}</ref> Another principle of the Ritsuryō system had already begun to be abandoned. All the land belonged to the state, and had been distributed on a per capita basis to farmers. However, in 743, farmers were allowed to cultivate reclaimed land in perpetuity. This allowed clan leaders, especially those with lots of slaves, to acquire large amounts of land. Members of the Imperial family, the Kuge and Temples and Shrines received grants of tax-free land. In the 9th Century, the farmers began to give their land over to the nobility in order to avoid taxes. They would then administer and work the land for a payment of rice. This also reduced the wealth of the Emperor, as he had no private land and was dependent on tax income.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Inoue |first1=Kiyoshi |title=Geschichte Japans |date=1993 |publisher=Campus Verlag |isbn=3-593-34845-4}}</ref> | |||
] armor, carrying a bow ('']'') and arrows in an '']'' quiver]] | |||
] attacking an opponent on horseback (])]] | |||
Ultimately, Emperor Kanmu disbanded his army. From this time, the emperor's power gradually declined. While the emperor was still the ruler, powerful clans around Kyoto assumed positions as ministers, and their relatives bought positions as ]s. To amass wealth and repay their debts, magistrates often imposed heavy taxes, resulting in many farmers becoming landless.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Baofu |first1=Peter |title=The future of post-human martial arts a preface to a new theory of the body and spirit of warriors |date=2009 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars |location=Newcastle |isbn=978-1443815864}}</ref> Through protective agreements and political marriages, the aristocrats accumulated political power, eventually surpassing the ].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.countriesquest.com/asia/japan/history/the_heian_aristocracy/aristocratic_control.htm |title=Aristocratic Control, The Heian Aristocracy, History, Japan, Asia - Taika reforms, clan chieftain, sesshu, shoen, land redistribution |website=www.countriesquest.com |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170212163703/http://www.countriesquest.com/asia/japan/history/the_heian_aristocracy/aristocratic_control.htm |archive-date=12 February 2017}}</ref> | |||
Warriors in the provinces formed networks for mutual protection at the same time court officials and monataries also established private military entourages.<ref name="Hired Swords">{{cite book |last1=Friday |first1=Karl |title=Hired Swords The Rise of Private Warrior Power in Early Japan |date=1992 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=9780804726962 |page=94 |url=https://www.google.de/books/edition/Hired_Swords/iNc89Xvh-D0C?hl=en&gbpv=0}}</ref> These networks allowed the formation of large private armies as warrior leaders with hundreds of followers could combine forces. These networks were organized vertically, with a prominent figure (such as ])) partnering with lowing ranking warriors.<ref name="Hired Swords">{{cite book |last1=Friday |first1=Karl |title=Hired Swords The Rise of Private Warrior Power in Early Japan |date=1992 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=9780804726962 |page=98 |url=https://www.google.de/books/edition/Hired_Swords/iNc89Xvh-D0C?hl=en&gbpv=0}}</ref> Gradually, the Court began to rely more and more on these private warrior bands instead of the milita. New military and police posts were created to legitmatize the warrior leaders who were then given military responibilites. These leaders often delegated tasks to their followers.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Karl |first1=Friday |title=Once and Future Warriors: The Samurai in Japanese History |url=https://www.asianstudies.org/publications/eaa/archives/once-and-future-warriors-the-samurai-in-japanese-history/ |website=Association for Asian Studies |publisher=Association for Asian Studies}}</ref> | |||
The Heian period saw the appearance of distinctive ] and weapons. Typical examples are the {{transliteration|ja|]}} (long sword) and {{transliteration|ja|]}} (halberd) used in close combat, and the {{transliteration|ja|]}} and {{transliteration|ja|]}} styles of armor. High-ranking samurai equipped with {{transliteration|ja|]}} (bows) who fought on horseback wore {{transliteration|ja|ō-yoroi}}, while lower-ranking samurai equipped with {{transliteration|ja|naginata}} who fought on foot wore {{transliteration|ja|dō-maru}}.<ref name = "o-yoroi"> Costume Museum</ref> | |||
Some clans were originally formed by farmers who had taken up arms to protect themselves from the imperial magistrates sent to govern their lands and collect taxes. These clans formed alliances to protect themselves against more powerful clans, and by the mid-Heian period, they had adopted ] and ]. | |||
=== |
=== The Kamakura shogunate === | ||
]'' armor, ]. ].]] | |||
Two leading Samurai houses, the Minamoto and the Taira had both gained court postions and became rivals. During the ] the Taira gained the upper hand and killed or exiled many members of the Minamoto family. After that Taira Kiyomori, practically controlled the court. This lasted till an imperial succession dispute resulted in a rebellion by Prince Mochihito. The exiled Minamoto Yoritomo joined the rebellion, and promised to guarantee lands and administrative rights to warriors who sworn allegiance to him. This usurped the role of the Court, and also effectively created an independent state in eastern Japan. However, Yoritomo did not fight for independence of his state, but negotiated for court recognition of many of the legal powers that he had usurped. At the end of the Gempei War, this resulted in the foundation of the Kamakura regime.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Karl |first1=Friday |title=Once and Future Warriors: The Samurai in Japanese History |url=https://www.asianstudies.org/publications/eaa/archives/once-and-future-warriors-the-samurai-in-japanese-history/ |website=Association for Asian Studies |publisher=Association for Asian Studies}}</ref> | |||
In 1185, Yoritomo obtained the right to appoint '']'' and '']'', and was allowed to organize soldiers and police, and to collect a certain amount of tax.<ref name="toyo090616">{{cite web|url=https://toyokeizai.net/articles/-/120599?page=4|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220509123300/https://toyokeizai.net/articles/-/120599?page=4|script-title=ja:鎌倉幕府は何年に成立?正解を言えますか|language=ja|publisher=Toyo keizai|date=9 June 2016|archive-date=9 May 2022|access-date=9 March 2024}}</ref> Initially, their responsibility was restricted to arresting rebels and collecting needed army provisions and they were forbidden from interfering with '']'' officials, but their responsibility gradually expanded. Thus, the warrior class began to gradually gain poltical power.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Karl |first1=Friday |title=Once and Future Warriors: The Samurai in Japanese History |url=https://www.asianstudies.org/publications/eaa/archives/once-and-future-warriors-the-samurai-in-japanese-history/ |website=Association for Asian Studies |publisher=Association for Asian Studies}}</ref> | |||
]'' armor, ]. ].]] | |||
The ] (1185–1333) saw the rise of the samurai under shogun rule as they were "entrusted with the security of the estates" and were symbols of the ideal warrior and citizen.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kishida |first1=Tom |last2=Mishina |first2=Kenji |title=The Yasukuni Swords: Rare Weapons of Japan, 1933-1945 |date=2004 |publisher=Kodansha International |location=Tokyo; New York |isbn=4770027540 |page=42 |edition=1st}}</ref> Originally, the emperor and non-warrior nobility employed these warrior nobles. In time they amassed enough manpower, resources and political backing, in the form of alliances with one another, to establish the first samurai-dominated government. As the power of these regional clans grew, their chief was typically a distant relative of the emperor and a lesser member of either the ], ], or ] clan. Though originally sent to provincial areas for fixed four-year terms as magistrates, the ''toryo'' declined to return to the capital when their terms ended, and their sons inherited their positions and continued to lead the clans in putting down rebellions throughout Japan during the middle- and later-Heian period. Because of their rising military and economic power, the warriors ultimately became a new force in the politics of the imperial court. Their involvement in the ] in the late Heian period consolidated their power, which later pitted the rivalry of Minamoto and Taira clans against each other in the ] of 1160. | |||
In 1190 he visited Kyoto and in 1192 became '']'', establishing the Kamakura shogunate, or ''Kamakura bakufu''. Instead of ruling from Kyoto, he ] in ], near his base of power. "Bakufu" means "tent government", taken from the encampments the soldiers lived in, in accordance with the Bakufu's status as a military government.<ref>Wilson, p. 15</ref> | |||
The victor, ], became an imperial advisor and was the first warrior to attain such a position. He eventually seized control of the central government, establishing the first samurai-dominated government and relegating the emperor to figurehead status. However, the Taira clan was still very conservative when compared to its eventual successor, the Minamoto, and instead of expanding or strengthening its military might, the clan had its women marry emperors and exercise control through the emperor. | |||
] illustration).]] | |||
] gather to defend against ]'s Mongolian army during the first Mongol Invasion of Japan, 1274]] | |||
The ] (1185–1333) saw the rise of the samurai under shogun rule as they were "entrusted with the security of the estates" and were symbols of the ideal warrior and citizen.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kishida |first1=Tom |last2=Mishina |first2=Kenji |title=The Yasukuni Swords: Rare Weapons of Japan, 1933–1945 |date=2004 |publisher=Kodansha International |location=Tokyo; New York |isbn=4-7700-2754-0 |page=42 |edition=1st}}</ref> Originally, the emperor and non-warrior nobility employed these warrior nobles. In time they amassed enough manpower, resources and political backing, in the form of alliances with one another, to establish the first samurai-dominated government. As the power of these regional clans grew, their chief was typically a distant relative of the emperor and a lesser member of either the ], ], or ] clan. | |||
The Taira and the Minamoto clashed again in 1180, beginning the ], which ended in 1185. Samurai fought at the naval ], at the Shimonoseki Strait which separates Honshu and ] in 1185. The victorious ] established the superiority of the samurai over the aristocracy. In 1190 he visited Kyoto and in 1192 became '']'', establishing the Kamakura shogunate, or ''Kamakura bakufu''. Instead of ruling from Kyoto, he ] in ], near his base of power. "Bakufu" means "tent government", taken from the encampments the soldiers would live in, in accordance with the Bakufu's status as a military government.<ref>Wilson, p. 15</ref> | |||
In the late Kamakura period, even the most senior samurai began to wear {{transliteration|ja|dō-maru}}, as the heavy and elegant {{transliteration|ja|ō-yoroi}} were no longer respected. Until then, the body was the only part of the {{transliteration|ja|dō-maru}} that was protected, but for higher-ranking samurai, the {{transliteration|ja|dō-maru}} also came with a {{transliteration|ja|]}} (helmet) and shoulder guards.<ref name = "o-yoroi"/> For lower-ranked samurai, the {{transliteration|ja|]}} was introduced, the simplest style of armor that protected only the front of the torso and the sides of the abdomen. In the late Kamakura period, a new type of armor called {{transliteration|ja|]}} appeared, in which the two ends of the {{transliteration|ja|haraate}} were extended to the back to provide greater protection.<ref> Nagoya Japanese Sword Museum Nagoya Touken World.</ref> | |||
After the Genpei war, Yoritomo obtained the right to appoint '']'' and '']'', and was allowed to organize soldiers and police, and to collect a certain amount of tax. Initially, their responsibility was restricted to arresting rebels and collecting needed army provisions and they were forbidden from interfering with '']'' officials, but their responsibility gradually expanded. Thus, the samurai class became the political ruling power in Japan. | |||
=== The Mongol invasions === | |||
<gallery class="center" widths="305" heights="150"> | |||
File:Mōko Shūrai Ekotoba e2.jpg|Samurai of the ] gather to defend against ]'s Mongolian army during the first ]. | |||
File:Battle of Yashima Folding Screens Kano School.jpg|] folding screens | |||
</gallery> | |||
===Ashikaga shogunate and the Mongol invasions=== | |||
{{See also|Mongol invasions of Japan}} | {{See also|Mongol invasions of Japan}} | ||
Various samurai clans struggled for power during the ] |
Various samurai clans struggled for power during the ]. ] spread among the samurai in the 13th century and helped shape their standards of conduct, particularly in overcoming the fear of death and killing. Among the general populace ] was favored however. | ||
In 1274, the Mongol-founded ] in China sent a force of some 40,000 men and 900 ships to invade Japan in northern Kyūshū. Japan mustered a mere 10,000 samurai to meet this threat. The invading army was harassed by major thunderstorms throughout the invasion, which aided the defenders by inflicting heavy casualties. The Yuan army was eventually recalled, and the invasion was called off. The Mongol invaders used small bombs, which was likely the first appearance of bombs and gunpowder in Japan. | In 1274, the Mongol-founded ] in China sent a force of some 40,000 men and 900 ships to invade Japan in northern ]. Japan mustered a mere 10,000 samurai to meet this threat. The invading army was harassed by major thunderstorms throughout the invasion, which aided the defenders by inflicting heavy casualties. The Yuan army was eventually recalled, and the invasion was called off. The Mongol invaders used small bombs, which was likely the first appearance of bombs and gunpowder in Japan. | ||
] of the ] (right) |
] of the ] (right) assaults the Mongolian and Korean invasion army (left) at the ], 1274.]] | ||
The Japanese defenders recognized the possibility of a renewed invasion and began construction of a ] around ] in 1276. Completed in 1277, this wall stretched for 20 kilometers around |
The Japanese defenders recognized the possibility of a renewed invasion and began construction of a ] around ] in 1276. Completed in 1277, this wall stretched for 20 kilometers around the bay. It later served as a strong defensive point against the Mongols. The Mongols attempted to settle matters in a diplomatic way from 1275 to 1279, but every envoy sent to Japan was executed. | ||
Leading up to the second Mongolian invasion, ] continued to send emissaries to Japan, with five diplomats sent in September 1275 to Kyūshū. ], the ] of the Kamakura shogun, responded by having the Mongolian diplomats brought to Kamakura and then beheading them.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/japanitshistory00reedgoog |page= |quote=tokimune behead. |title=Japan: Its History, Traditions, and Religions: With the Narrative of a Visit in 1879 |first=Sir Edward James |last=Reed |date=17 April 1880 |publisher=J. Murray |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> The graves of the five executed Mongol emissaries exist to this day in Kamakura at Tatsunokuchi.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kamakura-burabura.com/meisyoenosimajyourituji.htm |title=常立寺|website=www.kamakura-burabura.com}}</ref> On 29 July 1279, five more emissaries were sent by the Mongol empire, and again beheaded, this time in ]. This continued defiance of the Mongol emperor set the stage for one of the most famous engagements in Japanese history. | Leading up to the second Mongolian invasion, ] continued to send emissaries to Japan, with five diplomats sent in September 1275 to Kyūshū. ], the ] of the Kamakura shogun, responded by having the Mongolian diplomats brought to Kamakura and then beheading them.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/japanitshistory00reedgoog |page= |quote=tokimune behead. |title=Japan: Its History, Traditions, and Religions: With the Narrative of a Visit in 1879 |first=Sir Edward James |last=Reed |date=17 April 1880 |publisher=J. Murray |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> The graves of the five executed Mongol emissaries exist to this day in Kamakura at Tatsunokuchi.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kamakura-burabura.com/meisyoenosimajyourituji.htm |title=常立寺|website=www.kamakura-burabura.com}}</ref> On 29 July 1279, five more emissaries were sent by the Mongol empire, and again beheaded, this time in ]. This continued defiance of the Mongol emperor set the stage for one of the most famous engagements in Japanese history. | ||
Line 57: | Line 84: | ||
In 1281, a Yuan army of 140,000 men with 5,000 ships was mustered for another invasion of Japan. Northern Kyūshū was defended by a Japanese army of 40,000 men. The Mongol army was still on its ships preparing for the landing operation when a typhoon hit north Kyūshū island. The casualties and damage inflicted by the typhoon, followed by the Japanese defense of the Hakata Bay barrier, resulted in the Mongols again being defeated. | In 1281, a Yuan army of 140,000 men with 5,000 ships was mustered for another invasion of Japan. Northern Kyūshū was defended by a Japanese army of 40,000 men. The Mongol army was still on its ships preparing for the landing operation when a typhoon hit north Kyūshū island. The casualties and damage inflicted by the typhoon, followed by the Japanese defense of the Hakata Bay barrier, resulted in the Mongols again being defeated. | ||
{{Wide image|Takezaki suenaga ekotoba bourui.jpg|1000px|Samurai and defensive wall at ] defending against the Second Mongolian Invasion. Moko Shurai Ekotoba, (蒙古襲来絵詞) {{circa|1293}}|center}} | {{Wide image|Takezaki suenaga ekotoba bourui.jpg|1000px|Samurai and defensive wall at ] defending against the Second Mongolian Invasion. Moko Shurai Ekotoba, (蒙古襲来絵詞) {{circa|1293}}|center}} | ||
] | |||
], killing the Mongolian soldiers aboard, 1281]] | |||
The thunderstorms of 1274 and the typhoon of 1281 helped the samurai defenders of Japan repel the Mongol invaders despite being vastly outnumbered. These winds became known as ''kami-no-Kaze'', which literally translates as "wind of the gods".<ref>{{Cite web|date=2017-04-26|title=Formative Memory: The Thirteenth-Century Mongolian Invasions and Their Impact on Japan|url=https://kyotojournal.org/uncategorized/formative-memory-the-thirteenth-century-mongolian-invasions-and-their-impact-on-japan/|access-date=2020-10-25|website=Kyoto Journal|language=en-US}}</ref> This is often given a simplified translation as "divine wind". The ''kami-no-Kaze'' lent credence to the Japanese belief that their lands were indeed divine and under supernatural protection. | |||
] ]] | |||
] | |||
The thunderstorms of 1274 and the typhoon of 1281 helped the samurai defenders of Japan repel the Mongol invaders despite being vastly outnumbered. These winds became known as ''kami-no-Kaze'', which literally translates as "wind of the gods".<ref>{{cite web|date=2017-04-26|title=Formative Memory: The Thirteenth-Century Mongolian Invasions and Their Impact on Japan|url=https://kyotojournal.org/uncategorized/formative-memory-the-thirteenth-century-mongolian-invasions-and-their-impact-on-japan/|access-date=2020-10-25|website=Kyoto Journal|language=en-US}}</ref> This is often given a simplified translation as "divine wind". The ''kami-no-Kaze'' lent credence to the Japanese belief that their lands were indeed divine and under supernatural protection. | |||
During this period, the tradition of Japanese swordsmithing developed using ], a technique dating back over 2,000 years in the Mediterranean and Europe of combining layers of soft and hard steel to produce a blade with a very hard (but brittle) edge, capable of being highly sharpened, supported by a softer, tougher, more flexible spine. The Japanese swordsmiths refined this technique by using multiple layers of steel of varying composition, together with ], or tempering, of the finished blade, achieved by protecting part of it with a layer of clay while quenching (as explained in the article on ]). The craft was perfected in the 14th century by the great swordsmith ]. The Japanese sword ('']'' and '']'') became renowned around the world for its sharpness and resistance to breaking. Many swords made using these techniques were exported across the ], a few making their way as far as India. | |||
], built from 1333 by the samurai ] of the ].]] | |||
===Nanboku-chō and Muromachi period=== | |||
In 1336, ], who opposed ], established the ] with ]. As a result, the southern court, descended from Emperor Godaigo, and the northern court, descended from Emperor Kogon, were established side by side. This period of coexistence of the two dynasties is called the ], which corresponds to the beginning of the ]. 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 ] considers the Southern Court to be the legitimate emperor.<ref> Imperial Household Agency</ref> The {{lang|la|de facto}} rule of Japan by the Ashikaga Shogunate lasted until the ], which broke out in 1467. | |||
From 1346 to 1358 during the Nanboku-cho period, the Ashikaga shogunate gradually expanded the authority of the {{nihongo3||守護|]}}, the local military and police officials established by the Kamakura shogunate, giving the ''Shugo'' jurisdiction over land disputes between {{nihongo3||御家人|]}} 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 {{nihongo3|feudal lords|大名|]}}, called {{nihongo3||守護大名|shugo daimyo}}, appeared.<ref name="shugosen">{{cite web|url=https://www.touken-world.jp/history/history-important-word/shugodaimyo-sengokubusho/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240317181933/https://www.touken-world.jp/history/history-important-word/shugodaimyo-sengokubusho/|script-title=ja:守護大名と戦国武将|language=ja|publisher=The Japanese Sword Museum Nagoya Touken World|date=|archive-date=17 March 2024|access-date=17 March 2024}}</ref> | |||
]}} forged by Sadaie, 14th century, ], ]]] | |||
The innovations of ] in the late Kamakura period allowed them to produce Japanese swords with tougher blades than before, and during the Nanboku-chō period, {{transliteration|ja|]}} (large/great sword) were at their peak as weapons for the samurai.<ref name="tworld1"> Touken world</ref> | |||
Until the Mongol invasion in the late Kamakura period, the main battle was fought by small groups of warriors using {{transliteration|ja|]}} (bows) from horseback, and close combat was a secondary battle. From the Nanboku-chō period to the Muromachi period, large groups of infantrymen became more active in battle, close combat became more important, and the {{transliteration|ja|]}} and {{transliteration|ja|]}}, which had been used since the Heian period, were used more. The {{transliteration|ja|]}} (spear) was not yet a major weapon in this period.<ref name="rekishi200940">''歴史人'' September 2020. pp.40–41. {{ASIN|B08DGRWN98}}</ref><ref name ="en42">Kazuhiko Inada (2020), ''Encyclopedia of the Japanese Swords''. p.42 {{ISBN|978-4-651-20040-8}}</ref> | |||
During the Nanboku-chō period, many lower-class foot soldiers called {{transliteration|ja|]}} began to participate in battles, and the popularity of {{transliteration|ja|haramaki}} increased. During the Nanboku-chō and Muromachi periods, {{transliteration|ja|dō-maru}} and {{transliteration|ja|haramaki}} became the norm, and senior samurai also began to wear {{transliteration|ja|haramaki}} by adding {{transliteration|ja|kabuto}} (helmet), {{transliteration|ja|]}} (face armor), and gauntlet.<ref name="nanmuro"> Nagoya Japanese Sword Museum Nagoya Touken World.</ref> | |||
Issues of inheritance caused family strife as ] 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. | Issues of inheritance caused family strife as ] 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. | ||
===Sengoku period=== | ===Sengoku period=== | ||
The outbreak of the ], which began in 1467 and lasted about 10 years, devastated ] and brought down the power of the Ashikaga Shogunate. This plunged the country into the ], in which '']'' (feudal lords) from different regions fought each other. This period corresponds to the late Muromachi period. There are about nine theories about the end of the Sengoku Period, the earliest being the year 1568, when ] marched on Kyoto, and the latest being the suppression of the ] in 1638. Thus, the Sengoku Period overlaps with the Muromachi, ], and ]s, depending on the theory. In any case, the Sengoku period was a time of large-scale civil wars throughout Japan.<ref name="jp191129">{{cite web|url=https://mag.japaaan.com/archives/132811/3|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230131030808/https://mag.japaaan.com/archives/132811/3|script-title=ja:最長で200年説も!戦国時代とはいつからいつまでを指すのか?諸説をまとめました|language=ja|author=Akio Tsunoda|publisher=]|date=19 November 2020|archive-date=31 January 2023|access-date=31 January 2023}}</ref><ref name="jk061222">{{cite web|url=https://japanknowledge.com/introduction/keyword.html?i=1930|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221206163952/https://japanknowledge.com/introduction/keyword.html?i=1930|script-title=ja:戦国時代|language=ja|publisher=Japan Knowledge|date=|archive-date=6 December 2022|access-date=29 January 2023}}</ref> | |||
The '']'' ("warring states 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 '']'' samurai. | |||
]}} (])]] | |||
Japanese war tactics and technologies improved rapidly in the 15th and 16th centuries. Use of large numbers of infantry called ] ("light-foot", because of their light armor), formed of humble warriors or ordinary people with ''naga yari'' (a long ]) or '']'', was introduced and combined with cavalry in maneuvers. The number of people mobilized in warfare ranged from thousands to hundreds of thousands. | |||
]}} (foot soldiers) in close formation began to use {{transliteration|ja|]}} (spears) and {{transliteration|ja|]}} (gun), changing battlefield tactics and the equipment of the samurai class.]] | |||
''Daimyo'' who became more powerful as the shogunate's control weakened were called {{nihongo3||戦国大名|sengoku daimyo}}, and they often came from ''shugo daimyo'', {{nihongo3|deputy Shugo|守護代|]}}, and {{nihongo3|local masters|国人|kokujin or kunibito}}. 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.<ref name="shugosen"/> | |||
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.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://gendai.media/articles/-/83871?page=3|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240307071317/https://gendai.media/articles/-/83871?page=3|script-title=ja:意外と知らない「下剋上」とは一体何か?戦国時代の「主殺し」の実像 3/4|language=ja|publisher=]|date=18 June 2021|archive-date=7 March 2024|access-date=7 March 2024}}</ref> These events sometimes led to the rise of samurai to the rank of ''sengoku daimyo''. For example, ] was the first samurai to rise to the rank of ''sengoku daimyo'' during this period. ] was an example of a ''Shugodai'' who became ''sengoku daimyo'' by weakening and eliminating the power of the lord.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://gendai.media/articles/-/83871?page=4|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240307071419/https://gendai.media/articles/-/83871?page=4|script-title=ja:意外と知らない「下剋上」とは一体何か?戦国時代の「主殺し」の実像 4/4|language=ja|publisher=Kodansha|date=18 June 2021|archive-date=7 March 2024|access-date=7 March 2024}}</ref><ref name="shugosen2">{{cite web|url=https://www.touken-world.jp/history/history-important-word/shugodaimyo-sengokudaimyo/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240317190415/https://www.touken-world.jp/history/history-important-word/shugodaimyo-sengokudaimyo/|script-title=ja:守護大名と戦国武将の違い|language=ja|publisher=The Japanese Sword Museum Nagoya Touken World|date=|archive-date=17 March 2024|access-date=17 March 2024}}</ref> | |||
], one of the most powerful '']s'' of the Sengoku period.]] | |||
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 '']'' samurai. One such example is ], a well-known figure who rose from a peasant background to become a samurai, ''sengoku daimyo'', and '']'' (Imperial Regent).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://dot.asahi.com/articles/-/202017?page=3|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240229075803/https://dot.asahi.com/articles/-/202017?page=3|script-title=ja:豊臣秀吉はなぜ「征夷大将軍」ではなく「関白」になったのか——秀吉をめぐる「三つのなぜ」|language=ja|publisher=]|date=24 September 2023|archive-date=29 February 2024|access-date=29 February 2024}}</ref> | |||
The ], a ] gun, was introduced by the ] via a Chinese pirate ship in 1543, and the Japanese succeeded in assimilating it within a decade. Groups of mercenaries with mass-produced arquebuses began playing a critical role. By the end of the Sengoku period, several hundred thousand firearms existed in Japan, and massive armies numbering over 100,000 clashed in battles. | |||
From this time on, infantrymen called {{transliteration|ja|]}}, 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.<ref name="rekishi200940"/> When ]s were introduced from Portugal in 1543, Japanese swordsmiths immediately began to improve and mass-produce them. The Japanese matchlock was named {{transliteration|ja|]}} after the ], 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 arquebuses in Japan and a large army of nearly 100,000 men clashing with each other.<ref>{{cite book|url= https://archive.org/details/givingupgun00noel |url-access= registration |title= Giving up the gun: Japan's reversion to the sword, 1543-1879 |pages=17–28|author= Noel Perrin |publisher= David R Godine |year=1979 |access-date=2011-09-22|isbn= 978-0-87923-773-8 }}</ref> | |||
On the battlefield, {{transliteration|ja|ashigaru}} began to fight in close formation, using {{transliteration|ja|]}} (spear) and {{transliteration|ja|tanegashima}}. As a result, {{transliteration|ja|yari}}, {{transliteration|ja|]}} (bow), and {{transliteration|ja|tanegashima}} became the primary weapons on the battlefield. The {{transliteration|ja|naginata}}, which was difficult to maneuver in close formation, and the long, heavy {{transliteration|ja|]}} fell into disuse and were replaced by the {{transliteration|ja|]}}, which could be held short, and the short, light {{transliteration|ja|]}}, which appeared in the Nanboku-cho period and gradually became more common. The {{transliteration|ja|tachi}} was often cut off from the hilt and shortened to make a {{transliteration|ja|katana}}. The {{transliteration|ja|tachi}}, which had become inconvenient for use on the battlefield, was transformed into a symbol of authority carried by high-ranking samurai.<ref name = "toukennagi"> Nagoya Japanese Sword Museum, Touken World</ref><ref name = "toukenssw"> Nagoya Japanese Sword Museum, Touken World</ref><ref name ="en20p42">Kazuhiko Inada (2020), ''Encyclopedia of the Japanese Swords''. p42. {{ISBN|978-4-651-20040-8}}</ref><ref name="rekishi200940"/> Although the {{transliteration|ja|ōdachi}} had become even more obsolete, some ''sengoku daimyo'' dared to organize assault and kinsmen units composed entirely of large men equipped with {{transliteration|ja|ōdachi}} to demonstrate the bravery of their armies.<ref name ="en20p39">Kazuhiko Inada (2020), ''Encyclopedia of the Japanese Swords''. p39. {{ISBN|978-4-651-20040-8}}</ref> | |||
These changes in the aspect of the battlefield during the Sengoku period led to the emergence of the {{transliteration|ja|]}} 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 {{transliteration|ja|ō-yoroi}} and {{transliteration|ja|dō-mal}} in the Heian period. In this style, the number of parts was reduced, and instead armor with eccentric designs became popular.<ref name = "gusoku"> Costume Museum</ref> | |||
By the end of the Sengoku period, allegiances between warrior vassals, also known as military retainers, and lords were solidified.<ref name="William E. Deal 2006 136">{{cite book|title=Handbook to Life in Medieval & early Modern Japan|author=William E. Deal |year=2006 |isbn=0-8160-5622-6 |page=136|publisher=Facts On File, Incorporated }}</ref> Vassals would serve lords in exchange for material and intangible advantages, in keeping with ] ideas imported from China between the seventh and ninth centuries.<ref name="William E. Deal 2006 136" /> | |||
These independent vassals who held land were subordinate to their superiors, who may be local lords or, in the Edo period, the shogun.<ref name="William E. Deal 2006 136" /> | |||
A vassal or samurai could expect monetary benefits, including land or money, from lords in exchange for their military services.<ref name="William E. Deal 2006 136" /> | |||
===Azuchi–Momoyama period=== | ===Azuchi–Momoyama period=== | ||
] extensively renovated ] to give it its present appearance.]] | |||
The Azuchi-Momoyama period refers to the period when ] and ] were in power. The name "Azuchi-Momoyama" comes from the fact that Nobunaga's castle, ], was located in ], and ], where Hideyoshi lived after his retirement, was located in Momoyama. There are several theories as to when the Azuchi–Momoyama period began: 1568, when Oda Nobunaga entered Kyoto in support of Ashikaga Yoshiaki; 1573, when Oda Nobunaga expelled Ashikaga Yoshiaki from Kyoto; and 1576, when the construction of Azuchi Castle began. In any case, the beginning of the Azuchii–Momoyama period marked the complete end of the rule of the Ashikaga shogunate, which had been disrupted by the Onin War; in other words, it marked the end of the Muromachi period. | |||
====Oda, Toyotomi, and Tokugawa==== | |||
] | |||
====Oda, Toyotomi and Tokugawa==== | |||
] was the well-known lord of the ] area (once called ]) and an exceptional example of a samurai of the Sengoku period.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://sitereports.nabunken.go.jp/8395 |title=たたかう人びと |author=Nagano Prefectural Museum of History |date=2005-03-01 |website=Comprehensive Database of Archaeological Site Reports in Japan |access-date=2016-09-02}}</ref> He came within a few years of, and laid down the path for his successors to follow, the reunification of Japan under a new ''bakufu'' (shogunate). | ] was the well-known lord of the ] area (once called ]) and an exceptional example of a samurai of the Sengoku period.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://sitereports.nabunken.go.jp/8395 |title=たたかう人びと |author=Nagano Prefectural Museum of History |date=2005-03-01 |website=Comprehensive Database of Archaeological Site Reports in Japan |access-date=2016-09-02}}</ref> He came within a few years of, and laid down the path for his successors to follow, the reunification of Japan under a new ''bakufu'' (shogunate). | ||
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 |
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, ], turned upon him with his army. | ||
]]] | |||
](1575)]] | ] (1575)]] | ||
] and ], 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."{{ |
] and ], 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."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Varshavskaya |first1=Elena |title=Heroes of the Grand Pacification: Kuniyoshi's Taiheiki eiyū den |date=2021 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-48918-9 |page=26 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=22tPEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA26 |language=en}}</ref> (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. | 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. | ||
Line 93: | Line 145: | ||
====Invasions of Korea==== | ====Invasions of Korea==== | ||
{{See also|Japanese invasions of Korea ( |
{{See also|Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–1598)}} | ||
] during the ], 1597]] | ] during the ], 1597.]] | ||
In 1592 and again in 1597, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, aiming to invade China through Korea, mobilized an army of 160,000 peasants and samurai and ]. Taking advantage of arquebus mastery and extensive wartime experience from the Sengoku period, Japanese samurai armies made major gains in most of Korea. A few of the famous samurai generals of this war were ], ], and ]. Katō Kiyomasa advanced to ] territory (present-day Manchuria) bordering Korea to the northeast and crossed the border into Manchuria, but withdrew after retaliatory attacks from the ] there, as it was clear he had outpaced the rest of the Japanese invasion force. Shimazu Yoshihiro led some 7,000 samurai and, despite being heavily outnumbered, defeated a host of allied Ming and Korean forces at the ] in 1598, near the conclusion of the campaigns. Yoshihiro was feared as ''Oni-Shimazu'' ("Shimazu ogre") and his nickname spread across Korea and into China. | |||
In 1592 and again in 1597, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, aiming to invade China through Korea, mobilized an army of 160,000 peasants and samurai and ] in one of the largest military endeavors in Eastern Asia until the late 19th century.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Yasuka |date=2017-07-24 |title=The Imjin War {{!}} KCP International Japanese Language School |url=https://www.kcpinternational.com/2017/07/the-imjin-war/ |access-date=2023-06-28 |website=KCP International |language=en |quote=Hideyoshi needed passage through Korea to get to China. But with Korea refusing his demands, he led a large army of about 160,000 men, landing at the tip of the peninsula then moving northwards.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Cartwright |first=Mark |title=The Japanese Invasion of Korea, 1592-8 CE |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1398/the-japanese-invasion-of-korea-1592-8-ce/ |access-date=2023-06-28 |website=World History Encyclopedia |language=en |quote=One of the largest military operations ever undertaken in East Asia prior to the 20th century CE}}</ref> Taking advantage of ] mastery and extensive wartime experience from the ], Japanese samurai armies made major gains in most of Korea. A few of the famous samurai generals of this war were ], ], and ]. Katō Kiyomasa advanced to Orangkai territory (present-day ]) bordering Korea to the northeast and crossed the border into northern China. | |||
], who would later command the invasion of Korea, leads a small group assaulting the castle on ]. Print by ].]] | |||
In spite of the superiority of Japanese land forces, the two expeditions ultimately failed, though they did devastate the Korean peninsula. The causes of the failure included Korean naval superiority (which, led by Admiral ], harassed Japanese supply lines continuously throughout the wars, resulting in supply shortages on land), the commitment of sizable Ming forces to Korea, Korean guerrilla actions, wavering Japanese commitment to the campaigns as the wars dragged on, and the underestimation of resistance by Japanese commanders. In the first campaign of 1592, Korean defenses on land were caught unprepared, under-trained, and under-armed; they were rapidly overrun, with only a limited number of successfully resistant engagements against the more experienced and battle-hardened Japanese forces. During the second campaign in 1597, however, Korean and Ming forces proved far more resilient and, with the support of continued Korean naval superiority, managed to limit Japanese gains to parts of southeastern Korea. The final death blow to the Japanese campaigns in Korea came with Hideyoshi's death in late 1598 and the recall of all Japanese forces in Korea by the ] (established by Hideyoshi to oversee the transition from his regency to that of his son Hideyori). | |||
Kiyomasa withdrew back to Korea after retaliatory counterattacks from the ] in the area, whose castles his forces had raided.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-12-16 |title=What is the Imjin War (1592-1598)? - Boot Camp & Military Fitness Institute |url=https://bootcampmilitaryfitnessinstitute.com/2020/12/16/what-is-the-imjin-war-1592-1598/ |access-date=2023-06-28 |website=bootcampmilitaryfitnessinstitute.com |language=en-GB}}</ref> Shimazu Yoshihiro led some 7,000 samurai into battle, and despite being heavily outnumbered, defeated a host of allied ] and Korean forces at the ] in 1598. Yoshihiro was feared as ''Oni-Shimazu'' ("Shimazu ogre") and his nickname spread across Korea and into China. | |||
], who later commanded the invasion of Korea, leads a small group assaulting the castle on ]. Print by ].]] | |||
In spite of the superiority of Japanese land forces, the two expeditions ultimately failed after Hideyoshi's death,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cartwright |first=Mark |title=The Japanese Invasion of Korea, 1592-8 CE |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1398/the-japanese-invasion-of-korea-1592-8-ce/ |access-date=2023-06-28 |website=World History Encyclopedia |language=en |quote=After protracted and unsuccessful peace talks, Hideyoshi launched a second, much less successful invasion in 1597 CE, and when the warlord died the next year, the Japanese forces withdrew from the peninsula.}}</ref> though the invasions did devastate the Korean peninsula. The causes of the failure included Korean naval superiority (which, led by Admiral ], harassed Japanese supply lines continuously throughout the wars, resulting in supply shortages on land), the commitment of sizable Ming forces to Korea, Korean guerrilla actions, wavering Japanese commitment to the campaigns as the wars dragged on, and the underestimation of resistance by Japanese commanders. | |||
In the first campaign of 1592, Korean defenses on land were caught unprepared, under-trained, and under-armed. They were rapidly overrun, with only a limited number of successfully resistant engagements against the more experienced and battle-hardened Japanese forces. During the second campaign in 1597, Korean and Ming forces proved far more resilient and with the support of continued Korean naval superiority, managed to limit Japanese gains to parts of southeastern Korea. The final death blow to the Japanese campaigns in Korea came with Hideyoshi's death in late 1598 and the recall of all Japanese forces in Korea by the ], established by Hideyoshi to oversee the transition from his regency to that of his son Hideyori. | |||
==== Battle of Sekigahara ==== | ==== Battle of Sekigahara ==== | ||
], known as "Japan's decisive battle" |
{{See also|Battle of Sekigahara}} | ||
], known as {{Nihongo|"Japan's decisive battle"|天下分け目の戦い|Tenka wakeme no tatakai}}]] | |||
Many samurai forces that were active throughout this period were not deployed to Korea; most importantly, the '']s'' ] carefully kept forces under his command out of the Korean campaigns, and other samurai commanders who were opposed to Hideyoshi's domination of Japan either mulled Hideyoshi's call to invade Korea or contributed a small token force. Most commanders who opposed or otherwise resisted or resented Hideyoshi ended up as part of the so-called Eastern Army, while commanders loyal to Hideyoshi and his son (a notable exception to this trend was Katō Kiyomasa, who deployed with Tokugawa and the Eastern Army) were largely committed to the Western Army; the two opposing sides (so named for the relative geographical locations of their respective commanders' domains) later clashed, most notably at the ] which was won by Tokugawa Ieyasu and the Eastern Forces, paving the way for the establishment of the ]. | |||
Before his death, Hideyoshi ordered that Japan be ruled by a council of the five most powerful ''sengoku daimyo'', {{nihongo3|]|五大老|Go-Tairō}}, and Hideyoshi's five retainers, {{nihongo3|Five Commissioners|五奉行|]}}, until his only heir, the five-year-old ], reached the age of 16.<ref name="sekigahara">{{cite web|url=https://www.archives.go.jp/exhibition/digital/ieyasu/contents3_01/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230108090341/https://www.archives.go.jp/exhibition/digital/ieyasu/contents3_01/|script-title=ja:関ヶ原の戦い|language=ja|publisher=]|date=|archive-date=8 January 2023|access-date=9 March 2024}}</ref> However, having only the young Hideyori as Hideyoshi's successor weakened the Toyotomi regime. Today, the loss of all of Hideyoshi's adult heirs is considered the main reason for the downfall of the Toyotomi clan.<ref name="jk270323">{{cite web|url=https://japanknowledge.com/introduction/keyword.html?i=67|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230327064223/https://japanknowledge.com/introduction/keyword.html?i=67|script-title=ja:豊臣秀次|language=ja|publisher=Japan Knowledge|date=|archive-date=27 March 2023|access-date=10 March 2024}}</ref><ref name="toyo220516">{{cite web|url=https://toyokeizai.net/articles/-/117781?page=3|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210421180805/https://toyokeizai.net/articles/-/117781?page=3|script-title=ja:新説!豊臣家を滅ぼした「組織運営」の大失敗|language=ja|publisher=Toyo Keizai|date=22 May 2016|archive-date=21 April 2021|access-date=10 March 2024}}</ref><ref name="yh100324">{{cite web|url=https://news.yahoo.co.jp/expert/articles/cf674ebf35996045d03fcb26aab8ae4fd833e8df|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240310115834/https://news.yahoo.co.jp/expert/articles/cf674ebf35996045d03fcb26aab8ae4fd833e8df|script-title=ja:どうして豊臣政権は短命だったのか?存続のカギは弟・豊臣秀長が握っていた|language=ja|publisher=Yahoo News|date=1 September 2023|archive-date=10 March 2024|access-date=10 March 2024}}</ref> Hideyoshi's younger brother, ], who had supported Hideyoshi's rise to power as a leader and strategist, had already died of illness in 1591, and his nephew, ], who was Hideyoshi's only adult successor, was forced to commit seppuku in 1595 along with many other vassals on Hideyoshi's orders for suspected rebellion.<ref name="jk270323"/><ref name="toyo220516"/><ref name="yh100324"/> | |||
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: ], ], ] and ]. In most cases, however, it is difficult to prove these claims. | |||
In this politically unstable situation, ], one of the ''Gotairō'', died of illness, and ], 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 ], one of the ''Go-Bukyō'' and others. This conflict eventually led to the ], in which the {{nihongo3|Eastern Army|東軍|Tō-gun}} led by Ieyasu defeated the {{nihongo3|Western Army|西軍|Sei-gun}} led by Mitsunari, and Ieyasu nearly gained control of Japan.<ref name="sekigahara"/> | |||
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: ], ], ], and ]. In most cases, however, it is difficult to prove these claims. | |||
===Tokugawa shogunate=== | ===Tokugawa shogunate=== | ||
{{See also|Edo period}} | |||
] | |||
], first '']'' of the ]]] | |||
After the Battle of Sekigahara, when the Tokugawa shogunate defeated the ] at summer campaign of the ] in 1615, the long war period ended. During the Tokugawa shogunate, samurai increasingly became courtiers, bureaucrats, and administrators rather than warriors. With no warfare since the early 17th century, samurai gradually lost their military function during the Tokugawa era (also called the ]). By the end of the Tokugawa era, samurai were aristocratic bureaucrats for the ''daimyōs'', with their ''daishō'', the paired long and short swords of the samurai (cf. ] and ]) becoming more of a symbolic emblem of power rather than a weapon used in daily life. They still had the legal right to cut down any commoner who did not show proper respect {{nihongo|'']''|斬り捨て御免}}, but to what extent this right was used is unknown. When the central government forced ''daimyōs'' to cut the size of their armies, unemployed rōnin became a social problem. | |||
After the Battle of Sekigahara, when the Tokugawa shogunate defeated the ] in the summer campaign of the ] in 1615, the long war ended. During the Tokugawa shogunate, samurai increasingly became courtiers, bureaucrats, and administrators rather than warriors. With no warfare since the early 17th century, samurai gradually lost their military function during the Tokugawa era (also called the ]). | |||
Theoretical obligations between a samurai and his lord (usually a ''daimyō'') increased from the Genpei era to the Edo era. They were strongly emphasized by the teachings of ] and ], which were 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). | |||
Following the passing of a law in 1629, samurai on official duty were required to wear ]).<ref>{{Cite web |last=MartialArtSwords.com |title=Common Myths and Misconceptions About Traditional Japanese Daishō |url=https://www.martialartswords.com/blogs/articles/common-myths-and-misconceptions-about-traditional-japanese-daisho |access-date=2023-06-28 |website=MartialArtSwords.com}}</ref> 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 {{nihongo|'']''|斬り捨て御免}}, but to what extent this right was used is unknown.<ref name=":32">{{Cite book |last=Wert |first=Michael |title=Samurai: A Very Short Introduction |publisher=] |isbn=978-0-19-068510-2 |location=New York |publication-date=2021-02-01 |pages=35, 84 |language= |oclc=1202732830}}</ref> When the central government forced ''daimyōs'' to cut the size of their armies, unemployed rōnin became a social problem. | |||
The conduct of samurai served as role model behavior for the other social classes.<ref>{{cite book | author=Virginia Schomp | title =Japan in the Days of the Samurai (Cultures of the Past) | publisher =Benchmark Books| year =1998| page = 59 | isbn =0761403043 }}</ref> With time on their hands, samurai spent more time in pursuit of other interests such as becoming scholars. | |||
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 ] and ], 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). | |||
] permeated the culture of samurai in the early seventeenth century.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Murphy |first1=Taggart |title=Japan and the Shackles of the Past|date=2014 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York|isbn=978-0190619589 |pages=46 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9byvBAAAQBAJ}}</ref> The relentless condemnation of pederasty by ] missionaries also hindered attempts to convert Japan's governing elite to Christianity.<ref name="Japan and the Shackles of the Past">{{cite book |last1=Murphy |first1=Taggart |title=Japan and the Shackles of the Past|date=2014 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York|isbn=978-0190619589 |pages=37 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9byvBAAAQBAJ}}</ref> Pederasty had become deeply institutionalized among the daimyo and samurai, prompting comparisons to ancient ].<ref name="Japan and the Shackles of the Past"/> The Jesuits' strong condemnation of the practice alienated many of Japan's ruling class, creating further barriers to their acceptance of Christianity.<ref name="Japan and the Shackles of the Past"/> ], the third shogun, was known for his interest in pederasty.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Murphy |first1=Taggart |title=Japan and the Shackles of the Past|date=2014 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York|isbn=978-0190619589 |pages=46 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9byvBAAAQBAJ }}</ref> | |||
The samurai served as role modeld for the other social classes.<ref>{{cite book | author=Virginia Schomp | title =Japan in the Days of the Samurai (Cultures of the Past) | publisher =Benchmark Books| year =1998| page = 59 | isbn =0-7614-0304-3 }}</ref> With time on their hands, samurai spent more time in pursuit of other interests such as scholarship. After the ], it{{clarify|date=December 2024}} came to cover all of society, and although the shogunate sometimes invited monks as advisors, the nobility was excluded from the government. As a result, samurai began to assume all civilian roles, and from the Edo period onward, samurai shifted their activities from military to political administration. In addition, those who were newly promoted to the shogunate or domain in recognition of talents unrelated to martial arts, such as literature and scholarship, were also given the status of samurai. It can be said that the difference between a samurai and a military officer appears in such a place.{{clarify|date=October 2024}} In the Edo period, samurai equivalent to civil servants and administrative officers were called "officials". Samurai were given an honorific title and were called "Obuke-sama".{{Citation needed|date=September 2023}} | |||
From the mid-Edo period, wealthy {{nihongo3|townsman||]}} and farmers could join the samurai class by giving a large sum of money to an impoverished {{nihongo3|||]}} 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 {{nihongo3|||]}} and 500 ''ryo'' for an {{nihongo3||]|kachi}} Some of their descendants were promoted to {{nihongo3||旗本|]}} and held important positions in the shogunate. Some of the peasants' children were promoted to the samurai class by serving in the {{nihongo3||代官|]}} office.<ref name="yamamoto"/> ''Kachi'' could change jobs and move into the lower classes, such as ''chōnin''. For example, ] became a ''chōnin'' by working for ].<ref name="ocha">{{cite web|url=https://www.cf.ocha.ac.jp/ccjs/j/menu/consortia/d007975_d/fil/121003.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240716005713/https://www.cf.ocha.ac.jp/ccjs/j/menu/consortia/d007975_d/fil/121003.pdf|script-title=ja:近世後期の江戸における武家の養子と身分 滝沢馬琴を事例に|language=ja|publisher=]|date=|archive-date=16 July 2024|access-date=16 July 2024}}</ref> | |||
{{wide image|Edo Panorama old Tokyo color photochrom.jpg|1000px|Edo, 1865 or 1866. ] print. Five albumen prints joined to form a panorama. Photographer: ].}} | {{wide image|Edo Panorama old Tokyo color photochrom.jpg|1000px|Edo, 1865 or 1866. ] print. Five albumen prints joined to form a panorama. Photographer: ].}} | ||
====Samurai in Southeast Asia==== | |||
], circa 1630]] | |||
In the late 1500s, trade between Japan and Southeast Asia accelerated and increased exponentially when the Tokugawa shogunate was established in the early 1600s. The destinations of the trading ships, the ], were Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, etc. Many Japanese moved to Southeast Asia and established Japanese towns there. Many samurai, or ], who had lost their masters after the Battle of Sekigahara, lived in the Japanese towns. The Spaniards in the Philippines, the Dutch of the ], and the Thais of the ] saw the value of these samurai as mercenaries and recruited them. The most famous of these mercenaries was ]. He was originally a palanquin bearer who belonged to the lowest end of the samurai class, but he rose to prominence in the Ayutthaya Kingdom, now in southern Thailand, and became governor of the ]. When the policy of national isolation ('']'') was established in 1639, trade between Japan and Southeast Asia ceased, and records of Japanese activities in Southeast Asia were lost for many years after 1688.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://worldhistorycommons.org/japanese-mercenaries-and-dutch-east-india-company|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208072323/https://worldhistorycommons.org/japanese-mercenaries-and-dutch-east-india-company|title=Japanese Mercenaries and the Dutch East India Company|publisher=World History Commons|archive-date=8 February 2023|access-date=14 February 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jafame/11/0/11_61/_pdf/-char/ja|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240214233332/https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jafame/11/0/11_61/_pdf/-char/ja|script-title=ja:Relationship of Japan and the Netherlands in Asia Market in 17th Century and Today|language=ja|publisher=]/J Stage|pages=61–67|archive-date=14 February 2024|access-date=14 February 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hirogin.co.jp/lib/kaigai/bangkok/report/b2107/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220824133456/https://www.hirogin.co.jp/lib/kaigai/bangkok/report/b2107/|script-title=ja:「異国で王になった男」山田長政|language=ja|website=The Hiroshima Bank |archive-date=24 August 2022|access-date=14 February 2024}}</ref> | |||
====Samurai as diplomatic ambassadors==== | |||
] portrayed during his mission in Rome by ], 1615]] | |||
In 1582, three '']'' ''daimyō'', ], ], and ], sent a group of boys, their own blood relatives and retainers, to Europe as ]. They had audiences with King ], ], and ]. The mission returned to Japan in 1590, but its members were forced to renounce, be exiled, or be executed, due to the Tokugawa shogunate's suppression of Christianity. | |||
In 1612, ], a vassal of the ''daimyo'' ], led a diplomatic mission and had an audience with King ], presenting him with a letter requesting trade, and he also had an audience with ] 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/society/general-news/20210316-81043/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231128162019/https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/society/general-news/20210316-81043/|title=Faithful legacy of the 'samurai ambassador'|publisher=|date=16 March 2021|archive-date=28 November 2023|access-date=15 February 2024}}</ref> | |||
At the end of the Edo period (]), when ] 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 ] and the ] and ]. ], who participated in these missions, is most famous as a leading figure in the modernization of Japan, and his portrait was selected for the ].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ndl.go.jp/portrait/pickup/016/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230223100039/https://www.ndl.go.jp/portrait/pickup/016/|script-title=ja:世界を見たサムライ達|language=ja|publisher=]|archive-date=23 February 2023|access-date=15 February 2024}}</ref> | |||
===Modernization=== | ===Modernization=== | ||
{{Main|Late Tokugawa shogunate}} | {{Main|Late Tokugawa shogunate}} | ||
]'' in the bakumatsu period]] | ]'' in the bakumatsu period]] | ||
The relative peace of the Tokugawa era was shattered with the arrival of Commodore ]'s massive U.S. Navy steamships in 1853. Perry used his superior firepower to force Japan to open its borders to trade. Prior to that only a few harbor towns, under strict control from the shogunate, were allowed to participate in Western trade, and even then, it was based largely on the idea of playing the ]s and ] against one another (in exchange for the crucial arquebus technology, which in turn was a major contributor to the downfall of the classical samurai). | The relative peace of the Tokugawa era was shattered with the arrival of Commodore ]'s massive U.S. Navy steamships in 1853. Perry used his superior firepower to force Japan to open its borders to trade. Prior to that only a few harbor towns, under strict control from the shogunate, were allowed to participate in Western trade, and even then, it was based largely on the idea of playing the ]s and ] against one another (in exchange for the crucial arquebus technology, which in turn was a major contributor to the downfall of the classical samurai).{{citation needed|date=August 2024}} | ||
From 1854, the samurai army and the navy were modernized. A ] was established in ] in 1855. Naval students were sent to study in Western naval schools for several years, starting a tradition of foreign-educated future leaders, such as Admiral ]. French naval engineers were hired to build naval arsenals, such as ] and Nagasaki. By the end of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1867, the Japanese navy of the ''shōgun'' already possessed eight western-style steam warships around the flagship ], which were used against pro-imperial forces during the ], under the command of Admiral ]. A ] was established to help modernize the armies of the ]. | From 1854, the samurai army and the navy were modernized. A ] was established in ] in 1855. Naval students were sent to study in Western naval schools for several years, starting a tradition of foreign-educated future leaders, such as Admiral ]. French naval engineers were hired to build naval arsenals, such as ] and Nagasaki. By the end of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1867, the Japanese navy of the ''shōgun'' already possessed eight western-style steam warships around the flagship ], which were used against pro-imperial forces during the ], under the command of Admiral ]. A ] was established to help modernize the armies of the ]. | ||
], {{circa|1860}}]] | |||
], {{circa|1860}}]] | |||
The last showing of the original samurai was in 1867 when samurai from ] and ] provinces defeated the shogunate forces in favor of the rule of the emperor in the Boshin War. The two provinces were the lands of the ''daimyōs'' that submitted to Ieyasu after the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600. | The last showing of the original samurai was in 1867 when samurai from ] and ] provinces defeated the shogunate forces in favor of the rule of the emperor in the Boshin War. The two provinces were the lands of the ''daimyōs'' that submitted to Ieyasu after the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600. | ||
===Dissolution=== | ===Dissolution=== | ||
], a Japanese samurai of the ]. He was the sole survivor of the famous group of young ] soldiers who committed suicide on Iimori Hill during the ].]] | ], a Japanese samurai of the ]. He was the sole survivor of the famous group of young ] soldiers who committed suicide on Iimori Hill during the ].]] | ||
In the 1870s, samurai comprised five percent of the population, or 400,000 families with about 1.9 million members. They came under direct national jurisdiction in 1869, and of all the classes during the Meiji revolution they were the most affected.<ref>Harry D. Harootunian, "The progress of Japan and the Samurai class, |
In the 1870s, samurai comprised five percent of the population, or 400,000 families with about 1.9 million members. They came under direct national jurisdiction in 1869, and of all the classes during the Meiji revolution they were the most affected.<ref>Harry D. Harootunian, "The progress of Japan and the Samurai class, 1868–1882." ''Pacific Historical Review'' (1959) 28#3: 255–266. </ref> | ||
Although many lesser samurai had been active in the ], the older ones represented an obsolete feudal institution that had a practical monopoly of military force, and to a large extent of education as well. A priority of the Meiji government was to gradually abolish the entire class of samurai and integrate them into the Japanese professional, military and business classes.<ref>Harry D. Harootunian, "The Economic Rehabilitation of the Samurai in the Early Meiji Period." ''Journal of Asian Studies'' 19.4 (1960): |
Although many lesser samurai had been active in the ], the older ones represented an obsolete feudal institution that had a practical monopoly of military force, and to a large extent of education as well. A priority of the Meiji government was to gradually abolish the entire class of samurai and integrate them into the Japanese professional, military and business classes.<ref>Harry D. Harootunian, "The Economic Rehabilitation of the Samurai in the Early Meiji Period." ''Journal of Asian Studies'' 19.4 (1960): 433–444. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171118062121/http://www.bakumatsu.ru/lib/The_Economic_Rehabilitation_of_the_Samurai_in_the_Early_Meiji_Period.pdf |date=18 November 2017 }}</ref> | ||
Their traditional guaranteed salaries were very expensive, and in 1873 the government started taxing the stipends and began to transform them into interest-bearing government bonds; the process was completed in 1879. The main goal was to provide enough financial liquidity to enable former samurai to invest in land and industry. A military force capable of contesting not just China but the imperial powers required a large conscript army that closely followed Western standards. The notion of very strict obedience to chain of command was incompatible with the individual authority of the samurai. Samurai now became '']'' ({{lang|ja|士族}}; this status was abolished in 1947). The right to wear a katana in public was abolished, along with the right to execute commoners who paid them disrespect. In 1877, there was a ].<ref>James H. Buck, "The Satsuma Rebellion of 1877. From Kagoshima Through the Siege of Kumamoto Castle." ''Monumenta Nipponica'' 28#4 (1973), pp. 427–446 {{doi|10.2307/2383560}} </ref> | |||
Younger samurai often became exchange students because they were ambitious, literate and well-educated. On return, some started private schools for higher educations, while many samurai became reporters and writers and set up newspaper companies.<ref>James L. Huffman, "The Meiji Roots and Contemporary Practices of the Japanese Press," ''The Japan Interpreter'' (Spring 1977): 448-66.</ref> Others entered governmental service.<ref>Andrew Cobbing, ''The Satsuma Students in Britain: Japan's Early Search for the essence of the West'' (1998), ch. 4.</ref> In the 1880s, 23 percent of prominent Japanese businessmen were from the samurai class; by the 1920s the number had grown to 35 percent.<ref>{{cite book|author=Mansel G. Blackford|title=The Rise of Modern Business in Great Britain, the United States, and Japan|edition=3rd|url=https://www.questia.com/library/120097948/the-rise-of-modern-business-in-great-britain-the|publisher=U of North Carolina Press|page=122}}</ref> | |||
Younger samurai often became exchange students because they were ambitious, literate and well-educated. On return, some started private schools for higher education, while many samurai became reporters and writers and set up newspaper companies.<ref>James L. Huffman, "The Meiji Roots and Contemporary Practices of the Japanese Press," ''The Japan Interpreter'' (Spring 1977): 448–466.</ref> Others entered governmental service.<ref>Andrew Cobbing, ''The Satsuma Students in Britain: Japan's Early Search for the essence of the West'' (1998), ch. 4.</ref> In the 1880s, 23 percent of prominent Japanese businessmen were from the samurai class; by the 1920s the number had grown to 35 percent.<ref>{{cite book|author=Mansel G. Blackford|title=The Rise of Modern Business in Great Britain, the United States, and Japan|edition=3rd|url=https://www.questia.com/library/120097948/the-rise-of-modern-business-in-great-britain-the|publisher=U of North Carolina Press|page=122|access-date=18 November 2019|archive-date=7 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200807020303/https://www.questia.com/library/120097948/the-rise-of-modern-business-in-great-britain-the}}</ref> | |||
==Philosophy== | ==Philosophy== | ||
===Honor=== | |||
In a 16th-century account of Japan sent to Father ] at Rome, drawn from the statements of Anger (Han-Siro's western name), Xavier describes the importance of honor to the Japanese (Letter preserved at College of Coimbra): | |||
<blockquote>In the first place, the nation with which we have had to do here surpasses in goodness any of the nations lately discovered. I really think that among barbarous nations there can be none that has more natural goodness than the Japanese. They are of a kindly disposition, not at all given to cheating, wonderfully desirous of honour and rank. Honour with them is placed above everything else. There are a great many poor among them, but poverty is not a disgrace to any one. There is one thing among them of which I hardly know whether it is practised anywhere among Christians. The nobles, however poor they may be, receive the same honour from the rest as if they were rich.<ref>Coleridge, p. 237</ref></blockquote> | |||
===Religious influences=== | |||
The philosophies of ] and ], and to a lesser extent ] and ], influenced the samurai culture. Zen meditation became an important teaching because it offered a process to calm one's mind. The Buddhist concept of ] and rebirth led samurai to abandon torture and needless killing, while some samurai even gave up violence altogether and became Buddhist monks after coming to believe that their killings were fruitless. Some were killed as they came to terms with these conclusions in the battlefield. The most defining role that Confucianism played in samurai philosophy was to stress the importance of the lord-retainer relationship—the loyalty that a samurai was required to show his lord. | |||
Historian H. Paul Varley notes the description of Japan given by Jesuit leader ]: "There is no nation in the world which fears death less." Xavier further describes the honour and manners of the people: "I fancy that there are no people in the world more punctilious about their honour than the Japanese, for they will not put up with a single insult or even a word spoken in anger." Xavier spent 1549 to 1551 converting Japanese to Christianity. He also observed: "The Japanese are much braver and more warlike than the people of China, Korea, ] and all of the other nations around the Philippines."<ref>{{cite book|author=H. Paul Varley|title=Japanese culture|url=https://archive.org/details/japaneseculture00hpau|url-access=registration|year=2000|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|isbn=978-0-8248-2152-4|pages=–}}</ref> | |||
Literature on the subject of ''bushido'' such as '']'' ("Hidden in Leaves") by ] and '' Gorin no Sho'' ("Book of the Five Rings") by ], both written in the Edo period, contributed to the development of ''bushidō'' and Zen philosophy. | |||
However, insubordination or ], a term used in the fifteenth century during widespread rebellion, involved provincial lords defying the shogun, who in turn disregarded the emperor's commands.<ref>{{cite book |author1= Toland John|title=The rising sun; the decline and fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945|url=https://archive.org/details/risingsundecline01tola/page/4/mode/2up?q=Gekokuj%C5%8D+shogun |year=1970 |publisher=New York, Random House|page=5}}</ref> | |||
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."{{sfn|Sharf|1993|p=12}} In an account of Japan sent to Father ] at Rome, drawn from the statements of Anger (Han-Siro's western name), Xavier describes the importance of honor to the Japanese (Letter preserved at College of Coimbra): | |||
<blockquote>In the first place, the nation with which we have had to do here surpasses in goodness any of the nations lately discovered. I really think that among barbarous nations there can be none that has more natural goodness than the Japanese. They are of a kindly disposition, not at all given to cheating, wonderfully desirous of honour and rank. Honour with them is placed above everything else. There are a great many poor among them, but poverty is not a disgrace to any one. There is one thing among them of which I hardly know whether it is practised anywhere among Christians. The nobles, however poor they may be, receive the same honour from the rest as if they were rich.<ref>Coleridge, p. 237</ref></blockquote> | |||
===Doctrine=== | ===Doctrine=== | ||
{{See also|Bushido|Kiri-sute gomen}} | {{See also|Bushido|Kiri-sute gomen}} | ||
]. After a battle, the heads of enemies were presented to the daimyo.]] | |||
In the 13th century, ] wrote: "When one is serving officially or in the master's court, he should not think of a hundred or a thousand people, but should consider only the importance of the master."<ref>Wilson, p. 38</ref> ] notes that 13th- and 14th-century warrior writings (''gunki'') "portrayed the ''bushi'' in their natural element, war, eulogizing such virtues as reckless bravery, fierce family pride, and selfless, at times senseless devotion of master and man".<ref>], PhD Thesis, University of Copenhagen (1979)</ref> | |||
]. After a battle, enemy's heads were collected and presented to the daimyo.]] | |||
Feudal lords such as Shiba Yoshimasa (1350–1410) stated that a warrior looked forward to a glorious death in the service of a military leader or the emperor: {{blockquote|It is a matter of regret to let the moment when one should die pass by ... First, a man whose profession is the use of arms should think and then act upon not only his own fame, but also that of his descendants. He should not scandalize his name forever by holding his one and only life too dear ... One's main purpose in throwing away his life is to do so either for the sake of the Emperor or in some great undertaking of a military general. It is that exactly that will be the great fame of one's descendants.<ref>Wilson, p. 47</ref>}} | |||
] after losing a battle for his master in 1582. He had just written his ].]] | ] after losing a battle for his master in 1582. He had just written his ].]] | ||
In 1412, ] wrote a letter of admonishment to his brother stressing the importance of duty to one's master. Imagawa was admired for his balance of military and administrative skills during his lifetime, and his writings became widespread. The letters became central to Tokugawa-era laws and became required study material for traditional Japanese until World War II:{{ |
In 1412, ] wrote a letter of admonishment to his brother stressing the importance of duty to one's master. Imagawa was admired for his balance of military and administrative skills during his lifetime, and his writings became widespread. The letters became central to Tokugawa-era laws and became required study material for traditional Japanese until World War II:<ref>{{Cite web |title=Excerpts from Articles of Admonition by Imagawa Ryoshun to his son Nakaai |url=http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/ps/japan/imagawa.pdf}}</ref> | ||
{{blockquote|First of all, a samurai who dislikes battle and has not put his heart in the right place even though he has been born in the house of the warrior, should not be reckoned among one's retainers ... It is forbidden to forget the great debt of kindness one owes to his master and ancestors and thereby make light of the virtues of loyalty and filial piety ... It is forbidden that one should ... attach little importance to his duties to his master ... There is a primary need to distinguish loyalty from disloyalty and to establish rewards and punishments.<ref>Wilson, p. 62</ref>}} | |||
Similarly, the feudal lord ] (1525–1561) stated: |
Similarly, the feudal lord ] (1525–1561) stated:{{blockquote|In matters both great and small, one should not turn his back on his master's commands ... One should not ask for gifts or enfiefments from the master ... No matter how unreasonably the master may treat a man, he should not feel disgruntled ... An underling does not pass judgments on a superior.<ref>Wilson, p. 103</ref>}} | ||
Nobushige's brother ] (1521–1573) also made similar observations: |
Nobushige's brother ] (1521–1573) also made similar observations: {{blockquote|One who was born in the house of a warrior, regardless of his rank or class, first acquaints himself with a man of military feats and achievements in loyalty ... Everyone knows that if a man doesn't hold filial piety toward his own parents he would also neglect his duties toward his lord. Such a neglect means a disloyalty toward humanity. Therefore such a man doesn't deserve to be called 'samurai'.<ref>Wilson, p. 95</ref>}} | ||
The feudal lord ] (1428–1481) wrote: "In the fief of the Asakura, one should not determine hereditary chief retainers. A man should be assigned according to his ability and loyalty." Asakura also observed that the successes of his father were obtained by the kind treatment of the warriors and common people living in domain. By his civility, "all were willing to sacrifice their lives for him and become his allies |
The feudal lord ] (1428–1481) wrote: "In the fief of the Asakura, one should not determine hereditary chief retainers. A man should be assigned according to his ability and loyalty." Asakura also observed that the successes of his father were obtained by the kind treatment of the warriors and common people living in domain. By his civility, "all were willing to sacrifice their lives for him and become his allies".<ref>Wilson, p. 67</ref> | ||
] was one of the most powerful and well-known lords of the Sengoku period. He commanded most of ] during the invasion of Korea. In a handbook he addressed to "all samurai, regardless of rank", he told his followers that a warrior's only duty in life was to "grasp the long and the short swords and to die". He also ordered his followers to put forth great effort in studying the military classics, especially those related to loyalty and filial piety. He is best known for his quote:<ref>Wilson, p, 131</ref> "If a man does not investigate into the matter of Bushido daily, it will be difficult for him to die a brave and manly death. Thus it is essential to engrave this business of the warrior into one's mind well." | ] was one of the most powerful and well-known lords of the Sengoku period. He commanded most of ] during the invasion of Korea. In a handbook he addressed to "all samurai, regardless of rank", he told his followers that a warrior's only duty in life was to "grasp the long and the short swords and to die". He also ordered his followers to put forth great effort in studying the military classics, especially those related to loyalty and filial piety. He is best known for his quote:<ref>Wilson, p, 131</ref> "If a man does not investigate into the matter of Bushido daily, it will be difficult for him to die a brave and manly death. Thus it is essential to engrave this business of the warrior into one's mind well." | ||
] performing ], 1703]] | |||
] performing ], 1703]] | |||
] (1538–1618 AD) was another Sengoku ''daimyō'' who fought alongside Kato Kiyomasa in Korea. He stated that it was shameful for any man to have not risked his life at least once in the line of duty, regardless of his rank. Nabeshima's sayings were passed down to his son and grandson and became the basis for ]'s '']''. He is best known for his saying "The way of the samurai is in desperateness. Ten men or more cannot kill such a man."<ref>{{cite book |author1=Stacey B. Day |author2=Kiyoshi Inokuchi |author3=Hagakure Kenkyūkai |title=The wisdom of Hagakure: way of the Samurai of Saga domain|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QYsQAQAAIAAJ |year=1994 |publisher=Hagakure Society |page=61|isbn=9784873783895 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author1=Brooke Noel Moore |author2=Kenneth Bruder |title=Philosophy: the power of ideas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3kcIWXk8UhMC |year=2001 |publisher=McGraw-Hill |isbn=978-0-7674-2011-2 |page=494}}</ref> | |||
] (1538–1618 AD) was another Sengoku ''daimyō'' who fought alongside Kato Kiyomasa in Korea. He stated that it was shameful for any man to have not risked his life at least once in the line of duty, regardless of his rank. Nabeshima's sayings were passed down to his son and grandson and became the basis for ]'s '']''. He is best known for his saying, "The way of the samurai is in desperateness. Ten men or more cannot kill such a man."<ref>{{cite book |author1=Stacey B. Day |author2=Kiyoshi Inokuchi |author3=Hagakure Kenkyūkai |title=The wisdom of Hagakure: way of the Samurai of Saga domain|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QYsQAQAAIAAJ |year=1994 |publisher=Hagakure Society |page=61|isbn=978-4-87378-389-5 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author1=Brooke Noel Moore |author2=Kenneth Bruder |title=Philosophy: the power of ideas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3kcIWXk8UhMC |year=2001 |publisher=McGraw-Hill |isbn=978-0-7674-2011-2 |page=494}}</ref> | |||
] screen depicting the ]. It began on 21 October 1600 with a total of 160,000 men facing each other.]] | |||
] (1539–1600) was a feudal lord in the service of Tokugawa Ieyasu. On the eve of the battle of ], he volunteered to remain behind in the doomed ] while his lord advanced to the east. Torii and Tokugawa both agreed that the castle was indefensible. In an act of loyalty to his lord, Torii chose to remain behind, pledging that he and his men would fight to the finish. As was custom, Torii vowed that he would not be taken alive. In a dramatic last stand, the garrison of 2,000 men held out against overwhelming odds for ten days against the massive army of Ishida Mitsunari's 40,000 warriors. In a moving to his son Tadamasa, he wrote:<ref>Wilson, p. 122</ref> | |||
] (1539–1600) was a feudal lord in the service of Tokugawa Ieyasu. On the eve of the battle of ], he volunteered to remain behind in the doomed ] while his lord advanced to the east. Torii and Tokugawa both agreed that the castle was indefensible. In an act of loyalty to his lord, Torii chose to remain behind, pledging that he and his men would fight to the finish. As was custom, Torii vowed that he would not be taken alive. In a dramatic last stand, the garrison of 2,000 men held out against overwhelming odds for ten days against the massive army of Ishida Mitsunari's 40,000 warriors. In a moving last statement to his son Tadamasa, he wrote:<ref>{{cite web| url = http://se1.isn.ch/serviceengine/FileContent?serviceID=47&fileid=A2ACEFA7-841A-1AB5-38EF-4F01450AC856&lng=en+http://se2.isn.ch/serviceengine/FileContent?serviceID=23&fileid=A2ACEFA7-841A-1AB5-38EF-4F01450AC856&lng=en| title = Last Statement}}{{dead link|date=February 2024|bot=medic}}</ref><ref>Wilson, p. 122</ref> | |||
{{blockquote|It is not the Way of the Warrior to be shamed and avoid death even under circumstances that are not particularly important. It goes without saying that to sacrifice one's life for the sake of his master is an unchanging principle. That I should be able to go ahead of all the other warriors of this country and lay down my life for the sake of my master's benevolence is an honor to my family and has been my most fervent desire for many years.}} | |||
It is said that both men cried when they parted ways, because they knew they would never see each other again. Torii's father and grandfather had served the Tokugawa before him, and his own brother had already been killed in battle. Torii's actions changed the course of Japanese history. Ieyasu Tokugawa successfully raised an army and won at ]. | It is said that both men cried when they parted ways, because they knew they would never see each other again. Torii's father and grandfather had served the Tokugawa before him, and his own brother had already been killed in battle. Torii's actions changed the course of Japanese history. Ieyasu Tokugawa successfully raised an army and won at ]. | ||
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The translator of ''Hagakure'', ], 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".<ref>Wilson, p. 91</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Daisetz Teitarō Suzuki |title=Zen and Japanese culture |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j8c9AAAAIAAJ |year=1938 |publisher=] |isbn=978-0-691-01770-9}}</ref> | The translator of ''Hagakure'', ], 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".<ref>Wilson, p. 91</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Daisetz Teitarō Suzuki |title=Zen and Japanese culture |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j8c9AAAAIAAJ |year=1938 |publisher=] |isbn=978-0-691-01770-9}}</ref> | ||
The rival of ] (1521–1573) was ] (1530–1578), a legendary Sengoku warlord well |
The rival of ] (1521–1573) was ] (1530–1578), a legendary Sengoku warlord well versed in the Chinese military classics and who advocated the "way of the warrior as death". Japanese historian Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki describes Uesugi's beliefs as: {{blockquote|Those who are reluctant to give up their lives and embrace death are not true warriors ... Go to the battlefield firmly confident of victory, and you will come home with no wounds whatever. Engage in combat fully determined to die and you will be alive; wish to survive in the battle and you will surely meet death. When you leave the house determined not to see it again you will come home safely; when you have any thought of returning you will not return. You may not be in the wrong to think that the world is always subject to change, but the warrior must not entertain this way of thinking, for his fate is always determined.<ref>{{cite book |author=Daisetz Teitarō Suzuki |title=Zen and Japanese culture |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j8c9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA78 |year=1938 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-01770-9 |page=78}}</ref>}} | ||
Families such as the Imagawa were influential in the development of warrior ethics and were widely quoted by other lords during their lifetime. The writings of ] were highly respected and sought out by Tokugawa Ieyasu as the source of |
Families such as the Imagawa were influential in the development of warrior ethics and were widely quoted by other lords during their lifetime. The writings of ] were highly respected and sought out by Tokugawa Ieyasu as the source of Japanese feudal law. | ||
===Religious influences=== | |||
] screen depicting the ]. It began on 21 October 1600 with a total of 160,000 men facing each other.]] | |||
The philosophies of Confucianism,<ref name="William E. Deal 2006 136"/> ] and ], and to a lesser extent ], influenced the samurai culture. Zen meditation became an important teaching because it offered a process to calm one's mind. The Buddhist concept of ] and rebirth led samurai to abandon torture and needless killing, while some samurai even gave up violence altogether and became Buddhist monks after coming to believe that their killings were fruitless. Some were killed as they came to terms with these conclusions in the battlefield. The most defining role that Confucianism played in samurai philosophy was to stress the importance of the lord-retainer relationship—the loyalty that a samurai was required to show his lord.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}} | |||
Historian H. Paul Varley notes the description of Japan given by Jesuit leader ]: "There is no nation in the world which fears death less." Xavier further the honour and manners of the people: "I fancy that there are no people in the world more punctilious about their honour than the Japanese, for they will not put up with a single insult or even a word spoken in anger." Xavier spent 1549 to 1551 converting Japanese to Christianity. He also observed: "The Japanese are much braver and more warlike than the people of China, Korea, ] and all of the other nations around the Philippines."<ref>{{cite book|author=H. Paul Varley|title=Japanese culture|url=https://archive.org/details/japaneseculture00hpau|url-access=registration|year=2000|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|isbn=978-0-8248-2152-4|pages=–}}</ref> | |||
Literature on the subject of ''bushido'' such as '']'' ("Hidden in Leaves") by ] and ''Gorin no Sho'' ("Book of the Five Rings") by ], both written in the Edo period, contributed to the development of ''bushidō'' and Zen philosophy. | |||
==Arts== | |||
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."{{sfn|Sharf|1993|p=12}} | |||
In December 1547, Francis was in ] (Malaysia) waiting to return to ] (India) when he met a low-ranked samurai named Anjiro (possibly spelled "Yajiro"). Anjiro was not an intellectual, but he impressed Xavier because he took careful notes of everything he said in church. Xavier made the decision to go to Japan in part because this low-ranking samurai convinced him in Portuguese that the Japanese people were highly educated and eager to learn. They were hard workers and respectful of authority. In their laws and customs they were led by reason, and, should the Christian faith convince them of its truth, they would accept it en masse.<ref>Coleridge, p. 100</ref> | |||
==Culture== | |||
By the 12th century, upper-class samurai were highly literate because of the general introduction of ] from China during the 7th to 9th centuries and in response to their perceived need to deal with the imperial court, who had a monopoly on culture and literacy for most of the Heian period. As a result, they aspired to the more cultured abilities of the nobility.<ref name=Matsura>Matsura, Yoshinori Fukuiken-shi 2 (Tokyo: Sanshusha, 1921)</ref> | |||
]}} was a place of politics and socializing for lords and samurai.]] | |||
As aristocrats for centuries, samurai developed their own cultures that influenced Japanese culture as a whole. {{nihongo3|Japanese poetry||]}}, {{nihongo3|Japanese dance-drama||]}}, {{nihongo3|Japanese football game||]}}, ], and {{nihongo3|Japanese flower arranging||]}} were some of the cultural pursuits enjoyed by the samurai.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.touken-world.jp/tips/113261/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240427025841/https://www.touken-world.jp/tips/113261/|script-title=ja:武士の生活|language=ja|publisher=The Nagoya Japanese Sword Museum Nagoya Touken World|date=|archive-date=27 April 2024|access-date=27 April 2024}}</ref> | |||
''Waka'' poems were also used as {{nihongo3|death poems|]|jisei no ku}}. ], ], and ] are famous for their ''jisei no ku''. | |||
''Noh'' and ''kemari'' were promoted by the ] and became popular among {{nihongo3|feudal lords||]}} and samurai.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.kokugakuin.ac.jp/article/53496|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221205225102/https://www.kokugakuin.ac.jp/article/53496|script-title=ja:神社と深くつながる「蹴鞠」|language=ja|publisher=]|date=16 February 2018|archive-date=5 December 2022|access-date=27 April 2024}}</ref><ref name="nohgaku">{{cite web|url=https://www.nohgaku.or.jp/guide/whywhat1|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231004141553/https://www.nohgaku.or.jp/guide/whywhat1|script-title=ja:能楽と歴史について|language=ja|publisher=The Nohgaku Performers' Association|date=16 February 2018|archive-date=4 October 2023|access-date=27 April 2024}}</ref> During the ], 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 {{nihongo3|small tea room||]}} 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.<ref name="nohgaku"/> | |||
Examples such as ] (a samurai who appears in the ''Heike Monogatari'') demonstrate that warriors idealized the arts and aspired to become skilled in them. Tadanori was famous for his skill with the pen and the sword or the "bun and the bu", the harmony of fighting and learning. | |||
Samurai were expected to be cultured and literate and admired the ancient saying "bunbu-ryōdō" (文武両道, literary arts, military arts, both ways) or "The pen and the sword in accord". By the time of the Edo period, Japan had a higher literacy comparable to that in central Europe.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Philip J. Adler|author2=Randall L. Pouwels|title=World Civilizations: Since 1500|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mPoqfoiIp4sC&pg=PA369|year=2007|publisher=Cengage Learning|isbn=978-0-495-50262-3|page=369}}</ref> | |||
The number of men who actually achieved the ideal and lived their lives by it was high. An early term for warrior, "uruwashii", was written with a kanji that combined the characters for literary study ("bun" 文) and military arts ("bu" 武), and is mentioned in the Heike Monogatari (late 12th century). The Heike Monogatari makes reference to the educated poet-swordsman ideal in its mention of Taira no Tadanori's death:<ref name=w26/> | |||
{{quote|Friends and foes alike wet their sleeves with tears and said,<br /> | |||
What a pity! Tadanori was a great general,<br /> | |||
pre-eminent in the arts of both sword and poetry.}} | |||
In his book "Ideals of the Samurai" translator William Scott Wilson states: "The warriors in the ''Heike Monogatari'' served as models for the educated warriors of later generations, and the ideals depicted by them were not assumed to be beyond reach. Rather, these ideals were vigorously pursued in the upper echelons of warrior society and recommended as the proper form of the Japanese man of arms. With the Heike Monogatari, the image of the Japanese warrior in literature came to its full maturity."<ref name=w26>Wilson, p. 26</ref> Wilson then translates the writings of several warriors who mention the Heike Monogatari as an example for their men to follow. | |||
Plenty of warrior writings document this ideal from the 13th century onward. Most warriors aspired to or followed this ideal otherwise there would have been no cohesion in the samurai armies.<ref>Wilson</ref> | |||
==Culture== | |||
As aristocrats for centuries, samurai developed their own cultures that influenced Japanese culture as a whole. The culture associated with the samurai such as the ], monochrome ink painting, rock gardens and poetry was adopted by warrior patrons throughout the centuries 1200–1600. These practices were adapted from the Chinese arts. Zen monks introduced them to Japan and they were allowed to flourish due to the interest of powerful warrior elites. ] (1275–1351) was a Zen monk who was advisor to both Emperor ] and General ] (1304–58). Musō, as well as other monks, served as a political and cultural diplomat between Japan and China. Musō was particularly well known for his garden design. Another Ashikaga patron of the arts was Yoshimasa. His cultural advisor, the Zen monk Zeami, introduced the tea ceremony to him. Previously, tea had been used primarily for Buddhist monks to stay awake during meditation.<ref>{{cite book|author1=R. H. P. Mason|author2=John Godwin Caiger|title=A history of Japan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m_XL2iELo-oC&pg=PA152|year=1997|publisher=Tuttle Publishing|isbn=978-0-8048-2097-4|page=152}}</ref> | |||
===Education=== | ===Education=== | ||
], a samurai, physician and rangaku scholar in late Edo period Japan, noted for establishing an academy which later developed into ]]] | |||
In general, samurai, aristocrats, and priests had a very high literacy rate in ]. Recent studies have shown that literacy in kanji among other groups in society was somewhat higher than previously understood. For example, court documents, birth and death records and marriage records from the Kamakura period, submitted by farmers, were prepared in Kanji. Both the kanji literacy rate and skills in math improved toward the end of Kamakura period.<ref name=Matsura>Matsura, Yoshinori Fukuiken-shi 2 (Tokyo: Sanshusha, 1921)</ref> | |||
], a samurai, physician and rangaku scholar in late Edo period Japan, noted for establishing an academy which later developed into ].]] | |||
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.<ref>Murray, S. (2009). ''The library : an illustrated history''. New York: ]; Chicago : ALA Editions, 2009. p. 113 {{ISBN?}}</ref> | |||
In general, samurai, aristocrats, and priests had a very high literacy rate in ]. Recent studies have shown that literacy in kanji among other groups in society was somewhat higher than previously understood. For example, court documents, birth and death records and marriage records from the Kamakura period, submitted by farmers, were prepared in Kanji. Both the kanji literacy rate and skills in math improved toward the end of Kamakura period.<ref name=Matsura /> | |||
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.<ref>Murray, S. (2009). The library : an illustrated history. New York, NY : ] ; Chicago : ALA Editions, 2009. pg.113</ref> | |||
Literacy was generally high among the warriors and the common classes as well. The feudal lord ] (1474–1555 AD) noted the great loyalty given to his father, due to his polite letters, not just to fellow samurai, but also to the farmers and townspeople: | |||
<blockquote>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.<ref>Wilson, p. 85</ref></blockquote> | <blockquote>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.<ref>Wilson, p. 85</ref></blockquote> | ||
In a letter dated 29 January 1552, ] observed the ease of which the Japanese understood prayers due to the high level of literacy in Japan at that time: | In a letter dated 29 January 1552, ] observed the ease of which the Japanese understood prayers due to the high level of literacy in Japan at that time: | ||
<blockquote>There are two kinds of writing in Japan, one used by men and the other by women; and for the most part both men and women, especially of the nobility and the commercial class, have a literary education. The bonzes, or bonzesses, in their monasteries teach letters to the girls and boys, though rich and noble persons entrust the education of their children to private tutors.<br /> | |||
Most of them can read, and this is a great help to them for the easy understanding of our usual prayers and the chief points of our holy religion.<ref>Coleridge, p. 345</ref></blockquote> | |||
In a letter to ] at ], Xavier further noted the education of the upper classes: | In a letter to ] at ], Xavier further noted the education of the upper classes: | ||
<blockquote>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. | <blockquote>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.</blockquote> | ||
They are discreet, magnanimous and lovers of virtue and letters, honouring learned men very much.</blockquote> | |||
In a letter dated 11 November 1549, Xavier described a multi-tiered educational system in Japan consisting of "universities", "colleges", "academies" and hundreds of monasteries that served as a principal center for learning by the populace: | |||
<blockquote>But now we must give you an account of our stay at ]. We put into that port because the wind was adverse to our sailing to Meaco, which is the largest city in Japan, and most famous as the residence of the King and the Princes. It is said that after four months are passed the favourable season for a voyage to Meaco will return, and then with the good help of God we shall sail thither. The distance from Cagoxima is three hundred leagues. We hear wonderful stories about the size of Meaco: they say that it consists of more than ninety thousand dwellings. There is a very famous University there, as well as five chief colleges of students, and more than two hundred monasteries of bonzes, and of others who are like coenobites, called Legioxi, as well as of women of the same kind, who are called Hamacutis. Besides this of Meaco, there are in Japan five other principal academies, at Coya, at Negu, at Fisso, and at Homia. These are situated round Meaco, with short distances between them, and each is frequented by about three thousand five hundred scholars. Besides these there is the Academy at Bandou, much the largest and most famous in all Japan, and at a great distance from Meaco. Bandou is a large territory, ruled by six minor princes, one of whom is more powerful than the others and is obeyed by them, being himself subject to the King of Japan, who is called the Great King of Meaco. The things that are given out as to the greatness and celebrity of these universities and cities are so wonderful as to make us think of seeing them first with our own eyes and ascertaining the truth, and then when we have discovered and know how things really are, of writing an account of them to you. They say that there are several lesser academies besides those which we have mentioned. | |||
</blockquote> | |||
===Names=== | ===Names=== | ||
A samurai was usually named by combining one ] from his father or grandfather and one new kanji. Samurai normally used only a small part of their total name. | A samurai was usually named by combining one ] from his father or grandfather and one new kanji. Samurai normally used only a small part of their total name. | ||
For example, the full name of ] was "Oda Kazusanosuke Saburo Nobunaga" ({{lang|ja|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 ], 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. | For example, the full name of ] was "Oda Kazusanosuke Saburo Nobunaga" ({{lang|ja|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 (]), and "Nobunaga" is an adult name (]) given at ], 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 |
Samurai were given the privilege of carrying two swords and using 'samurai surnames' to identify themselves from the common people.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wert |first1=Michael |title=Samurai: A Concise History |date=2019 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-19-093294-7 |page=38}}</ref> | ||
===Marriage=== | ===Marriage=== | ||
] with his wives and concubines |
] with his wives and concubines]] | ||
Samurai had arranged marriages, which were arranged by a go-between of the same or higher rank. While for those samurai in the upper ranks this was a necessity (as most had few opportunities to meet women), this was a formality for lower-ranked samurai. Most samurai married women from a samurai family, but for lower-ranked samurai, marriages with commoners were permitted. In these marriages a ] was brought by the woman and was used to set up the couple's new household. | Samurai had arranged marriages, which were arranged by a go-between of the same or higher rank. While for those samurai in the upper ranks this was a necessity (as most had few opportunities to meet women), this was a formality for lower-ranked samurai. Most samurai married women from a samurai family, but for lower-ranked samurai, marriages with commoners were permitted. In these marriages a ] was brought by the woman and was used to set up the couple's new household. | ||
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==Women== | ==Women== | ||
{{Main|Onna-musha}}] by Shitomi Kangetsu, |
{{Main|Onna-musha}} | ||
{{Unreferenced section|date=June 2023}} | |||
] by Shitomi Kangetsu, {{Circa|18th century}}]] | |||
Maintaining the household was the main duty of women of the samurai class. This was especially crucial during early feudal Japan, when warrior husbands were often traveling abroad or engaged in clan battles. The wife, or ''okugatasama'' (meaning: one who remains in the home), was left to manage all household affairs, care for the children, and perhaps even defend the home forcibly. For this reason, many women of the samurai class were trained in wielding a polearm called a '']'' or a special knife called the '']'' in an art called '']'' (lit. the skill of the knife), which they could use to protect their household, family, and honor if the need arose. There were women who actively engaged in battles alongside male samurai in Japan, although most of these female warriors were not formal samurai.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X7GHCwAAQBAJ|title=Samurai Women 1184–1877|last=Turnbull|first=Stephen|date=2012 |
Maintaining the household was the main duty of women of the samurai class. This was especially crucial during early feudal Japan, when warrior husbands were often traveling abroad or engaged in clan battles. The wife, or ''okugatasama'' (meaning: one who remains in the home), was left to manage all household affairs, care for the children, and perhaps even defend the home forcibly. For this reason, many women of the samurai class were trained in wielding a polearm called a '']'' or a special knife called the '']'' in an art called '']'' (lit. the skill of the knife), which they could use to protect their household, family, and honor if the need arose. There were women who actively engaged in battles alongside male samurai in Japan, although most of these female warriors were not formal samurai.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X7GHCwAAQBAJ|title=Samurai Women 1184–1877|last=Turnbull|first=Stephen|date=2012|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-1-78096-333-4|language=en}}</ref> | ||
A samurai's daughter's greatest duty was ]. These women married members of enemy clans of their families to form a diplomatic relationship. 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 ] ( |
A samurai's daughter's greatest duty was ]. These women married members of enemy clans of their families to form a diplomatic relationship. 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 ] (daughter of ]); irritated by the antics of her mother-in-law, ] (the wife of ]), 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, ], 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.{{citation needed|date=September 2020}} | ||
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 '']''. | |||
Traits valued in women of the samurai class were humility, obedience, self-control, strength, and loyalty. Ideally, a samurai wife would be skilled at managing property, keeping records, dealing with financial matters, educating the children (and perhaps servants as well), and caring for elderly parents or in-laws that may be living under her roof. Confucian law, which helped define personal relationships and the code of ethics of the warrior class, required that a woman show subservience to her husband, filial piety to her parents, and care to the children. Too much love and affection was also said to indulge and spoil the youngsters. Thus, a woman was also to exercise discipline. | |||
After ], 8th ''shōgun'' of the Muromachi shogunate, lost interest in politics, his wife ] largely ruled in his place. ], wife of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, was known to overrule her husband's decisions at times, and ], his concubine, became the ''de facto'' master of Osaka castle and the Toyotomi clan after Hideyoshi's death. ] was chosen to lead the Tachibana clan after her father's death. ], 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 may have been that samurai left their finances to their wives. Several women ascended the ] as a ] (女性天皇, ]) | |||
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. Powerful women both wisely and unwisely 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 '']''. | |||
After ], 8th ''shōgun'' of the Muromachi shogunate, lost interest in politics, his wife ] largely ruled in his place. ], wife of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, was known to overrule her husband's decisions at times, and ], his concubine, became the ''de facto'' master of Osaka castle and the Toyotomi clan after Hideyoshi's death. ] was chosen to lead the Tachibana clan after her father's death. ], 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 may have been that samurai left their finances to their wives. Several women ascended the ] as ] (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. | 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. | ||
<gallery mode="packed" style="text-align: center;" heights=" |
<gallery mode="packed" style="text-align: center;" heights="180"> | ||
File: |
File:Kasuga no Tsubone (c. 1880).jpg|''] fighting robbers'' – ] ({{Circa|1880}}) | ||
File:Hangaku Gozen by Yoshitoshi.jpg|] by ], |
File:Hangaku Gozen by Yoshitoshi.jpg|] by ], {{Circa|1885}} | ||
File: |
File:Onodera Junai no tsuma 斧寺重内の妻 (No. 4, The Wife of Onodera Junai) (BM 2008,3037.15404).jpg|Japanese woman preparing for ] | ||
File:Yuki no Kata. |
File:Tomita Nobutaka and his wife Yuki no Kata defend Tsu Castle by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi 1885.png|] defending ]. 18th century | ||
File:Femme-samurai-p1000704.jpg|A samurai class woman |
File:Femme-samurai-p1000704.jpg|A samurai class woman | ||
</gallery> | </gallery> | ||
== |
==Combat techniques== | ||
During the existence of the samurai, two opposite types of organization reigned. The first type were recruits-based armies: at the beginning, during the ], samurai armies relied on armies of Chinese-type recruits and towards the end in infantry units composed of ''ashigaru''. The second type of organization was that of a samurai on horseback who fought individually or in small groups.<ref name="Turnbull, Stephen 2004. p. 196">Turnbull, Stephen. Samurai The Story of Japan's Great Warriors. London. Prc Publishing Ltd, 2004. p. 196.</ref> | |||
] made by a Korean samurai ] and his descendants.]] | |||
{{Main|List of foreign-born samurai in Japan}} | |||
At the beginning of the contest, a series of bulbous-headed arrows were shot, which buzzed in the air. The purpose of these shots was to call the '']'' to witness the displays of courage that were about to unfold. After a brief exchange of arrows between the two sides, a contest called ''ikkiuchi'' (一 騎 討 ち) was developed, where great rivals on both sides faced each other.<ref name="Turnbull, Stephen 2004. p. 196"/> After these individual combats, the major combats were given way, usually sending infantry troops led by samurai on horseback. At the beginning of the samurai battles, it was an honor to be the first to enter battle. This changed in the Sengoku period with the introduction of the arquebus.<ref name="Turnbull, Stephen 2004. p. 208">Turnbull, Stephen. Samurai The Story of Japan's Great Warriors. London. Prc Publishing Ltd, 2004. p. 208.</ref> | |||
Several people born in foreign countries were granted the title of samurai. | |||
At the beginning of the use of firearms, the combat methodology was as follows: at the beginning an exchange of arquebus shots was made at a distance of approximately 100 meters; when the time was right, the ''ashigaru'' spearmen were ordered to advance and finally the samurai would attack, either on foot or on horseback.<ref name="Turnbull, Stephen 2004. p. 208"/> The army chief would sit in a scissor chair inside a semi-open tent called ''maku'', which exhibited its respective ] and represented the '']'', "government from the ''maku''."<ref>Turnbull, Stephen. Samurai The Story of Japan's Great Warriors. London. Prc Publishing Ltd, 2004. p. 207.</ref> | |||
After ], many people born in the ] dynasty were brought to Japan as prisoners or cooperators. Some of them served ''daimyōs'' as retainers. One of the most prominent figures among them was Kim Yeocheol, who was granted the Japanese name ] and promoted to Commissioner of ] city. | |||
In the middle of the contest, some samurai decided to get off the horse and seek to cut off the head of a worthy rival. This act was considered an honor. Through it they gained respect among the military class.<ref>Turnbull, Stephen. Samurai The Story of Japan's Great Warriors. London. Prc Publishing Ltd, 2004. p. 209.</ref> After the battle, the high-ranking samurai normally celebrated with a ], and the victorious general reviewed the heads of the most important members of the enemy which had been cut.<ref>Gaskin, Carol; Hawkins, Vince. ''Breve historia de los samuráis'' (Juan Antonio Cebrián, trad.). London. Nowtilus S.L., 2004. {{ISBN|84-9763-140-4}}. p. 57.</ref> | |||
The English sailor and adventurer ] (1564–1620) was among the first Westerners to receive the dignity of samurai. The ''shōgun'' ] presented him with two swords representing the authority of a samurai, and decreed that William Adams the sailor was dead and that Anjin Miura ({{lang|ja|三浦按針}}), a samurai, was born. Adams also received the title of '']'' (bannerman), a high-prestige position as a direct retainer in the ''shōgun''{{'}}s court. He was provided with generous revenues: "For the services that I have done and do daily, being employed in the Emperor's service, the Emperor has given me a living". (Letters){{who|date=May 2017}} He was granted a fief in Hemi ({{lang|ja|逸見}}) within the boundaries of present-day ], "with eighty or ninety husbandmen, that be my slaves or servants". (Letters){{who|date=May 2017}} His estate was valued at 250 '']''. He finally wrote "God hath provided for me after my great misery", (Letters){{who|date=May 2017}} by which he meant the disaster-ridden voyage that initially brought him to Japan. | |||
Most of the battles were not resolved in the ideal manner mentioned above. Most wars were won through surprise attacks, such as night raids, fires, etc. The renowned samurai ] said: | |||
], a Dutch colleague of Adams on their ill-fated voyage to Japan in the ship De Liefde, was also given similar privileges by Tokugawa Ieyasu. Joosten likewise became a hatamoto samurai<ref>{{cite web |url=http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/is/IS394.pdf |title=William Adams and Early English Enterprise in Japan |publisher=Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines (part of the ])|access-date=1 March 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170808062346/http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/is/IS394.pdf |archive-date=8 August 2017}}</ref> and was given a residence within Ieyasu's castle at Edo. Today, this area at the east exit of ] is known as ] (八重洲). Yaesu is a corruption of the Dutchman's Japanese name, Yayousu (耶楊子). Joosten was given a ] (朱印船) allowing him to trade between Japan and ]. On a return journey from ], Joosten drowned after his ship ran aground. | |||
{{blockquote|According to my experience, there is nothing more advantageous when it comes to crushing the enemy than a night attack . If we set fire to three of the sides and close the passage through the room, those who flee from the flames will be shot down by arrows, and those who seek to escape from them will not be able to flee from the flames.|].<ref>Turnbull, Stephen. Samurai The Story of Japan's Great Warriors. London. Prc Publishing Ltd, 2004. p. 198.</ref>}} | |||
] (弥助) was a ] of ], and possible samurai, originally from ], Africa.<ref name="Ietada">{{cite web|url= http://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/971162/207|title=松平家忠、「家忠日記」、文科大学史誌叢書第2巻、吉川半七、1897年、54頁|access-date=2015-08-04}}</ref> Weapon bearer of Nobunaga.<ref>『織田信長という歴史 『信長記』の彼方へ』、勉誠出版、2009年、311-312頁。</ref> He served in the ].<ref name="nempo">{{Citation |author1=村上直次郎|author2=柳谷武夫(訳)|year=2002| title =イエズス会日本年報 上|series=新異国叢書|publisher =雄松堂出版 |isbn=978-4841910001}}</ref> According to Thomas Lockley's African Samurai in the 'Oda vassal clan, the Maeda ' there was mention of him receiving 'a stipend, a private residence ... and was given a short sword with a decorative sheath.' However, there is no mention of him being allowed to wear a ] pairing as a samurai. | |||
===Head collection=== | |||
] ] missionary, ], entered Japan at a time when Christianity was ] in an attempt to locate fellow priest ] who had ] his Christian faith at the hands of torture by the Japanese authorities in 1633. Di Chiara was also tortured and eventually became an apostate as well. After the ] in 1638, he arrived on the island of Oshima and was immediately arrested in June 1643.<ref>http://sspx.org/en/news-events/news/real-life-silences-character</ref> He later married a Japanese woman, taking the name and samurai status of her late husband, Okamoto San'emon (]: 岡本三右衛門), and lived in Japan until his death in 1685, at the age of 83.{{Unreliable source?|date=July 2020}} | |||
] | |||
Cutting off the head of a worthy rival on the battlefield was a source of great pride and recognition. There was a detailed ritual to beautify the ]: first they were washed and combed,<ref name="Gaskin, Carol 2004">Gaskin, Carol; Hawkins, Vince. ''Breve historia de los samuráis'' (Juan Antonio Cebrián, trad.). London. Nowtilus S.L., 2004. {{ISBN|84-9763-140-4}}. p. 56.</ref> and once this was done, the teeth were blackened by applying a dye called '']''.<ref name="Turnbull, Stephen 2004. p. 231">Turnbull, Stephen. Samurai The Story of Japan's Great Warriors. London. Prc Publishing Ltd., 2004. p. 231.</ref> The reason for blackening the teeth was that white teeth was a sign of distinction, so applying a dye to darken them was a desecration.<ref name="Turnbull, Stephen 2004. p. 231"/> The heads were carefully arranged on a table for exposure.<ref name="Gaskin, Carol 2004"/> | |||
==Weapons== | |||
] | |||
In 1600, ] participated in the ] as the forerunner of ]'s army.<ref name="saizo"/> In the outpost battle of ], he took the heads of 17 enemy soldiers, and was greatly praised by ].<ref name="saizo"/> He fought with a ] stalk on his back and would mark the heads of his defeated enemies by putting bamboo leaves in their cut necks or mouths, since he could not carry every head.<ref name="saizo"/> Thus he gained the nickname ''Bamboo Saizo.''<ref name="saizo">{{Cite book|title=戦国武将名言録 (PHP文庫) |author=楠戸 義昭 |isbn=4-569-66651-5 |date= 2006 |publisher=PHP研究所 |page=375 }}</ref> | |||
* ''']s''' are the weapons that have come to be synonymous with the samurai. '']'', swords from the ], featured a straight blade. By 900, curved '']'' appeared, and ultimately the '']''. Smaller commonly known companion swords are the '']'' and the '']''.<ref>{{cite book|author=Karl F. Friday |title=Samurai, warfare and the state in early medieval Japan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q5KBjpGSRgkC&pg=PA78|year=2004|publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-0-415-32963-7 |pages=78–80}}</ref> Wearing a long sword ''(katana'' or ''tachi)'' together with a smaller sword became the symbol of the samurai, and this combination of swords is referred to as a '']'' (literally "big and small"). During the Edo period only samurai were allowed to wear a ''daisho''. A longer blade known as the ] was also used in the fourteenth century, though primarily used by samurai on the ground.<ref>Turnbull, Stephen. Samurai The Story of Japan’s Great Warriors. London. Prc Publishing Ltd., 2004. Print.</ref> | |||
* The '''''']''''' (longbow), reflected in the art of '']'' (lit. the skill of the bow) was a major weapon of the Japanese military. Its usage declined with the introduction of the ] (Japanese matchlock) during the ], but the skill was still practiced at least for sport.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Kathleen Haywood|author2=Catherine Lewis|title=Archery: steps to success|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-EFySHOgGmIC&pg=PR10|year=2006|publisher=Human Kinetics|isbn=978-0-7360-5542-0|page=10}}</ref> The ''yumi'', an asymmetric ] made from ], ], ] and ], had an effective range of {{convert|50|or|100|m|ft|abbr=off|sp=us}} if accuracy was not an issue. On foot, it was usually used behind a ] ({{lang|ja|手盾}}), a large, mobile wooden shield, but the ''yumi'' could also be used from horseback because of its asymmetric shape. The practice of shooting from horseback became a Shinto ceremony known as '']'' ({{lang|ja|流鏑馬}}).<ref>{{cite book|author1=Thomas Louis|author2=Tommy Ito|title=Samurai: The Code of the Warrior|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wExlaM1ov0sC&pg=PA117|year=2008|publisher=Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.|isbn=978-1-4027-6312-0|page=117}}</ref> | |||
* ''']''' including the '']'' (spear) and '']'' were commonly used by the samurai. The ''yari'' displaced the ''naginata'' from the battlefield as personal bravery became less of a factor and battles became more organized around massed, inexpensive foot troops ('']'').<ref>Turnbull, Stephen. Samurai The Story of Japan’s Great Warriors. London. Prc Publishing Ltd, 2004. Print. pg. 174.</ref> A charge, mounted or dismounted, was also more effective when using a spear rather than a sword, as it offered better than even odds against a samurai using a sword. In the ] where ] was defeated by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, seven samurai who came to be known as the "]" ({{lang|ja|賤ヶ岳七本槍}}) played a crucial role in the victory.<ref>{{cite book|author=Stephen Turnbull|title=The Samurai Swordsman: Master of War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NR9j09T2hLkC&pg=PA65|year=2008|publisher=Tuttle Publishing|isbn=978-4-8053-0956-8|page=65}}</ref> | |||
* ''']''' were introduced to Japan in 1543 through Portuguese trade. ''Tanegashima'' were produced on a large scale by Japanese gunsmiths, enabling warlords to raise and train armies from masses of peasants. The new weapons were highly effective; their ease of use and deadly effectiveness led to the ''tanegashima'' becoming the weapon of choice over the ''yumi''. By the end of the 16th century, there were more firearms in Japan than in many European nations. ''Tanegashima''—employed ''en masse'', largely by ''ashigaru'' peasant foot troops—were responsible for a change in military tactics that eventually led to establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate and an end to civil war. Production of ''tanegashima'' declined sharply as there was no need for massive amounts of firearms. During the Edo period, ''tanegashima'' were stored away and used mainly for hunting and target practice. Foreign intervention in the 19th century renewed interest in firearms, but the ''tanegashima'' was outdated by then, and various samurai factions purchased more modern firearms from European sources. | |||
* ''']''' became a common part of the samurai's armory by the 1570s. They often were mounted in castles or on ships, being used more as anti-personnel weapons than against castle walls or the like, though in the ] (1575) a cannon was used to good effect against an enemy siege tower. The first popular cannon in Japan were swivel-breech loaders named ''kunikuzushi'' or "province destroyers". ''Kunikuzushi'' weighed {{convert|264|lb|abbr=on}} and used {{convert|40|lb|abbr=on}} chambers, firing a small shot of {{convert|10|oz|abbr=on}}. The ] of Kyushu used cannon like this at the Battle of Okinawate against the ]. | |||
* ''']''' of many shapes and sizes made from oak and other hard woods were used by the samurai, commonly known ones include the '']'', the '']'', the '']'', and the '']''. | |||
* ''']''' made of iron or wood, of all shapes and sizes were used by the samurai. Some like the '']'' were one-handed weapons, and others like the '']'' were large two-handed weapons. | |||
* ''']''', various weapons using chains were used during the samurai era, the '']'' and '']'' are examples. | |||
During Toyotomi Hideyoshi's invasions of Korea, the number of severed heads of the enemies to be sent to Japan was such that for logistical reasons only the noses were sent. These were covered with salt and shipped in wooden barrels. These barrels were buried in a burial mound near the "Great Buddha" of Hideyoshi, where they remain today under the wrong name of '']'' or "ear mound".<ref>Gaskin, Carol; Hawkins, Vince. ''Breve historia de los samuráis'' (Juan Antonio Cebrián, trad.). London. Nowtilus S.L., 2004. {{ISBN|84-9763-140-4}}. p. 114.</ref> | |||
<gallery mode="packed" style="text-align: center;" caption="Gallery" heights="110px" wiperrow="3"> | |||
File:Katana brique.svg|Cross sections of Japanese sword lamination methods. | |||
File:Katana (common shema).png|Diagram of the Katana sword. | |||
File:Samurai Japanese.jpg|Samurai with various armor and weapons, c. 1802-1814 | |||
File:Tachi dedicated to Daizaifu Tenmangu by Shimazu Shigehide made in 1787.jpg|Antique Japanese ] | |||
File:Antique_Japanese_(samurai)_katana_met_museum.jpg|Antique Japanese ] | |||
File:脇差, Blade and Mounting for a Short Sword (Wakizashi).png|Antique Japanese ] | |||
File:Himeji_Oshiro_Matsuri_August09_007.jpg|Reenactors with ] at Himeji Castle Festival | |||
File:Yumi-p1000624.jpg|Japanese arrow stand with a pair of ] bows. | |||
File:The bow of the Kamakura period.JPG|The bow of the Kamakura period | |||
File:The arrow of the Kamakura period.JPG|The arrow of the Kamakura period | |||
</gallery> | |||
===Military formations=== | |||
==Armor== | |||
During the Azuchi-Momoyama period and thanks to the introduction of firearms, combat tactics changed dramatically. The military formations adopted had poetic names, among which are:<ref>Turnbull, Stephen (1979). ''Samurai Armies, 1550–1615''. Osprey Publishing. {{ISBN|0-85045-302-X}}. p. 12</ref> | |||
{{Main|Japanese armour}} | |||
Many of these formations were created by ], ], and others in China, and were introduced to Japan where they were used.<ref>{{cite web|script-title=ja:合戦の「八陣」は諸葛亮孔明の発案? 日本流の軍学が昇華させた「勝つため」の陣形とは|trans-title=Was the "Eight formations" of battle an invention of Zhuge Liang Kongming? What is the "winning" formation that was refined by Japanese military science?|author=]|agency=|publisher=ja:歴史道|url=https://dot.asahi.com/articles/-/42984?page=1|date=2022-01-16|accessdate=2024-12-23|language=ja}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|script-title=ja:八陣|trans-title=Eight formations|author=|agency=|publisher=]|url=https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%85%AB%E9%99%A3-601989|date=|accessdate=2024-12-24|language=ja}}</ref> In reality, based on these, each force developed its own formations depending on its organization and tactics.<ref>{{cite book |last=政彦 |first=乃至 |author-link=:ja:乃至政彦 |year=2016 |title=戦国の陣形 |publisher=] |page=99-106 |isbn=978-4-06-288351-1 |language=ja}}</ref> | |||
] | |||
{| class="wikitable" style="margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; width:810px;" | |||
As far back as the seventh century Japanese warriors wore a form of ], which evolved into the armor worn by the samurai.<ref name="turnbull1996">{{cite book|author=Stephen R. Turnbull|title=The Samurai: a military history|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RMBdoimD2kIC&pg=PA20|year=1996|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-1-873410-38-7|page=20}}</ref> The first types of Japanese armor identified as samurai armor were known as '']'' and '']''. These early samurai armors were made from small individual scales known as ''kozane''. The ''kozane'' were made from either iron or leather and were bound together into small strips, and the strips were coated with lacquer to protect the ''kozane'' from water. A series of strips of ''kozane'' were then laced together with silk or leather lace and formed into a complete chest armor ].<ref name="turnbull1996"/> A complete set of the ''yoroi'' weighed 66 lbs.<ref>Turnbull, Stephen. Samurai The Story of Japan's Great Warriors. London. Prc Publishing Ltd., 2004. Print. pg. 137.</ref> | |||
|- | |||
!|Name | |||
In the 16th century a new type of armor started to become popular after the advent of firearms, new fighting tactics by increasing the scale of battles and the need for additional protection and high productivity. The ''kozane dou'', which was made of small individual scales, was replaced by ''itazane'', which had larger iron plate or platy leather joined together. ''Itazane'' can also be said to replace a row of individual ''kozanes'' with a single steel plate or platy leather. This new armor, which used ''itazane'', was referred to as ''tosei-gusoku'' (''gusoku''), or modern armor.<ref name = "gusoku"> Costume Museum</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Clive Sinclaire |title=Samurai: The Weapons and Spirit of the Japanese Warrior |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IQ3FAZG94ZsC&pg=PA32|year=2004|publisher=Globe Pequot |isbn=978-1-59228-720-8 |page=32}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=William E. Deal |title=Handbook to life in medieval and early modern Japan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i0ni1NmbYe0C&pg=PA171|year=2007|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-533126-4 |page=171}}</ref> The ''gusoku'' armour added features and pieces of armor for the face, thigh, and back. The back piece had multiple uses, such as for a flag bearing.<ref>Turnbull, Stephen. Samurai The Story of Japan's Great Warriors. London. Prc Publishing Ltd., 2004. Print. pg.139</ref> The style of gusoku, like the ], in which the front and back ''dou'' are made from a single iron plate with a raised center and a V-shaped bottom, was specifically called ''nanban dou gusoku'' (Western style ''gusoku'').<ref name = "gusoku"/> Various other components of armor protected the samurai's body. The helmet ('']'') was an important part of the samurai's armor. It was paired with a ''shikoro'' and ''fukigaeshi'' for protection of the head and neck.<ref>"Japanese Arms and Armour". Pitt Rivers Museum. 2007. {{cite web |url=https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/arms.html |title=Archived copy |access-date=2017-04-17 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180418061346/https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/arms.html |archive-date=18 April 2018}}.</ref> The garment worn under all of the armor and clothing was called the ''fundoshi'', also known as a loincloth.<ref>Turnbull, Stephen. Samurai The Story of Japan's Great Warriors. London. Prc Publishing Ltd., 2004. Print.</ref> Samurai armor changed and developed as the methods of samurai warfare changed over the centuries.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Oscar Ratti|author2=Adele Westbrook|title=Secrets of the samurai: a survey of the martial arts of feudal Japan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZFf9e0DmHZUC&pg=PA186|year=1991|publisher=Tuttle Publishing|isbn=978-0-8048-1684-7|page=186}}</ref> The known last use of samurai armor occurring in 1877 during the ].<ref>{{cite book|author=Clive Sinclaire |title=Samurai: The Weapons and Spirit of the Japanese Warrior |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IQ3FAZG94ZsC&pg=PA58|year=2004|publisher=Globe Pequot |isbn=978-1-59228-720-8 |page=58}}</ref> As the last samurai rebellion was crushed, Japan modernized its defenses and turned to a national conscription army that used uniforms.<ref>, 1998 p. 43</ref> | |||
<gallery mode=packed style="text-align: center;" caption="Samurai armour" widths=200 heights=220> | |||
File:Armour red threads Kasuga shrine.jpg|'']'', ], 13th-14th century, ], ] | |||
File:Dōmaru with Black and White Lacing.jpg|'']'' with Black and White Lacing. ], 15th century, ], ] | |||
File:朱漆塗矢筈札紺糸素懸威具足3.jpg|]'s ''gusoku'' armour, ], 16th-17th century, ] | |||
File:Tatami gusoku Met 14.100.538 n2.jpg|], ]. A lightweight portable folding (tatami) armour made from small square or rectangle armor plates called karuta. The karuta are usually connected to each other by chainmail and sewn to a cloth backing. | |||
File:Uma yoroi (bagai).jpg|A re-creation of an armored samurai riding a horse, showing horse armour (uma yoroi or ]). | |||
File:MAP Expo Oitaragainari kawari kabuto XVII 02 01 2012.jpg|Shell-shaped cask (Oitaragainari kawari ]), iron and ] for the shell, beginning of the ]. | |||
File:Face Guard (Shirohige Ressei-menpo).jpg|Face guard ('']''). Edo period. ]. | |||
</gallery> | |||
==Combat techniques== | |||
During the existence of the samurai, two opposite types of organization reigned. The first type were recruits-based armies: at the beginning, during the ], samurai armies relied on armies of Chinese-type recruits and towards the end in infantry units composed of ''ashigaru''. The second type of organization was that of a samurai on horseback who fought individually or in small groups.<ref name="Turnbull, Stephen 2004. pg. 196">Turnbull, Stephen. Samurai The Story of Japan’s Great Warriors. London. Prc Publishing Ltd, 2004. Print. pg. 196.</ref> | |||
At the beginning of the contest, a series of bulbous-headed arrows were shot, which buzzed in the air. The purpose of these shots was to call the '']'' to witness the displays of courage that were about to unfold. After a brief exchange of arrows between the two sides, a contest called ''ikkiuchi'' (一 騎 討 ち) was developed, where great rivals on both sides faced each other.<ref name="Turnbull, Stephen 2004. pg. 196"/> After these individual combats, the major combats were given way, usually sending infantry troops led by samurai on horseback. At the beginning of the samurai battles, it was an honor to be the first to enter battle. This changed in the Sengoku period with the introduction of the arquebus.<ref name="Turnbull, Stephen 2004. pg. 208">Turnbull, Stephen. Samurai The Story of Japan’s Great Warriors. London. Prc Publishing Ltd, 2004. Print. pg. 208.</ref> At the beginning of the use of firearms, the combat methodology was as follows: at the beginning an exchange of arquebus shots was made at a distance of approximately 100 meters; when the time was right, the ''ashigaru'' spearmen were ordered to advance and finally the samurai would attack, either on foot or on horseback.<ref name="Turnbull, Stephen 2004. pg. 208"/> The army chief would sit in a scissor chair inside a semi-open tent called ''maku'', which exhibited its respective ] and represented the '']'', "government from the ''maku''."<ref>Turnbull, Stephen. Samurai The Story of Japan’s Great Warriors. London. Prc Publishing Ltd, 2004. Print. pg. 207.</ref> | |||
In the middle of the contest, some samurai decided to get off the horse and seek to cut off the head of a worthy rival. This act was considered an honor. In addition, through it they gained respect among the military class.<ref>Turnbull, Stephen. Samurai The Story of Japan’s Great Warriors. London. Prc Publishing Ltd, 2004. Print. pg. 209.</ref> After the battle, the high-ranking samurai normally celebrated the tea ceremony, and the victorious general reviewed the heads of the most important members of the enemy which had been cut.<ref>Gaskin, Carol; Hawkins, Vince. Breve historia de los samuráis (Juan Antonio Cebrián, trad.). London. Nowtilus S.L., 2004. Print. {{ISBN|8-49763-140-4}}. pg. 57.</ref> | |||
Most of the battles were not resolved in the manner so idealist exposed above, but most wars were won through surprise attacks, such as night raids, fires, etc. The renowned samurai ] said: | |||
{{quote|According to my experience, there is nothing more advantageous when it comes to crushing the enemy than a night attack . If we set fire to three of the sides and close the passage through the room, those who flee from the flames will be shot down by arrows, and those who seek to escape from them will not be able to flee from the flames.|].<ref>Turnbull, Stephen. Samurai The Story of Japan’s Great Warriors. London. Prc Publishing Ltd, 2004. Print. pg. 198.</ref>}} | |||
===Head collection=== | |||
] | |||
Cutting off the head of a worthy rival on the battlefield was a source of great pride and recognition. There was a whole ritual to beautify the severed heads: first they were washed and combed,<ref name="Gaskin, Carol 2004">Gaskin, Carol; Hawkins, Vince. Breve historia de los samuráis (Juan Antonio Cebrián, trad.). London. Nowtilus S.L., 2004. Print. {{ISBN|8-49763-140-4}}. pg. 56.</ref> and once this was done, the teeth were blackened by applying a dye called ''ohaguro''.<ref name="Turnbull, Stephen 2004. pg. 231">Turnbull, Stephen. Samurai The Story of Japan’s Great Warriors. London. Prc Publishing Ltd., 2004. Print. pg. 231.</ref> The reason for blackening the teeth was that white teeth was a sign of distinction, so applying a dye to darken them was a desecration.<ref name="Turnbull, Stephen 2004. pg. 231"/> The heads were carefully arranged on a table for exposure.<ref name="Gaskin, Carol 2004"/> | |||
During Toyotomi Hideyoshi's invasions of Korea, the number of severed heads of the enemies to be sent to Japan was such that for logistical reasons only the nose was sent. These were covered with salt and shipped in wooden barrels. These barrels were buried in a burial mound near the "Great Buddha" of Hideyoshi, where they remain today under the wrong name of ''mimizuka'' or "burial mound."<ref>Gaskin, Carol; Hawkins, Vince. Breve historia de los samuráis (Juan Antonio Cebrián, trad.). London. Nowtilus S.L., 2004. Print. {{ISBN|8-49763-140-4}}. pg. 114.</ref> | |||
===Military formations=== | |||
During the Azuchi-Momoyama period and thanks to the introduction of firearms, combat tactics changed dramatically. The military formations adopted had poetic names, among which are:<ref>Turnbull, Stephen (1979). Samurai Armies, 1550-1615. Osprey Publishing. {{ISBN|0-85045-302-X}}. Pg. 12</ref> | |||
{| class="wikitable" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="810px" | |||
! colspan="1" |Name | |||
!Description | !Description | ||
!Image | !Image | ||
|- style="vertical-align: top;" | |||
|- | |||
|''Ganko'' (birds in flight) |
|'''''Ganko'''''<br /> (birds in flight,雁行) | ||
| |
|A very flexible formation that allowed the troops to adapt depending on the movements of the opponent. The commander was located at the rear, but near the center to avoid communication problems. | ||
|] | |] | ||
|- style="vertical-align: top;" | |||
|- | |||
|''Hoshi'' (arrowhead) | |'''''Hoshi'''''<br /> (arrowhead,鋒矢) | ||
| |
|An aggressive formation in which the samurai took advantage of the casualties caused by the shooting of the ashigaru. The signaling elements were close to the major generals of the commander. | ||
|] | |] | ||
|- style="vertical-align: top;" | |||
|- | |||
|''Saku'' (lock) |
|'''''Saku'''''<br /> (lock) | ||
| |
|Considered the best defense against the ''Hoshi'',<ref>Turnbull, Stephen (1979). ''Samurai Armies, 1550–1615''. Osprey Publishing. {{ISBN|0-85045-302-X}}. p. 10</ref> since two rows of arcabuceros and two archers were in position to receive the attack. | ||
|] | |] | ||
|- style="vertical-align: top;" | |||
|- | |||
|''Kakuyoku'' (crane wings) | |'''''Kakuyoku'''''<br /> (crane wings,鶴翼) | ||
|Recurrent formation with the purpose of surrounding the enemy. The archers and arcabuceros diminished the enemy troops before the melee attack of the samurai while the second company surrounded them. | |Recurrent formation with the purpose of surrounding the enemy. The archers and arcabuceros diminished the enemy troops before the melee attack of the samurai while the second company surrounded them. | ||
|] | |] | ||
|- style="vertical-align: top;" | |||
|- | |||
|''Koyaku'' (yoke) | |'''''Koyaku'''''<br /> (yoke,衡軛) | ||
| |
|Owes its name to the ]s used for ]. It was used to neutralize the "crane wings" and "arrowhead" attack and its purpose was for the vanguard to absorb the first attack and allow time for the enemy to reveal his next move to which the second company could react in time. | ||
|] | |] | ||
|- style="vertical-align: top;" | |||
|- | |||
|''Gyōrin'' (fish scales) |
|'''''Gyōrin'''''<br /> (fish scales,魚鱗) | ||
| |
|Frequently used to deal with much more numerous armies. Its purpose was to attack a single sector to break the enemy ranks. | ||
|] | |] | ||
|- style="vertical-align: top;" | |||
|- | |||
|''Engetsu'' (half moon) |
|'''''Engetsu'''''<br /> (half moon,偃月) | ||
| |
|Used when the army was not yet defeated but an orderly withdrawal to the castle was needed. While the rearguard receded, the vanguard could still be organized according to the circumstances. | ||
|] | |] | ||
|} | |} | ||
==Martial arts== | |||
Each child who grew up in a samurai family was expected to be a warrior when he grew up, so much of his childhood was spent practicing different ]. A complete samurai should be skilled at least in the use of the sword (''kenjutsu''), the bow and arrow (''kyujutsu''), the spear (''sojutsu'', ''yarijutsu''), the halberd (''naginatajutsu'') and subsequently the use of firearms (]). Similarly, they were instructed in the use of these weapons while riding a horse. They were also expected to know how to swim and dive.<ref>Turnbull, Stephen. Samurai: The World of the Warrior. London. Osprey Publishing, 2003. Print. {{ISBN|1-84176-740-9}}. pg. 14.</ref> | |||
During the feudal era of Japan, various types of martial arts flourished, known in Japanese under the name of ''bujutsu'' (武術).<ref name="Ratti, Oscar 2001">Ratti, Oscar; Westbrook, Adele (2001). Secrets of the Samurai: The Martial Arts of Feudal Japan. Tuttle Publishing. {{ISBN|8-48019-492-8}}. pg. 24.</ref> The term ''jutsu'' can be translated as "method", "art" or "technique"<ref>Ratti, Oscar; Westbrook, Adele (2001). Secrets of the Samurai: The Martial Arts of Feudal Japan. Tuttle Publishing. {{ISBN|8-48019-492-8}}. pg. 23.</ref> and the name that each one has is indicative of the mode or weapon with which they are executed. The combat methods that were developed and perfected are very diverse, among which are:<ref name="Ratti, Oscar 2001"/> | |||
{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto; width:600px; height:400px" | |||
!colspan=3 style="width:450px; background:#0088cc; color:white" |'''With weapons''' | |||
!style="width:150px; background:#0088cc; color:white" |'''No weapons''' | |||
|- | |||
|style="width:150px; background:#00cccc; color:black" |<center>'''Important'''</center> | |||
|style="width:150px; background:#00cccc; color:black" |<center>'''Secondary'''</center> | |||
|style="width:150px; background:#00cccc; color:black" |<center>'''Collateral'''</center> | |||
|style="width:150px; background:#00cccc; color:black" | | |||
|- style="background:#88cccc; color:black" | |||
|<center>'''Archery'''</center> | |||
|<center>'''War fan art''' </center> | |||
|<center>'''Chain art and other tools'''</center> | |||
|] | |||
|- style="background:#88cccc; color:black" | |||
|] | |||
|] | |||
|kusarijutsu | |||
|chikarakurabe | |||
|- style="background:#88cccc; color:black" | |||
|] | |||
|<center>'''Cane art'''</center> | |||
|kusariganayutsu | |||
|chogusoku | |||
|- style="background:#88cccc; color:black" | |||
|shagei | |||
|] | |||
|manrikikusari | |||
|genkotsu | |||
|- style="background:#88cccc; color:black" | |||
|<center>'''Spear and halberd'''</center> | |||
|] | |||
|chigirigijutsu | |||
|gusoku | |||
|- style="background:#88cccc; color:black" | |||
|] | |||
|]/ tetsubo jutsu | |||
|gegikanjutsu | |||
|hakushi | |||
|- style="background:#88cccc; color:black" | |||
|]jutsu | |||
|<center>'''Jitte art'''</center> | |||
|<center>'''Hidden arts'''</center> | |||
|] | |||
|- style="background:#88cccc; color:black" | |||
|sodegaramijutsu | |||
|juttejutsu | |||
|] (]) | |||
|- style="background:#88cccc; color:black" | |||
|sasumatajutsu | |||
| | |||
|toiri-no-jutsu | |||
|] o ] | |||
|- style="background:#88cccc; color:black" | |||
| | |||
| | |||
|]jutsu | |||
|- style="background:#88cccc; color:black" | |||
|<center>'''Fencing'''</center> | |||
| | |||
|chikairi-no-jutsu | |||
|kogusoku | |||
|- style="background:#88cccc; color:black" | |||
|tōjutsu | |||
| | |||
| | |||
|koshi-no-mawari | |||
|- style="background:#88cccc; color:black" | |||
|] | |||
| | |||
|]jutsu | |||
|kumiuchi | |||
|- style="background:#88cccc; color:black" | |||
| | |||
|] | |||
|roikomiuchi | |||
|- style="background:#88cccc; color:black" | |||
|] | |||
| | |||
|fukihari | |||
|shikaku | |||
|- style="background:#88cccc; color:black" | |||
|] | |||
| | |||
|suihokojutsu | |||
| | |||
|- style="background:#88cccc; color:black" | |||
|tantōjutsu | |||
| | |||
| | |||
|shubaku | |||
|- style="background:#88cccc; color:black" | |||
|<center>'''Horse riding'''</center> | |||
| | |||
| | |||
|sumai | |||
|- style="background:#88cccc; color:black" | |||
|bajutsu | |||
| | |||
| | |||
|] | |||
|- style="background:#88cccc; color:black" | |||
|jobajutsu | |||
| | |||
| | |||
|taidō | |||
|- style="background:#88cccc; color:black" | |||
|suibajutsu | |||
| | |||
| | |||
|taidōjutsu | |||
|- style="background:#88cccc; color:black" | |||
|<center>'''Swimming'''</center> | |||
| | |||
| | |||
|torite | |||
|- style="background:#88cccc; color:black" | |||
|suiejutsu | |||
| | |||
| | |||
|wajutsu | |||
|- style="background:#88cccc; color:black" | |||
|oyogijutsu | |||
| | |||
| | |||
|yawara | |||
|- style="background:#88cccc; color:black" | |||
|katchu gozen oyogi | |||
| | |||
| | |||
| | |||
|} | |||
Today martial arts are classified in ] or classical martial arts, before the 19th century, and to the modernization of Japan. Modern traditional martial arts are called '']''. | |||
==Myth and reality== | |||
Most samurai were bound by a code of honor and were expected to set an example for those below them. A notable part of their code is {{Nihongo|]|切腹|seppuku}} or ''hara kiri'', which allowed a disgraced samurai to regain his honor by passing into death, where samurai were still beholden to social rules. While there are many romanticized characterizations of samurai behavior such as the writing of {{Nihongo|]|武士道|Bushidō}} in 1905, studies of ''kobudō'' and traditional ''budō'' indicate that the samurai were as practical on the battlefield as were any other warriors.<ref>], "The Dawn of the Samurai: Warrior Legends in Japanese History", Asian Pacific Quarterly, Vol 26, No 2 (1994): 38-47.</ref> | |||
Despite the rampant romanticism of the 20th century, samurai could be disloyal and treacherous (e.g., ]), cowardly, brave, or overly loyal (e.g., ]). Samurai were usually loyal to their immediate superiors, who in turn allied themselves with higher lords. These loyalties to the higher lords often shifted; for example, the high lords allied under Toyotomi Hideyoshi were served by loyal samurai, but the feudal lords under them could shift their support to Tokugawa, taking their samurai with them. There were, however, also notable instances where samurai would be disloyal to their lord (''daimyō''), when loyalty to the emperor was seen to have supremacy.<ref>Mark Ravina, The Last Samurai – The Life and Battles of Saigō Takamori, John Wiley & Sons, 2004.</ref> | |||
==In popular culture== | ==In popular culture== | ||
{{Further|Samurai cinema}} | {{Further|Samurai cinema}} | ||
Samurai figures have been the subject for legends, folk tales, dramatic stories (i.e. '']''), theatre productions in ] and ], in literature, movies, animated and ] films, television shows, ], video games, and in various musical pieces in genre that range from '']'' to ] songs. | |||
'']'' (literally historical ]) has always been a staple program on Japanese movies and television. The programs typically feature a samurai. Samurai films and ] share a number of similarities, and the two have influenced each other over the years. One of Japan's most renowned directors, ], greatly influenced western film-making. ]' '']'' 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 '']''. Kurosawa was inspired by the works of director ], and in turn Kurosawa's works have been remade into westerns such as '']'' into '']'' and '']'' into '']''. There is also a 26 episode anime adaptation ('']'') 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 ] plays as sources for samurai movies: '']'' was based on ''],'' and '']'' was based on '']''.<ref>Roland Thorne, ''Samurai films'' (Oldcastle Books, 2010).</ref> | |||
'']'' (literally historical ]) has always been a staple program on Japanese movies and television. The programs typically feature a samurai. Samurai films and ] share a number of similarities, and the two have influenced each other over the years. One of Japan's most renowned directors, ], greatly influenced western film-making. ]' '']'' 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 '']''. Kurosawa was inspired by the works of director ], and in turn Kurosawa's works have been remade into westerns such as '']'' into '']'' and '']'' into '']''. There is also a 26-episode anime adaptation ('']'') 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 ] plays as sources for samurai movies: '']'' was based on ''],'' and '']'' was based on '']''.<ref>Roland Thorne, ''Samurai films'' (Oldcastle Books, 2010).</ref> | |||
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. ] is one of the most famous Japanese historical novelists. His retellings of popular works, including ], ] and '']'', are popular among readers for their epic narratives and rich realism in depicting samurai and warrior culture.{{Citation needed|date=April 2016}} The samurai have also appeared frequently in Japanese comics (manga) and animation (anime). Examples are '']'', '']'', '']'', '']'', and '']''. 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. | 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. ] is one of the most famous Japanese historical novelists. His retellings of popular works, including ], ] and '']'', are popular among readers for their epic narratives and rich realism in depicting samurai and warrior culture.{{Citation needed|date=April 2016}} The samurai have also appeared frequently in Japanese comics (manga) and animation (anime). Examples are '']'', '']'', '']'', '']'', and '']''. 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 ], ''Afro Samurai'' was initially a '']'', or manga series, which was then made into an animated series by ]. In 2007, the animated series debuted on American cable television on the ] 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".<ref>Charles Solomon, </ref> The story line keeps in tone with the perception of a |
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 ], ''Afro Samurai'' was initially a '']'', or manga series, which was then made into an animated series by ]. In 2007, the animated series debuted on American cable television on the ] 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".<ref>Charles Solomon, </ref> 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 ] and ]. Not only has the samurai culture been adopted into animation and video games, it can also be seen in comic books. | ||
The television series '']'' (adapted from ''Samurai Sentai Shinkenger'') is inspired by the way of the samurai.<ref>*{{cite |
The television series '']'' (adapted from ''Samurai Sentai Shinkenger'') is inspired by the way of the samurai.<ref>*{{cite news|url=http://www.denofgeek.us/books-comics/wolverine/160466/villains-of-the-wolverine-silver-samurai-and-viper|title=Villains of The Wolverine: Silver Samurai and Viper|website=Den of Geek|date=26 July 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150109145318/http://www.denofgeek.us/books-comics/wolverine/160466/villains-of-the-wolverine-silver-samurai-and-viper|archive-date=9 January 2015|author=Marc Buxton}} | ||
*{{cite journal |last1=Denison |first1=Rayna |title=Transcultural creativity in anime: Hybrid identities in the production, distribution, texts and fandom of Japanese anime |journal=Creative Industries Journal |date=27 May 2011 |volume=3 |issue=3 |pages=221–235 |doi=10.1386/cij.3.3.221_1|s2cid=143210545 }} | * {{cite journal |last1=Denison |first1=Rayna |title=Transcultural creativity in anime: Hybrid identities in the production, distribution, texts and fandom of Japanese anime |journal=Creative Industries Journal |date=27 May 2011 |volume=3 |issue=3 |pages=221–235 |doi=10.1386/cij.3.3.221_1|s2cid=143210545 |issn = 1751-0694 }} | ||
*King |
* {{cite magazine |last=King |first=Kevin |date=December 1, 2008 |title=Afro Samurai |department=Youth Graphic Novels in Brief |magazine=Booklist |volume=105 |issue=7 |page=44 |id={{ProQuest|235647197}} |ref=none}} | ||
*{{cite web |last1=Manion |first1=Annie |title=Global Samurai |url=http://www.jrtr.net/jrtr45/pdf/ap.pdf |publisher=Japan Railway & Transport Review |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100911002417/http://www.jrtr.net/jrtr45/pdf/ap.pdf |archive-date=11 September 2010 |pages=46–47|date=August 2006}}</ref><ref>*{{cite web |last1=Moscardi |first1=Nino |archive-date=19 March 2014 |title=The "Badass" Samurai in Japanese Pop Culture |url=http://www.samurai-archives.com/bsj.html |publisher=Samurai-Archives |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140319104000/http://www.samurai-archives.com/bsj.html}} | * {{cite web |last1=Manion |first1=Annie |title=Global Samurai |url=http://www.jrtr.net/jrtr45/pdf/ap.pdf |publisher=Japan Railway & Transport Review |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100911002417/http://www.jrtr.net/jrtr45/pdf/ap.pdf |archive-date=11 September 2010 |pages=46–47|date=August 2006}}</ref><ref>*{{cite web |last1=Moscardi |first1=Nino |archive-date=19 March 2014 |title=The "Badass" Samurai in Japanese Pop Culture |url=http://www.samurai-archives.com/bsj.html |publisher=Samurai-Archives |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140319104000/http://www.samurai-archives.com/bsj.html }} | ||
*{{cite journal |last1=Ravina |first1=Mark |title=Fantasies of Valor: Legends of the Samurai in Japan and the United States |journal=ASIANetwork Exchange |date=1 October 2010 |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=80–99 |doi=10.16995/ane.200|url=http://www.asianetworkexchange.org/jms/article/view/200 |doi-access=free }} | * {{cite journal |last1=Ravina |first1=Mark |title=Fantasies of Valor: Legends of the Samurai in Japan and the United States |journal=ASIANetwork Exchange |date=1 October 2010 |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=80–99 |doi=10.16995/ane.200 |url=http://www.asianetworkexchange.org/jms/article/view/200 |doi-access=free }}{{Dead link|date=May 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} | ||
*{{cite web|url= |
* {{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-feb-02-et-afrosamurai2-story.html|title=American, Japanese pop culture meld in 'Afro Samurai'|work=Los Angeles Times|author=Solomon, Charles|date=2 February 2009|url-status=live|archive-url=http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20150118054553/http://articles.latimes.com/2009/feb/02/entertainment/et-afrosamurai2|archive-date=18 January 2015}}</ref> | ||
== |
=== proverb === | ||
In Japan, the words samurai and bushi have been used for over 1000 years. For this reason, they have been a familiar part of daily life for a long time, and even after the samurai-centered world ended, they continue to play an active role in entertainment. Therefore, there are many proverbs related to samurai and bushi.<ref name="tanu241214a">{{cite web|url=https://www.touken-world.jp/proverb/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241213150317/https://www.touken-world.jp/proverb/|script-title=ja:刀剣ことわざ集(イラスト付き)|trans-title=Sword proverbs collection (with illustrations)|language=ja|publisher=The Nagoya Japanese Sword Museum Nagoya Touken World|date=|archive-date=13 December 2024|access-date=13 December 2024}}</ref> | |||
There are a variety of festivals held in Japan. Some festivals are seasonal celebrations that were adopted from China and imbued with Japanese cultural values and stories.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Renshaw|first=Steven L.|date=January 2011|title=Celebration of seasonally based holidays and festivals in Japan: a study in cultural adaptation|journal=Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union|volume=7|issue=S278|pages=308–314|doi=10.1017/s1743921311012749|bibcode=2011IAUS..278..308R|issn=1743-9213|doi-access=free}}</ref> Other festivals in Japan are held where people celebrate historical heroes or commemorate historical events through parades with people dressed as samurai. Some examples of these festivals include the Hagi Jidai Festival, Matsue Warrior Procession, Kenshin Festival, Sendai Aoba Festival, Battle of Sekigahara Festival, and the ].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Experience the samurai world through historic festivals across Japan - ANA|url=https://www.ana.co.jp/en/us/japan-travel-planner/japanese-festival-omatsuri/0000008.html|access-date=2020-11-30|website=www.ana.co.jp|language=en}}</ref> | |||
{{See also|Racial identity of Sakanoue no Tamuramaro#Associated proverb}} | |||
The Hagi Jidai Festival takes place in the fall in ] This festival started in the ] as a way for the people of Hagi to show their appreciation to the God of Kanaya Tenmangu Shrine.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Hagi Jidai Festival in Yamaguchi - Experience as if You Were in Edo Period|url=https://festivalgo.huber-japan.com/events/events/hagi-jidai-festival-yamaguchi-experience-edo-period|access-date=2020-11-30|website=FestivalGo|language=en-US}}</ref> The festival has over 200 people dress up in traditional samurai armor and the clothes of various people of the daimyō's court as they walk down the streets of the town.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Seasonal Features - HAGI - Sightseeing Guide|url=https://www.hagishi.com/|access-date=2020-11-30|website=HAGI - Sightseeing Guide{{!}}HAGI,YAMAGUCHI,JAPAN}}</ref> The festival is separated into two main events: the Hagi Daimyō Procession and the Hagi Jidai Parade. The Hagi Daimyō Procession begins in the morning at the Hagi Castle town area with a procession of samurai, servants, and palanquin bearers marching and performing traditional dances.<ref name=":0" /> In the afternoon, the Hagi Jidai Parade occurs, starting in the Central Park and go around the town until they reach the Kanaya Tenmangu Shrine.<ref name=":0" /> | |||
However, "For a Samurai to be brave, he must have a bit of Black blood," which is often introduced as a Japanese proverb in Europe, America, and Africa, does not actually exist.<ref name="tanu241214c">{{cite web|url=http://atlantablackstar.com/2014/09/07/the-world-of-sakanouye-no-tamuramaro-black-shogun-of-early-japan/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241213150626/https://atlantablackstar.com/2014/09/07/the-world-of-sakanouye-no-tamuramaro-black-shogun-of-early-japan/|title=The World of Sakanouye No Tamuramaro: Black Shogun of Early Japan|author=Runoko Rashidi|language=en|publisher=Atlanta Black Star|date=7 September 2014|archive-date=13 December 2024|access-date=13 December 2024}}</ref><ref name="tanu241214b">{{cite web|url=https://quote.org/quote/for-a-samurai-to-be-brave-he-613159|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241213151206/https://quote.org/quote/for-a-samurai-to-be-brave-he-613159|title=Georges Maget Quotes|author=|language=en|publisher=Quote.org|date=7 September 2014|archive-date=13 December 2024|access-date=13 December 2024}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|author=]|date=October 2024|script-title=ja:弥助: 侍伝説の歴史学的検証|edition=e-book(Kindle)|publisher=United Scholars Academic Press|language=ja|isbn=9781763781115|chapter=メディアを通じた日本文化の拡大§主張の起源}}</ref> In a similar case, since around March 2024, photos have been spreading on social media, claiming that black samurai have existed since ancient times, but fact-checks conducted in Japan and France have determined that the photos are fake.<ref name="jfc1">{{cite web|script-title=ja:黒人侍とその家族の画像?【ファクトチェック】|trans-title=A photo of a black samurai and his family? |author=|agency=|publisher=]|url=https://www.factcheckcenter.jp/fact-check/history/article-false-black-samurai-and-his-family/|date=2024-03-29|accessdate=2024-12-17|language=ja}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Non, il ne s'agit pas d'une photo de Yasuke, "le premier samouraï noir"|trans-title=No, it's not a photo of Yasuke, "the first black samurai"|author=Alexis ORSINI|agency=|publisher=]|url=https://factuel.afp.com/doc.afp.com.34MK9DT|date=2024-03-29|accessdate=2024-12-17|language=fr}}</ref> | |||
The Matsue Warrior Procession is a festival in ] This festival reenacts the entrance of Daimyō Horio Yoshiharu and his troops into a newly built Matsue during the Edo Period.<ref>{{Cite web|title=VISIT MATSUE - Events{{!}}April{{!}}Matsue Musha Gyoretsu Warrior Parade – 松江武者行列|url=https://www.visit-matsue.com/calendar/april/matsue_musha_gyoretsu_warrior_parade|access-date=2020-11-30|website=www.visit-matsue.com}}</ref> The event is held on the first Saturday of April.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|date=2014-06-19|title=April/May/June Events|url=https://matsuetravelguide.wordpress.com/aprilmayjune-events/|access-date=2020-11-30|website=Matsue Travel Guide|language=fr-FR}}</ref> The event is made up of performers marching in a warrior parade at the Shirakata Tenmangu Shrine dressed in samurai armor and various clothing of the Edo period.<ref name=":1" /> Visitors are also have the opportunity to rent costumes and march in the parade, or to take pictures with the performers in the parade.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Calendar|first=Japanese Traditional Festival|date=2020-11-30|title=Matsue Warrior Procession|url=https://ohmatsuri.com/en/articles/shimane-matsue-warrior-procession|access-date=2020-11-30|website=ohmatsuri.com|language=en}}</ref> Other events also take place throughout the day to celebrate the founding of the city. | |||
The Kenshin Festival is a festival held in ] celebrating the life of Daimyō ].<ref name="Calendar">{{Cite web|last=Calendar|first=Japanese Traditional Festival|date=2020-11-30|title=Kenshin Festival|url=https://ohmatsuri.com/en/matsuri-list/kenshin-festival|access-date=2020-11-30|website=ohmatsuri.com|language=en}}</ref> The festival started during the ] era in 1926 at Kasugayama Shrine.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Lord Kenshin Festival - 上越観光Navi|url=https://joetsukankonavi.jp/pages-en/kenshinkousai/|access-date=2020-11-30|website=joetsukankonavi.jp}}</ref> The festival holds various events such as the Signal Fire, the Butei Ceremony, and the Shutsujin Parade.<ref>{{Cite web|title= Prince the 95th Kenshin festival {{!}} National must-see-japan (Japanese sightseeing promotion association)|url=http://en.nks.iamdn.com.e.wp.hp.transer.com/detail/15222ba2212048043|access-date=2020-11-30|website=en.nks.iamdn.com.e.wp.hp.transer.com|language=en}}</ref> Additionally, the battle of Kawanakajima is reenacted as a part of this festival.<ref name="Calendar"/> Throughout the festival people in samurai armor participate in each event. One unique event in particular is the reenactment of the battle of Kawanakajima where performers in the samurai armor portray the events with swords and spears.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Niigata Travel {{!}} Kenshin Festival|url=https://www.wowu.jp/events/12629?locale=en|access-date=2020-11-30|website=WOW U Japan}}</ref> | |||
The {{nihongo|]|信玄公祭り|Shingen-ko Matsuri}} celebrates the legacy of ] ]. The festival is 3 days long. It is held annually on the first or second weekend of April in ], ]. There are more than 100,000 visitors per festival. Usually a famous Japanese celebrity plays the part of Takeda Shingen. Ordinary people can participate too after applying. It is one of the biggest ]s in Japan.<ref name="Shingen-Ko Festival-2009">{{citation|editor-surname1=Kofu City|title=Shingen-Ko Festival - Celebrating the Legacy of Takeda Shingen|publisher= Yamanashi Tourism Promotion Organization|date=1 January 2009|language=ja|url=http://www.yamanashi-kankou.jp/shingen/english2009.pdf|access-date= 2019-06-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180929223557/http://www.yamanashi-kankou.jp/shingen/english2009.pdf|archive-date=2018-09-29}}</ref> In 2012 ] certified it as the "largest gathering of samurai" in the world with 1,061 participants.<ref name="Shingen-Ko-2019">{{cite web|title=Shingen-ko Festival|publisher= "Shingen-ko Festival" Executive Planning Committee|date=1 February 2019|language=en|url=https://www.yamanashi-kankou.jp/shingen/english/about.html|access-date= 2019-06-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331014958/https://www.yamanashi-kankou.jp/shingen/english/about.html|archive-date=2019-03-31}}</ref> | |||
==Famous samurai== | |||
] stationed outside ].]] | |||
{{see also|List of samurai}} | |||
These are some famous samurai with extraordinary achievements in history. | |||
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==Samurai museums== | ==Samurai museums== | ||
* ] – dedicated to the art of Japanese swordmaking. | |||
*] - the second floor features a collection of feudal guns, armor, and other weapons. | |||
* ] – the second floor features a collection of feudal guns, armor, and other weapons. | |||
*] - dedicated to the art of Japanese swordmaking. | |||
*] in |
* ] in ] – large collection of ancient samurai weaponry, armor and shrine statuary. | ||
* ] | |||
*] in ] - large collection of ancient samurai weaponry, armor and shrine statuary. | |||
* Samurai Museum in Shinjuku, Tokyo – about the history of the samurai with armor, weapons etc. | |||
==See also== | ==See also== | ||
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==Bibliography== | ==Bibliography== | ||
{{Refbegin|30em}} | {{Refbegin|30em}} | ||
* Absolon, Trevor. ''Samurai Armour: Volume I: The Japanese Cuirass'' (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2017). | * Absolon, Trevor. ''Samurai Armour: Volume I: The Japanese Cuirass'' (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2017).{{ISBN?}} | ||
* Anderson, Patricia E. "Roles of Samurai Women: Social Norms and Inner Conflicts During Japan's Tokugawa Period, 1603–1868". ''New Views on Gender'' 15 (2015): 30–37. | * Anderson, Patricia E. "Roles of Samurai Women: Social Norms and Inner Conflicts During Japan's Tokugawa Period, 1603–1868". ''New Views on Gender'' 15 (2015): 30–37. | ||
* Ansart, Olivier. "Lust, Commerce and Corruption: An Account of What I Have Seen and Heard by an Edo Samurai". ''Asian Studies Review'' 39.3 (2015): 529–530. | * Ansart, Olivier. "Lust, Commerce and Corruption: An Account of What I Have Seen and Heard by an Edo Samurai". ''Asian Studies Review'' 39.3 (2015): 529–530. | ||
* Benesch, Oleg. ''Inventing the Way of the Samurai: Nationalism, Internationalism, and Bushido in Modern Japan'' (Oxford UP, 2014). {{ISBN| |
* Benesch, Oleg. ''Inventing the Way of the Samurai: Nationalism, Internationalism, and Bushido in Modern Japan'' (Oxford UP, 2014). {{ISBN|978-0-19-870662-5}} | ||
* Benesch, Oleg. "Comparing Warrior Traditions: How the Janissaries and Samurai Maintained Their Status and Privileges During Centuries of Peace." ''Comparative Civilizations Review'' 55.55 (2006): 6: |
* Benesch, Oleg. "Comparing Warrior Traditions: How the Janissaries and Samurai Maintained Their Status and Privileges During Centuries of Peace." ''Comparative Civilizations Review'' 55.55 (2006): 6:37–55 . | ||
* Clements, Jonathan. ''A Brief History of the Samurai'' (Running Press, 2010) {{ISBN|0-7624-3850-9}} | * Clements, Jonathan. ''A Brief History of the Samurai'' (Running Press, 2010) {{ISBN|0-7624-3850-9}} | ||
*{{cite book|title=the Life and Letters of St. Francis Xavier|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o6n9jLF4IwUC|publisher=Forgotten Books|isbn=978-1-4510-0048-1|author-link=Henry James Coleridge|author=Coleridge, Henry James}} | * {{cite book|title=the Life and Letters of St. Francis Xavier|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o6n9jLF4IwUC|publisher=Forgotten Books|isbn=978-1-4510-0048-1|author-link=Henry James Coleridge|author=Coleridge, Henry James}} | ||
* Cummins, Antony, and Mieko Koizumi. ''The Lost Samurai School'' (North Atlantic Books, 2016) 17th century Samurai textbook on combat; heavily illustrated. | * Cummins, Antony, and Mieko Koizumi. ''The Lost Samurai School'' (North Atlantic Books, 2016) 17th century Samurai {{ISBN?}} textbook on combat; heavily illustrated. | ||
* Hubbard, Ben. ''The Samurai Warrior: The Golden Age of Japan's Elite Warriors 1560–1615'' (Amber Books, 2015). | * Hubbard, Ben. ''The Samurai Warrior: The Golden Age of Japan's Elite Warriors 1560–1615'' (Amber Books, 2015).{{ISBN?}} | ||
* Jaundrill, D. Colin. ''Samurai to Soldier: Remaking Military Service in Nineteenth-Century Japan'' (Cornell UP, 2016). | * Jaundrill, D. Colin. ''Samurai to Soldier: Remaking Military Service in Nineteenth-Century Japan'' (Cornell UP, 2016).{{ISBN?}} | ||
* Kinmonth, Earl H. ''Self-Made Man in Meiji Japanese Thought: From Samurai to Salary Man'' (1981) 385pp. | * Kinmonth, Earl H. ''Self-Made Man in Meiji Japanese Thought: From Samurai to Salary Man'' (1981) 385pp.{{ISBN?}} | ||
* Ogata, Ken. "End of the Samurai: A Study of Deinstitutionalization Processes". ''Academy of Management Proceedings'' Vol. 2015. No. 1. |
* Ogata, Ken. "End of the Samurai: A Study of Deinstitutionalization Processes". ''Academy of Management Proceedings'' Vol. 2015. No. 1. | ||
* {{cite journal | * {{cite journal | ||
|last = Sharf | |last = Sharf | ||
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|s2cid = 161535877 | |s2cid = 161535877 | ||
}} | }} | ||
* Thorne, Roland. ''Samurai films'' (Oldcastle Books, 2010). | * Thorne, Roland. ''Samurai films'' (Oldcastle Books, 2010).{{ISBN?}} | ||
* Turnbull, Stephen. ''The Samurai: A Military History'' (1996). | * Turnbull, Stephen. ''The Samurai: A Military History'' (1996).{{ISBN?}} | ||
* Kure, Mitsuo. ''Samurai: an illustrated history'' (2014). | * Kure, Mitsuo. ''Samurai: an illustrated history'' (2014).{{ISBN?}} | ||
*{{cite book|author-link=William Scott Wilson|author=Wilson, William Scott|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zAl8YHtqXxgC|title= Ideals of the Samurai: Writings of Japanese Warriors|publisher=Kodansha|year= 1982|isbn=0-89750-081-4}} | * {{cite book|author-link=William Scott Wilson|author=Wilson, William Scott|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zAl8YHtqXxgC|title= Ideals of the Samurai: Writings of Japanese Warriors|publisher=Kodansha|year= 1982|isbn=0-89750-081-4}} | ||
===Historiography=== | ===Historiography=== | ||
* Howland, Douglas R. "Samurai status, class, and bureaucracy: A historiographical essay |
* Howland, Douglas R. "Samurai status, class, and bureaucracy: A historiographical essay". '']''. 60.2 (2001): 353–380. {{doi|10.2307/2659697}} . | ||
{{Refend}} | {{Refend}} | ||
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{{Wiktionary|侍}} | {{Wiktionary|侍}} | ||
{{Wiktionary|samurai}} | {{Wiktionary|samurai}} | ||
*{{Commons category-inline|Samurai}} | * {{Commons category-inline|Samurai}} | ||
* | * | ||
* | * {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190428020237/http://www.sharpblades.net/ |date=28 April 2019 }} | ||
* | * | ||
* |
* – Japan: Memoirs of a Secret Empire | ||
* , Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties | * , Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties | ||
{{Japanese (samurai) weapons, armour and equipment}} | {{Japanese (samurai) weapons, armour and equipment}} | ||
{{Social class}} | |||
{{Authority control}} | {{Authority control}} | ||
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Latest revision as of 14:39, 24 December 2024
Warriors in pre-industrial Japan For other uses, see Samurai (disambiguation).This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Samurai" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (September 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Samurai (侍) or bushi (武士, ) were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who served the Kuge and imperial court in the late 12th century, although it is debated when they became a class. These warrior eventually came to play a major political role until their abolition in the late 1870s during the Meiji era.
In the Heian period, powerful regional clans were relied on to put down rebellions. After power struggles, the Taira clan defeated the Minamoto clan in 1160. After the Minamoto defeated the Taira in 1185, Minamoto no Yoritomo established the Kamakura shogunate, a parallel government that did not surplant the imperial court. The warriors who served the Shogunate were called gokenin, landholding warriors whose retainers were called samurai. Gokenin were regulated by the Samurai-dokoro.
During the Sengoku Period, the term was vague and some samurai owned land, others were retainers or mercenaries. Many served as retainers to lords (including daimyo). There was a great increase in the number of men who styled themselves samurai by virtue of bearing arms. During the Edo period, 1603 to 1868, they were mainly the stewards and chamberlains of the daimyo estates, roles they had also filled in the past. During the Edo period, they came to represent a hereditary class. On the other hand, from the mid-Edo period, chōnin (townsman) and farmers could be promoted to the samurai class by being adopted into gokenin families or by serving in daikan offices, and low-ranking samurai could be transferred to lower social classes, such as chōnin, by changing jobs.
In the 1870s, samurai families comprised 5% of the population. As modern militaries emerged in the 19th century, the samurai were rendered increasingly obsolete and very expensive to maintain compared to the average conscript soldier. The Meiji Restoration formally abolished the status, and most former samurai became Shizoku. This allowed them to move into professional and entrepreneurial roles.
Terminology
In Japanese, historical warriors are usually referred to as bushi (武士, [bɯ.ɕi]), meaning 'warrior', or buke (武家), meaning 'military family'. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning 'to wait upon', 'accompany persons' in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau. In both countries the terms were nominalized to mean 'those who serve in close attendance to the nobility', the Japanese term saburai being the nominal form of the verb." According to Wilson, an early reference to the word saburai appears in the Kokin Wakashū, the first imperial anthology of poems, completed in the early 900s.
The proper term for Japanese warriors is bushi (武士, [bɯ.ɕi]), meaning 'warrior', but also could be interchangeable with buke (武家), meaning 'military family', and later could refer to the whole class of professional warriors. Especially in the west, samurai is used synonymous with bushi, but they can have different meanings depending on context.
Samurai originally meant servant to nobility, and did not have military connotations, although bushi in the Heian period who served courtiers were called samurai. According to Michael Wert, "a warrior of elite stature in pre-seventeenth-century Japan would have been insulted to be called a 'samurai'". In the Tokugawa period, the terms were roughly interchangeable, as the military class was legally limited to the retainers of the Shogun or Daimyo. However, strictly speaking samurai referred to higher ranking retainers, although the cut off between samurai and other military retainers varied from domain to domain. Also usage varied by class, with commoners referring to all sword carrying men as samurai, regardless of rank.
In modern usage, bushi is often used as a synonym for samurai.
The changing definition of "samurai"
The definition of "samurai" varies from period to period. From the Heian period to the Edo period, bushi were people who fought with weapons for a living. In the Heian period, on the other hand, the definition of samurai referred to officials who served the emperor, the imperial family, and the nobles of the imperial court, the upper echelons of society. They were responsible for assisting the nobles in their daily duties, guarding the nobles, guarding the court, arresting bandits, and suppressing civil wars, much like secretaries, butlers, and police officers today. Samurai in this period referred to the Fifth (go-i) and Sixth Ranks (roku-i) of the court ranks.
During the Kamakura period, the definition of samurai became synonymous with gokenin (御家人), which refers to bushi who owned territory and served the shogun. However, some samurai of exceptional status, hi-gokenin (非御家人), did not serve the shogun. Subordinate bushi in the service of the samurai were called rōtō, rōdō (郎党) or rōjū (郎従). Some of the rōtō were given a territory and a family name, and as samuraihon or saburaibon (侍品), they acquired a status equivalent to that of a samurai. In other words, a high-ranking person among the bushi was called a samurai.
During the Muromachi period, as in the Kamakura period, the definition of samurai referred to high-ranking bushi in the service of the shogun. Bushi serving shugo daimyo (守護大名, feudal lords) were not considered samurai. Those who did not serve a particular lord, such as the rōnin (浪人), who were vagabonds, the nobushi (野武士), who were armed peasants, and the ashigaru (足軽), who were temporarily hired foot soldiers, were not considered samurai.
During the Sengoku period, the traditional master-servant relationship in Japanese society collapsed, and the traditional definition of samurai changed dramatically. Samurai no longer referred to those serving the shogun or emperor, and anyone who distinguished themselves in war could become samurai regardless of their social status. Jizamurai (地侍) came from the powerful myōshu (名主), who owned farmland and held leadership positions in their villages, and became vassals of sengoku daimyō (戦国大名). Their status was half farmer, half bushi (samurai). On the other hand, it also referred to local bushi who did not serve the shogun or daimyo. According to Stephen Morillo, during this period the term refers to "a retainer of a lord - usually ... the retainer of a daimyo" and that the term samurai "marks social function and not class", and "all sorts of soldiers, including pikemen, bowmen, musketeers and horsemen were samurai".
During the Azuchi–Momoyama period (late Sengoku period), "samurai" often referred to wakatō (若党), 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), chūgen (中間), komono (小者), and arashiko (荒子). These four classes and the ashigaru were chōnin (町人, townspeople) and peasants employed by the bushi and fell under the category of buke hōkōnin (武家奉公人, servants of the buke). 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 kachi (徒士) and above ashigaru in the Edo period.
In the early Edo period, even some daimyō (大名, feudal lords) with territories of 10,000 koku or more called themselves samurai. At the beginning of the Tokugawa shogunate, there was no clear distinction between hatamoto (旗本) and gokenin, which referred to direct vassals of the shogun, but from the second half of the 17th century a distinction was made between hatamoto, direct vassals with territories of 10,000 koku or less who were entitled to an audience with the shogun, and gokenin, those without such rights. Samurai referred to hatamoto in the Tokugawa shogunate and to chūkoshō (中小姓) or higher status bushi in each han (藩, domains). During this period, most bushi came to serve the shogun and the daimyo of each domains, and as the distinction between bushi and chōnin or peasants became stricter, the boundaries between the definitions of samurai and bushi became blurred. Since then, the term "samurai" has been used to refer to "bushi". Officially, however, the high-ranking bushi were called samurai and the low-ranking bushi were called kachi (徒士). Samurai and kachi were represented by the word shibun (士分), a status that can be translated as warrior class, bushi class, or samurai class. Samurai were entitled to an audience with their lord, were allowed to ride horses, and received rice from the land and peasants under their control, while kachi were not entitled to an audience with their lord, guarded their lord on foot, and received rice from the stores of the shogunate and each domain. Gokenin, the status of kachi, were financially impoverished and supported themselves by making bamboo handicrafts and umbrellas and selling plants. The shibun status of samurai and kachi was clearly distinguished from the keihai (軽輩) status of the ashigaru and chūgen who served them, but it was more difficult to rise from kachi to samurai than from ashigaru to kachi, and the status gap between samurai, who were high-ranking bushi, and kachi, who were low-ranking bushi, was quite wide. During the Edo Period, samurai represented a hereditary social class defined by the right to bear arms and to hold public office, as well as high social status. From the mid-Edo period, chōnin and farmers could be promoted to the samurai class by being adopted into gokenin families, or by serving in daikan offices, and kachi could be transferred to lower social classes, such as chōnin, by changing jobs.
History
Asuka and Nara periods
As part of the Taihō Code of 702, and the later Yōrō Code, the population was required to report regularly for the census, a precursor for national conscription. With an understanding of how the population was distributed, Emperor Monmu introduced a law whereby 1 in 3–4 adult males were drafted into the state military. These soldiers were required to supply their own weapons, and in return were exempted from duties and taxes.
The Taihō Code classified most Imperial bureaucrats into 12 ranks, each divided into two sub-ranks, 1st rank being the highest adviser to the emperor. Those of 6th rank and below were referred to as "samurai" and dealt with day-to-day affairs and were initially civilian public servants, in keeping with the original derivation of this word from saburau, a verb meaning 'to serve'.
Heian period
In 792, the gundan, or provincial garrisons, in most of the country were abolished. This was a part of a shift from general conscription to conscripting only the rural elite. This came after the garrisons had their numbers reduced and recruitment focused on skilled horse archers. Another principle of the Ritsuryō system had already begun to be abandoned. All the land belonged to the state, and had been distributed on a per capita basis to farmers. However, in 743, farmers were allowed to cultivate reclaimed land in perpetuity. This allowed clan leaders, especially those with lots of slaves, to acquire large amounts of land. Members of the Imperial family, the Kuge and Temples and Shrines received grants of tax-free land. In the 9th Century, the farmers began to give their land over to the nobility in order to avoid taxes. They would then administer and work the land for a payment of rice. This also reduced the wealth of the Emperor, as he had no private land and was dependent on tax income.
Warriors in the provinces formed networks for mutual protection at the same time court officials and monataries also established private military entourages. These networks allowed the formation of large private armies as warrior leaders with hundreds of followers could combine forces. These networks were organized vertically, with a prominent figure (such as Taira no Masakado)) partnering with lowing ranking warriors. Gradually, the Court began to rely more and more on these private warrior bands instead of the milita. New military and police posts were created to legitmatize the warrior leaders who were then given military responibilites. These leaders often delegated tasks to their followers.
The Heian period saw the appearance of distinctive Japanese armor and weapons. Typical examples are the tachi (long sword) and naginata (halberd) used in close combat, and the ō-yoroi and dō-maru styles of armor. High-ranking samurai equipped with yumi (bows) who fought on horseback wore ō-yoroi, while lower-ranking samurai equipped with naginata who fought on foot wore dō-maru.
The Kamakura shogunate
Two leading Samurai houses, the Minamoto and the Taira had both gained court postions and became rivals. During the Heiji Incident the Taira gained the upper hand and killed or exiled many members of the Minamoto family. After that Taira Kiyomori, practically controlled the court. This lasted till an imperial succession dispute resulted in a rebellion by Prince Mochihito. The exiled Minamoto Yoritomo joined the rebellion, and promised to guarantee lands and administrative rights to warriors who sworn allegiance to him. This usurped the role of the Court, and also effectively created an independent state in eastern Japan. However, Yoritomo did not fight for independence of his state, but negotiated for court recognition of many of the legal powers that he had usurped. At the end of the Gempei War, this resulted in the foundation of the Kamakura regime.
In 1185, Yoritomo obtained the right to appoint shugo and jitō, and was allowed to organize soldiers and police, and to collect a certain amount of tax. Initially, their responsibility was restricted to arresting rebels and collecting needed army provisions and they were forbidden from interfering with kokushi officials, but their responsibility gradually expanded. Thus, the warrior class began to gradually gain poltical power.
In 1190 he visited Kyoto and in 1192 became Sei'i Taishōgun, establishing the Kamakura shogunate, or Kamakura bakufu. Instead of ruling from Kyoto, he set up the shogunate in Kamakura, near his base of power. "Bakufu" means "tent government", taken from the encampments the soldiers lived in, in accordance with the Bakufu's status as a military government.
The Kamakura period (1185–1333) saw the rise of the samurai under shogun rule as they were "entrusted with the security of the estates" and were symbols of the ideal warrior and citizen. Originally, the emperor and non-warrior nobility employed these warrior nobles. In time they amassed enough manpower, resources and political backing, in the form of alliances with one another, to establish the first samurai-dominated government. As the power of these regional clans grew, their chief was typically a distant relative of the emperor and a lesser member of either the Fujiwara, Minamoto, or Taira clan.
In the late Kamakura period, even the most senior samurai began to wear dō-maru, as the heavy and elegant ō-yoroi were no longer respected. Until then, the body was the only part of the dō-maru that was protected, but for higher-ranking samurai, the dō-maru also came with a kabuto (helmet) and shoulder guards. For lower-ranked samurai, the haraate was introduced, the simplest style of armor that protected only the front of the torso and the sides of the abdomen. In the late Kamakura period, a new type of armor called haramaki appeared, in which the two ends of the haraate were extended to the back to provide greater protection.
The Mongol invasions
- Samurai of the Shōni clan gather to defend against Kublai Khan's Mongolian army during the first Mongol invasion of Japan in 1274.
- Battle of Yashima folding screens
Various samurai clans struggled for power during the Kamakura shogunate. Zen Buddhism spread among the samurai in the 13th century and helped shape their standards of conduct, particularly in overcoming the fear of death and killing. Among the general populace Pure Land Buddhism was favored however.
In 1274, the Mongol-founded Yuan dynasty in China sent a force of some 40,000 men and 900 ships to invade Japan in northern Kyūshū. Japan mustered a mere 10,000 samurai to meet this threat. The invading army was harassed by major thunderstorms throughout the invasion, which aided the defenders by inflicting heavy casualties. The Yuan army was eventually recalled, and the invasion was called off. The Mongol invaders used small bombs, which was likely the first appearance of bombs and gunpowder in Japan.
The Japanese defenders recognized the possibility of a renewed invasion and began construction of a great stone barrier around Hakata Bay in 1276. Completed in 1277, this wall stretched for 20 kilometers around the bay. It later served as a strong defensive point against the Mongols. The Mongols attempted to settle matters in a diplomatic way from 1275 to 1279, but every envoy sent to Japan was executed.
Leading up to the second Mongolian invasion, Kublai Khan continued to send emissaries to Japan, with five diplomats sent in September 1275 to Kyūshū. Hōjō Tokimune, the shikken of the Kamakura shogun, responded by having the Mongolian diplomats brought to Kamakura and then beheading them. The graves of the five executed Mongol emissaries exist to this day in Kamakura at Tatsunokuchi. On 29 July 1279, five more emissaries were sent by the Mongol empire, and again beheaded, this time in Hakata. This continued defiance of the Mongol emperor set the stage for one of the most famous engagements in Japanese history.
In 1281, a Yuan army of 140,000 men with 5,000 ships was mustered for another invasion of Japan. Northern Kyūshū was defended by a Japanese army of 40,000 men. The Mongol army was still on its ships preparing for the landing operation when a typhoon hit north Kyūshū island. The casualties and damage inflicted by the typhoon, followed by the Japanese defense of the Hakata Bay barrier, resulted in the Mongols again being defeated.
Samurai and defensive wall at Hakata defending against the Second Mongolian Invasion. Moko Shurai Ekotoba, (蒙古襲来絵詞) c. 1293The thunderstorms of 1274 and the typhoon of 1281 helped the samurai defenders of Japan repel the Mongol invaders despite being vastly outnumbered. These winds became known as kami-no-Kaze, which literally translates as "wind of the gods". This is often given a simplified translation as "divine wind". The kami-no-Kaze lent credence to the Japanese belief that their lands were indeed divine and under supernatural protection.
Nanboku-chō and Muromachi period
In 1336, Ashikaga Takauji, who opposed Emperor Godaigo, established the Ashikaga Shogunate with Emperor Kōgon. As a result, the southern court, descended from Emperor Godaigo, and the northern court, descended from Emperor Kogon, 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. 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 Shugo (守護), the local military and police officials established by the Kamakura shogunate, giving the Shugo jurisdiction over land disputes between gokenin (御家人) 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 daimyo (大名, feudal lords), called shugo daimyo (守護大名), appeared.
The innovations of Sōshū swordsmiths in the late Kamakura period allowed them to produce Japanese swords with tougher blades than before, and during the Nanboku-chō period, ōdachi (large/great sword) were at their peak as weapons for the samurai.
Until the Mongol invasion in the late Kamakura period, the main battle was fought by small groups of warriors using yumi (bows) from horseback, and close combat was a secondary battle. From the Nanboku-chō period to the Muromachi period, large groups of infantrymen became more active in battle, close combat became more important, and the naginata and tachi, which had been used since the Heian period, were used more. The yari (spear) was not yet a major weapon in this period.
During the Nanboku-chō period, many lower-class foot soldiers called ashigaru began to participate in battles, and the popularity of haramaki increased. During the Nanboku-chō and Muromachi periods, dō-maru and haramaki became the norm, and senior samurai also began to wear haramaki by adding kabuto (helmet), men-yoroi (face armor), and gauntlet.
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.
Sengoku period
The outbreak of the Onin War, which began in 1467 and lasted about 10 years, devastated Kyoto and brought down the power of the Ashikaga Shogunate. This plunged the country into the warring states period, in which daimyo (feudal lords) from different regions fought each other. This period corresponds to the late Muromachi period. There are about nine theories about the end of the Sengoku Period, the earliest being the year 1568, when Oda Nobunaga marched on Kyoto, and the latest being the suppression of the Shimabara Rebellion in 1638. Thus, the Sengoku Period overlaps with the Muromachi, Azuchi–Momoyama, and Edo periods, depending on the theory. In any case, the Sengoku period was a time of large-scale civil wars throughout Japan.
Daimyo who became more powerful as the shogunate's control weakened were called sengoku daimyo (戦国大名), and they often came from shugo daimyo, Shugodai (守護代, deputy Shugo), and kokujin or kunibito (国人, local masters). 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).
From this time on, infantrymen called ashigaru, 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. When matchlocks were introduced from Portugal in 1543, Japanese swordsmiths immediately began to improve and mass-produce them. The Japanese matchlock was named tanegashima after the Tanegashima island, 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 arquebuses in Japan and a large army of nearly 100,000 men clashing with each other.
On the battlefield, ashigaru began to fight in close formation, using yari (spear) and tanegashima. As a result, yari, yumi (bow), and tanegashima became the primary weapons on the battlefield. The naginata, which was difficult to maneuver in close formation, and the long, heavy tachi fell into disuse and were replaced by the nagamaki, which could be held short, and the short, light katana, which appeared in the Nanboku-cho period and gradually became more common. The tachi was often cut off from the hilt and shortened to make a katana. The tachi, which had become inconvenient for use on the battlefield, was transformed into a symbol of authority carried by high-ranking samurai. Although the ōdachi had become even more obsolete, some sengoku daimyo dared to organize assault and kinsmen units composed entirely of large men equipped with ōdachi to demonstrate the bravery of their armies.
These changes in the aspect of the battlefield during the Sengoku period led to the emergence of the tosei-gusoku 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 ō-yoroi and dō-mal in the Heian period. In this style, the number of parts was reduced, and instead armor with eccentric designs became popular.
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.
Azuchi–Momoyama period
The Azuchi-Momoyama period refers to the period when Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi were in power. The name "Azuchi-Momoyama" comes from the fact that Nobunaga's castle, Azuchi Castle, was located in Azuchi, Shiga, and Fushimi Castle, where Hideyoshi lived after his retirement, was located in Momoyama. There are several theories as to when the Azuchi–Momoyama period began: 1568, when Oda Nobunaga entered Kyoto in support of Ashikaga Yoshiaki; 1573, when Oda Nobunaga expelled Ashikaga Yoshiaki from Kyoto; and 1576, when the construction of Azuchi Castle began. In any case, the beginning of the Azuchii–Momoyama period marked the complete end of the rule of the Ashikaga shogunate, which had been disrupted by the Onin War; in other words, it marked the end of the Muromachi period.
Oda, Toyotomi, and Tokugawa
Oda Nobunaga was the well-known lord of the Nagoya area (once called Owari Province) and an exceptional example of a samurai of the Sengoku period. He came within a few years of, and laid down the path for his successors to follow, the reunification of Japan under a new bakufu (shogunate).
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.
Invasions of Korea
See also: Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–1598)In 1592 and again in 1597, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, aiming to invade China through Korea, mobilized an army of 160,000 peasants and samurai and deployed them to Korea in one of the largest military endeavors in Eastern Asia until the late 19th century. Taking advantage of arquebus mastery and extensive wartime experience from the Sengoku period, Japanese samurai armies made major gains in most of Korea. A few of the famous samurai generals of this war were Katō Kiyomasa, Konishi Yukinaga, and Shimazu Yoshihiro. Katō Kiyomasa advanced to Orangkai territory (present-day Manchuria) bordering Korea to the northeast and crossed the border into northern China.
Kiyomasa withdrew back to Korea after retaliatory counterattacks from the Jurchens in the area, whose castles his forces had raided. Shimazu Yoshihiro led some 7,000 samurai into battle, and despite being heavily outnumbered, defeated a host of allied Ming and Korean forces at the Battle of Sacheon in 1598. Yoshihiro was feared as Oni-Shimazu ("Shimazu ogre") and his nickname spread across Korea and into China.
In spite of the superiority of Japanese land forces, the two expeditions ultimately failed after Hideyoshi's death, though the invasions did devastate the Korean peninsula. The causes of the failure included Korean naval superiority (which, led by Admiral Yi Sun-sin, harassed Japanese supply lines continuously throughout the wars, resulting in supply shortages on land), the commitment of sizable Ming forces to Korea, Korean guerrilla actions, wavering Japanese commitment to the campaigns as the wars dragged on, and the underestimation of resistance by Japanese commanders.
In the first campaign of 1592, Korean defenses on land were caught unprepared, under-trained, and under-armed. They were rapidly overrun, with only a limited number of successfully resistant engagements against the more experienced and battle-hardened Japanese forces. During the second campaign in 1597, Korean and Ming forces proved far more resilient and with the support of continued Korean naval superiority, managed to limit Japanese gains to parts of southeastern Korea. The final death blow to the Japanese campaigns in Korea came with Hideyoshi's death in late 1598 and the recall of all Japanese forces in Korea by the Council of Five Elders, established by Hideyoshi to oversee the transition from his regency to that of his son Hideyori.
Battle of Sekigahara
See also: Battle of SekigaharaBefore his death, Hideyoshi ordered that Japan be ruled by a council of the five most powerful sengoku daimyo, Go-Tairō (五大老, Council of Five Elders), and Hideyoshi's five retainers, Go-Bugyō (五奉行, Five Commissioners), until his only heir, the five-year-old Toyotomi Hideyori, reached the age of 16. However, having only the young Hideyori as Hideyoshi's successor weakened the Toyotomi regime. Today, the loss of all of Hideyoshi's adult heirs is considered the main reason for the downfall of the Toyotomi clan. Hideyoshi's younger brother, Toyotomi Hidenaga, who had supported Hideyoshi's rise to power as a leader and strategist, had already died of illness in 1591, and his nephew, Toyotomi Hidetsugu, who was Hideyoshi's only adult successor, was forced to commit seppuku in 1595 along with many other vassals on Hideyoshi's orders for suspected rebellion.
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 Tō-gun (東軍, Eastern Army) led by Ieyasu defeated the Sei-gun (西軍, Western Army) 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, and Tachibana. In most cases, however, it is difficult to prove these claims.
Tokugawa shogunate
See also: Edo periodAfter the Battle of Sekigahara, when the Tokugawa shogunate defeated the Toyotomi clan in the summer campaign of the siege of Osaka in 1615, the long war ended. During the Tokugawa shogunate, samurai increasingly became courtiers, bureaucrats, and administrators rather than warriors. With no warfare since the early 17th century, samurai gradually lost their military function during the Tokugawa era (also called the Edo period).
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 (斬り捨て御免), but to what extent this right was used is unknown. 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.
The samurai served as role modeld for the other social classes. With time on their hands, samurai spent more time in pursuit of other interests such as scholarship. After the Edo period, it came to cover all of society, and although the shogunate sometimes invited monks as advisors, the nobility was excluded from the government. As a result, samurai began to assume all civilian roles, and from the Edo period onward, samurai shifted their activities from military to political administration. In addition, those who were newly promoted to the shogunate or domain in recognition of talents unrelated to martial arts, such as literature and scholarship, were also given the status of samurai. It can be said that the difference between a samurai and a military officer appears in such a place. In the Edo period, samurai equivalent to civil servants and administrative officers were called "officials". Samurai were given an honorific title and were called "Obuke-sama".
From the mid-Edo period, wealthy chōnin (townsman) and farmers could join the samurai class by giving a large sum of money to an impoverished gokenin 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 yoriki and 500 ryo for an kachi (徒士) Some of their descendants were promoted to hatamoto (旗本) and held important positions in the shogunate. Some of the peasants' children were promoted to the samurai class by serving in the daikan (代官) 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.
Edo, 1865 or 1866. Photochrom print. Five albumen prints joined to form a panorama. Photographer: Felice Beato.Samurai in Southeast Asia
In the late 1500s, trade between Japan and Southeast Asia accelerated and increased exponentially when the Tokugawa shogunate was established in the early 1600s. The destinations of the trading ships, the red seal ships, were Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, etc. Many Japanese moved to Southeast Asia and established Japanese towns there. Many samurai, or rōnin, who had lost their masters after the Battle of Sekigahara, lived in the Japanese towns. The Spaniards in the Philippines, the Dutch of the Dutch East India Company, and the Thais of the Ayutthaya Kingdom saw the value of these samurai as mercenaries and recruited them. The most famous of these mercenaries was Yamada Nagamasa. He was originally a palanquin bearer who belonged to the lowest end of the samurai class, but he rose to prominence in the Ayutthaya Kingdom, now in southern Thailand, and became governor of the Nakhon Si Thammarat Kingdom. When the policy of national isolation (sakoku) was established in 1639, trade between Japan and Southeast Asia ceased, and records of Japanese activities in Southeast Asia were lost for many years after 1688.
Samurai as diplomatic ambassadors
In 1582, three Kirishitan daimyō, Ōtomo Sōrin, Ōmura Sumitada, and Arima Harunobu, sent a group of boys, their own blood relatives and retainers, to Europe as Japan's first diplomatic mission to Europe. They had audiences with King Philip II of Spain, Pope Gregory XIII, and Pope Sixtus V. The mission returned to Japan in 1590, but its members were forced to renounce, be exiled, or be executed, due to the Tokugawa shogunate's suppression of Christianity.
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.
Modernization
Main article: Late Tokugawa shogunateThe relative peace of the Tokugawa era was shattered with the arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry's massive U.S. Navy steamships in 1853. Perry used his superior firepower to force Japan to open its borders to trade. Prior to that only a few harbor towns, under strict control from the shogunate, were allowed to participate in Western trade, and even then, it was based largely on the idea of playing the Franciscans and Dominicans against one another (in exchange for the crucial arquebus technology, which in turn was a major contributor to the downfall of the classical samurai).
From 1854, the samurai army and the navy were modernized. A naval training school was established in Nagasaki in 1855. Naval students were sent to study in Western naval schools for several years, starting a tradition of foreign-educated future leaders, such as Admiral Enomoto. French naval engineers were hired to build naval arsenals, such as Yokosuka and Nagasaki. By the end of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1867, the Japanese navy of the shōgun already possessed eight western-style steam warships around the flagship Kaiyō Maru, which were used against pro-imperial forces during the Boshin War, under the command of Admiral Enomoto Takeaki. A French Military Mission to Japan (1867) was established to help modernize the armies of the Bakufu.
The last showing of the original samurai was in 1867 when samurai from Chōshū and Satsuma provinces defeated the shogunate forces in favor of the rule of the emperor in the Boshin War. The two provinces were the lands of the daimyōs that submitted to Ieyasu after the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600.
Dissolution
In the 1870s, samurai comprised five percent of the population, or 400,000 families with about 1.9 million members. They came under direct national jurisdiction in 1869, and of all the classes during the Meiji revolution they were the most affected. Although many lesser samurai had been active in the Meiji restoration, the older ones represented an obsolete feudal institution that had a practical monopoly of military force, and to a large extent of education as well. A priority of the Meiji government was to gradually abolish the entire class of samurai and integrate them into the Japanese professional, military and business classes.
Their traditional guaranteed salaries were very expensive, and in 1873 the government started taxing the stipends and began to transform them into interest-bearing government bonds; the process was completed in 1879. The main goal was to provide enough financial liquidity to enable former samurai to invest in land and industry. A military force capable of contesting not just China but the imperial powers required a large conscript army that closely followed Western standards. The notion of very strict obedience to chain of command was incompatible with the individual authority of the samurai. Samurai now became Shizoku (士族; this status was abolished in 1947). The right to wear a katana in public was abolished, along with the right to execute commoners who paid them disrespect. In 1877, there was a localized samurai rebellion that was quickly crushed.
Younger samurai often became exchange students because they were ambitious, literate and well-educated. On return, some started private schools for higher education, while many samurai became reporters and writers and set up newspaper companies. Others entered governmental service. In the 1880s, 23 percent of prominent Japanese businessmen were from the samurai class; by the 1920s the number had grown to 35 percent.
Philosophy
Honor
In a 16th-century account of Japan sent to Father Ignatius Loyola at Rome, drawn from the statements of Anger (Han-Siro's western name), Xavier describes the importance of honor to the Japanese (Letter preserved at College of Coimbra):
In the first place, the nation with which we have had to do here surpasses in goodness any of the nations lately discovered. I really think that among barbarous nations there can be none that has more natural goodness than the Japanese. They are of a kindly disposition, not at all given to cheating, wonderfully desirous of honour and rank. Honour with them is placed above everything else. There are a great many poor among them, but poverty is not a disgrace to any one. There is one thing among them of which I hardly know whether it is practised anywhere among Christians. The nobles, however poor they may be, receive the same honour from the rest as if they were rich.
Historian H. Paul Varley notes the description of Japan given by Jesuit leader St. Francis Xavier: "There is no nation in the world which fears death less." Xavier further describes the honour and manners of the people: "I fancy that there are no people in the world more punctilious about their honour than the Japanese, for they will not put up with a single insult or even a word spoken in anger." Xavier spent 1549 to 1551 converting Japanese to Christianity. He also observed: "The Japanese are much braver and more warlike than the people of China, Korea, Ternate and all of the other nations around the Philippines."
However, insubordination or gekokujo, a term used in the fifteenth century during widespread rebellion, involved provincial lords defying the shogun, who in turn disregarded the emperor's commands.
Doctrine
See also: Bushido and Kiri-sute gomenIn the 13th century, Hōjō Shigetoki wrote: "When one is serving officially or in the master's court, he should not think of a hundred or a thousand people, but should consider only the importance of the master." Carl Steenstrup notes that 13th- and 14th-century warrior writings (gunki) "portrayed the bushi in their natural element, war, eulogizing such virtues as reckless bravery, fierce family pride, and selfless, at times senseless devotion of master and man".
Feudal lords such as Shiba Yoshimasa (1350–1410) stated that a warrior looked forward to a glorious death in the service of a military leader or the emperor:
It is a matter of regret to let the moment when one should die pass by ... First, a man whose profession is the use of arms should think and then act upon not only his own fame, but also that of his descendants. He should not scandalize his name forever by holding his one and only life too dear ... One's main purpose in throwing away his life is to do so either for the sake of the Emperor or in some great undertaking of a military general. It is that exactly that will be the great fame of one's descendants.
In 1412, Imagawa Sadayo wrote a letter of admonishment to his brother stressing the importance of duty to one's master. Imagawa was admired for his balance of military and administrative skills during his lifetime, and his writings became widespread. The letters became central to Tokugawa-era laws and became required study material for traditional Japanese until World War II:
First of all, a samurai who dislikes battle and has not put his heart in the right place even though he has been born in the house of the warrior, should not be reckoned among one's retainers ... It is forbidden to forget the great debt of kindness one owes to his master and ancestors and thereby make light of the virtues of loyalty and filial piety ... It is forbidden that one should ... attach little importance to his duties to his master ... There is a primary need to distinguish loyalty from disloyalty and to establish rewards and punishments.
Similarly, the feudal lord Takeda Nobushige (1525–1561) stated:
In matters both great and small, one should not turn his back on his master's commands ... One should not ask for gifts or enfiefments from the master ... No matter how unreasonably the master may treat a man, he should not feel disgruntled ... An underling does not pass judgments on a superior.
Nobushige's brother Takeda Shingen (1521–1573) also made similar observations:
One who was born in the house of a warrior, regardless of his rank or class, first acquaints himself with a man of military feats and achievements in loyalty ... Everyone knows that if a man doesn't hold filial piety toward his own parents he would also neglect his duties toward his lord. Such a neglect means a disloyalty toward humanity. Therefore such a man doesn't deserve to be called 'samurai'.
The feudal lord Asakura Yoshikage (1428–1481) wrote: "In the fief of the Asakura, one should not determine hereditary chief retainers. A man should be assigned according to his ability and loyalty." Asakura also observed that the successes of his father were obtained by the kind treatment of the warriors and common people living in domain. By his civility, "all were willing to sacrifice their lives for him and become his allies".
Katō Kiyomasa was one of the most powerful and well-known lords of the Sengoku period. He commanded most of Japan's major clans during the invasion of Korea. In a handbook he addressed to "all samurai, regardless of rank", he told his followers that a warrior's only duty in life was to "grasp the long and the short swords and to die". He also ordered his followers to put forth great effort in studying the military classics, especially those related to loyalty and filial piety. He is best known for his quote: "If a man does not investigate into the matter of Bushido daily, it will be difficult for him to die a brave and manly death. Thus it is essential to engrave this business of the warrior into one's mind well."
Nabeshima Naoshige (1538–1618 AD) was another Sengoku daimyō who fought alongside Kato Kiyomasa in Korea. He stated that it was shameful for any man to have not risked his life at least once in the line of duty, regardless of his rank. Nabeshima's sayings were passed down to his son and grandson and became the basis for Tsunetomo Yamamoto's Hagakure. He is best known for his saying, "The way of the samurai is in desperateness. Ten men or more cannot kill such a man."
Torii Mototada (1539–1600) was a feudal lord in the service of Tokugawa Ieyasu. On the eve of the battle of Sekigahara, he volunteered to remain behind in the doomed Fushimi Castle while his lord advanced to the east. Torii and Tokugawa both agreed that the castle was indefensible. In an act of loyalty to his lord, Torii chose to remain behind, pledging that he and his men would fight to the finish. As was custom, Torii vowed that he would not be taken alive. In a dramatic last stand, the garrison of 2,000 men held out against overwhelming odds for ten days against the massive army of Ishida Mitsunari's 40,000 warriors. In a moving last statement to his son Tadamasa, he wrote:
It is not the Way of the Warrior to be shamed and avoid death even under circumstances that are not particularly important. It goes without saying that to sacrifice one's life for the sake of his master is an unchanging principle. That I should be able to go ahead of all the other warriors of this country and lay down my life for the sake of my master's benevolence is an honor to my family and has been my most fervent desire for many years.
It is said that both men cried when they parted ways, because they knew they would never see each other again. Torii's father and grandfather had served the Tokugawa before him, and his own brother had already been killed in battle. Torii's actions changed the course of Japanese history. Ieyasu Tokugawa successfully raised an army and won at Sekigahara.
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".
The rival of Takeda Shingen (1521–1573) was Uesugi Kenshin (1530–1578), a legendary Sengoku warlord well versed in the Chinese military classics and who advocated the "way of the warrior as death". Japanese historian Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki describes Uesugi's beliefs as:
Those who are reluctant to give up their lives and embrace death are not true warriors ... Go to the battlefield firmly confident of victory, and you will come home with no wounds whatever. Engage in combat fully determined to die and you will be alive; wish to survive in the battle and you will surely meet death. When you leave the house determined not to see it again you will come home safely; when you have any thought of returning you will not return. You may not be in the wrong to think that the world is always subject to change, but the warrior must not entertain this way of thinking, for his fate is always determined.
Families such as the Imagawa were influential in the development of warrior ethics and were widely quoted by other lords during their lifetime. The writings of Imagawa Sadayo were highly respected and sought out by Tokugawa Ieyasu as the source of Japanese feudal law.
Religious influences
The philosophies of Confucianism, Buddhism and Zen, and to a lesser extent Shinto, influenced the samurai culture. Zen meditation became an important teaching because it offered a process to calm one's mind. The Buddhist concept of reincarnation and rebirth led samurai to abandon torture and needless killing, while some samurai even gave up violence altogether and became Buddhist monks after coming to believe that their killings were fruitless. Some were killed as they came to terms with these conclusions in the battlefield. The most defining role that Confucianism played in samurai philosophy was to stress the importance of the lord-retainer relationship—the loyalty that a samurai was required to show his lord.
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."
Culture
As aristocrats for centuries, samurai developed their own cultures that influenced Japanese culture as a whole. Waka (Japanese poetry), noh (Japanese dance-drama), kemari (Japanese football game), tea ceremony, and ikebana (Japanese flower arranging) were some of the cultural pursuits enjoyed by the samurai.
Waka poems were also used as jisei no ku (辞世の句, death poems). 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 daimyo (feudal lords) 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 chashitsu (small tea room) 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.
Education
In general, samurai, aristocrats, and priests had a very high literacy rate in kanji. Recent studies have shown that literacy in kanji among other groups in society was somewhat higher than previously understood. For example, court documents, birth and death records and marriage records from the Kamakura period, submitted by farmers, were prepared in Kanji. Both the kanji literacy rate and skills in math improved toward the end of Kamakura period.
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.
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.
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.
Names
A samurai was usually named by combining one kanji from his father or grandfather and one new kanji. Samurai normally used only a small part of their total name.
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.
Marriage
Samurai had arranged marriages, which were arranged by a go-between of the same or higher rank. While for those samurai in the upper ranks this was a necessity (as most had few opportunities to meet women), this was a formality for lower-ranked samurai. Most samurai married women from a samurai family, but for lower-ranked samurai, marriages with commoners were permitted. In these marriages a dowry was brought by the woman and was used to set up the couple's new household.
A samurai could take concubines, 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.
Women
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Maintaining the household was the main duty of women of the samurai class. This was especially crucial during early feudal Japan, when warrior husbands were often traveling abroad or engaged in clan battles. The wife, or okugatasama (meaning: one who remains in the home), was left to manage all household affairs, care for the children, and perhaps even defend the home forcibly. For this reason, many women of the samurai class were trained in wielding a polearm called a naginata or a special knife called the kaiken in an art called tantojutsu (lit. the skill of the knife), which they could use to protect their household, family, and honor if the need arose. There were women who actively engaged in battles alongside male samurai in Japan, although most of these female warriors were not formal samurai.
A samurai's daughter's greatest duty was political marriage. These women married members of enemy clans of their families to form a diplomatic relationship. 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 may 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.
- Kasuga no Tsubone fighting robbers – Adachi Ginko (c. 1880)
- Hangaku Gozen by Yoshitoshi, c. 1885
- Japanese woman preparing for ritual suicide
- Yuki no Kata defending Tsu Castle. 18th century
- A samurai class woman
Combat techniques
During the existence of the samurai, two opposite types of organization reigned. The first type were recruits-based armies: at the beginning, during the Nara period, samurai armies relied on armies of Chinese-type recruits and towards the end in infantry units composed of ashigaru. The second type of organization was that of a samurai on horseback who fought individually or in small groups.
At the beginning of the contest, a series of bulbous-headed arrows were shot, which buzzed in the air. The purpose of these shots was to call the kami to witness the displays of courage that were about to unfold. After a brief exchange of arrows between the two sides, a contest called ikkiuchi (一 騎 討 ち) was developed, where great rivals on both sides faced each other. After these individual combats, the major combats were given way, usually sending infantry troops led by samurai on horseback. At the beginning of the samurai battles, it was an honor to be the first to enter battle. This changed in the Sengoku period with the introduction of the arquebus.
At the beginning of the use of firearms, the combat methodology was as follows: at the beginning an exchange of arquebus shots was made at a distance of approximately 100 meters; when the time was right, the ashigaru spearmen were ordered to advance and finally the samurai would attack, either on foot or on horseback. The army chief would sit in a scissor chair inside a semi-open tent called maku, which exhibited its respective mon and represented the bakufu, "government from the maku."
In the middle of the contest, some samurai decided to get off the horse and seek to cut off the head of a worthy rival. This act was considered an honor. Through it they gained respect among the military class. After the battle, the high-ranking samurai normally celebrated with a tea ceremony, and the victorious general reviewed the heads of the most important members of the enemy which had been cut.
Most of the battles were not resolved in the ideal manner mentioned above. Most wars were won through surprise attacks, such as night raids, fires, etc. The renowned samurai Minamoto no Tametomo said:
According to my experience, there is nothing more advantageous when it comes to crushing the enemy than a night attack . If we set fire to three of the sides and close the passage through the room, those who flee from the flames will be shot down by arrows, and those who seek to escape from them will not be able to flee from the flames.
— Minamoto no Tametomo.
Head collection
Cutting off the head of a worthy rival on the battlefield was a source of great pride and recognition. There was a detailed ritual to beautify the severed heads: first they were washed and combed, and once this was done, the teeth were blackened by applying a dye called ohaguro. The reason for blackening the teeth was that white teeth was a sign of distinction, so applying a dye to darken them was a desecration. The heads were carefully arranged on a table for exposure.
In 1600, Kani Saizō participated in the Battle of Sekigahara as the forerunner of Fukushima Masanori's army. In the outpost battle of Gifu Castle, he took the heads of 17 enemy soldiers, and was greatly praised by Tokugawa Ieyasu. He fought with a bamboo stalk on his back and would mark the heads of his defeated enemies by putting bamboo leaves in their cut necks or mouths, since he could not carry every head. Thus he gained the nickname Bamboo Saizo.
During Toyotomi Hideyoshi's invasions of Korea, the number of severed heads of the enemies to be sent to Japan was such that for logistical reasons only the noses were sent. These were covered with salt and shipped in wooden barrels. These barrels were buried in a burial mound near the "Great Buddha" of Hideyoshi, where they remain today under the wrong name of mimizuka or "ear mound".
Military formations
During the Azuchi-Momoyama period and thanks to the introduction of firearms, combat tactics changed dramatically. The military formations adopted had poetic names, among which are:
Many of these formations were created by Zhuge Liang, Sun Tzu, and others in China, and were introduced to Japan where they were used. In reality, based on these, each force developed its own formations depending on its organization and tactics.
Name | Description | Image |
---|---|---|
Ganko (birds in flight,雁行) |
A very flexible formation that allowed the troops to adapt depending on the movements of the opponent. The commander was located at the rear, but near the center to avoid communication problems. | |
Hoshi (arrowhead,鋒矢) |
An aggressive formation in which the samurai took advantage of the casualties caused by the shooting of the ashigaru. The signaling elements were close to the major generals of the commander. | |
Saku (lock) |
Considered the best defense against the Hoshi, since two rows of arcabuceros and two archers were in position to receive the attack. | |
Kakuyoku (crane wings,鶴翼) |
Recurrent formation with the purpose of surrounding the enemy. The archers and arcabuceros diminished the enemy troops before the melee attack of the samurai while the second company surrounded them. | |
Koyaku (yoke,衡軛) |
Owes its name to the yokes used for oxen. It was used to neutralize the "crane wings" and "arrowhead" attack and its purpose was for the vanguard to absorb the first attack and allow time for the enemy to reveal his next move to which the second company could react in time. | |
Gyōrin (fish scales,魚鱗) |
Frequently used to deal with much more numerous armies. Its purpose was to attack a single sector to break the enemy ranks. | |
Engetsu (half moon,偃月) |
Used when the army was not yet defeated but an orderly withdrawal to the castle was needed. While the rearguard receded, the vanguard could still be organized according to the circumstances. |
In popular culture
Further information: Samurai cinemaSamurai 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 westerns 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 Star Wars: A New Hope 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.
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, 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, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, 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". 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 television series Power Rangers Samurai (adapted from Samurai Sentai Shinkenger) is inspired by the way of the samurai.
proverb
In Japan, the words samurai and bushi have been used for over 1000 years. For this reason, they have been a familiar part of daily life for a long time, and even after the samurai-centered world ended, they continue to play an active role in entertainment. Therefore, there are many proverbs related to samurai and bushi.
See also: Racial identity of Sakanoue no Tamuramaro § Associated proverbHowever, "For a Samurai to be brave, he must have a bit of Black blood," which is often introduced as a Japanese proverb in Europe, America, and Africa, does not actually exist. In a similar case, since around March 2024, photos have been spreading on social media, claiming that black samurai have existed since ancient times, but fact-checks conducted in Japan and France have determined that the photos are fake.
Samurai museums
- Japanese Sword Museum – dedicated to the art of Japanese swordmaking.
- Matsumoto Castle – the second floor features a collection of feudal guns, armor, and other weapons.
- Ōyamazumi Shrine in Ōmishima Island – large collection of ancient samurai weaponry, armor and shrine statuary.
- Samurai Museum Berlin
- Samurai Museum in Shinjuku, Tokyo – about the history of the samurai with armor, weapons etc.
See also
- List of Japanese battles
- List of samurai
- Musha shugyō
- Ninja
- Pechin
- Kabukimono
- Seiwa Genji
- Shudō
- Shi
- Hwarang
- Kheshig
References
- Jevsejevas, Tomas. "How did the Bushi evolve as a class ?".
- Vaporis, Constantine Nomikos (14 March 2019). Samurai An Encyclopedia of Japan's Cultured Warriors. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9798216141518.
- Samurai: The Story of a Warrior Tradition, Harry Cook, Blandford Press 1993, ISBN 0713724323
- 平氏政権の登場 (PDF) (in Japanese). NHK. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 March 2024. Retrieved 14 March 2024.
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Historiography
- Howland, Douglas R. "Samurai status, class, and bureaucracy: A historiographical essay". The Journal of Asian Studies. 60.2 (2001): 353–380. doi:10.2307/2659697 online.
External links
- Media related to Samurai at Wikimedia Commons
- The Samurai Archives Japanese History page
- Samurai Swords and Samurai Culture Archived 28 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine
- History of the Samurai
- The Way of the Samurai – Japan: Memoirs of a Secret Empire
- Comprehensive Database of Archaeological Site Reports in Japan, Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties
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