Who were the Samurai

Samurai were a class of highly trained warriors that emerged in Japan after the Taika reforms in 646, which included land redistribution and new taxes to support a new empire in the elaborate Chinese style. The reforms forced many farmers to sell their land and work it under a single new owner. Over time, some landowners with a lot of wealth and power created the basis of a feudal system. To defend their wealth, these feudal lords began to hire the first samurai or bushi warriors.

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During the 900s, the weak emperors of the Heian period lost control of rural Japan and the country fell into great upheavals. Soon, the power of the emperor was limited to the capital, and throughout the country, the warrior class mobilized to fill the power vacuum left by the emperors. After years of fighting, the samurai established a military government known as the shogunate. By the early 1100s, these warriors enjoyed the political and military power of most of Japan.

The weak Imperial House received a fatal blow to its power in the year 1156, when Emperor Toba died without leaving a clear heir. His sons, Sutoku and Go-shirakawa, fought for control causing a civil war known as the Hogen Rebellion of 1156. In the end, both candidates for the imperial throne lost and the imperial house lost whatever power it had left.

During the civil war, the Minamoto and Taira samurai clans grew in power. They fought each other during the Heiji Rebellion of 1160. The Taira clan was victorious, establishing the first samurai-led government, and the Minamoto clan was banished from the capital Kyoto.

These two clans faced each other once again in the Genpei War between 1180 and 1185, in which the Minamoto clan was the winner. After his victory, Minamoto no Yoritomo establishes the Kamakura shogunate, keeping the Emperor as the representative head of state. The Minamoto clan ruled most of Japan until 1333.

In the year 1268 an external threat appeared. Kublai Khan, the Mongol ruler of Yuan China, demanded tribute from Japan, and when he refused, the Mongol army invaded Japan. Fortunately for Japan, a typhoon destroyed the 600 Mongol ships, repeating the same fate in the second invasion in 1281.

Despite incredible help from nature, the Mongol attacks cost the government a lot of money. Having no land or wealth to offer the samurai leaders who came to Japan’s defense, the weakened shogun was challenged to political power and influence by Emperor Go-daigo in 1318. After being exiled in 1331, the shogun Emperor returned and dismissed the Shogunate in 1333.

The restoration of Kemmu imperial power lasted only 3 years. In 1336, the Ashikaga shogunate, under the leadership of Ashikaga Takauji, established samurai rule, although his new shogunate was weaker than the previous one in Kamakura. The feudal lords or Daimyo grew in power at this time and influence the decisions and succession of the shogunate.

By 1460, the Daimyo were so powerful that they ignored the orders of the shogun and supported various candidates for the imperial throne. When the shogun, Ashikaga Yoshimasa, resigned in 1464, he caused a fight between factions that supported his younger brother and others his son.

In 1467, this fighting grew into a decade-long war called Onin, in which thousands died and Kyoto suffered extensive fire damage. This war was the prelude and initiator of the Sengoku period, or warring states. Between 1467 and 1573, various Daimyo led their clans into a struggle for national dominance, with nearly every province involved in the fray.

The Sengoku period came to an end in 1568 when General Oda Nobunaga defeated 3 powerful Daimyo, marched to Kyoto, and installed his chosen leader as shogun, Yoshiaki. Nobunaga spent the next 14 years fighting and dominating other rival Daimyo, and putting down rebellions. Its great Azuchi castle, built between 1576 and 1579, became the symbol of the unification of Japan.

In 1582, Nobunaga was assassinated by one of his generals, Akechi Mitsuhide. Hideyoshi, another of his generals, finished the process of unifying Japan and ruled as a Kampaku, or regent.

In a political power move, Hideyoshi commanded the Tokugawa clan to leave Kyoto to settle and administer the Kanto area. By 1600, Tokugawa Ieyasu had conquered the daimyo near his capital Edo, which would become present-day Tokyo.

Ieyasu’s son Hidetada became the first shogun of unified Japan in 1605, ushering in 250 years of relative peace and stability in Japan. The powerful Tokugawa shoguns placed many limits on the samurai, forcing them to serve their lords in the cities or to surrender their weapons and engage in agriculture. This turned the warrior class into a class of refined cultured bureaucrats.

In 1868, the Meiji Restoration marked the beginning of the end for the samurai. The Meiji system of constitutional monarchy included democratic reforms to draw limits for official public positions and popular votes. With the support of the population, the Meiji Emperor got rid of the samurai, reduced the power of the Daimyo, and changed the name of the capital from Edo to Tokyo.

The new government created an army in 1873. Some of the officers were recruited directly from the ranks of the old samurai, but most of these found work as police officers. In 1877, a samurai who had collaborated with the Meiji government rebelled against it in what is known as the satsuma rebellion. His defeat marked the end of the era of the samurai.

The culture of the samurai was based on the concept of bushido, or the way of the warrior, whose main principles are honor and not fearing death. A samurai was legally authorized to use deadly force on an ordinary person who disrespected him. At the same time, the samurai was linked to the bushido principle of defending people from threats that might arise, even offering their own lives.

The earliest samurai were archers, fighting on foot or on horseback alike, using the sword exclusively to deliver the final blow to already wounded enemies. After the Mongol invasion in 1272 and 1281, the samurai began to use more of the sword, naginata spears, and other close combat weapons. The samurai carried 2 swords with them, the katana and the wakizashi, which were prohibited for non-samurai. Although if they were used in times of need, they were considered ritual ornaments.