Originally these warriors were workers of the emperor and noble, but slowly they gathered enough power to establish the first samurai-dominated government.
As regional clans gathered manpower and resources and struck alliances with each other, their chief was typically a distant relative of the emperor, and a lesser member of one of three families the Fujiwara, Minamoto, Taira.
Though originally sent to provincial areas for a fixed four year term as a magistrate, 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.
Samurai fighting at the naval battle of Dan-no-Ura in 1185. Because of their rising military and economic power, the warriors ultimately became a new force in the politics of the court. Their involvement in the Hōgen in the late Heian period consolidated their power, and finally pitted the rival Minamoto and Taira clans against each other in the Heiji Rebellion of 1160.
The winners, Taira no Kiyomori became an imperial advisor, the first warrior to attain such a position, and 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 in comparison with its eventual successor, the Minamoto, and instead of expanding or strengthening its military might, the Taira clan had its women marry emperors and exercise control through the emperor.
Samurai Residence of "Kamakura Period" The Taira and the Minamoto clashed again in 1180, beginning the Gempei War which ended in 1185. The victorious Minamoto no Yoritomo established the superiority of the samurai over the aristocracy. In 1190, he visited Kyoto and in 1192, became Seii Taishogun, 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 would live in, in accordance with the Bakufu's status as a military government.
Over time, powerful samurai clans became warrior nobility buke, who were only nominally under the court aristocracy. When the samurai began to adopt aristocratic pastimes like calligraphy, poetry and music, some court aristocrats in turn began to adopt samurai customs. In spite of various machinations and brief periods of rule by various emperors, real power was now in the hands of the shogun and the samurai.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samurai#Kamakura_Bakufu_and_the_rise_of_samurai
As regional clans gathered manpower and resources and struck alliances with each other, their chief was typically a distant relative of the emperor, and a lesser member of one of three families the Fujiwara, Minamoto, Taira.
Though originally sent to provincial areas for a fixed four year term as a magistrate, 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.
Samurai fighting at the naval battle of Dan-no-Ura in 1185. Because of their rising military and economic power, the warriors ultimately became a new force in the politics of the court. Their involvement in the Hōgen in the late Heian period consolidated their power, and finally pitted the rival Minamoto and Taira clans against each other in the Heiji Rebellion of 1160.
The winners, Taira no Kiyomori became an imperial advisor, the first warrior to attain such a position, and 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 in comparison with its eventual successor, the Minamoto, and instead of expanding or strengthening its military might, the Taira clan had its women marry emperors and exercise control through the emperor.
Samurai Residence of "Kamakura Period" The Taira and the Minamoto clashed again in 1180, beginning the Gempei War which ended in 1185. The victorious Minamoto no Yoritomo established the superiority of the samurai over the aristocracy. In 1190, he visited Kyoto and in 1192, became Seii Taishogun, 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 would live in, in accordance with the Bakufu's status as a military government.
Over time, powerful samurai clans became warrior nobility buke, who were only nominally under the court aristocracy. When the samurai began to adopt aristocratic pastimes like calligraphy, poetry and music, some court aristocrats in turn began to adopt samurai customs. In spite of various machinations and brief periods of rule by various emperors, real power was now in the hands of the shogun and the samurai.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samurai#Kamakura_Bakufu_and_the_rise_of_samurai
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