The Decline of the Samurai

In the early 1600s, Tokugawa Ieyasu unified the country, pacified the rebellious daimyo warlords, and put an end to Japan’s era of civil war. The Tokugawa shogunate kept the peace for the next 250 years. This was good news for the general populace, but bad news for the samurai.

With the end of constant warfare, the main source of samurai employment was swept away. The samurai were forced to become administrators in peacetime. Many were employed in this capacity by the regional daimyos, who now reported to the shogun in Edo.

The samurai might also find employment in the bakufu / 幕府—the central government set up by the shogun. Ultimately, however, there weren’t enough of these jobs to go around. The samurai were far more numerous than the aristocrats of Medieval Europe; they comprised about five percent of the Japanese population.

The result of this imbalance was mass unemployment among the samurai. Those samurai who could not find work might become itinerant, masterless ronin. These ronin often organized themselves into gangs, and roamed the countryside as bandits.

Moreover, a conflict was growing between the samurai and the rising merchant class. The samurai had long regarded the merchant class as little more than an evil necessity. Now, however, the merchants were gaining more power.

As the overall financial situation within the samurai class deteriorated, many warriors became heavily indebted to merchants. Unable or unwilling to pay, these samurai often used their connections in the bakufu government, which sometimes acted on the indebted samurai’s behalf, and pressured merchants to settle debts at reduced rates.

The final blow to the samurai came in 1853, when U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry sailed into Tokyo harbor and demanded that the bakufu open up Japan to foreign commerce. The bakufu was indecisive in the face of American demands, and popular sentiment turned against it. The bakufu signed a treaty with the United States that effectively opened Japan to the outside world. Soon foreigners (first the Americans—then the Europeans) began to set up trading settlements; and Western influences abruptly began pouring into the country.

Within the samurai class there was widespread anger over the new foreign presence. Foreigners had been banished from Japanese soil since the early 1600s, when the shogun expelled Europeans upon pain of death.

Now they were forcing their way back in, and the bakufu seemed powerless to stop them. The situation was made worse by the fact that the Emperor had refused to endorse the American treaty.

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Samurai Terms

- bakufu - Japanese military rule; rule of the shogun- budo - The Way of combat; a name adopted in the 20th century for martial arts in general with an emphasis on their peaceful aspects

-bushi - Warrior; name given to all the warriors who made up families with a warrior tradition

- bushido - Way of the warrior; a code of honor and social behavior; succeeded the unwritten code of the Way of the bow and the horse

- daimyo - a feudal lord; maintained a great number of samurai in their service, who all swore an oath of allegiance to them according to the rules of Bushido

- ken-jutsu - The warrior art of the sword; art of using the sword as soon as it is drawn from the scabbard, in order to attack the enemy; transformed into the art of kendo

- kendo - Way of the sword; a martial art (budo) of using the sword (ken). This art was developed from the earliest times by the warriors (bushi) of Japan, and from the 14th century on by the samurai. Ken-jutsu was prohibited in 1867 when the samurai were forbidden to carry swords, but was transformed into a martial sport (kendo) for physical and mental training of the young.

- naginata - weapon used by foot soldiers against horsemen or to cut the tendons of horses or to disembowel them; also favorite weapon of the wives of samurai and of warrior monks

- ninja - a group of men and women specially trained for espionage and assassination; generally drawn from the lower classes and used by the daimyo to assassinate enemies and penetrate enemy fortresses

- ronin - during the Tokugawa period, name given to all bushi and samurai who did not serve a particular master, either because the master had died or because his lands had been confiscated. A number of these ronin became martial arts teachers or began some other job which was compatible with their samurai status (e.g., bodyguards).

- samurai - a class of bushi (warriors). The original samurai were there for the protection of their lord and were especially trained in martial arts. Later the name was given to all bushi of a certain rank belonging to warrior families

- seppuku - the act of ritual suicide performed by the samurai (The expression hara-kiri, to cut the abdomen, more widely used in the West, is considered more vulgar.)

- shogun - title given by the emperor to the daimyo who showed himself to be the richest and the most powerful of all the lords- so-jutsu - techniques of using the lance, and performed wearing the ancient armor of the samurai

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Modernization of the Samurai

By this time, the Way of Death and Desperateness had been eclipsed by a rude awakening in 1853, when Commodore Matthew Perry's massive steamships from the U.S. Navy first imposed broader commerce on the once-dominant national policy of isolationism.

Prior to that only a few harbor towns, under strict control from the Shogunate, were able to participate in Western trade, and even then, it was based largely on the idea of playing the Franciscans and Dominicans off 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 shogun 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. 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 (1868-1869). The two provinces were the lands of the daimyo that submitted to Ieyasu after the Battle of Sekigahara (1600).

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The Fudal Period

Various samurai clans struggled for power during the Kamakura and Ashikaga Shogunates.
Zen Buddhism spread among samurai in the 13th century and helped to shape their standards of conduct, particularly overcoming fear of death and killing, but among the general populace, Pure Land Buddhism was favored.

In 1274, the Yuan Dynasty of the Mongol Empire 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 called off. The Mongol invaders used small bombs, which was likely the first appearance of bombs and gun powder 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 border of the bay. This would later serve 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. This set the stage for one of the most famous engagements in Japanese history.

In 1281, a Yuan army of 140,000 men with 4,400 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 recalling their armies.

Samurai and defensive wall at Hakata. Moko Shurai Ekotoba, (蒙古襲来絵詞) c.1293.
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." 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.

In the 14th century, a blacksmith called Masamune developed a two-layer structure of soft and hard steel for use in swords. This structure gave much improved cutting power and endurance, and the production technique led to Japanese swords (katana) being recognized as some of the most potent hand weapons of pre-industrial East Asia. Many swords made using this technique were exported across the East China Sea, a few making their way as far as India.

Issues of inheritance caused family strife as primogeniture became common, in contrast to the division of succession designated by law before the 14th century. To avoid infighting, invasions of neighboring samurai territories became common and bickering among samurai was a constant problem for the Kamakura and Ashikaga Shogunates.

The Sengoku jidai ("warring-states period") was marked by the loosening of samurai culture with people born into other social strata sometimes making names for themselves as warriors and thus becoming de facto samurai. In this turbulent period, bushido ethics became important factors in controlling and maintaining public order.

Japanese war tactics and technologies improved rapidly in the 15th and 16th century. Use of large numbers of infantry called ashigaru ("light-foot", due to their light armour), formed of humble warriors or ordinary people with Nagayari (a long lance) or (Naginata), was introduced and combined with cavalry in maneuvers. The number of people mobilized in warfare ranged from thousands to hundreds of thousands.

Nanban (Western)-style samurai cuirass, 16th century.
The arquebus, a matchlock gun, was introduced by the Portuguese 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 feudal period, several hundred thousand firearms existed in Japan and massive armies numbering over 100,000 clashed in battles. By comparison, the largest and most powerful army in Europe, the Spanish, had only several thousand firearms and could only assemble 30,000 troops.

In 1592, and again in 1598, Toyotomi Hideyoshi decided to invade China (唐入り) and sent to Korea an army of 160,000 samurai (Hideyoshi's invasions of Korea, 朝鮮征伐). Taking advantage of its mastery of the arquebus, Japanese samurai and their soldiers almost lead the war to victory.

The most famous samurai in this war are Kato Kiyomasa and Shimazu Yoshihiro.
Social mobility was high, as the ancient regime collapsed and emerging samurai needed to maintain 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 hard to prove these claims.

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The Rise of the Samurai

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.

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The Samurai Warrior

The Samurai rose out of the continuing battles for land among three main clans: the Minamoto, the Fujiwara and the Taira, and was consolidated in the Tokugawa period. Under the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1867), the samurai were removed from direct control of the villages, moved into the domain castle towns, and given government stipends. They were encouraged to take up bureaucratic posts. As a result, they lost a measure of their earlier martial skill. Dissatisfied samurai from the Choshu and Satsuma domains of W Japan were largely responsible for overthrowing the shogun in 1867.

When feudalism was abolished after the Meiji restoration, some former samurai also took part in the Satsuma revolt under Takamori Saigo in 1877. As statesmen, soldiers, and businessmen, former samurai took the lead in building modern Japan. The Samurai eventually became a class unto themselves between the 9th and 12th centuries A.D. They were called by two names: Samurai (knights-retainers) and Bushi (warriors). Some of them were related to the ruling class. Others were hired men. They gave complete loyalty to their Daimyo (feudal landowners) and received land and position in return. Each Daimyo used his Samurai to protect his land and to expand his power and rights to more land.

The Samurai became expert in fighting from horseback and on the ground. They practiced armed and un-armed combat. The early Samurai emphasized fighting with the bow and arrow. They used swords for close-in fighting and beheading their enemies. Battles with the Mongols in the late 13th century led to a change in the Samurai's fighting style. They began to use their sword more and also made more use of spears and naginata. The Samurai slowly changed from fighting on horseback to fighting on foot.

The ideal samurai was supposed to be a stoic warrior who followed an unwritten code of conduct, later formalized as Bushido, which held bravery, honour, and personal loyalty above life itself; ritual suicide by disembowelment (seppuku) was institutionalized as a respected alternative to dishonour or defeat. The Samurai were privileged to wear two swords (daisho), and at one time had the right to cut down any commoner who offended them. One sword was long; the other short.

The long sword (daito - katana) was more than 24 inches. The short sword (shoto - wakizashi) was between 12 and 24 inches. The Samurai often gave names to their swords and believed it was the "soul" of their warriorship. The oldest swords were straight and had their early design in Korea and China. The Samurai's desire for tougher, sharper swords for battle gave rise to the curved blade we still have today.

The sword had its beginning as iron combined with carbon. The swordsmith used fire, water, anvil and hammer to shape the world's best swords. After forging the blade, the sword polisher did his work to prepare the blade for the "furniture" that surrounded it. Next, the sword tester took the new blade and cut through the bodies of corpses or condemned criminals. They started by cutting through the small bones of the body and moved up to the large bones. Test results were often recorded on the nakago (the metal piece attaching the sword blade to the handle).

In 1867 the Samurai were banned from the carrying of swords. This attempt to end a thousand year tradition was not received lightly by the proud warrior class and the "stick" katana was born. Innocuous walking canes now concealed the revered blades but the katana, the "Soul of the Samurai", lived on.

Lower-ranking samurai, eager for advancement and realizing a new sense of national purpose in the face of encroachment by the Western powers during the mid-19th century, took part in the movement against the Tokugawa regime (military dictatorship) that resulted in the Meiji Restoration of 1868.

The samurai class lost its privileged position when feudalism was officially abolished in 1871. Discontented former samurai rose in rebellion several times during the 1870s, but these revolts were quickly suppressed by the newly established national army.

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