Samurai
In 792, the imperial court issued an edict ending most conscription and dissolving the gundan, except for those in outlying regions like Mutsu and Dewa provinces. This decision marked a turning point where professional mounted archers from wealthy families replaced peasant conscripts as the decisive fighting power. Conscripts proved to be poor fighters who required years of training to master skills like horseback riding and archery. The government instead recruited men who already possessed these skills through private family funding. By the eleventh and twelfth centuries, samurai became conspicuously involved in land reclamation, emerging as a class of landed lords. Wealthy provincial families married into the Minamoto clan (founded 814) and Taira clan (founded 825) to acquire aristocratic status and tax exemptions. These clans grew powerful enough that emperors delegated security matters to them, privatizing war and law enforcement.
Minamoto no Yoritomo established a parallel military government in Kamakura after winning the Gempei War between 1180 and 1185. He promised lands and administrative rights to warriors who swore allegiance to him, creating the first shogunate. Samurai who served the shogun and owned reclaimed land were called gokenin, while those who did not serve or manage land were known as higokenin. In the early 1190s, the shogun began appointing military governors called shugo to provinces. Only warriors from the Kantō region could become shugo, and they eventually displaced the authority of civilian governors appointed by the imperial court. The shugo coordinated gokenin in military matters, suppressed rebellions, and enforced the law. Warrior stewards chosen from warrior families undermined the authority of courtiers in Kyoto who owned private estates called shōen. The title of jitō became heritable, allowing stewards to bequeath their offices to legitimate relatives but never to external parties. This system ensured an unending need for bakufu judicial authority since landlords had no recourse but to appeal to Kamakura for redress.
The Onin War broke out in 1467 and lasted about ten years, devastating Kyoto and bringing down the power of the Ashikaga shogunate. This plunged Japan into the warring states period where daimyo fought each other for control. When matchlocks were introduced from Portugal in 1543, Japanese swordsmiths immediately began to improve and mass-produce them. By the end of the Sengoku Period, there were hundreds of thousands of arquebuses and a large army of nearly 100,000 men clashing with each other. Infantrymen called ashigaru began to fight in close formation using spears and guns. Traditional weapons like bows and heavy armor fell into disuse as they were difficult to maneuver in close formation. The battlefield shifted from cavalry dominance to infantry tactics that required only weeks of training compared to years for traditional martial arts. Commoners could become effective soldiers on an as-needed basis, rendering the specialized warrior class obsolete. Daimyo who became more powerful as the shogunate's control weakened were able to rule regions independently without being appointed by the shogun.
After the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, Tokugawa Ieyasu consolidated power and was declared shogun in 1603. A period of peace lasting two hundred fifty years followed the siege of Osaka in 1615. During this era, samurai underwent many changes and first became a truly hereditary class. Most samurai moved from land to castle towns where one town existed in each domain. With no warfare since the early seventeenth century, samurai gradually lost their military function and became aristocratic bureaucrats. Neo-Confucianism became very influential and the division of society into four classes was officially adopted by the shogunate. Landed samurai had to choose whether to give up their lands to become stipend samurai or keep their lands and become peasants. Following a law passed in 1629, samurai on official duty were required to wear two swords. By the end of the Tokugawa era, these swords became more of a symbolic emblem of power than weapons used in daily life. Theoretical obligations between a samurai and his lord increased strongly emphasized by teachings of Confucius and Mencius.
In 1853, Commodore Matthew C. Perry led a fleet of warships that forced Japan to open its borders to foreign trade. The Japanese realized they needed to modernize if they were to maintain honor and independence against Western imperial powers. New rifles with caplock and breech-loading mechanisms replaced matchlock muskets as the standard infantry weapon. These firearms required about two weeks of practice to master compared to years for traditional swordsmanship. In 1876, the government forbade anyone outside the military to wear swords even if they were of samurai lineage. They also repealed the right of a samurai to strike an insolent commoner with potentially lethal force known as kiri-sute gomen. From 1873 to 1879, the government started taxing stipends and transformed them into interest-bearing government bonds. The largest rebellion was the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877 where Saigo Takamori led disgruntled samurai against the new government. The rebel samurai were defeated by the imperial army composed mostly of commoners equipped with modern weapons. In 1947, the shizoku class was finally abolished.
In the thirteenth century, Hōjō Shigetoki wrote that when serving officially or in the master's court, one should consider only the importance of the master rather than hundreds or thousands of people. Warrior writings from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries portrayed bushi eulogizing virtues like reckless bravery, fierce family pride, and selfless devotion. Zen meditation became an important teaching because it offered a process to calm one's mind. Buddhist concepts of reincarnation led some samurai to abandon torture and needless killing while others gave up violence altogether to become monks. Confucianism stressed the importance of the lord-retainer relationship requiring loyalty from samurai to their lords. Literature such as Hagakure by Yamamoto Tsunetomo and Gorin no Sho by Miyamoto Musashi contributed to the development of bushidō during the Edo period. These texts emphasized death and discipline, with examples showing strict disciplinarians executing brawlers not for fighting but for failing to fight to the death. The philosophies of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Zen influenced samurai culture alongside Shinto traditions.
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Common questions
When did the samurai class begin to emerge as a distinct group of landed lords?
Samurai became conspicuously involved in land reclamation and emerged as a class of landed lords during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. This development occurred after the imperial court issued an edict ending most conscription in 792, which allowed professional mounted archers from wealthy families to replace peasant conscripts.
Who established the first shogunate and when was it founded?
Minamoto no Yoritomo established the first shogunate by creating a parallel military government in Kamakura between 1180 and 1185 following his victory in the Gempei War. He promised lands and administrative rights to warriors who swore allegiance to him, thereby founding the institution that would define Japanese feudal governance for centuries.
What caused the decline of traditional samurai warfare tactics during the Sengoku period?
The introduction of matchlocks from Portugal in 1543 caused traditional samurai warfare tactics to decline because infantrymen called ashigaru began fighting in close formation using spears and guns. Traditional weapons like bows and heavy armor fell into disuse as they were difficult to maneuver compared to firearms requiring only weeks of training to master.
When did the samurai class officially become hereditary and lose their military function?
Samurai became a truly hereditary class and lost their military function after the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 and the subsequent siege of Osaka in 1615 which initiated two hundred fifty years of peace. During this era most samurai moved from land to castle towns where one town existed in each domain and gradually transformed into aristocratic bureaucrats under Neo-Confucian influence.
In what year was the shizoku class finally abolished by the government?
The shizoku class was finally abolished in 1947 following decades of reforms that stripped samurai of their privileges between 1873 and 1879. These changes included taxing stipends, transforming them into interest-bearing government bonds, and forbidding anyone outside the military to wear swords in 1876.