Samurai: A Concise History

By Jeremiah Bourquehttp://jp.learnoutlive.com/

Origins of “Samurai”

• The Chinese character 侍 originally meant to serve/ to wait upon a person of high social station.

• In Japan, the pronunciation migrated from “saburau” to “saburai” and, later, to “samurai.”

• A samurai is best understood as a retainer.

So What’s A Retainer, Anyway?

• “A retainer” is someone who is contracted or indebted to a lord, king or emperor to perform some kind of service.

• To use a modern example, a “retainer fee” is a fee paid to reserve the time of a professional, such as a lawyer. The retained lawyer is available when necessity dictates.

The Samurai Social Contract, #1

• Whereas a lawyer reserves his time for his client, a samurai reserves his military services, his loyalty, and indeed, his life!

• The lord must provide for his men. If the samurai is to be a professional warrior, he must train with weapons rather than plough fields. The lord must ensure his samurai do not starve!

The Samurai Social Contract, #2

• Indeed, rather than money or land, lords of Japan paid their men in rice! Salary was measured in koku, a quantity of rice equal to about 278.3 litres in volume.

• (The “koku” was revised downward in 1891, long after the age of the Samurai, to 180 litres.)

• The koku was considered enough rice to feed a healthy man for an entire year!

The Samurai Social Contract, #3

• A guaranteed food supply did not come for free. Samurai were expected to be loyal and trustworthy to their masters.

• In a competitive environment where many people can swing a sword or thrust a spear, loyalty is not just a personal virtue: it is a competitive advantage.

• Thus was loyalty born as a defining samurai virtue.

Samurai: Early Origins• Japan’s Emperor Tenji proclaimed widespread

government reform in 646 A.D. after a disastrous military engagement with the Tang Dynasty of China, Asia’s military superpower of the day.

• A census was established and a partial draft of adult males was instituted.

• 12 layers of bureaucrats were formalized, with the lower 6 referred to as “samurai,” but at the time, these were civilian retainers, answering up the chain of command to the Emperor himself

Origin of the Shogun

• Embarrassing defeats against the “barbarian” Emishi and Ainu peoples caused Heian period Emperors to institute the position of “Seii Taishogun,” or “Great General who Subdues the Eastern Barbarians.” Not surprisingly, this title became popularly known simply as “Shogun,” which means simply, “General.”

Imperial Decline, Rise of the Clans

• Emperor Kammu finally disbanded his army once the “Eastern Barbarian” threat had expired.

• However, the power of the throne waned, and great clans sprung up; their leaders were government ministers, their allies, magistrates.

• These well-connected magistrates raised crushing taxes to enrich themselves.

The Roots of Bushido• The corrupt imperial magistrates – now

more powerful than the traditional bureaucracy – worked to milk their lands dry. Many farmers lost their land.

• Farmers began forming their own, smaller clans to protect themselves from the larger clans. The warriors of these clans developed “characteristically Japanese” armor, weapons, and the warrior code.

The Concept of Bushido

• Lit. “The path of the warrior.” Bushi = one who employs weapons; warrior.

• The samurai – both warrior and retainer – emphasized the virtues of honor, duty to one’s master, and loyalty unto death.

• After all, when trust is a matter of life and death, how can you not emphasize the values making one trustworthy?

Bushido: Notable Quotables, #1• "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." – Hojo Shigetoki, 1198-1261 A.D.

• This is the proper attitude of any retainer. A retainer is an employee, not a public servant.

• Japanese name order: Family name first.

Bushido: Notable Quotables, #2• "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....” – Shiba Yoshimasa (1350-1410 A.D.)

• Shiba was a feudal lord, so was expressing what a lord seeks in a samurai. (Shorter Shiba: No Cowards Need Apply!)

Samurai: The Virtues of Battle• The key point about Bushido is the mental edge:

to internalize and suppress fear of death, because fear paralyzes a warrior.

• While commanders must make tactical decisions under fire, the role of the frontline combatant is to fight bravely and well as part of a unit.

• You can’t control your commander, the circumstances, or fate, but you can take control of yourself.

• If each man does his part, the army is much stronger.

Pen & Sword

• 文と武 : Popularly translated as “the pen and the sword,” I might propose, “words & weapons.” This was an early ideal of the samurai who, being despised by bureaucrats as uneducated savages, sought to rise in society through embracing education and culture – without renouncing their military role.

Early Samurai: Elite Skills• Early samurai were highly skilled,

specialized warriors combining mounted combat and long-range archery.

• While firing arrows at full gallop was unlikely, the advantages in mobility and reduced fatigue of moving on horseback were great. Both sets of skills required heavy devotion and training: a way of life devoted to mastery of arms.

Samurai-Dominated Government

• Through service, alliances and amassing resources and manpower, the samurai came to dominate the government, and provided the fuel for open conflict between the great clans.

• In 1185, the Minamoto clan finally defeated its bitter rival, the Taira clan, and established the first “bafuku,” or “tent government,” a military dictatorship.

Decline of Imperial Power

• While Emperors continued to rule Japan in name, few ruled in reality. Occasional exceptions only proved the rule that the Shogun and his samurai truly held the balance of power in Japan.

• But who would be Shogun? Which clan would dominate? Much blood was spilt over these questions in centuries to come.

Zen Buddhism and the Samurai• Unlike Pure Land Buddhism, the samurai

readily adopted Zen Buddhism, which focused on meditation and direct personal experience rather than scripture or dogma.

• Such a philosophy does not lend itself to “orthodoxy” in terms of a central authority.

• The meditation of Zen aided samurai to mentally prepare for the rigors of battle: death, and killing other human beings.

Legacy of the “Kamikaze”• The term “kamikaze,” made famous in the

West during WWII, comes from a typhoon that greatly aided Japanese samurai in defending their country from Mongol invasion in 1281. Thunderstorms had aided against an earlier invasion in 1274.

• The Japanese praised the typhoon as “Wind of the Gods,” the “kaze” (wind) of the kami (gods). The Mongols thus failed.

Masamune and the Katana, 1

• Considered Japan’s greatest swordsmith, Masamune pioneered the two-layer structure of soft and hard steel subsequently used to create the swords known in the West as “katanas.”

• A “katana” ( 刀） is best read as simply “blade,” and “a blade” is a valid equivalent of “a sword” in English as well.

Masamune and the Katana, 2• Masamune’s swords were actually divided

into tachi ( 太刀 ), or long swords, and tanto ( 短刀 ), or short swords.

• Masamune’s weapons were famed for beauty and excellent craftsmanship.

• A Masamune sword was given to President Truman shortly after WWII and remains in his presidential library to this day. (http://www.trumanlibrary.org/)

The Warring States Period• The “sengoku jidai” ( 戦国時代 ), or

“warring-states period,” was a period of prolonged civil war and national turmoil.

• Military technology evolved rapidly, including the adoption of Western firearms – a truly radical departure from prior traditions.

• Even men of very low birth could become samurai in this pragmatic, ruthless era.

End of the Warring States• Toyotomi Hideyoshi, himself of peasant

birth, became master of the country, and in 1586, created a law making the samurai a permanent, hereditary caste in his quest to bring peace to Japan.

• Hideyoshi invaded Korea with his now permanent samurai caste, a foreign military debacle long remembered in the centuries that followed.

Rise of the Tokugawa Shogunate

• Hideyoshi was finally succeeded by Tokugawa Ieyasu, a pragmatic man who institutionalized central control and laid the foundation for a long era of peace. Samurai lost their role on the battlefield.

• As with Western knights, as the field role of the samurai diminished, their culture flourished, combining Bushido with Chinese ideals of public service.

Edo Period Samurai

• Lacking the no-holds-barred warfare of the warring-states period, samurai armor was largely a ceremonial relic. The paired swords samurai had a right to wear were therefore extremely effective in personal defense, but their use was aggressively regulated to maintain public order.

The Meiji Restoration: End of the Samurai

• When the Meiji Restoration finally overthrew the Shogunate, Emperor Meiji abolished the exclusive military status of the samurai in favor of a modern, western-style force of conscripts.

• The right to bear a katana in public was eliminated, and finally, the samurai as a social class were officially abolished.

The Samurai Are Dead: Long Live The Samurai

• Abolishment did not end the legacy of the samurai; many became the officer corps of the new army that would eventually lead the nation into WWII.

• Beyond family and blood relations, the culture and ethos of the samurai lives on in modified form in Japan’s modern corporate culture.

• And, of course, there is popular culture.

Curtain Call

• Thank you. I hope you enjoyed this lesson. • I can be contacted at: • jeremiahbourque@gmail.com• Skype: jeremiah.bourque• I can be followed at:• http://twitter.com/jbtutor• http://jp.learnoutlive.com/