Samurai

Those who did not serve a particular lord, such as the rōnin (浪人), who were vagabonds, the nobushi (野武士), who were armed peasants, and the ashigaru (足軽), who were temporarily hired foot soldiers, were not considered samurai.

[23] Jizamurai (地侍) came from the powerful myōshu (名主), who owned farmland and held leadership positions in their villages, and became vassals of sengoku daimyō (戦国大名).

Those of 6th rank and below were referred to as "samurai" and dealt with day-to-day affairs and were initially civilian public servants, in keeping with the original derivation of this word from saburau, a verb meaning 'to serve'.

In the late Kamakura period, a new type of armor called haramaki appeared, in which the two ends of the haraate were extended to the back to provide greater protection.

[63] Vassals would serve lords in exchange for material and intangible advantages, in keeping with Confucian ideas imported from China between the seventh and ninth centuries.

Consecutive victories enabled him to end the Ashikaga Bakufu and disarm of the military powers of the Buddhist monks, which had inflamed futile struggles among the populace for centuries.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who became a grand minister in 1586, created a law that non-samurai were not allowed to carry weapons, which the samurai caste codified as permanent and hereditary, thereby ending the social mobility of Japan, which lasted until the dissolution of the Edo shogunate by the Meiji revolutionaries.

The distinction between samurai and non-samurai was so obscure that during the 16th century, most male adults in any social class (even small farmers) belonged to at least one military organization of their own and served in wars before and during Hideyoshi's rule.

[66][67] Taking advantage of arquebus mastery and extensive wartime experience from the Sengoku period, Japanese samurai armies made major gains in most of Korea.

[70] Social mobility was high, as the ancient regime collapsed and emerging samurai needed to maintain a 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.

Prior to that only a few harbor towns, under strict control from the shogunate, were allowed to participate in Western trade, and even then, it was based largely on the idea of playing the Franciscans and Dominicans against one another (in exchange for the crucial arquebus technology, which in turn was a major contributor to the downfall of the classical samurai).

By the end of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1867, the Japanese navy of the shōgun 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 Takeaki.

[85] Although many lesser samurai had been active in the Meiji restoration, the older ones represented an obsolete feudal institution that had a practical monopoly of military force, and to a large extent of education as well.

A military force capable of contesting not just China but the imperial powers required a large conscript army that closely followed Western standards.

"[92] However, insubordination or gekokujo, a term used in the fifteenth century during widespread rebellion, involved provincial lords defying the shogun, who in turn disregarded the emperor's commands.

"[94] Carl Steenstrup notes that 13th- and 14th-century warrior writings (gunki) "portrayed the bushi in their natural element, war, eulogizing such virtues as reckless bravery, fierce family pride, and selfless, at times senseless devotion of master and man".

Feudal lords such as Shiba Yoshimasa (1350–1410) stated that a warrior looked forward to a glorious death in the service of a military leader or the emperor: 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.

The letters became central to Tokugawa-era laws and became required study material for traditional Japanese until World War II:[97] First of all, a samurai who dislikes battle and has not put his heart in the right place even though he has been born in the house of the warrior, should not be reckoned among one's retainers ...

That I should be able to go ahead of all the other warriors of this country and lay down my life for the sake of my master's benevolence is an honor to my family and has been my most fervent desire for many years.It is said that both men cried when they parted ways, because they knew they would never see each other again.

The rival of Takeda Shingen (1521–1573) was Uesugi Kenshin (1530–1578), a legendary Sengoku warlord well versed in the Chinese military classics and who advocated the "way of the warrior as death".

Japanese historian Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki describes Uesugi's beliefs as: Those who are reluctant to give up their lives and embrace death are not true warriors ... Go to the battlefield firmly confident of victory, and you will come home with no wounds whatever.

[citation needed] Literature on the subject of bushido such as Hagakure ("Hidden in Leaves") by Yamamoto Tsunetomo and Gorin no Sho ("Book of the Five Rings") by Miyamoto Musashi, both written in the Edo period, contributed to the development of bushidō and Zen philosophy.

[112][113] During the Sengoku period, the appreciation of noh and the practice of tea ceremonies were valued for socializing and exchanging information, and were essential cultural pursuits for daimyo and samurai.

[116]In a letter dated 29 January 1552, St Francis Xavier observed the ease of which the Japanese understood prayers due to the high level of literacy in Japan at that time: In a letter to Father Ignatius Loyola at Rome, Xavier further noted the education of the upper classes: The Nobles send their sons to monasteries to be educated as soon as they are 8 years old, and they remain there until they are 19 or 20, learning reading, writing and religion; as soon as they come out, they marry and apply themselves to politics.A samurai was usually named by combining one kanji from his father or grandfather and one new kanji.

To assuage his ally Nobunaga, Ieyasu had Lady Tsukiyama executed in 1579 and that same year ordered his son to commit seppuku to prevent him from seeking revenge for the death of his mother.

[citation needed] Though women of wealthier samurai families enjoyed perks of their elevated position in society, such as avoiding the physical labor that those of lower classes often engaged in, they were still viewed as far beneath men.

According to legend, she made her kimono out of a quilted patchwork of bits of old cloth and saved pennies to buy her husband a magnificent horse, on which he rode to many victories.

Though many of the texts written for women during the Tokugawa period only pertained to how a woman could become a successful wife and household manager, there were those that undertook the challenge of learning to read, and also tackled philosophical and literary classics.

[122] After the battle, the high-ranking samurai normally celebrated with a tea ceremony, and the victorious general reviewed the heads of the most important members of the enemy which had been cut.