Over the course of their long history, the samurai had many roles: they were traditionally warriors but also made important contributions to the Japanese arts of ceramics, poetry, calligraphy and flower arranging as well as developing the tea ceremony; they were civil servants for centuries; they used the sword as a weapon and a symbol; and they both resisted western influence and championed it.
The History of the Samurai
Over the course of their long
history, the samurai had many roles: they were traditionally warriors but
also made important contributions to the Japanese arts of ceramics,
poetry, calligraphy and
flower arranging as well as developing the tea ceremony; they were civil
servants for centuries; they used the sword as a weapon and a symbol; and
they both resisted western
influence and championed
it.
The philosophy of bushido is central to
Japanese identity even today and has become a defining feature of the
history and mythology of the samurai. Along with the much misunderstood geisha,
the samurai are, in many ways, how the rest of the world thinks of
Japan.
What, then, are the samurai? How did
they begin and evolve?
Even though they were abolished a hundred and fifty years ago, how
much influence do they still have on how the Japanese are seen today?
It is difficult to pinpoint exactly
when the samurai came into existence. We know that they are mentioned for the
first time in writing in poetry written between 905 and 914. Yet, it seems
clear that they were already well-developed by this time and, probably, started
out as a recognisable group around 400.
Accustomed as most of us are to seeing Japan
as an economic tiger, it might be useful to remind ourselves that the
country was a late developer and, in the first millennium, borrowed heavily
from Imperial China in building its own society and infrastructure. This was
especially true of its administrative systems and the development of a warrior class
in the countryside, answerable to the centrally located aristocracy.
Certainly from the eighth century, power
moved from the capital to rural areas, especially where merchants and wealthier farmers felt
the need for protection. As the Emperor became weaker, more and more authority
flowed to individuals and clans that could exercise it in the
countryside.
The samurai played a major role in settling property disputes and,
in modern terminology, operated a sort of protection racket where villages bought military
power whether they wanted it or not. Two groups in particular became very
powerful at this time: the Minamoto and the Taira. They had grown larger
and stronger as the years had passed, not least because they acted as depositories for
the ever-increasing number of younger sons born into the samurai caste who
had no inheritance.
Eventually, in the mid- and late-twelfth century, the continual fighting between the rival clans led to
a showdown.
Although there were ups and downs for both, the Minamoto triumphed in
1185 and their leader, Yoritomo, called himself ‘shogun’ (or general) of the
whole country. Now was the time when the samurai developed a more complex
identity than being just warriors. Yoritomo, in particular, championed old art forms and
encouraged their development, especially ceramics, metalwork and calligraphy,
but also story-telling.
Throughout the thirteenth century, even
after Yoritomo’s power base decreased and others took his place, the position
of the samurai in society became stronger so that they became a caste with
a guaranteed position in the social order, in many ways superior to
the aristocracy. While they maintained their military role, they also
began to develop a philosophy based on loyalty and expertise both with the sword and the
(calligraphy)
brush.
Their caste was at this time
a closed one that boys had to be born into. Even in battle, caste and
social position remained important to them: before fighting an opponent,
they would make sure that he was of equal importance and would never
put themselves in a situation where they might be killed by an inferior.
The last quarter of the century saw the
realisation of the Mongol threat. Yet, unlike almost everywhere else the
Mongols invaded,
they were unsuccessful in Japan. In 1274, partly owing to a storm at sea, ten
thousand samurai were able to hold off a Mongol army of four times
that number. Realising that the reprieve was only temporary, they built
a great stone wall around Hakata Bay the following year. They rejected all
Mongol attempts to settle their differences through diplomacy, executing
the many messengers sent by the Khan.
In 1281, the Mongols sent a huge army
of 140,000 soldiers in five thousand ships. Once again, luck was on the Japanese
side, however, as a typhoon scattered the enemy navy – a
typhoon that has since become known as the divine wind – and the vastly
outnumbered samurai were able to defeat their enemy. Not only did this mean
that the Mongols never returned, but that many Japanese began to believe their
homeland was
divinely protected.
The wars with the Mongols served a more
practical purpose though. The Japanese were disgusted by the arts of war
the Mongols had used and, although they hated them because they had
no respect for hierarchy (for instance, in the use of hand grenades and
the greater importance given to infantry over cavalry), they learnt from them too.
The samurai, while perfecting the design and importance of the sword, would
never again rely so heavily on the horse in battle.
By 1467, Japan had once again declined
into anarchy.
There was civil war throughout the country. The samurai went into the war
as protectors of property for their clients, but soon it was every man for
himself, as chaos ruled in the countryside and Kyoto was burnt. The
importance of
loyalty slowly disappeared till samurai just became mercenaries.
By the 1560s, after a century of
fighting, individual armies had become so big and the costs of battle so great
that there was nothing to win by fighting. Once again, central authority was
established and, to maintain the peace, the samurai were banned from the countryside. This
meant that they were not only idle in the cities where their swords
and skills had no value, but had to wait for their income to be sent from their
villages. If it was late, they had no option but to economise until it arrived.
As time went by, they became
increasingly
frustrated with the purposelessness of their existence and many turned
to other interests and occupations, such as the civil service and academic
study. Others became trainers in swordsmanship. Of course, there were not
enough jobs for everyone and many did not have the abilities to enjoy academic
interests. Besides, there were more and more samurai who had lost their masters
and could not find others to replace them. They became ronin – unattached
samurai – and this caused great disturbance in the villages, as they had no
choice but to terrorise people in order to eat.
As it seemed that the samurai were forever
to be refused their military role, a good deal of soul searching went on to
create a new identity for themselves. In the end, this gave rise to the code
of ethics which still has such a deep effect on modern
Japan – bushido.
Bushido can be defined, perhaps, as the way of the warrior.
Its characteristics are: loyalty, frugality, protection of the weak, martial arts
and honour till death. As new samurai were now admitted from other castes,
a definition of
the inner life, public service and duties of a samurai had to be worked
out and expressed, rather than socialised within a small family or clan.
Renewed attention was paid to the arts,
although the kind of progress that was made was unimportant compared to
Yoritomo’s a couple of hundreds of years before. New helmets, arrows and armour were
designed but it was now only ceremonial as the samurai’s skills
as warriors were
no longer required.
By the nineteenth century, the samurai
were without a purpose.
They had no land and, in most cases, were poor. This time, it was the advance of
the West into Japan that once again gave some meaning to life for the samurai.
In 1853, the United States demanded that Japan open its markets to free trade
and insisted on
changes in line
with European values in economic areas. The shogun was too weak to
reply to the gunships and military technology of the west. In 1858, Japanese
ports were opened and the country quickly became accustomed to white foreigners
walking its streets.
The Japanese were not impressed.
They were shocked by westerners wearing their shoes inside buildings and
touching each other, for example by shaking hands. But, worst of all, was the
terrible smell they gave off. They were seen as barbarians and the Japanese had
no wish to copy their customs. They wanted all foreigners out of
their land and to see Japan strengthened to the extent that the country would
never be forced into such a humiliating position again. In 1868, a coup d’état
was arranged by the samurai elite. Once again, the samurai had a purpose:
this time, to protect Japan from the unwelcome attention of the west.
Sadly, the samurai could not reach
agreement on how this was to happen. Some were in favour of keeping the old
ways and their role in the military, while others felt that unless Japan adapted to
the modern world – and that meant using western expertise in weapon
manufacture, among other things – they had no hope of survival. A bitter
struggle followed but the winning side was never really in doubt. The
samurai no longer had a place in modern warfare and were abolished as
a class in 1876.
Of course, there were successes as a
result of modernising the army, as the shocking victory of Japan over the great
European power of Russia showed in 1905. The history of the samurai
was carefully used in the 1920s and ‘30s to increase xenophobia at a time when
nationalism was a worldwide political cause. But such national pride only led
to increasing isolationism
and militarism, leading to invasions of China and the disastrous attack on
Pearl Harbour in December 1941.
The story of the Second World War, ending in the dropping of two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Japan’s immediate surrender, is too well-known to need repeating here. Suffice to say that a demilitarised Japan held its first exhibition at the newly re-opened National Museum in Tokyo in 1946. It was a celebration of the samurai sword.
If you want to watch some videos on this topic, you can click on the links to YouTube videos below.
If you want to answer questions on this article to test how much you understand, you can click on the green box: Finished Reading?
Videos :
2. Deconstructing History: Samurai (2:46)
4. What were the Samurai? (3:00)
5. History of the Samurai: Outsiders to Legends (12:59)