Samurai

The samurai were members of the professional warrior class in pre-industrial Japan. They served the lords and came from warrior families. From a young age, samurai trained in military arts such as swordsmanship, archery, and horsemanship. Only samurai had the right to possess these weapons, which required years of training.

Samurai also studied literature, calligraphy, and Confucian philosophy, preparing them for roles as bureaucrats under the shoguns. Their education and training made them important figures in society.

In 1853, the United States forced Japan to open its borders to foreign trade. This began a time of quick change. New guns made the old weapons and skills of the samurai old-fashioned. As Japan changed from a feudal society to a modern one, the samurai lost their special roles and privileges. By 1876, their special status ended.

Terminology

The word "samurai" means "one who serves their lord." It refers to the warrior class in old Japan. The proper Japanese word for a warrior is "bushi." The rulers called daimyo and shogun were also bushi but were not called samurai.

A ronin was a samurai who had lost his master and was no longer serving anyone, but still kept some warrior rights.

Rise, transformation, and dissolution

Rise of the warrior clans (700 - 1180 AD)

Before the late 800s, Japan had a national army of people called conscripts. As peace grew, the government ended this system by 792 AD. Conscripts were seen as unreliable and poorly trained, only used when there weren’t enough professional warriors. They worked well against groups like the Emishi, who used mounted warriors. Battles were often decided by professional mounted archers from wealthy families. The government didn’t train conscripts as mounted archers because it took years, and conscripts were only short-term warriors. Instead, they recruited men who already had these skills, gained through private training funded by their families. Soldiers in the imperial army also had to provide most of their own equipment. Wealthy men who could afford horses and archery training were promoted to elite units, while poorer men became foot soldiers. Many poor people disliked military service because it could harm their farms, so there was support for ending conscription.

During the 800s, temples, monasteries, shrines, and some aristocrats got tax exemptions. To avoid taxes, many landowners gave their lands to these tax-exempt groups. The land was registered in the name of a noble or temple and became part of their tax-exempt estate (shōen), but the original owner still used it. This arrangement meant the owner paid less to their lord than they would have to the emperor. If the temple or lord cheated, the owner could expose the scheme, which might cost the temple or noble its tax-exempt status. As shōen grew, the imperial court lost tax money, and farmers on taxable land faced heavier taxes. Many couldn’t cope and left their lands, which were bought by wealthy landowners.

In the middle of the 800s, the imperial government allowed people to claim private ownership of new farmland they cleared from the wilderness. This encouraged wealthy people to reclaim land, which was needed to feed Japan’s growing population. During the 1100s and 1200s, bushi became involved in land reclamation and became landowners. Like many landowners, the bushi often gave their lands to a shōen to avoid taxes. This made the bushi richer while taking money away from the imperial treasury.

In the Heian period, emperors kept large harems, making the imperial family very big and burdening the treasury. In the early 900s AD, Emperor Saga removed many family members, who formed two new clans: the Minamoto clan (814 AD) and the Taira clan (825 AD). Many wealthy families married into these clans to gain status and tax exemptions. The Tairas and Minamotos became large, wealthy clans with many warrior followers.

With the national army shrinking and tax revenue falling, emperors let landowners handle security in the countryside. Landowners had a personal reason to stop lawlessness because it hurt their income.

The Genpei War (1180–1185)

Two major warrior clans, the Minamoto clan and the Taira clan, both gained positions at court and became rivals.

In 1156, a former emperor tried to take the throne from his brother, Emperor Go-Shirakawa, in what is known as the Hōgen rebellion. It failed, and the former emperor was exiled. Members of the Minamoto and Taira clans fought on both sides, but the Minamoto loyalists got smaller rewards, and the Minamoto rebels faced worse punishments than the Taira rebels. This angered the Minamotos, and political groups at court started forming around clan ties instead of personal loyalty. The next rebellion would directly pit the Taira against the Minamoto.

The Minamotos joined the Heiji Rebellion of 1160, hoping to banish the Taira leader Taira no Kiyomori. This also failed, and the Tairas gained even more influence at court. Their leader, Taira no Kiyomori, became the first bushi to hold a high court rank (chief minister) in 1167.

In 1180, Taira no Kiyomori put his two-year-old grandson (Emperor Antoku) on the throne, removing older heirs from the Minamoto family. This sparked a rebellion by the Minamotos, leading to the Gempei War (1180–1185). Minamoto no Yoritomo promised land and administrative rights to warriors who supported him. The Minamotos won, and the Taira clan was destroyed. In April 1185, the young emperor was drowned by his own grandmother, who then took her own life.

Kamakura shogunate

The new emperor, Emperor Go-Toba, was from the Fujiwara family, which didn’t fully satisfy Minamoto no Yoritomo. So, Yoritomo decided to rule Japan through a military government in Kamakura. It was staffed by warriors who served the Minamotos during the Gempei War and needed rewards. Yoritomo was named sei-i taishōgun by the imperial regent.

In 1192, the shogun created the gokenin class, his warrior vassals. They served the shogun in exchange for privileges. Their duties often included guard duty or catching criminals.

The samurai class during the Kamakura period was the warrior group below the gokenin. Some samurai served a gokenin and thus the shogun indirectly. Like the gokenin, samurai were mounted warriors and had family names. Below them were the chūgen, foot soldiers without surnames.

The shogun created the roles of jitō and shugo. The shugo and jitō were usually from the gokenin class. A shugo was a military governor responsible for managing the shogun’s gokenin. The jitō were military managers of estates.

During the Kamakura shogunate (1185 AD – 1333 AD), it was expected for a bushi to own land with their ancestral home, though this wasn’t required by law.

Nanboku-chō and Muromachi period

The Hōjō clan controlled the Kamakura shogunate as regents (shikken) during the Mongol invasions of Japan (1274–1281). Many samurai who fought the Mongols felt they weren’t properly rewarded, as the regent favored his own clan. Emperor Godaigo saw a chance to restore imperial power. In 1333, the emperor encouraged unhappy samurai to rebel against the shogunate and return power to the imperial court, leading to the Kenmu Restoration. But Godaigo’s policies were unpopular, and in 1336 his top general Ashikaga Takauji betrayed him and started a new shogunate in Kyoto, known as the Ashikaga shogunate.

The southern court, from Emperor Godaigo, and the northern court, from Emperor Kōgōn, coexisted. This period is called the Nanboku-chō period, part of the Muromachi period. The Northern Court, backed by the Ashikaga shogunate, had six emperors, and in 1392 the Imperial Court reunited by absorbing the Southern Court, though the modern Imperial Household Agency sees the Southern Court as legitimate. The Ashikaga shogunate ruled Japan until the Onin War in 1467.

From 1346 to 1358, the Ashikaga shogunate expanded the power of the Shugo, local military and police officials from the Kamakura shogunate. The Shugo gained control over land disputes between gokenin and could keep half the taxes from their areas. The Shugo shared this wealth with local samurai, creating a hierarchy and the first early daimyo (feudal lords), called shugo daimyo.

During this time, many lower-class foot soldiers called ashigaru started fighting, and armor like haramaki became popular. Senior samurai also began wearing haramaki with helmets, face armor, and gauntlets.

Inheritance issues caused family conflicts as primogeniture became common, unlike earlier laws. Invasions of neighboring samurai areas were common to avoid internal fighting, and samurai arguments were a constant problem for the Kamakura and Ashikaga shogunates.

Sengoku period

The Onin War, starting in 1467 and lasting about 10 years, destroyed Kyoto and ended the Ashikaga shogunate’s power. This led to the warring states period, where daimyo from different regions fought. This period overlaps with the late Muromachi, Azuchi–Momoyama, and Edo periods. The Sengoku period was a time of big civil wars across Japan.

Daimyo who grew more powerful as the shogunate weakened were called sengoku daimyo. They often came from shugo daimyo, Shugodai, or local masters. Unlike shugo daimyo, sengoku daimyo could rule their regions without shogun approval.

During this time, the traditional relationship between lords and their vassals broke down. Vassals sometimes removed their lords, had internal conflicts, or rebelled. These events sometimes led samurai to become sengoku daimyo. For example, Hōjō Sōun was the first samurai to rise to sengoku daimyo. Uesugi Kenshin was a Shugodai who became sengoku daimyo by weakening his lord.

This period saw changes in samurai culture. People from other social classes sometimes became warriors and samurai. One example is Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who started as a peasant and became a samurai, sengoku daimyo, and kampaku (Imperial Regent).

In 1543, Portuguese explorers showed the Japanese how to make matchlock muskets. The Japanese quickly liked this new weapon. At first, only samurai used them, but some daimyo realized muskets could be mastered in weeks and should be used by many peasant infantry.

From then on, infantry called ashigaru, from the peasantry, were used in larger numbers. The importance of infantry grew. When matchlocks came to Japan in 1543, Japanese swordsmiths improved and mass-produced them. The Japanese matchlock was named tanegashima after Tanegashima island, where it was first introduced. By the end of the Sengoku Period, there were hundreds of thousands of muskets in Japan, and big armies of nearly 100,000 men fought each other.

On the battlefield, ashigaru fought in close groups with yari (spear) and tanegashima. So yari, yumi (bow), and tanegashima became main weapons. The naginata, hard to use in close groups, and the long tachi became less used. They were replaced by the nagamaki, which could be held short, and the short, light katana, which became common in the Nanboku-cho period. The tachi was often cut down to make a katana. The tachi became a symbol of authority for high-ranking samurai. Though the ōdachi was obsolete, some sengoku daimyo used big men with ōdachi to show army bravery.

These battlefield changes led to the tosei-gusoku style of armor, which improved armor production and durability. This was the biggest change in Japanese armor since the ō-yoroi and dō-mal in the Heian period. This style reduced the number of parts, and armor with unusual designs became popular.

By the end of the Sengoku period, alliances between vassals and lords solidified. Vassals served lords for benefits, following Confucian ideas from China. These vassals with land were under their leaders, who could be local lords or the shogun in the Edo period. A vassal or samurai could get money, land, or other benefits from lords for their military service.

Azuchi–Momoyama period

The Azuchi-Momoyama period is when Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi ruled. The name comes from Nobunaga’s Azuchi Castle in Azuchi, Shiga and Fushimi Castle, where Hideyoshi lived after retiring. Theories say the period began in 1568 when Nobunaga entered Kyoto, 1573 when he expelled Ashikaga Yoshiaki, or 1576 when Azuchi Castle was built. The start marked the end of the Ashikaga shogunate and the Muromachi period.

Oda, Toyotomi, and Tokugawa

Oda Nobunaga was a famous lord from the Nagoya area (once Owari Province) and a great samurai of the Sengoku period. He came close to reunifying Japan under a new shogunate.

Oda Nobunaga made changes in organization and war tactics, used many muskets, developed trade and industry, and valued new ideas. His wins let him end the Ashikaga Bakufu and disarm Buddhist monks, who had caused trouble for centuries. He died in 1582 when one of his generals, Akechi Mitsuhide, turned against him.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu, who started the Tokugawa shogunate, were loyal to Nobunaga. Hideyoshi, starting as a peasant, became one of Nobunaga’s top generals, and Ieyasu grew up with Nobunaga. Hideyoshi defeated Mitsuhide within a month and was seen as Nobunaga’s rightful successor. There was a saying: “Reunification is a rice cake; Oda made it. Hashiba shaped it. In the end, only Ieyasu tastes it.” (Hashiba was Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s family name as Nobunaga’s follower.)

Toyotomi Hideyoshi, becoming a grand minister in 1586, made a law that only samurai could carry weapons. This ended social mobility in Japan until the Meiji revolution.

Most male adults, even small farmers, were in military groups and fought in wars before and during Hideyoshi’s rule. After the 1600s, the authorized samurai families were those who followed Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Ieyasu. Big battles happened between regimes, and many defeated samurai became rōnin or joined the general public.

During the Azuchi-Momoyama period, “samurai” often meant wakatō (young followers), the lowest-ranking bushi, as seen in Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s 1591 law. This law controlled class transfers: samurai (wakatō), chūgen, komono, and arashiko. These and ashigaru were chōnin (townspeople) and peasants employed by bushi, under buke hōkōnin (servants of the buke). In war, samurai (wakatō) and ashigaru fought, while others carried supplies. Generally, samurai (wakatō) could use family names, some ashigaru could, and only samurai (wakatō) were considered samurai class. Wakatō, like samurai, had different meanings in different periods: young bushi in the Muromachi period and a rank below kachi and above ashigaru in the Edo period.

Battle of Sekigahara

Before he died, Hideyoshi set up a council of five powerful sengoku daimyo, Go-Tairō (Council of Five Elders), and five retainers, Go-Bugyō (Five Commissioners), to rule until his young heir, Toyotomi Hideyori, turned 16. However, having only Hideyori as Hideyoshi’s successor weakened the Toyotomi regime. Hideyoshi’s younger brother, Toyotomi Hidenaga, who helped Hideyoshi rise to power, had already died in 1591. His nephew, Toyotomi Hidetsugu, Hideyoshi’s only adult successor, was forced to kill himself in 1595 with many vassals, accused of rebellion by Hideyoshi.

In this unstable situation, Maeda Toshiie, one of the Gotairō, died, and Tokugawa Ieyasu, second in power to Hideyoshi but not in the war, gained power. Ieyasu clashed with Ishida Mitsunari, one of the Go-Bukyō, leading to the Battle of Sekigahara, where Ieyasu’s Eastern Army defeated Mitsunari’s Western Army. Ieyasu nearly took control of Japan.

Social mobility was high as the old regime fell and new samurai needed to manage large military and government groups. Most samurai families surviving today started here, claiming descent from four ancient noble clans: Minamoto, Taira, Fujiwara, and Tachibana. However, proving these claims is often hard.

Tokugawa shogunate

After the Battle of Sekigahara, Tokugawa Ieyasu became shogun in 1603. After the siege of Osaka in 1615, there was peace for 250 years. During the Tokugawa shogunate, samurai changed and became a hereditary class. This process started with Hideyoshi’s Sword Hunt of 1588 and Separation Edict of 1591. Most samurai moved from land to castle towns, one per domain. With no war since the early 1600s, samurai lost their military role. Neo-Confucianism became influential, and society was officially divided into four classes by the shogunate. Landed samurai could either give up land to become stipend samurai or keep land and become peasants.

In 1629, a law required samurai on duty to wear two swords. By the end of the Tokugawa era, samurai were more symbols of power than daily weapons. They still had the right to cut down rude commoners (kiri-sute gomen), but how often this was used isn’t known. When the central government made daimyōs reduce army sizes, unemployed rōnin became a social problem.

Confucian teachings, from thinkers like Confucius and Mencius, stressed duties between samurai and their lords, which grew from the Genpei era to the Edo era. Key figures introducing Confucianism to Japan early in the Tokugawa period were Fujiwara Seika (1561–1619), Hayashi Razan (1583–1657), and Matsunaga Sekigo (1592–1657).

Dissolution

In 1853, the United States sent warships under Commodore Matthew C. Perry to force Japan to open to foreign trade. The shogun had to agree. His samurai couldn’t match Perry’s marines, and as a pre-industrial society, Japan couldn’t compete with the United States. The Japanese saw how European imperialists treated China and feared invasion. Japan needed to modernize to keep its independence.

Japan started importing European and American weapons and hiring veterans to train armies. New weapons like modern rifles with caplock and breech-loading mechanisms were more versatile and deadly than old matchlock arquebuses. Their rifled barrels gave better accuracy and range. They worked in wet weather and could be fitted with bayonets. Revolvers and derringers became self-defense weapons, replacing knives and swords. These guns were easier to use than traditional samurai weapons, needing only two weeks of practice instead of years. An army based on guns didn’t need men who spent lives on martial arts, which samurai were. Any commoner could become an effective soldier when needed.

European armies used commoners. Gun development ended the need for knights and men-at-arms. From history, the Japanese knew peasant soldiers with arquebuses were as effective as samurai. Before the Meiji Restoration, the shogun and lords focused on commoners when rebuilding armies. Using commoners had political benefits. They were more obedient, from humbler backgrounds, without military traditions, and easier to replace. They had little to lose and much to gain, with no political baggage. During the Meiji era, conscription into the national army exposed men across Japan to nationalist ideas, building unity and national identity.

To match Western powers, Japan had to leave feudalism for a capitalist economy with a strong central government. In November 1867, the shogun gave power to the emperor, seen as a unifying figure. This started the Meiji Restoration. From 1869 to 1871, daimyo lost their lands and titles, with their areas becoming prefectures under the imperial government. Some former daimyo got government jobs, but most retired with big pensions. Ending the daimyo class made samurai obsolete as feudal retainers. The central government took over paying their rice stipends.

The samurai were now obsolete, so the Meiji government took away their special rights. In 1869, high-ranking samurai were called shizoku, and lower ones sotsuzoku. In 1872, sotsu was abolished, and sotsuzoku became shizoku. In 1871, the government banned the samurai topknot (chonmage). From 1873 to 1879, stipends were taxed and turned into government bonds. The goal was to let former samurai invest in land and industry. In 1876, the government banned anyone outside the military from wearing swords, even samurai lineage, and ended the right to strike down rude commoners (kiri-sute gomen).

Most samurai accepted these changes. Meiji leaders were mostly former samurai, often taking government roles. Others became teachers in the new public schools. During the Edo period, many samurai were poor with few job options beyond warrior roles or merchant/merchant work. Meiji changes let them seek better economic chances in new jobs.

For some samurai, the changes were humiliating. The new military focused on infantry, not the traditional mounted samurai. Using guns needed training, historically done by ashigaru, not samurai. The sword, especially the two-handed katana, was sacred to samurai — more than a symbol, it had spiritual meaning. Being told swords were obsolete and banned was unbearable.

This led to rebellions, like the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877. Disgruntled samurai in Satsuma, led by Saigo Takamori, taught modern war tactics and right-wing beliefs. The Meiji reforms gave farmers land rights and direct taxation, ending the feudal role of samurai landowners, many of whom were in Satsuma. Saigo found many sympathetic samurai there. The imperial government sent forces to disarm Takamori’s paramilitary group. Takamori marched on Tokyo, but the rebel samurai were defeated by an imperial army of commoners with modern weapons. After this, the Meiji government faced no more major challenges.

In 1947, the shizoku class ended.

Martial traditions

During the Heian period (794 - 1185), samurai used special weapons like the tachi and naginata. They also made new armor, such as the ō-yoroi and dō-maru. Some samurai rode horses with bows called yumi, wearing heavy armor. Others fought on foot with naginatas and lighter armor. Over time, swords changed from straight to curved, which helped in battles.

Samurai ranks

Samurai had many different ranks. Their rank depended on their lord and the size of their land allowance, called a stipend. The highest-ranking samurai were the daimyo. They controlled large areas. Below them were the hatamoto. They had special access to the shogun, the leader of Japan. Many samurai had their own retainers, also samurai, known as baishin.

Each daimyo had retainers in different groups. The highest were the shi. They sometimes had larger stipends than some daimyo. Most samurai were hizamurai. They were usually mounted on horses. Below them were the kachi. They fought on foot and were sometimes not considered true samurai. The ashigaru were the lowest-ranking warriors. They carried swords but were often not counted as samurai.

Bushido

Samurai followed a strict code called bushido. This code taught them to be loyal to their master and brave in battle. Old writings from the 1300s and 1400s showed how much samurai cared for their lords.

Ideas from Confucianism, Buddhism—especially Zen Buddhism—and Shinto influenced samurai life. Zen meditation helped them stay calm. Buddhist beliefs about reincarnation sometimes made them think about violence. Books like Hagakure by Yamamoto Tsunetomo and Gorin no Sho ("Book of the Five Rings") by Miyamoto Musashi helped people learn about bushido.

Culture

Samurai enjoyed many activities during the Sengoku Period, such as poetry, dance-drama, football games, tea ceremonies, and flower arranging. These activities helped them connect with each other.

Samurai were well-educated and could read and write using kanji characters. Some even had personal libraries with books about strategy and warfare. They also had special names that showed their rank and family ties.

Women

Main article: Onna-musha

In samurai families, women helped keep the home running, especially when their husbands were away. They looked after the children and managed the household. Some samurai women learned to use special weapons like the naginata or kaiken to protect their families if needed.

Though women in samurai families were not usually allowed to take part in politics or lead their households, some still found ways to help make important decisions. Education for girls became more important over time, and many learned to read and study.

In popular culture

Samurai appear in many stories, plays, movies, and TV shows. They are popular characters in Japanese theater like kabuki and noh, as well as in books, animated films, and anime. Famous movies, such as those by Akira Kurosawa, often feature samurai. These films have inspired other movies around the world.

Samurai also appear in modern stories set in the future or today. These characters often live and fight like traditional samurai. Their popularity has grown in America, where people admire their discipline and honor.