Message text written by "Scott" <
scottc_4@...> on Tue, 01 Oct
2002:
Just as a preface, most people generally view the Samurai as a monolithic
class; this is quite incorrect. Samurai as a class evolved through
Japanese history; Samurai are unusual in that a military group became the
upper class of Japanese society. To the best of my knowledge, there is no
analog to this exists in the West.
Furthermore, at whatever point in time that you look at, the Samurai class
is also hierarchical; there is a stratification, just like you see in any
modern army.
Weapons and armor should be looked at in this fashion.
>Here are some quick answers to your questions Dan.
>
>1. Can you give me some information on the orgin of the samurai?
>A: They evolved out of military and house servants of the Heian
>period. The term samurai is the Japanese pronounciation of a sankrit
>word that means "to serve". There is a book entitled HIRED SWORDS:
>THE RISE OF PRIVATE WARRIOR POWER IN EARLY JAPAN by Karl Friday.
Excellent reference. Prof. Friday is also a martial artist as well as a
prof. of Asian History. His waza (techniques) are as good as his prose; I
have trained with him several times.
[SNIP]
>3. What weapons and armour were preferred by the samurai?
>A:Durring the time of warfare the spear was the most commonly used
>weapon. Both foot soldiers and samurai were armed with spears as
>they were seen as the most practical. Durring the time of peace
>after the Tokugawa re-unification is when the sword became the main
>weapon of the samurai, although it had always been a symbol of the
>warrior, it was secondary until that time.
As in the preface, this depends on the time period and the hierarchical
position of the Samurai.
During the civil wars that predated the Tokugawa shogunate, the infantry
used Yari (spears) and Naginata (halberds, in this case, literally
saber-like blades on long poles), while the cavalry used Yumi (Japanese
long bows). Mounted warriors also wore Tachi (a long saber slung across
the back with the blade down, which had to do with the drawing style while
mounted, "ground-to-sky") - mounted cavalry armed with sabers persisted in
the West into the 20th century.
Just a note here: a Japanese blade is a saber blade, which is single-edged
and curved, and not a sword, which is double-edged and straight. The term
"samurai sword" referring to the Tachi or the Katana is technically a
misnomer.
The use of firearms by the warlord Oda Nobunaga in 1582 brought an end to
the mounted archers. "Giving Up the Gun: Japan's Reversion to the Sword,
1543-1879" by Noel Perrin is an attempt to highlight this particular
phenomenon; unfortunately, Perrin's scholarship is shaky at best.
After, the foundation of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1603, the fighting army
units including the cavalry were disbanded. The Tachi gave way to the
Katana, a saber of less curvature than the Tachi, worn thrust the Obi (wide
sash under the Hakama) with the blade up (which had to do with the drawing
style while standing, "sky-to-ground") . The symbol of office of the
Samurai was the Daisho, a Daito (long saber) and Shoto (short saber) worn
on the left hip: there were no left-handed swordsmen, which persists to
this day in Kendo and Iaido, as well as classical styles of Kenjutsu. In
general, the Daito was used outdoors (it was typically removed when
indoors), and the Shoto was used indoors. No one else was permitted to
wear arms in public.
Sword lengths were eventually regulated by Shogunal edict as was dueling.
Even travel between the various fiefdoms was a burcratic nightmare as
travel was tightly regulated. As the ruling c;ass, Samurai became the
bureaucrats for the Bakufu (tent government) in Edo (Tokyo), which was
established as a separate entity from the Imperial court in Kyoto, and
their own lords.
"Musashi," a historical novel by Eiji Yoshikawa (Charles S. Terry,
translator) captures some of the spirit of the transition between civil
war, Sengoku Jidai, and the emergence of the Tokugawa shogunate.
By the mid-1600's, most of the battle-hardened warriors had died, but the
training continued. New techniques emerged, but most were never
battle-tested, and many ineffective ones were introduced. Bujutsu (martial
science) gave way to budo (martial art), a way of building character
through a martial practice (in a sense, it did not matter if techniques
were battle-proved). Some techniques, however, were proved effective in
dueling, which is not really the same as being proven in battle. Early
forms of Kendo with body armor emerged as a way to safely train (in this
context, "safe" meant "non-fatal" rather than "injury-free").
[SNIP]
>5. What eventually led to the downfall of the samurai?
>A: In a simple way uselessness caused the fall of the samurai. When
>the emporer tried to regain power the samurai class had not been in a
>major battle in about 200 years and couldnt put up a real fight
>against the clans like Choshu and Satsuma that backed the Emporer.
>But the emporer did not want to risk the samurai becoming powerfull
>again so the clas was abolished in 1868.
Ultimately, the Samurai were superfluous. During the Tokugawa Shogunate, a
middle class of merchants arose (commerce can thrive in a country at peace
with itself); the Bakufu restricted foreign trade to a single port,
Nagasaki, for all of Japan.
The appearance of the Black Ships lead by Commodore Perry in 1853 sent a
death shutter through the ruling organization as well as the class
structure of Japan. The Bakufu had failed to protect Japan (and the
Emperor) from foreign "invasion." The Tokugawa and related Han's
(fiefdoms) retreated into themselves and became concerned with
self-preservation; they slowly capitulated to the foreign demands as a
result, which was met with disgust in other Han's in Japan. As the Bakufu
slowly lost its grip of control, several other Han's backed a policy of
supporting the Emperor directly and expelling the foreigners. Civil unrest
grew. Other foreign nations pressed demands on opening trade with Japan;
the Japanese feared that they would ultimately end up like China in that
era, becoming colonies of the western imperialistic nations. Eventually,
Tokugawa Yoshinobu (1837-1913), the 15th and final Tokugawa shogunate,
restored power to the Emperor Meiji in 1868.
"Ryoma: Life of a Renaissance Samurai" by Romulus Hillsborough highlights
this turbulent period at the end of the existence of the Samurai as a
social class. He is extremely important to Japanese history at this
critical juncture, and we are only just learning about it. For example,
just imagine ignoring Ben Franklin's role in the founding of the United
States of Ameria.
The Emperor brought Japan out of its feudal era and into the industrial
era. As such, Japan had no Renaissance period, no Reformation, and no
Industrial Revolution as in the West. IMHO, this is the key to
understanding modern Japan. Imagine the Age of Chivalry in Europe giving
way to the Franco-Prussian War. Furthermore, Japan distinguished itself as
a world-class fighting power in wars with China in 1894 and Russia in 1905,
which is a huge leap from their state of conducting warfare in 1868. Japan
embraced many of the ideas and all of the technology of the Western
nations. Japanese people were sent abroad to study in the West in order to
bring back anything useful.
The highly rigid class structure that was set up during the Tokugawa
shogunate was abolished and with it the Samurai as a class. Wearing the
Daisho in public was outlawed. The Cho-mage, the topknot of hair that was
also a distinctive characteristic of the Samurai, was also outlawed (it
still exists, however, in the upper ranks of professional Sumo wrestlers).
In the final analysis, the Samurai, though inter-Han struggles,
self-destructed with respect to the new social order that emerged as a
result.
Most of the ex-Samurai did not fare well after the Meiji Restoration.
Those who became merchants were mostly failures (as Samurai, money was not
a concern as it was beneath them to worry about such "trivial" matters).
Some went into law enforcement, and some went into government service,
enjoying varying degrees of success. A few opened Dojo (practice halls)
and taught martial arts like Japanese swordsmanship and Jujutsu to the
public (which was a novelty as only Samurai were allowed to train with
weapons).
>Please someone correct me if I am wrong. I hope these answers will
>give you at least a starting point.
The Samurai, although they no longer exist as a class, had a profound
effect in shaping Japan as a nation and the Japanese as a people. I have
personally met Japanese people who will add in an introduction of
themselves and others that they are from a Samurai family or that some
blood relative (e.g., grandfather or great grandfather) was a Samurai.
This would be like meeting a European today who would say that their
grandfather or great grandfather had been a knight at the court in Camelot,
for example.
Most of us have held some very romantic notions of Samurai and their lives
and so-called ideals. It is entirely undeserved. "Shogun" by James
Clavell is a nice story but one seen through very thick rose-colored
glasses (both the book [1976] and the mini-series [1980] are important
landmarks in their respective media) -- they are unbalanced.
Here are two counterbalancing books:
"Memoirs of the Warrior Kumagai: A Historical Novel" by Donald Richie
(1999). Don't let the term Novel in the title through you; this is a good
rendition of life and times during the civil war between the Minamoto and
Taira. This is the real story behind what becomes the well-loved, medieval
epic , the "Tale of the Heike" (Heike is another pronunciation for Taira,
who were the *losers* in this struggle). This is analagous to Michael
Chriton's novel "Eaters of the Dead" (and the movie, "The 13th Warrior,"
which is a pale adaptation IMHO) or John Champlin Gardner's novel
"Grendel" being (hypothetically) plausible stories behind the Old English
epic poem "Beowulf" (I have a fondness for the Seamus Heaney translation,
which is rendered in verse, rather than prose, as it is in the original
language)
"Drunk as a Lord: Samurai Stories" by Ryotaro Shiba (Eileen Kato,
translator) (2001), as historical fiction, focuses on four historical
figures during the late Edo period after the appearance of the Black Ships.
Although the characters' personalities are somewhat fictionalized, the
point of this book as I see it is that the Samurai were all too human, and
they, embedded in their culture and historical events, were not really any
different in their behavior than us, embedded within our culture and
historical events.
HTH,
Ray Sosnowski
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Raymond Sosnowski
110742.522@...
Kaicho: Northeast Naginata Dokokai, Ashton, MD;
Assist. Instructor: Miyako Kyudojo, Silver Spring, MD;
Zenko International, Boulder, CO;
member: Beikoku Rembukan Dojo, Severna Park, MD;
member: Seidokai Kendo/Iaido Dojo, University of Guelph, Ontario;
member: Japan Society of Boston, Guang Ping Yang Tai Chi Association,
Shingetsukai/US; Japanese Sword Society/US.
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