How the Samurai effected society

Hello,
My son is doing a paper about how the Samurai effected the
cultural/religious and political/militant governed society of japan.
from 1400 to 1600
I know it's a huge subject.
I have the web pages you sugested to the last person who asked for
help. (thanks)
I can find everything but the effects of the Samurai on society.
If anyone can point me to an article or has personal feeling on the
subject I could realy use the help.
Thanks in advance ~Ray~

I know it's a novel, but you may want to try to get a hold of a copy of a
book called "Taiko" by Eiji Yoshikawa. The copy I have is from the
University of Massachusetts Library and it's about 30 years old, so it may be
rather difficult to come by. From what little I've perused it, it was good
-- good reading and good in terms of background info -- and may offer some
ground-level insight to how (some) people lived during that time period, but
I haven't read it all, even though I intend to at some point real soon.

Later.
Tim


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I've read Eiji Yoshikawa's "Taiko" many times over, and enjoyed it very
much... but beware using it as a historical resource. Though based strongly
on events of history (and I myself use it a lot to remind myself of events
that I've read about extensively elsewhere), it is still *fiction*, and as
thus it presents a very idealized version of Hideyoshi and those involved in
his cause. You may notice upon completing the novel that it ends after
Hideyoshi negotiates peace with Ieyasu, thus leaving out later events such
as Hideyoshi's two disasterous attempts at invading Korea, his obsessive and
even irrational affection for his heir Hideyori, and his condemnation of the
famous tea master Sen no Rikyu, among other things.

This is no criticism of "Taiko", though. I absolutely love the book, it's
one of my favorite reads of all time! But take it for what it is... an
enjoyable novel based on, but not necessarily accurately representing, the
facts.

Sally

----- Original Message -----
From: <Eponymous13@...>
To: <samuraihistory@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, November 17, 2002 11:42 PM
Subject: Re: [samuraihistory] How the Samurai effected society


> I know it's a novel, but you may want to try to get a hold of a copy of a
> book called "Taiko" by Eiji Yoshikawa. The copy I have is from the
> University of Massachusetts Library and it's about 30 years old, so it may
be
> rather difficult to come by. From what little I've perused it, it was
good
> -- good reading and good in terms of background info -- and may offer some
> ground-level insight to how (some) people lived during that time period,
but
> I haven't read it all, even though I intend to at some point real soon.
>
> Later.
> Tim
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
>
> Samurai Archives: http://www.samurai-archives.com
> ---
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> samuraihistory-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>

Dear Tim,

University of Mass you say? Is that the Boston campus or the Amherst. I am
an alumni of Umass/Boston class of 88 currently residing in Osaka Japan.

>
> From: Eponymous13@...
> Date: 2002/11/18 Mon AM 02:42:25 EST
> To: samuraihistory@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [samuraihistory] How the Samurai effected society
>
>

It shouldn't be too hard to find. Last time I was at the local Borders they had
_Taiko_ and not _Musashi_. I loved _Musashi_, but had a hard time getting into
_Taiko_. I've read about half of it twice. I don't know whether it's the
translation or what.
Anyway, how the Samurai affected society is not like asking "how did the
discovery o gold in California affect society in the US." (weird example I know)
The Samurai were not an external force shaping society, they were part of the
society. You really need to ask more specific questions.

Raphael in Ten


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

University of Massachusetts at Amherst -- it's only about a half-hour north
from where I live. UMass Boston is about two hours east. :-)

Tim.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hello,
Thank you for your reply.
After agreeing to help my son with this, I found myself lost in information.
I was dumbfounded.
I asked him what kind of evil teacher would give a child a task like this.
He said "I just made up the subject myself"
Everything in the world has a reason. Perhaps the experts should look at the
effects of the Samurai on society. Was it good? Bad? Etc.
some say they intimidated and murdered. He says they taught them Zen
Interesting topic, don't you think?
Lacking information, he is just making up something so he can get his paper
finished and a good grade.
If you experts would like any input on the matter the paper will be presented
12-8-02
I think it's a very important history lesson and would not like to see anyone
get the wrong information.
Thanks For your help ~Ray~


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I think it's problematic to classify the effect of Samurai on
Japanese Society to be good or bad. As in any warrior class or
military group; you have both good and bead individuals. There were
some Samurai that intimidated and murdered. There were others that
we well known for being sophisticated and artful.

It is difficult to say that Samurai affected Japanese Society because
they were very much a product of society. Japanese society today
still has some "Samurai" values incorperated and ingrained in their
image as individuals and society accepted group behavior. I'm not an
expert but even after the Meiji Restoration (when the Emperor crushed
the Samurai class and returned Military power to the throne) Samurai
values were still important to the Japanese.

If you wanted to talk about the ways that Samurai values have
survived into modern Japan, I'd discuss the ideas of honor, chivalry,
service, and ferocity in battle(in the business world now).

The Samurai were a wide and varied class of warriors. There were low
Class Ashigaru to the very high class Nobles. But I think that the
conditions the Japanese were subjected to caused a unique
specialization of the feudal system. The harsh weather, constent
internal military conflict, and repeated invasion attempts, changed
the Samurai and Japanese culture both. They can't quite be seperated
because the occured simultaniously. To simplify; until the lat 1800s
(Meiji Restoration) they were the same. Samurai ruled the society at
that time and the Samurai Culture was Japanese Culture.

Brandon

--- In samuraihistory@y..., eraysir@a... wrote:
> Hello,
> Thank you for your reply.
> After agreeing to help my son with this, I found myself lost in
information.
> I was dumbfounded.
> I asked him what kind of evil teacher would give a child a task
like this.
> He said "I just made up the subject myself"
> Everything in the world has a reason. Perhaps the experts should
look at the
> effects of the Samurai on society. Was it good? Bad? Etc.
> some say they intimidated and murdered. He says they taught them
Zen
> Interesting topic, don't you think?
> Lacking information, he is just making up something so he can get
his paper
> finished and a good grade.
> If you experts would like any input on the matter the paper will be
presented
> 12-8-02
> I think it's a very important history lesson and would not like to
see anyone
> get the wrong information.
> Thanks For your help ~Ray~
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Thank you very much for your thoughtful reply.
I am going to forward this to my son's teacher.
While reading I came to the same conclusion.
Society effected the Samurai more than the Samurai effected society.
~Ray~


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]