(no subject)

Thank you letting me join the group.My question who started the samurai?What does the name samurai mean and do they practice it today




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

I would recommend reading through the samurai archives or other informational sites first (link at the bottom of the screen)... The answers for this could just get very long. If you have more specific questions after that, Im sure more people would be willing to help.

In short though, the word "samurai" is derived from the verb meaning "to serve." Serving is a critical concept to the idea of the samurai and tells one something about the role of the samurai/their function in society.

Is it practiced today? The question is a difficult one because as a way of life, I'm sure some people in the modern world (ex. Yukio Mishima) would think it is, but the bushi as a class of people ended long ago.

Good luck in your pursuits,





james mathies <unhappiclown04@...> wrote: Thank you letting me join the group.My question who started the samurai?What does the name samurai mean and do they practice it today

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






Jonathan P. Ellgen
http://flickr.com/photos/jpellgen/





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

On Sep 24, 2008, at 11:11 AM, james mathies wrote:

> Thank you letting me join the group.My question who started the
> samurai?What does the name samurai mean and do they practice it today
>
> [
>

Any encyclopedia article in the world can answer all of that.

A book I would recommend (although it is somewhat biased) is Samurai: an illustrated history, by Mitsuo Kure. I joined this history group for my love of history, and I believe in the ways of the old. So I can personally answer your question: yes, the ways are still followed, and although there are those that say that the ways of the samurai are obsolete, or don't function in these times, they will not likely die out as long as people still believe in them. In fact, the spirit of old Japan seems to be coming back in popularity (even after the nightmares of world war 2 and the communist and socialist movement in Japan).

--- On Wed, 9/24/08, james mathies <unhappiclown04@...> wrote:

From: james mathies <unhappiclown04@...>
Subject: [samuraihistory] (unknown)
To: samuraihistory@yahoogroups.com
Date: Wednesday, September 24, 2008, 3:11 PM






Thank you letting me join the group.My question who started the samurai?What does the name samurai mean and do they practice it today

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


















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

--- In samuraihistory@yahoogroups.com, james mathies
wrote:

>
> Thank you letting me join the group.My question who started the

samurai?What does the name samurai mean and do they practice it today

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

Hi James,

I'm very glad to know you are interested in such a authentic real
Japanese historical issue.

Please let me explain the issue of Samurai , one by one, because it
is involved so many things and long, long story indeed about 1,400
years history.

Auchaeologically, Samurai ( Buke in auchaeological term ) was born
to protect rich farmers, rich peerage, and Emperor even, from
burglars , robbers arround 1,400 years ago. In the rearly
origin ,some poor farmaers armed strongly were hired as the gard
men , or small family of peerage as well. So, no body knows who was
the first Samurai , the name of person of first Samurai.
In fact, Samurai were , originally , the lowest rank of social
stratum ( higher than slaves ) . Isn't it interesting for you ?
In Japan, before the birth of Samurai, Emperor , Peerage, Farmers,
Merchant, Producers were the main stratum .

And then, gradually, Buke became more people and stronger and
stronger and had power to control Farmers, Merchant, Producers.

So, Samurai means Buke , to protect or gard somebody others.

The historical story about Samurai is over for today. TO BE
CONTINUED. ( After the above history, another interesting thing you
can know ).
Looking forward to hearing your comment on the above.

( At present, of cause, no more Samurai exists. Please see " Last
Samurai " , the famous movie. How to terminate, I'll let you know
later.)

Eddie Hiramoto

On Thu, Oct 2, 2008 at 12:03 PM, yoshiyukihiramoto
<eddiehiramoto@...> wrote:

>>
>> Thank you letting me join the group.My question who started the
> samurai?What does the name samurai mean and do they practice it today
>>
> Hi James,
>
> I'm very glad to know you are interested in such a authentic real
> Japanese historical issue.
>
> Please let me explain the issue of Samurai , one by one, because it
> is involved so many things and long, long story indeed about 1,400
> years history.
>

Eddie did a good job trying to lay out a very complex topic. I want
to mention a few things that may have been missed in reading his post.

1400 years ago (age of the Kojiki and Nihonshiki), as he mentioned,
there do appear to be warriors who are hired on to protect various
landowners' property. There were some groups, such as the Mononobe,
who were specifically considered warriors or warrior families, but for
the most part any kind of soldiers appear to have been lower class
folks. In fact, as you enter the Ritsuryo period, you have soldiers
called up by conscription from the various communities, rather than a
warrior class, per se.

The word 'samurai', as Eddie mentions, comes from the word 'saburafu',
'to serve'. (Saburafu->Saburahi->Samurai; not sure if that is the
*exact* path the word took).

Dr. Karl Friday has a good book on this subject, whose title I'm
blanking on but if you search on his name you will no doubt find it.

Trying to summarize some of what comes next: On the edges of the
Yamato polity, it appears that administration often had to rely on
force against the local population, and as provincial governors turned
their attention more towards the courts, local administrators were
left with a freer reign in the outer territories, and having a
standing group of warriors was much more effective than trying to
conscript a bunch of peasants whenever you needed to exert military
force. Much of the power in the East, at least, appears to have been
concentrated in the hands of people who had the horses and bows to
exert real power in the region. This power was legitimized through
various means, including marriage and alliances with court nobles.
Eventually, these eastern warriors make their way to the capital,
chiefly under the employ of descendants of disinherited Imperial
princes (the Taira and the Minamoto--though there are several groups
of Minamoto, descending from different Imperial ancestors).

At the same time, the monks of the various temples had also been
gathering warriors to 'defend' their rights and lands. Towards the
end of the Heian period, the temples are descending into the capital
with warrior-monks and a mikoshi carrying the enshrined spirit of
their main object of worship. Most of the Heian capital forces would
not face them, apparently partly in fear of the bad karma (or other
ill-effects) they could accrue by attacking the mikoshi. These
provincial warriors appear to have had far fewer scruples regarding
such things, and were initially seen by the court as a counter to the
temples' power.

I'd say that the real use of military power in the capital was the
Hogen Disturbance, since it effectively put Taira Kiyomori in a
position of both political and military power. After Kiyomori's death
in the late 12th century, the descendants of his defeated Minamoto foe
led a military revolt that caused a civil war.

(Question for the room: I believe this is the first time that the
various military forces competed without being directly led by an
Emperor or Imperial decree--they may have each claimed Imperial
Mandate, but every other similar power-struggle conflict I can think
of seems to be much more directly influenced by the Emperor and his
Court rather than by the military power structures.)

BTW, although it is known as the Genpei (or Gempei) War (meaning
Minamoto and Taira), it was much more complex. For instance, Minamoto
no Yoritomo was backed by his Hojo supporters--a branch of the Taira
family that had been given wardship over Yoritomo specifically to
prevent something of this nature. Even in the Hogen Disturbance you
see fathers and sons on separate sides of the disturbance.

Pretty much from this point on, the 'samurai' houses, or buke
('warrior families'), are in a position of actual political power
throughout the country.

That is *way* too much of a summary of events, but I'll leave it stand
so someone can nitpick it and further refine it.

-Josh

--- In samuraihistory@yahoogroups.com, "JL Badgley"
wrote:

>
>
> That is *way* too much of a summary of events, but I'll leave it

stand

> so someone can nitpick it and further refine it.
>
> -Josh

Hi Josh,

You did good job to explain about Samurai, Buke including
Minamoto, Taira, etc.

Please let me summarize Buke things following to my previous
explanation. I said TO BE CONTINUED.

Since then, Buke power became stronger and stronger as time
went by. And the chief of many of the Buke groupes came out. That
is Heike. Kanmu Emperor had so many wives and so many children as a
result of it, and finaly he couln't feed whole of his big family ,
so he decided to seperate his fourth son, named price Kajiwara as
HEISI and sentenced him to become the chief of Buke group to gard
Emperor family and his desendants inherited HEISI name . One of
the groupes of HEISI was ISE HEISI followed by Taira no Kiyomori who
was the first chief of BUKE having the power a little bit stronger
than Emperor and control the political administrative business
supervising Emperor.
However, the emperor at that time, aiming to get back power over
HEISI and utilize Genji group to upset HEISI.
Genji was another chief of BUKE groupes . Emperor SEIWA got so
many wives and so many children like Emperor Kanmu before and
nominated number sixth prine , named SADASUMI as to become the Chief
of BUKE as GENJI group. the desendants of SADASUMI inherited
Genji group and did the job of gardman for Enmperor.
Yoritomo defeatd HEISI and became the first chief of Genji who
founded and was nominated the SHOGUN and formed government to
control The political administrative business.
Since then, the chief of BUKE controled the political
administrative business , pushed Emperor far a way aside untill the
end of TOKUGAWA era.

The Emperor who used to control policy with the strongest power
in Japan have to stay in small place in somewhere in KYOTO without
no political power , but just religious related power for a long
time.

Now at this point , here comes very famous question.
Why Emperor of Japan was not destroyed . Why many chieves of
BUKE such as NOBUNAGA, ASHIKAGA, TOKUGAWA didn't wipe out
Emperor ? Only Japanese Emperor has been continuing to exist in
this world since the begining , inheriting only one same blood.
The present Emperor ( HEISEI Emperor ) is the number 125th.

Looking forward to hearing your any comments about above
question.

Eddie Hiramoto

>

The Emperor is decended of the sun goddess  and  a priest of the Shinto order. none if the others would have never been reconized by the other great power China, Korea, because they where of low birth, also one does not cut one self off from the sun, and the Emperor was the sun so it was to greater prestege to have connection to the royal family then destroy it.
 That is why the office of Shogun of the military class was created  so that who ever occupied the office . would appear to have to royal blessing to rule the land in the emperiors name.
yours respectfully,
Gerard Gillespie

--- On Sun, 10/5/08, yoshiyuki hiramoto <eddiehiramoto@...> wrote:

From: yoshiyuki hiramoto <eddiehiramoto@...>
Subject: [samuraihistory] Re: Samurai ( Buke in auchaeological term )
To: samuraihistory@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sunday, October 5, 2008, 12:51 AM






--- In samuraihistory@ yahoogroups. com, "JL Badgley"
wrote:
>
>
> That is *way* too much of a summary of events, but I'll leave it
stand
> so someone can nitpick it and further refine it.
>
> -Josh

Hi Josh,

You did good job to explain about Samurai, Buke including
Minamoto, Taira, etc.

Please let me summarize Buke things following to my previous
explanation. I said TO BE CONTINUED.

Since then, Buke power became stronger and stronger as time
went by. And the chief of many of the Buke groupes came out. That
is Heike. Kanmu Emperor had so many wives and so many children as a
result of it, and finaly he couln't feed whole of his big family ,
so he decided to seperate his fourth son, named price Kajiwara as
HEISI and sentenced him to become the chief of Buke group to gard
Emperor family and his desendants inherited HEISI name . One of
the groupes of HEISI was ISE HEISI followed by Taira no Kiyomori who
was the first chief of BUKE having the power a little bit stronger
than Emperor and control the political administrative business
supervising Emperor.
However, the emperor at that time, aiming to get back power over
HEISI and utilize Genji group to upset HEISI.
Genji was another chief of BUKE groupes . Emperor SEIWA got so
many wives and so many children like Emperor Kanmu before and
nominated number sixth prine , named SADASUMI as to become the Chief
of BUKE as GENJI group. the desendants of SADASUMI inherited
Genji group and did the job of gardman for Enmperor.
Yoritomo defeatd HEISI and became the first chief of Genji who
founded and was nominated the SHOGUN and formed government to
control The political administrative business.
Since then, the chief of BUKE controled the political
administrative business , pushed Emperor far a way aside untill the
end of TOKUGAWA era.

The Emperor who used to control policy with the strongest power
in Japan have to stay in small place in somewhere in KYOTO without
no political power , but just religious related power for a long
time.

Now at this point , here comes very famous question.
Why Emperor of Japan was not destroyed . Why many chieves of
BUKE such as NOBUNAGA, ASHIKAGA, TOKUGAWA didn't wipe out
Emperor ? Only Japanese Emperor has been continuing to exist in
this world since the begining , inheriting only one same blood.
The present Emperor ( HEISEI Emperor ) is the number 125th.

Looking forward to hearing your any comments about above
question.

Eddie Hiramoto
>


















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

Hi Gillespie,

Following to your comment and my previous explanation about
Emperor and BUKE, I like to foward the following comment.

My final idea as the answer to why Japanese Emperor can be
inherited untill now for over 2,600 years under only one , same
blood which is ultimately unique and only Japan has in this world
history of royal family is ....

In Japan, so many erudites say so many thoughts.

I believe the contents written in KOJIKI which was the first book
in Japan and written about the stories and thoughts told from long,
long time ago before birth of character. They wrote the thoughts ,
story about the succession of Emperor.

They said the origin of Japanese Emperor was AMATERAS OOMIKAMI ,
the god of Sun , and the child between the Japanese first gods for
whole things , IZANAGI and IZANAMI . The number sixth descendant
from AMATERAS OOMIKAMI was the first Emperor , JINMU TENNOU (
Emperor JINMU ) and was followed by descendants all the way.
Which means Japanese Emperor was believed as God, and Human God
by Japanese peoples of BUKE groups, Peerrages, Farmers, every body
since then untill very nowadays.
Of course, the present Japanese , except some people, dont belive
Emperor as the God.
Because of the thought that Emperor is god, other than the
descendants of Emperor family , inherited Emperor blood, cannot
sucess the Japanese Emperor. Even the most powerful Shogun or
Chief of BUKE coudn't success the status of Emperor, because they
were not first position of Emperor family.

In this book, KOJIKI, also they said Japanese Emperor can leave
the power to govern the political affairs of Japanese peoples to
anybody else, for example , SHOGUN. However, Japanese Emperor
cannot leave the power of religious affairs of people, so , Emperor
has been continuing to involve in the power of religious things as
the representative of Japanese god.

Can you believe this thing ? I think any foreigners cannot
believe this thing, but it is understandable. Emperor is the very
unique , only Japanese thing in history.
If you believe the story , thoughts in KOJIKI , the book of old
stories compiled in the year of 712 AC , you can understand the
above.









--- In samuraihistory@yahoogroups.com, Gerard Gillespie
wrote:

>
> The Emperor is decended of the sun goddess  and  a priest of

the Shinto order. none if the others would have never been reconized
by the other great power China, Korea, because they where of low
birth, also one does not cut one self off from the sun, and the
Emperor was the sun so it was to greater prestege to have connection
to the royal family then destroy it.

>  That is why the office of Shogun of the military class was

created  so that who ever occupied the office . would appear to
have to royal blessing to rule the land in the emperiors name.

> yours respectfully,
> Gerard Gillespie
>
> --- On Sun, 10/5/08, yoshiyuki hiramoto wrote:
>
> From: yoshiyuki hiramoto
> Subject: [samuraihistory] Re: Samurai ( Buke in auchaeological

term )

> To: samuraihistory@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Sunday, October 5, 2008, 12:51 AM
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --- In samuraihistory@ yahoogroups. com, "JL Badgley"

> wrote:
> >
> >
> > That is *way* too much of a summary of events, but I'll leave it
> stand
> > so someone can nitpick it and further refine it.
> >
> > -Josh
>
> Hi Josh,
>
> You did good job to explain about Samurai, Buke including
> Minamoto, Taira, etc.
>
> Please let me summarize Buke things following to my previous
> explanation. I said TO BE CONTINUED.
>
> Since then, Buke power became stronger and stronger as time
> went by. And the chief of many of the Buke groupes came out. That
> is Heike. Kanmu Emperor had so many wives and so many children as

a

> result of it, and finaly he couln't feed whole of his big family ,
> so he decided to seperate his fourth son, named price Kajiwara as
> HEISI and sentenced him to become the chief of Buke group to gard
> Emperor family and his desendants inherited HEISI name . One of
> the groupes of HEISI was ISE HEISI followed by Taira no Kiyomori

who

> was the first chief of BUKE having the power a little bit stronger
> than Emperor and control the political administrative business
> supervising Emperor.
> However, the emperor at that time, aiming to get back power over
> HEISI and utilize Genji group to upset HEISI.
> Genji was another chief of BUKE groupes . Emperor SEIWA got so
> many wives and so many children like Emperor Kanmu before and
> nominated number sixth prine , named SADASUMI as to become the

Chief

> of BUKE as GENJI group. the desendants of SADASUMI inherited
> Genji group and did the job of gardman for Enmperor.
> Yoritomo defeatd HEISI and became the first chief of Genji who
> founded and was nominated the SHOGUN and formed government to
> control The political administrative business.
> Since then, the chief of BUKE controled the political
> administrative business , pushed Emperor far a way aside untill

the

> end of TOKUGAWA era.
>
> The Emperor who used to control policy with the strongest power
> in Japan have to stay in small place in somewhere in KYOTO without
> no political power , but just religious related power for a long
> time.
>
> Now at this point , here comes very famous question.
> Why Emperor of Japan was not destroyed . Why many chieves of
> BUKE such as NOBUNAGA, ASHIKAGA, TOKUGAWA didn't wipe out
> Emperor ? Only Japanese Emperor has been continuing to exist in
> this world since the begining , inheriting only one same blood.
> The present Emperor ( HEISEI Emperor ) is the number 125th.
>
> Looking forward to hearing your any comments about above
> question.
>
> Eddie Hiramoto
> >
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>

For some others out there:

HEISI = Heishi or Heiji = Taira ("Taira" is the reading of the first
character of HEISHI, or at least in this instance)
GENJI = Minamoto (Again, "Minamoto" is how you read the first
character of GENJI)

Everything I've seen says that the various branches (many GENJI, only
one branch of HEISHI) were disinherited (made 'commoners' [read
'non-imperial nobility']) meaning they and their descendants could not
ascend to the throne mainly to help cut down on the number of
succession disputes within the Imperial family.

There were several usurpations/coups that appear in history, but one
of the requirements has always seemed to have been the rank of
'Prince'. There were actually a separate series of ranks for Princes
apart from the 'common' nobility to distinguish these members of the
Imperial family. The usual way around this was to marry your
daughters into the Imperial line, and thus govern as the grandfather,
father, or uncle of the emperor.

I'd say one of the first attempts to possibly replace the Emperor, or
at least attain status as an Imperial prince, was that of Soga no
Emishi, who seems to have tried to elevate his own son to such a
position (that may be Fujiwara propoganda, of course). Later, the
Fujiwara gain control by marrying their daughters into the Imperial
line, creating 'Fujiwara' emperors (emperors descended from the
Imperial and Fujiwara lines). Part of their power base came from
being directly related with the sovereign. In a similar vein, the
insei government of retired emperors was based largely on them being
the previous emperors and father or grandfather to the current
emperor. It wasn't too far a step for Kiyomori to envision himself
and his descendants in a similar position, because by his time this
*was* the accepted means of obtaining power.

That was partly what was so remarkable about Yoritomo; he really set
up a warrior government, while Kiyomori, the bridge between courtier
and warrior, appears to have been trying to model more on the court
government of the day. Yoritomo even moved most of the real
administration out to Kamakura, isolating himself, to an extent, from
the court nobility.

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu is another interesting character. He came the
closest to really doing away with the Imperial power, becoming
recognized as 'King of Japan' by China, but his descendants ceded much
of their power to the daimyo and the emperor.

The imperial family does seem to have remained on the throne since at
least the 6th century, though before that I believe the Kojiki and
Nihongi (aka Nihon Shoki) are considered less reliable from an
historical point of view, since dates in them don't always correspond
to dates of their contemporaries on the mainland, who were keeping
more meticulous records at the time. Combine that with the incredible
symmetry of the early histories of dates of numerological importance,
and it becomes a matter of debate before then.


-Josh

Please be allowed to make sure the issue is on this topic.
That is why Buke, Taira, Genji, Ashikaga, whatever couldn't ruin
and succeed the status of Emperor.
And you can see the answer in KOJIKI, I said in previous
explanation.

One thing , every one should understand that by your present ,
modern sight, even my sight, of course , only a few percent of
KOJIKI is reliable. However, long time ago, Taira, Genji,
Ahikaga, Oda, Tokugawa learned KOJIKI profoudly through erudites
at that time and believed the contents written in KOJIKI.

If a person cannot understand the above thing , there is no other
way to explain.

In that case, what is the answer to this question, topic ?

Eddie Hiramoto






--- In samuraihistory@yahoogroups.com, "JL Badgley"
wrote:

>
> For some others out there:
>
> HEISI = Heishi or Heiji = Taira ("Taira" is the reading of the

first

> character of HEISHI, or at least in this instance)
> GENJI = Minamoto (Again, "Minamoto" is how you read the first
> character of GENJI)
>
> Everything I've seen says that the various branches (many GENJI,

only

> one branch of HEISHI) were disinherited (made 'commoners' [read
> 'non-imperial nobility']) meaning they and their descendants could

not

> ascend to the throne mainly to help cut down on the number of
> succession disputes within the Imperial family.
>
> There were several usurpations/coups that appear in history, but

one

> of the requirements has always seemed to have been the rank of
> 'Prince'. There were actually a separate series of ranks for

Princes

> apart from the 'common' nobility to distinguish these members of

the

> Imperial family. The usual way around this was to marry your
> daughters into the Imperial line, and thus govern as the

grandfather,

> father, or uncle of the emperor.
>
> I'd say one of the first attempts to possibly replace the Emperor,

or

> at least attain status as an Imperial prince, was that of Soga no
> Emishi, who seems to have tried to elevate his own son to such a
> position (that may be Fujiwara propoganda, of course). Later, the
> Fujiwara gain control by marrying their daughters into the Imperial
> line, creating 'Fujiwara' emperors (emperors descended from the
> Imperial and Fujiwara lines). Part of their power base came from
> being directly related with the sovereign. In a similar vein, the
> insei government of retired emperors was based largely on them

being

> the previous emperors and father or grandfather to the current
> emperor. It wasn't too far a step for Kiyomori to envision himself
> and his descendants in a similar position, because by his time this
> *was* the accepted means of obtaining power.
>
> That was partly what was so remarkable about Yoritomo; he really

set

> up a warrior government, while Kiyomori, the bridge between

courtier

> and warrior, appears to have been trying to model more on the court
> government of the day. Yoritomo even moved most of the real
> administration out to Kamakura, isolating himself, to an extent,

from

> the court nobility.
>
> Ashikaga Yoshimitsu is another interesting character. He came the
> closest to really doing away with the Imperial power, becoming
> recognized as 'King of Japan' by China, but his descendants ceded

much

> of their power to the daimyo and the emperor.
>
> The imperial family does seem to have remained on the throne since

at

> least the 6th century, though before that I believe the Kojiki and
> Nihongi (aka Nihon Shoki) are considered less reliable from an
> historical point of view, since dates in them don't always

correspond

> to dates of their contemporaries on the mainland, who were keeping
> more meticulous records at the time. Combine that with the

incredible

> symmetry of the early histories of dates of numerological

importance,

> and it becomes a matter of debate before then.
>
>
> -Josh
>

Hi their history fans!

While I have been a member of this group for a few months now, I have been unable to find the time to express why I have found the eurge to join this band of brothers. Well chaps, allow me to reveal my purpose like a shoji door. Next year (Sept 09), I plan to begin my Phd at the University of Bristol where I have recieved a BA and an MA in Ancient History. My Phd will be a comparison between the warriors of Homer's Iliad (Troy etc the ancient history part) and the warriors of 16th century Japan.

Here are a few area's im particularly interested by with this study:

Divine weapons, and there properties which affect/alter/enhance the bearer
The interaction/ interferance of gods. spirits, Kami etc to warriors
Glory, shame and honour in both cultures
Warrior Cultures in general
Who commands who? The General's or the famous warriors?

If anyone knows of any good points, or would like to offer different suggestions of comparison of these cultures, or feel any other knowledge could help in this investigation, that would be a grand help.

Thanks (domo arigato)
Tom






_________________________________________________________________
Make a mini you and download it into Windows Live Messenger
http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/111354029/direct/01/

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

Hi Tom,

How do you do.
Here is my little help to your requests.

Warriors , BUKE in 16 Century of Japan.

Japan used to have many warriors , kings of warriors in 16
Century. They said SENGOKU JIDAI, War Days, Turbulent ages.
Among so many kings of warriors, they used to have Great Two.
Takeda Shingen versus Uesugi Kensin.
Great two used to make wars , 16 times.
After those those big two were dead, Oda Nobunaga came up and
through conjective wars agains other kings of warriors, he came to
ruin all most all Japan . After he was killed by his
sobordinate , named Akechi Mitsuhide just a few days before he is
going to Emperor palace to get SHogun status who can have power to
control all kings of warriors under government, Toyotomi Hideyoshi
who was another subordinate of Oda ,killed Akechi Mistsuhide and
ruined all Japan. He could not become Shogun even he ruined
completely due to the facts his ancestor was farmers.
During his ruin, he tried to conquer Korea and invaded several
times for nothing. He failed and waisted man powers and financial
things. After he died, Tokugawa Ieyasu came up and succeeded
Hideyosi and became SHOGUN under the official nomination by
Emperor because his ancestors were Genji group which were the
descendants of Emperor Seiwa. He organized new Bakufu ,
Government in Edo and was succeeded by 25 generations for almost
300 years.

Do you have any question ?
Please feel free to ask me .

Eddie Hiramoto





--- In samuraihistory@yahoogroups.com, Tom Dowling
wrote:

>
>
> Hi their history fans!
>
> While I have been a member of this group for a few months now, I

have been unable to find the time to express why I have found the
eurge to join this band of brothers. Well chaps, allow me to reveal
my purpose like a shoji door. Next year (Sept 09), I plan to begin
my Phd at the University of Bristol where I have recieved a BA and
an MA in Ancient History. My Phd will be a comparison between the
warriors of Homer's Iliad (Troy etc the ancient history part) and
the warriors of 16th century Japan.

>
> Here are a few area's im particularly interested by with this

study:

>
> Divine weapons, and there properties which affect/alter/enhance

the bearer

> The interaction/ interferance of gods. spirits, Kami etc to

warriors

> Glory, shame and honour in both cultures
> Warrior Cultures in general
> Who commands who? The General's or the famous warriors?
>
> If anyone knows of any good points, or would like to offer

different suggestions of comparison of these cultures, or feel any
other knowledge could help in this investigation, that would be a
grand help.

>
> Thanks (domo arigato)
> Tom
>
>
>
>
>
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Make a mini you and download it into Windows Live Messenger
> http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/111354029/direct/01/
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>

Hi Tom,

How do you do.
Here is my little help to your requests.

Warriors , BUKE in 16 Century of Japan.

Japan used to have many warriors , kings of warriors in 16
Century. They said SENGOKU JIDAI, War Days, Turbulent ages.
Among so many kings of warriors, they used to have Great Two.
Takeda Shingen versus Uesugi Kensin.
Great two used to make wars , 16 times.
After those those big two were dead, Oda Nobunaga came up and
through conjective wars agains other kings of warriors, he came to
ruin all most all Japan . After he was killed by his
sobordinate , named Akechi Mitsuhide just a few days before he is
going to Emperor palace to get SHogun status who can have power to
control all kings of warriors under government, Toyotomi Hideyoshi
who was another subordinate of Oda ,killed Akechi Mistsuhide and
ruined all Japan. He could not become Shogun even he ruined
completely due to the facts his ancestor was farmers.
During his ruin, he tried to conquer Korea and invaded several
times for nothing. He failed and waisted man powers and financial
things. After he died, Tokugawa Ieyasu came up and succeeded
Hideyosi and became SHOGUN under the official nomination by
Emperor because his ancestors were Genji group which were the
descendants of Emperor Seiwa. He organized new Bakufu ,
Government in Edo and was succeeded by 25 generations for almost
300 years.

Do you have any question ?
Please feel free to ask me .

Eddie Hiramoto






--- In samuraihistory@yahoogroups.com, Tom Dowling
wrote:

>
>
> Hi their history fans!
>
> While I have been a member of this group for a few months now, I

have been unable to find the time to express why I have found the
eurge to join this band of brothers. Well chaps, allow me to reveal
my purpose like a shoji door. Next year (Sept 09), I plan to begin
my Phd at the University of Bristol where I have recieved a BA and
an MA in Ancient History. My Phd will be a comparison between the
warriors of Homer's Iliad (Troy etc the ancient history part) and
the warriors of 16th century Japan.

>
> Here are a few area's im particularly interested by with this

study:

>
> Divine weapons, and there properties which affect/alter/enhance

the bearer

> The interaction/ interferance of gods. spirits, Kami etc to

warriors

> Glory, shame and honour in both cultures
> Warrior Cultures in general
> Who commands who? The General's or the famous warriors?
>
> If anyone knows of any good points, or would like to offer

different suggestions of comparison of these cultures, or feel any
other knowledge could help in this investigation, that would be a
grand help.

>
> Thanks (domo arigato)
> Tom
>
>
>
>
>
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Make a mini you and download it into Windows Live Messenger
> http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/111354029/direct/01/
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>

hello unhappiclown04, to answer your questions , who started the
Samurai i have no idea sorry. The word Samurai as far as i know
means "To Serve". and there are some still around but are more
modern.

i hope this helped.



--- In samuraihistory@yahoogroups.com, james mathies
wrote:

>
> Thank you letting me join the group.My question who started the

samurai?What does the name samurai mean and do they practice it today

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

Actually the term samurai refers to someone who serves someone else. It
is a variant of the verb to serve which I believe is/was samuru. There
really isn't anyone that started the samurai. The earliest uses of the
word samurai refered to mainly house servants in the Heian period.
Sometimes these duties may have included guard duties. In time the term
would come to eventually have a mainly military context. One of the
more proper terms for literally warrior would be bushi武士 .Bushi is
made up up 2 Chinese caharacters. One being@武　which means military,
or martial... and the other being Žm@which means a gentleman,
nobleman, aristocrat. But, this does not mean that samurai is
incorrect. Some experts feel that the terms samurai and bushi have
different implications in their meanings. Some consider bushi to mean
those who come from military families and have a hereditary occupation
as profesional warriors. The character Žm@implying somekind of a
status and such to that occupation. To be fair, there are those who
also use the term bushi to describe anyone that gave military service,
part time farmer/warrior or professional warriors. Where was some say
that samurai covers all those groups, but bushi were a subsection of
the overall group of those who gave military service. So often the use
of exactly which term for who seems to largely be personal preferance.
This also gets a bit more complicated when one considers that in the
medieval period a large number of even fairly professional warriors
would often participate in some kind of farming themselves even if
their main occupation was military service.