Samurai: The Warrior Class

Samurai were the elite warrior class of Japan and the ones who ruled the country. They received vigorous training in the arts of war but were also trained in the Chinese classics, calligraphy and other educational pursuites as well. They lived by a strick code called the Bushido or 'The Way of the Warrior' and were expected to serve their daimyo with utmost faithfulness and to bring honor to their lord, family and han above all else. Death in battle was looked upon as the ultimate form of loyality to one's lord and the highest service one could perform. They were supposed to be selfless in the performance of their duties and care little for money or for their own personal safty. Their lives were ones of humility and honor above all else.

Samurai were set apart from 'normal society' in several ways. The laws that applied to those of lower classes did not apply to a samurai, who could cut down anyone who offended him without fear of reprecussions. The laws also treated a criminal of this class far better than those of lower classes, often allowing them to perform seppuku instead of exicuting them as they would a common criminal. (Seppuku was the one way a samurai could restore his family's honor and was also his final form of protest against unfair treatment.) They were also set apart by their distinctive hairstyle and form of dress, which normal consisted of a padded jacket called a a kataginu and hakama pants, and the two swords they were allowed by law to wear, often refered to as the 'large and small' or 'daisho'.

During the Tokagawa Shogunate, the many centuries of peace had a profound effect on the samurai class. They become less warrior and more administrators or scholars. Some samurai clans felt that the warrior spirit was beginning to die out during this period and that the samurai who were members of the Shogun's court in Edo had stopped following the Bushido, seeking only more power for themselves and their families. The years of peace may have prepared these men for diplomacy but it was ill suit to preparing them for the civil unrest and war that erupted around them beginning with the arrival of the 'Black Ships' in 1853.

Most samurai followed a particular daimyo but there were a few who were 'masterless' for one reason or another. These samurai were called 'ronin' and the reasons why they were masterless varied. Sometimes their daimyo had lost his place within the hierarchy of the system, or the samurai had abandoned his daimyo, either because of personal reasons or to spare their lord sensure for acts that they might do that would dishonor them and, by extention, their daimyo. Ronin had more freedom within society then other samurai and retained some of the advantages of that class but, in exchange for that freedom, they lost their regular source of income that came from being attached to a daimyo and had to fend for themselves as best they could.