The Samurai class was one of the highest classes to be in medieval Japan .These elite warriors are said to be the best of the best in the system of Japanese warriors. The samurai class had a certain type of weapons used in war and their battles they had 3 different types of swords. The katana, Wakizashi, and the Yari. The swords were usually made by normal sword smiths. However, if a sword for a high ranking samurai was to be mad they would have the best sword smith in all of japan to craft the sword, spear, and dagger. The samurai had different types of armor too for each of their different classes. The shogun had his own type of amour that signified who he was the armor was decorated with a custom helmet made by the best craft man and full body suit which was also made by the top Japanese designers. The normal samurai had their own type of armor but it usually was never custom and depending on the time period. The samurai armor changed over time from a hard type of paper to copper to metal and at the end of the samurai age standard military clothing. The samurai were a class that didn’t start as a class used in army’s. The samurai were first used as personal warriors that were hired by high ranking officials or sometimes the emperor himself. It was not till an emperor decided to use them as Japan’s own army that they were used during warfare but some people still did own private samurai army’s. The two main groups with the most samurai were the Minamoto clan and the Fujiwara clan. These two clans were rivals and hated each other. The two clans had many little skirmishes but at the end the Minamoto clan won and took over as the best clan of Japan. The leader of the clan soon became the first shogun (military leader of japan) he ...
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...t only in the code of chivalrous Honor does Loyalty assume paramount importance. The eighth and last virtue is character and self-control. Bushido teaches that men should behave according to an absolute moral standard, one that transcends logic. What’s right is right, and what’s wrong is wrong. The difference between good and bad and between right and wrong are givens, not arguments subject to discussion or justification, and a man should know the difference. Finally, it is a man’s obligation to teach his children moral standards through the model of his own behavior: The first objective of samurai education was to build up Character. The subtler faculties of prudence, intelligence, and dialectics were less important. Intellectual superiority was esteemed, but a samurai was essentially a man of action. These are the eight virtues of the samurai code bushido.
In the book Samurai, Warfare and the State in Early Medieval Japan, Karl Friday focuses on war in early medieval Japan. A central thesis could be the political primacy of the imperial court. (Lamers 2005) This is the tenth through fourteenth centuries, before the samurai became prominent in Japan and were trying to form themselves into more of what we think of them today. Friday focuses on five aspects of war in his book; they are the meaning of war, the organization of war, the tools of war, the science of war, and the culture of war.
In document B written by Catharina Blomberg, it says, “Loyalty toward the feudal lord in Japan was hereditary.” If becoming a samurai was hereditary, then some samurai weren’t chosen to be a samurai because of their abilities, but because they were the son of a samurai. That means that not all samurai are the best fighters. It also says in document E, written by the DBQ project, “To dishonour knighthood was the greatest disgrace.” Part of the code is to always obey your king, so a knight would want to fight harder and not back out.
A samurai warrior was a member of a powerful Japanese military. On the other hand, a knight warrior was a man of noble birth who after a couple stages, would be raised to honorable military rank. While knights and samurais have many similarities, in a one on one battle, the advantage would be to the samurai and this can be seen in their armor, beliefs, and their training techniques. The first way that samurais have an advantage is with their armor. In document D written by Terry Bennett it says that the knights have pure metal on them which weighs from 40-60 pounds.not only do the knights have tons of weight, but they also put armor on their horses which slowed them down a whole lot.
Japanese Samurai-What did they wear? What weapon did they use? How were they physically and
A samurai’s armor was very different from a knight’s armor. A samurai’s armor was made of small iron scales and leather. Having small plates of iron bound to leather made the armor flexible and light, whilst still being almost as strong as a knight’s armor. The downside being that if this armor got wet it would become very heavy (Document D). This shows how well crafted the armor was and it’s usefulness in a battle. A samurai’s armor was much better than a knight’s armor. A knight’s armor was a completely metal plated suit of armor. It was really hard to move in because of its weight of forty to sixty pounds. If a knight fell of his horse on the battlefield then he would be dead because he wouldn’t be able to get up. The knight’s suit of armor was so heavy he had to have his squire put his suit of armor on and take it off (Document D). This shows that this suit of armor was as much inconvenient as it was convenient. The two fighter’s armor both have their disadvantages and their
Samurai's core value is not humiliating myself. They would even rather end their own lives if they had to put up with humiliation. For example, if their daimyo died or if they lost a battle, they committed seppuku “stomach- or abdomen-cutting”, which is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. They did this to die in honor. Furthermore, Samurai had to follow some rules called “Bushido”,which means “The way of the warriors”. The rules include fidelity, politeness, virility, and simplicity. While, knight's core value is not to commit a sin. Knights often believe killing himself is a sin, this is because of influence of Christianity. They would rather suffer being alive than to commit suicide. Knights also had to follow a set of strict rules called Chivalry, which puts emphasis on justice, loyalty, defense, courage, faith, humility, and nobility.
The top structure of the society includes the Shoguns, Daimyos and Samurais. ‘Shogun’ was the title granted by the Emperor to Japan’s top military commander (Web-japan.org, 2013). Initially Emperors controlled the country but over time Shoguns became more powerful than the Emperor and took over the whole government, the Shogun was generally the real ruler of the country until 1867 when feudalism was abolished (Web-japan.org, 2013). Daimyos were the lords and their roles were to manage and maintain the law, collect taxes and aiding in armed forces for the Shogun (Ask.com, 2013). Samurais were the members of the military class, they were the warriors of traditional Japan. The roles of the Samurais were to protect and serve their daimyos or lords usually in wars (Answers.yahoo.com, 2013).
In 1877, a series of rebellions occurred in Meiji Japan. These rebellions are often referred to as some of the most famous and ironically aided in the destruction of the samurai class although the reverse is what the rebels wanted to do. Satsuma's faction leader, Saigo Takamori, who was the leader of said rebellion, followed a series of rebellions in other parts of Japan such as Hagi, Akizuki and Kumamoto. He had been morally supporting these rebellions, but he never took part in them. Soon, he received news of a possible assassination against him, and this rumour prompted him to gather his allies and head toward Kumamoto, in attempt to force their surrender. The official purpose of this rebellion was to accompany Saigo to the capital so that
The Seven Samurai directed by Akira Kurosawa uses many film techniques and features of the Japanese samurai film genre to engage and influence the viewing audience. The Japanese samurai film genre focuses on the physical martial arts, and is very similar to American westerns. These films are usually set in the Tokugawa era and the main characters are samurai, or Ronin. The Seven Samurai is a stereotypical Japanese samurai movie set in the Tokugawa era about a village full of farmers who hire seven samurai to protect their village from a group of bandits. Kurosawa has used many features of a typical samurai film in The Seven Samurai such as the use of the katana, the samurai were usually clean cut and are seen as socially superior and that the endings were usually described as ‘bittersweet’ as life goes on in the face of tragedy.
Many people often see little similarity between the country of Japan and Europe. However, there are actually several similarities between these two countries. In fact, Reischauer and Jansen note that Feudal Japan had departed so far from East Asian norms that it was more similar to medieval Europe than it was to China. Thus, the knight of Europe and the samurai of Japan despite a lack of contact with one another shared several common elements. This was a result of many similarities social and cultural influences experienced by the two distant countries.
The samurai are a type of warrior class in Japan similar to the European knights. They were not only used as soldiers for combat in war but they also replaced the court government in terms of managing the local government. They pledged to keep the peace and stay loyal to their master. This is how they were used for most of history until the end of the Tokugawa period. Their rise all begins in the Kamakura period.
Samurais take the #1 spot for their combat adroitness, they were the champions in the fields of battles. Samurais were not only skilled warriors of battle, moreover they were influential leaders for their armies. The only weapons and armor the samurais took into battle were only two swords, leather plated armor, a helmet, and bow with proper training. Unlike other nations, anyone could become a samurai, no one was obligated to stay with families or to continue jobs their parents did. One of the biggest things samurais followed was there code of conduct, called Bushido “the way of the warrior.” Along with other individuals with authority, samurais had much authority as well; They had to keep peasants in check, check up on the harvests, and most importantly, keep their Daimyo(Lord) save from invaders at all costs. When disrespecting or showing cowardness to their Daimyo, it lead to bringing great shame and dishonor to the samurais whole family. When samurais become dishonorable they often end up leaving and becoming a ronin. Ronin’s were mainly mercenaries that carried out assassinations, spy missions, and sabotage. Although samurais have already come to an end, many still worship their fallen ancestors, some still study the basic practices of samurais to always keep a basic understanding of the training they went through. Along with well skilled warriors, some showed their level of skill not on the battlefield, rather on a piece of
According to Document C “Japan Memoirs of a Secret Empire”, talks about how the samurai and knights both started training at a young ages. The knights started training at ages 4-5 a little earlier than the Samurai who started training at 6-7. The Samurai training only lasted until they were 14 unlike the knights whose training lasted until they were 21. Although, the samurai training was shorter they still covered all the important areas. They also had similar armor and both consisted of metal. The samurai had a little bit more movement in their arms, but the armor was used for the same reasons, protection. Document D by Terry Bennett says, “Samurai did not wear armor on their right arm so they could easily draw their bow.” These similarities were significant because without these things both classes would lose the battle every time, and if they didn’t have armor they would get killed, and these similarities is one of the reasons the two groups are so alike. Both of the classes were so a like that’s it’s hard to acknowledge their
There are many historical aspects of the Japanese, but the most interesting is the history of the Samurai. In Japans history war played a large role in the country. Controlling clans fought for parts of the land and overall control of the country. These clans were powerful families that resided in the country and who all wanted power and control of Japan for themselves. The families that would be in control were known as Shoguns. These shoguns would have warriors that fought for them if any of the other clan families would try to attack him in order to overthrow him and take his power from him. The Samurai followed a code that developed from Chinese beliefs when in battle. The Samurais code was known as the Bushido. This code was also known as “The Way of The Warrior” which was the main belief s...
I believe we can all agree that Japanese samurais and European knights are two of the most skilled and famous forms of warriors in history, right? Well both warriors began their trade at a very young age, and went through multiple stages of training throughout their lives. They both had a code of honor basically, but they differed from one another in quite a few ways. The big question is, “Were the similarities greater than the differences?”. Right off the bat I began to ponder the technicalities of the answer to this question. Before I get too scrambled up in the technicalities, let’s discuss some these differences and the similarities and figure out how this plays out. Before we conduct this discussion, let’s review our key terms. A clan is a group of close-knit and interrelated families. Feudalism was a political and economic system that flourished in Europe from the 9th to the 15th century, based on higher classes giving random services and items in exchange for something else. Knights were men who served their lord as a mounted soldier in armor. Samurai’s were members of a powerful military social class in feudal Japan. A shogun was a hereditary commander-in-chief in feudal Japan. Chivalry was the medieval knightly system with its religious, moral, and social code. Bushido was the code of honor and morals developed by the Japanese samurai.