The Samurai
THE SAMURAI
By Clive Sinclaire
The Way of the Samurai is Death - Yamamoto – Hagakure
At the end of the 8th century, the capital of Japan was moved from Nara City to Kyoto. By this time, Buddhism and the Chinese way of writing had been largely absorbed from the continent. Great Buddhist monasteries with large estates and tax free privileges existed far and wide. These various religious sects were supported by armed and militant clerics known as sohei, who guarded their privileges jealously, even to the extent of employing their own swordsmiths to keep a ready supply of weapons at hand. It was not surprising; therefore, that the Imperial court moved to Kyoto to avoid this hotbed of Buddhist activity centered in Nara.
At about this time, a significant number of imperial offspring were rusticated to the countryside, away from the influence of the somewhat effete Imperial court in Kyoto. Here, often in a frontier environment, they attracted followers from more humble backgrounds. Mostly agricultural workers, these followers received a certain amount of protection from their “lords” and repaid this by bearing arms on their behalf, when called upon to do so. As these aristocrats were constantly feuding with their neighbors and fighting the aboriginal inhabitants of the islands, one can assume that their services were in constant demand. They became grouped into clans and known as “those who serve”, the embryonic samurai or bushi who would come to influence every aspect of life and art in old Japan.
By the middle of the 12th century, two main families had risen to prominence and they disputed power and influence over the court in Kyoto. Known as the Heike (or Taira) and the Genji (or Minamoto) it seemed that they would inevitably meet in armed conflict and throughout the middle of the 12th century a number of skirmishes took place. The Heike clan was fortunate enough to have greater influence over the emperor than their country cousins and succeeded in having the Genji declared rebels against the retired emperor Go-Shirikawa.
Left. Samurai armour. Leather with ornamental needlework, 2nd half of 19th C Christies, London. Right. Breastplate Samurai armour. Leather Edo period, mid 19th C. Christies, London.
Full scale war broke out in 1180 and heroes and villains populate the stories of what is generally known as the Gempei war (Gempei is a contraction of Genji and Heikei). The opposing samurai armies were dressed in magnificent and brightly laced armours called o-yoroi. They brandished swords of incredible quality and grace and were experts with the Japanese long bow, the preferred weapon of a gentleman of the time. Each side sought out worthy opponents of equal rank and social standing, calling their pedigree out to each other before the killing took place. Interestingly, both sides employed some of the militant monks, the sohei, impressed by their martial prowess, particularly with the naginata, a glaive like weapon.
Driven by great acts of bravery and a complete lack of regard for their own safety, the tales of the Gempei wars are known to all Japanese schoolchildren to this day. The great Genji general, Minamoto Yoshitsune and his faithful retainer, the giant monk Benkei, combine tales of brilliant military strategy and heroic deeds only to be concluded by a tragic death, all the ingredients of a classic Japanese drama. After a series of bitterly contested battles, the Genji virtually annihilated the entire Heike clan at the battle of Dan-no-ura in 1185.
Utamaro (1753-1806) Scene from the play Chushinuguru, early 18th C. Young samurai Rikiya with Kononami; the elderly samurai Honzo at the doorway.
Woodcut Christies, London
The leader of the Genji, Minamoto Yoritomo established the first government of the samurai, for the samurai. The cowed emperor in Kyoto was persuaded to confer the title of Seii-taii-Shogun (Barbarian Suppressing General), supposedly a temporary title, on Yoritomo, thereby acknowledging the reality of the situation. Yoritomo’s Shogunate was thereafter known as the Minamoto Shogunate or Bakufu (a word loosely meaning military camp). Yoritomo himself was considered as a good administrator and politician but was consumed with jealousy and suspicion to the extent that he had his younger brother Yoshitsune, the hero who had brought him many victories, hunted down and
Left. Samurai in armour. Woodcut, 19th C. FlorenceCourt, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland . Right. Ceremonial Samurai armour, Edo period (17th-18th C, Christies London
killed. Consequently it is Yoshitsune and his faithful retainer, the warrior monk Benkei, who reside in the samurai hall of fame whilst Yoritomo, is universally disliked.
The Minamoto shogunate established by Yoritomo was based in Kamakura, Sagami province, (near present day Tokyo) many miles from the imperial court in Kyoto. Thus it was able to promote and maintain a martial atmosphere, far from the corrupting influence of Kyoto’s aristocratic environment. Kamakura attracted many of the best swordmakers and armourers of the day and many swords from this time are still preserved and revered by sword connoisseurs today. Strangely, considering the rapid rise to power, the Minamoto shogunate was only to exert direct power for a mere three generations and allowed the Hojo family to fulfil all the necessary functions in the role of Regents, which they did with some efficiency. However, in late 1274 the country was faced with a threat from foreign invasion that had never before been experienced. The great Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan (who one legend claims to have been Yoshitsune who had escaped from Yoritomo!) planned to make the islands of Japan part of the great Mongol empire. To this end he sent a large fleet to invade Kyushu Island.
The Mongols made a number of fiercely contested landings in northern Kyushu and the samurai were taught hard lessons. The weapons, tactics and strategies of the Mongols was completely different to those employed by the Japanese and were it not for their intense bravery the samurai may well have lost the day. It was divine intervention, in the form of a ferocious typhoon that wrecked the Mongol fleet and wreaked havoc in their ranks that finally saved the Japanese. A second attempt a few years later met with a similar fate and Japan was again saved by the divine wind. The divine wind or Kamikaze was to become the inspiration for those 20th century samurai who were to sacrifice their lives in a vain attempt to again save the country in such places as Okinawa and Iwo Jima. On the positive side, the near defeat encouraged a re-assessment in sword making which gave birth to a new style known as Soshu-den (Sagami province tradition) led by arguably the greatest swordsmith of all time, Masamune.
The cost of the defense and the constant state of preparedness that followed the two abortive invasions, caused the Hojo government great financial stress and many samurai were upset at their treatment after the wars. Once again, discontent would ferment into rebellion and the current emperor Go-daigo was ready to recruit disaffected samurai in order to restore the country to direct imperial rule and to defeat the “usurpers” of his imperial prerogative. It was, therefore, in the 14th century that the greatest acts of samurai loyalty may be found. It was an unusual situation to find a powerful samurai such as Kusunoki Masashige declare for the emperor and many rallied to the imperial cause. Kusunoki was to gain eternal fame as, having so declared himself, the headstrong emperor, ignoring advice to the contrary, ordered him into a battle from which there was no chance of survival. Kusunoki knowing his fate obeyed the orders and, when defeat was inevitable, committed suicide in the time honored samurai way. However, the imperial forces had some success, even overthrowing the Hojo at Kamakura. This was greatly helped by a turncoat, one Ashikaga Takauji, who saw great advantages for his clan (who were of Minamoto stock) and deserted the Hojo and changed sides. Briefly Go-daigo was back on the throne, however, Ashikaga set up a rival court in the north. This strange situation, which lasted until 1392, lent its name to the period, the Namboku-cho or period of the north and south courts and it continued with much confused fighting throughout the land.
After taking advantage of every twist and turn of fate, in 1338, Ashikaga Takauji was proclaimed the first Ashikaga shogun and set his bakufu up in the Muromachi district of Kyoto. By the time the imperial squabbles were resolved in 1392, Ashikaga Yoshimtsu was the third Ashikaga shogun in what was to herald in the Muromachi period. Warfare had changed considerably by this time. Armour had become lighter, swords shorter and foot soldiers were far more commonplace. The bulk of these foot soldiers were from peasant stock and were known as ashiguru. By 1467, the first year of the Onin period, they found employment with several warring factions and managed to devastate the city of Kyoto. This was to mark the beginning of 100 years of civil wars, the Sengoku-jidai or the period of the country at war.
Local feudal lords or daimyo fought each other over land or wealth, mobilizing hundreds of thousands of men in the process. Fathers murdered sons, sons murdered both fathers
Samurai armour with pictorial decoration.
Late 16th – early 17th century
Leeds Museum and Art Galleries, England
and brothers. The lofty ideals of Bushido were observed more in their breach than in their enactment, in the quests for land, power and influence. It was a time when the lowly could overthrow the high and then be overthrown themselves. This was known as Gekoku-jō – the low oppress the high, when lowly peasants might rob and kill wounded and noble samurai, stealing their weapons and armour! There were few well organised clans capable of ruling, and even these had risen from a bloody and ruthless past. Clans such as the Takada and Uesugi are examples of this.
Again, battle tactics had changed with the heavy reliance on the ashiguru and there was a huge demand for weapons, especially swords and spears. Whenever there is such a great demand, quality is the first casualty and so it was. Most of the swords of the time are shadows of the earlier ones and were made with purely practical considerations, mainly in the provinces of Bizen and Mino. Massed spearmen and cavalry were the order of the day and war was carried out on the run. In tune with the mood of the day, armies saw no moral problems with changing sides in the middle of an action. Indeed if this were to preserve the name of the family or clan by bringing it out on the winning side, it was especially justified.
From all this confusion, there arose in the mid 16th century, in the province of Owari, a particularly ambitious and capable young man named Oda Nobunaga. Born in 1536 his ambition was to unify Japan under his rule rather than the weakened and by now, dissolute Ashikaga shogunate. He ruthlessly set about subduing his neighbours and all opposition. An innovative strategist he was the first to employ the use of massed firearms that had been introduced into the country in 1546. This he did with great effect at the battle of Nagashino where he destroyed the feared Takada clan’s cavalry. However, his unification plans met with an insurmountable problem when he was assassinated by one of his own generals, Akechi Mitsuhide. Akechi was hunted down by Nobunaga’s most talented and able general, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and put to the sword within eleven days, leaving Akechi with the derisory nickname of the “eleven day shogun”. It was the low born Hideyoshi who would take up the cause of unification.
Hideyoshi was a most capable military leader and politician as well as a great patron of the arts. He was based at Fushimi castle at Momoyama, a few miles south of Kyoto. Many of Japan’s incredible screens and paintings come from the so-called Azuchi-Momoyama period of Hideyoshi. He was particularly fond of the tea ceremony and he encouraged sophistication in the otherwise boorish samurai whilst maintaining a vicious and cruel streak in himself. His military exploits were profound and he managed even to bring the samurai of far away Kyushu Island under his control. His greatest, if somewhat reluctant ally was a daimyo from the Kanto area in the east, one Tokugawa Ieyasu. The end of the Momoyama period (late 16th century) was one of a relative peace that brought it’s own problems with so many redundant samurai (ronin) around. To overcome this problem, Hideyoshi packed a large number of them off to invade Korea. The invasion was hastily called off when Hideyoshi died suddenly (of natural causes!) it was the opportunity that Tokugawa Ieyasu had been waiting for.
Samurai swords, 15th – 16th century, Christies, London
Ieyasu was the third of the great unifiers of Japan as well as the most enduring. His tough Kanto samurai proceeded to eliminate those forces, predominantly from the West of Japan, that were still loyal to Hideyoshi’s heir. The decisive battle was to take place at Sekigahara in 1600 and Ieyasu was the outright winner, helped, of course, by defections on the other side. The remnants of the Western army were finally eliminated some thirteen years later at the siege of Osaka castle. The house of Tokugawa had succeeded in unifying the whole of Japan. Tokugawa Ieyasu, of Minamoto blood, was the first in a line of fifteen shoguns that was to oversee a Pax Tokugawa that would last for the next two hundred and fifty years. However, it was a peace at the price of a strict military dictatorship in which the samurai were at the top of the social ladder. Ieyasu made his capital at Edo in the east, a small swampy village that today is called Tokyo.
As the peace started many things were to change. Without the need to provide purely functional weapons, the swordsmiths were able to make swords that were of great artistic merit, which still remained efficient cutting weapons. This was to be seen especially in elaborate horimono or carvings on the blades as well as more richly decorated mounts. It was laid down by the Tokugawa shogunate that the samurai wear a pair of swords known as a daisho. This was the visible badge of rank that distinguished the samurai from all others and reminded him of his martial background. He would never be unarmed always having at least his short sword with him.
Samurai sword with dragon hilt and chased silver ornamentation, Christies, London
Towns grew up around the daimyo’s castles which became the centers of commerce and life in general. The Tokugawa made certain of their security by a series of laws that ensured their survival as shoguns. Marriage alliances and the allocation of fiefs to daimyo so that a Tokugawa supporting clan were adjacent to a less reliable one helped cement their hold (those that had been on the losing side at Sekigahara, mainly the clans of Satsuma, Choshu, Tosa and Hizen provinces known as the tozama or outer daimyo, still harbored grudges against the Tokugawa). All daimyo were compelled to make annual visits to Edo where many of their families were kept practically as hostages. Such constant movement kept them in financial straits thus few funds were available for rebellion. All aspects of life were controlled by the shogunate and it became illegal to leave the country or for any foreigners to enter it, on pain of death. The luckier samurai were retained by the daimyo but many were forced to join the ranks of the ronin and survive the best they could. Many of those retained became administrators and bureaucrats within the rigidly hierarchy of the clan system, but they were encouraged to practice the martial arts and be prepared for action at all times.
It was at this time that Bushido became, along with many other things, highly structured and was written down in books such as Hagakure. The ideals of the code, now no longer needed in battle had to be learned by these peacetime samurai. Yamamoto for instance, who wrote Hagakure, was a retainer of the proud Nabeshima clan of Hizen Province, and never saw battle. It was not until the middle of the 19th century that samurai found reason to unsheathe their swords in anger once again.
By this time the Tokugawa shogunate was under intense domestic pressure from crop failures and rioting peasants as well as external pressure from foreign incursions attempting to force trade treaties on the reluctant shogunate. It was the opportunity that the tozama daimyo had been awaiting for some two hundred and fifty years, to ferment revolt against the Tokugawa. They chose to support the fight to re-instate direct imperial rule and to expel the barbarians who had come uninvited to their shores. By 1868 they had succeeded in the former but the latter was impossible. The Emperor Mutsuhito (better known as Meiji) was reinstated to the throne and took over the last shogun’s castle in Edo with his new court. The commission of Shogun granted to Minamoto Yoritomo in 1185, had been finally handed back to the emperor almost seven hundred years later.
Conservative elements resisted the changes and the samurai of Satsuma province were in open revolt against the new government. A conscript army squashed the rebellion using modern firearms against “old fashioned” sword wielding samurai. Not for the last time was the Yamato Daimishi or Japanese spirit on which they relied, beaten by
Short samurai sword with cross guards, Edo period, 18th and 19th C.
Christies, London
superior technology and overwhelming numbers. The samurai class was disbanded and the wearing of the daisho prohibited as Japan rushed headlong into a program of modernisation and westernisation. This was largely encouraged and organised by the ex-samurai, inspired by their spirit of Bushido which was now directed towards nationalism, rather than loyalty to a feudal lord. By 1905 they had fought a war in China and beaten the Russian navy in an historic battle but they were treading the path towards military fascism, a corruption of Bushido. This road would lead to Pearl Harbour and finally to the mushroom clouds over Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Originally written for Art and Culture Magazine, Autumn 2003, both English language and Turkish. Editions. The original layout has been changed and updated to accommodate the website.
Please note that I neither sourced or provided the illustrations, nor did I write the captions
Clive Sinclaire
May 2008
Bexley, Kent
Source: www. to- ken.com
