or bushi (武士, [bɯ.ɕi]) were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who served the Kuge and imperial court in the late 12th century, and eventually came to play a major political role until their abolition in the late 1870s during the Meiji era.[1] [2]
In the Heian period, powerful regional clans were relied on to put down rebellions. After power struggles, the Taira clan defeated the Minamoto clan in 1160. After the Minamoto defeated the Taira in 1185, Minamoto no Yoritomo established the Kamakura shogunate, a parallel government that did not surplant the imperial court.[3] [4] The warriors who served the Shogunate were called gokenin, landholding warriors whose retainers were called samurai.[5] [6] Gokenin were regulated by the Samurai-dokoro.
During the Sengoku Period, the term was vague and some samurai owned land, others were retainers or mercenaries.[7] Many served as retainers to lords (including daimyo). There was a great increase in the number of men who styled themselves samurai by virtue of bearing arms.[8] During the Edo period, 1603 to 1868, they were mainly the stewards and chamberlains of the daimyo estates, roles they had also filled in the past. During the Edo period, they came to represent a hereditary class.[9] On the other hand, from the mid-Edo period, and farmers could be promoted to the samurai class by being adopted into families or by serving in offices, and low-ranking samurai could be transferred to lower social classes, such as chōnin, by changing jobs.[10]
In the 1870s, samurai families comprised 5% of the population. As modern militaries emerged in the 19th century, the samurai were rendered increasingly obsolete and very expensive to maintain compared to the average conscript soldier. The Meiji Restoration formally abolished the status, and most former samurai became Shizoku. This allowed them to move into professional and entrepreneurial roles.
The proper term for Japanese warriors is, meaning 'warrior'[11], but also could be interchangeable with, meaning 'military family', and later could refer to the whole class of professional warriors[12] . Especially in the west, samurai is used synonymous with bushi, but they can have different meanings depending on context.[13]
Samurai originally meant servant, and did not have military connotations, although bushi in the Heian period who served courtiers were called samurai[14] . According to Michael Wert, "a warrior of elite stature in pre-seventeenth-century Japan would have been insulted to be called a 'samurai'". In the Tokugawa period, the terms were roughly interchangeable, as the military class was legally limited to the retainers of the Shogun or Daimyo. However, strictly speaking samurai referred to higher ranking retainers, although the cut off between samurai and other military retainers varied from domain to domain.[15] Also usage varied by class, with commoners referring to all sword carrying men as samurai, regardless of rank.[16]
The definition of "samurai" varies from period to period. From the Heian period to the Edo period, bushi were people who fought with weapons for a living.[17] [18] In the Heian period, on the other hand, the definition of samurai referred to officials who served the emperor, the imperial family, and the nobles of the imperial court, the upper echelons of society. They were responsible for assisting the nobles in their daily duties, guarding the nobles, guarding the court, arresting bandits, and suppressing civil wars, much like secretaries, butlers, and police officers today.[17] [18] Samurai in this period referred to the and of the court ranks.
During the Kamakura period, the definition of samurai became synonymous with, which refers to bushi who owned territory and served the shogun. However, some samurai of exceptional status,, did not serve the shogun. Subordinate bushi in the service of the samurai were called or . Some of the rōtō were given a territory and a family name, and as, they acquired a status equivalent to that of a samurai. In other words, a high-ranking person among the bushi was called a samurai.[17] [18]
During the Muromachi period, as in the Kamakura period, the definition of samurai referred to high-ranking bushi in the service of the shogun. Bushi serving were not considered samurai. Those who did not serve a particular lord, such as the, who were vagabonds, the, who were armed peasants, and the, who were temporarily hired foot soldiers, were not considered samurai.[17] [18]
During the Sengoku period, the traditional master-servant relationship in Japanese society collapsed, and the traditional definition of samurai changed dramatically. Samurai no longer referred to those serving the shogun or emperor, and anyone who distinguished themselves in war could become samurai regardless of their social status.[18] came from the powerful, who owned farmland and held leadership positions in their villages, and became vassals of . Their status was half farmer, half bushi (samurai).[19] On the other hand, it also referred to local bushi who did not serve the shogun or daimyo. According to Stephen Morillo, during this period the term refers to "a retainer of a lord - usually ... the retainer of a daimyo" and that the term samurai "marks social function and not class", and "all sorts of soldiers, including pikemen, bowmen, musketeers and horsemen were samurai".[20]
During the Azuchi–Momoyama period (late Sengoku period), "samurai" often referred to, the lowest-ranking bushi, as exemplified by the provisions of the temporary law Separation Edict enacted by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1591. This law regulated the transfer of status classes:samurai (wakatō),,, and . These four classes and the ashigaru were and peasants employed by the bushi and fell under the category of .[21] [22] In times of war, samurai (wakatō) and ashigaru were fighters, while the rest were porters. Generally, samurai (wakatō) could take family names, while some ashigaru could, and only samurai (wakatō) were considered samurai class.[21] [23] Wakatō, like samurai, had different definitions in different periods, meaning a young bushi in the Muromachi period and a rank below and above ashigaru in the Edo period.
In the early Edo period, even some with territories of 10,000 koku or more called themselves samurai.[10] At the beginning of the Tokugawa shogunate, there was no clear distinction between and gokenin, which referred to direct vassals of the shogun, but from the second half of the 17th century a distinction was made between hatamoto, direct vassals with territories of 10,000 koku or less who were entitled to an audience with the shogun, and gokenin, those without such rights. Samurai referred to hatamoto in the Tokugawa shogunate and to or higher status bushi in each . During this period, most bushi came to serve the shogun and the daimyo of each domains, and as the distinction between bushi and chōnin or peasants became stricter, the boundaries between the definitions of samurai and bushi became blurred. Since then, the term "samurai" has been used to refer to "bushi".[17] [18] Officially, however, the high-ranking bushi were called samurai and the low-ranking bushi were called . Samurai and kachi were represented by the word, a status that can be translated as warrior class, bushi class, or samurai class. Samurai were entitled to an audience with their lord, were allowed to ride horses, and received rice from the land and peasants under their control, while kachi were not entitled to an audience with their lord, guarded their lord on foot, and received rice from the stores of the shogunate and each domain. Gokenin, the status of kachi, were financially impoverished and supported themselves by making bamboo handicrafts and umbrellas and selling plants. The shibun status of samurai and kachi was clearly distinguished from the status of the ashigaru and chūgen who served them, but it was more difficult to rise from kachi to samurai than from ashigaru to kachi, and the status gap between samurai, who were high-ranking bushi, and kachi, who were low-ranking bushi, was quite wide. During the Edo Period, samurai represented a hereditary social class defined by the right to bear arms and to hold public office, as well as high social status. From the mid-Edo period, chōnin and farmers could be promoted to the samurai class by being adopted into gokenin families, or by serving in offices, and kachi could be transferred to lower social classes, such as chōnin, by changing jobs.
As part of the Taihō Code of 702, and the later Yōrō Code,[24] the population was required to report regularly for the census, a precursor for national conscription. With an understanding of how the population was distributed, Emperor Monmu introduced a law whereby 1 in 3–4 adult males were drafted into the state military. These soldiers were required to supply their own weapons, and in return were exempted from duties and taxes.[25]
The Taihō Code classified most Imperial bureaucrats into 12 ranks, each divided into two sub-ranks, 1st rank being the highest adviser to the emperor. Those of 6th rank and below were referred to as "samurai" and dealt with day-to-day affairs and were initially civilian public servants, in keeping with the original derivation of this word from, a verb meaning 'to serve'.[26]
In 780, general conscription was abolished, and the government relied solely on units of capable warriors called kondei recruited from the sons of wealthy peasants and provincial officials. Another principle of the Ritsuryō system had already begun to be abandoned. All the land belonged to the state, and had been distributed on a per capita basis to farmers. However, in 743, farmers were allowed to cultivate reclaimed land in perpetuity. This allowed clan leaders, especially those with lots of slaves, to acquire large amounts of land. Members of the Imperial family, the Kuge and Temples and Shrines received grants of tax-free land. In the 9th Century, the farmers began to give their land over to the nobility in order to avoid taxes. They would then administer and work the land for a payment of rice. This also reduced the wealth of the Emperor, as he had no private land and was dependent on tax income. Many of the farmers armed themselves and formed warrior groups called rōdō. These warriors then followed powerful families like the Minamoto and Taira.[27]
Taira no Masakado, who rose to prominence in the early 10th century, was the first of the local warrior class to revolt against the imperial court.[28] He had served Fujiwara no Tadahira as a young man, but eventually won a power struggle within the Taira clan and became a powerful figure in the Kanto region. In 939, Fujiwara no Haruaki, a powerful figure in the Hitachi province, fled to Masakado. He was wanted for tyranny by Fujiwara no Korechika, an who oversaw the province of Hitachi, and Fujiwara no Korechika demanded that Masakado hand over Fujiwara no Haruaki. Masakado refused, and war broke out between Masakado and Fujiwara no Korechika, with Masakado becoming an enemy of the imperial court. Masakado proclaimed that the Kanto region under his rule was independent of the Imperial Court and called himself the . In response, the imperial court sent a large army led by Taira no Sadamori to kill Masakado. As a result, Masakado was killed in battle in February 940. He is still revered as one of the three great of Japan.[28] [29]
The Heian period saw the appearance of distinctive Japanese armor and weapons. Typical examples are the (long sword) and (halberd) used in close combat, and the and styles of armor. High-ranking samurai equipped with (bows) who fought on horseback wore, while lower-ranking samurai equipped with who fought on foot wore .[30]
During the reigns of Emperor Shirakawa and Emperor Toba, the Taira clan became, or overseers of various regions, and accumulated wealth by taking samurai from various regions as their retainers. In the struggle for the succession of Emperor Toba, Emperor Sutoku and Emperor Go-Shirakawa, each with his samurai class on his side, fought the Hōgen rebellion, which was won by Emperor Go-Shirakawa, who had Taira no Kiyomori and Minamoto no Yoshitomo on his side. Later, Taira no Kiyomori defeated Minamoto no Yoshitomo in the Heiji rebellion and became the first samurai-born aristocratic class, eventually becoming Daijō-daijin, the highest position of the aristocratic class, and the Taira clan monopolized important positions at the Imperial Court and wielded power. The victor, Taira no Kiyomori, became an imperial advisor and was the first warrior to attain such a position. He eventually seized control of the central government, establishing the first samurai-dominated government and relegating the emperor to figurehead status. The clan had its women marry emperors and exercise control through the emperor.[31]
However, when Taira no Kiyomori used his power to have the child of his daughter Taira no Tokuko and Emperor Takakura installed as Emperor Antoku, there was widespread opposition.Prince Mochihito, no longer able to assume the imperial throne, called upon the Minamoto clan to raise an army to defeat the Taira clan, and the Genpei War began. Minamoto no Yoshinaka expelled the Taira clan from Kyoto, and although he was initially welcomed by the hermit Emperor Go-Shirakawa, he became estranged and isolated due to the disorderly military discipline and lack of political power under his command. He staged a coup, overthrew the emperor's entourage, and became the first of the Minamoto clan to assume the office of . In response, Minamoto no Yoritomo sent Minamoto no Noriyori and Minamoto no Yoshitsune to defeat Yoshinaka, who was killed within a year of becoming shogun. In 1185, the Taira clan was finally defeated in the Battle of Dan-no-ura, and the Minamoto clan came to power.[31]
The victorious Minamoto no Yoritomo established the superiority of the samurai over the aristocracy. In 1185, Yoritomo obtained the right to appoint shugo and jitō, and was allowed to organize soldiers and police, and to collect a certain amount of tax.[32] Initially, their responsibility was restricted to arresting rebels and collecting needed army provisions and they were forbidden from interfering with kokushi officials, but their responsibility gradually expanded. Thus, the samurai class became the political ruling power in Japan.
In 1190 he visited Kyoto and in 1192 became Sei'i Taishōgun, establishing the Kamakura shogunate, or Kamakura bakufu. Instead of ruling from Kyoto, he set up the shogunate in Kamakura, near his base of power. "Bakufu" means "tent government", taken from the encampments the soldiers lived in, in accordance with the Bakufu's status as a military government.[33]
The Kamakura period (1185–1333) saw the rise of the samurai under shogun rule as they were "entrusted with the security of the estates" and were symbols of the ideal warrior and citizen.[34] Originally, the emperor and non-warrior nobility employed these warrior nobles. In time they amassed enough manpower, resources and political backing, in the form of alliances with one another, to establish the first samurai-dominated government. As the power of these regional clans grew, their chief was typically a distant relative of the emperor and a lesser member of either the Fujiwara, Minamoto, or Taira clan.
From the Kamakura period onwards, emphasis was put on training samurai from childhood in using "the bow and sword".[35]
In the late Kamakura period, even the most senior samurai began to wear, as the heavy and elegant were no longer respected. Until then, the body was the only part of the that was protected, but for higher-ranking samurai, the also came with a (helmet) and shoulder guards.[30] For lower-ranked samurai, the was introduced, the simplest style of armor that protected only the front of the torso and the sides of the abdomen. In the late Kamakura period, a new type of armor called appeared, in which the two ends of the were extended to the back to provide greater protection.[36]
See also: Mongol invasions of Japan. Various samurai clans struggled for power during the Kamakura shogunate. Zen Buddhism spread among the samurai in the 13th century and helped shape their standards of conduct, particularly in overcoming the fear of death and killing. Among the general populace Pure Land Buddhism was favored however.
In 1274, the Mongol-founded Yuan dynasty in China sent a force of some 40,000 men and 900 ships to invade Japan in northern Kyūshū. Japan mustered a mere 10,000 samurai to meet this threat. The invading army was harassed by major thunderstorms throughout the invasion, which aided the defenders by inflicting heavy casualties. The Yuan army was eventually recalled, and the invasion was called off. The Mongol invaders used small bombs, which was likely the first appearance of bombs and gunpowder in Japan.
The Japanese defenders recognized the possibility of a renewed invasion and began construction of a great stone barrier around Hakata Bay in 1276. Completed in 1277, this wall stretched for 20 kilometers around the bay. It later served as a strong defensive point against the Mongols. The Mongols attempted to settle matters in a diplomatic way from 1275 to 1279, but every envoy sent to Japan was executed.
Leading up to the second Mongolian invasion, Kublai Khan continued to send emissaries to Japan, with five diplomats sent in September 1275 to Kyūshū. Hōjō Tokimune, the shikken of the Kamakura shogun, responded by having the Mongolian diplomats brought to Kamakura and then beheading them.[37] The graves of the five executed Mongol emissaries exist to this day in Kamakura at Tatsunokuchi.[38] On 29 July 1279, five more emissaries were sent by the Mongol empire, and again beheaded, this time in Hakata. This continued defiance of the Mongol emperor set the stage for one of the most famous engagements in Japanese history.
In 1281, a Yuan army of 140,000 men with 5,000 ships was mustered for another invasion of Japan. Northern Kyūshū was defended by a Japanese army of 40,000 men. The Mongol army was still on its ships preparing for the landing operation when a typhoon hit north Kyūshū island. The casualties and damage inflicted by the typhoon, followed by the Japanese defense of the Hakata Bay barrier, resulted in the Mongols again being defeated.
The thunderstorms of 1274 and the typhoon of 1281 helped the samurai defenders of Japan repel the Mongol invaders despite being vastly outnumbered. These winds became known as kami-no-Kaze, which literally translates as "wind of the gods".[39] This is often given a simplified translation as "divine wind". The kami-no-Kaze lent credence to the Japanese belief that their lands were indeed divine and under supernatural protection.
In 1336, Ashikaga Takauji, who opposed Emperor Godaigo, established the Ashikaga Shogunate with Emperor Kōgon. As a result, the southern court, descended from Emperor Godaigo, and the northern court, descended from Emperor Kogon, were established side by side. This period of coexistence of the two dynasties is called the Nanboku-chō period, which corresponds to the beginning of the Muromachi period. The Northern Court, supported by the Ashikaga Shogunate, had six emperors, and in 1392 the Imperial Court was reunited by absorbing the Southern Court, although the modern Imperial Household Agency considers the Southern Court to be the legitimate emperor.[40] The Latin: de facto rule of Japan by the Ashikaga Shogunate lasted until the Onin War, which broke out in 1467.
From 1346 to 1358 during the Nanboku-cho period, the Ashikaga shogunate gradually expanded the authority of the, the local military and police officials established by the Kamakura shogunate, giving the Shugo jurisdiction over land disputes between and allowing the Shugo to receive half of all taxes from the areas they controlled. The Shugo shared their newfound wealth with the local samurai, creating a hierarchical relationship between the Shugo and the samurai, and the first early, called, appeared.[41]
The innovations of Sōshū swordsmiths in the late Kamakura period allowed them to produce Japanese swords with tougher blades than before, and during the Nanboku-chō period, (large/great sword) were at their peak as weapons for the samurai.[42]
Until the Mongol invasion in the late Kamakura period, the main battle was fought by small groups of warriors using (bows) from horseback, and close combat was a secondary battle. From the Nanboku-chō period to the Muromachi period, large groups of infantrymen became more active in battle, close combat became more important, and the and, which had been used since the Heian period, were used more. The (spear) was not yet a major weapon in this period.[43] [44]
During the Nanboku-chō period, many lower-class foot soldiers called began to participate in battles, and the popularity of increased. During the Nanboku-chō and Muromachi periods, and became the norm, and senior samurai also began to wear by adding (helmet), (face armor), and gauntlet.[45]
Issues of inheritance caused family strife as primogeniture became common, in contrast to the division of succession designated by law before the 14th century. Invasions of neighboring samurai territories became common to avoid infighting, and bickering among samurai was a constant problem for the Kamakura and Ashikaga shogunates.
The outbreak of the Onin War, which began in 1467 and lasted about 10 years, devastated Kyoto and brought down the power of the Ashikaga Shogunate. This plunged the country into the warring states period, in which daimyo (feudal lords) from different regions fought each other. This period corresponds to the late Muromachi period. There are about nine theories about the end of the Sengoku Period, the earliest being the year 1568, when Oda Nobunaga marched on Kyoto, and the latest being the suppression of the Shimabara Rebellion in 1638. Thus, the Sengoku Period overlaps with the Muromachi, Azuchi–Momoyama, and Edo periods, depending on the theory. In any case, the Sengoku period was a time of large-scale civil wars throughout Japan.[46] [47]
Daimyo who became more powerful as the shogunate's control weakened were called, and they often came from shugo daimyo,, and . In other words, sengoku daimyo differed from shugo daimyo in that a sengoku daimyo was able to rule the region on his own, without being appointed by the shogun.[41]
During this period, the traditional master-servant relationship between the lord and his vassals broke down, with the vassals eliminating the lord, internal clan and vassal conflicts over leadership of the lord's family, and frequent rebellion and puppetry by branch families against the lord's family.[48] These events sometimes led to the rise of samurai to the rank of sengoku daimyo. For example, Hōjō Sōun was the first samurai to rise to the rank of sengoku daimyo during this period. Uesugi Kenshin was an example of a Shugodai who became sengoku daimyo by weakening and eliminating the power of the lord.[49] [50]
This period was marked by the loosening of samurai culture, with people born into other social strata sometimes making a name for themselves as warriors and thus becoming de facto samurai. One such example is Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a well-known figure who rose from a peasant background to become a samurai, sengoku daimyo, and kampaku (Imperial Regent).[51]
From this time on, infantrymen called, who were mobilized from the peasantry, were mobilized in even greater numbers than before, and the importance of the infantry, which had begun in the Nanboku-chō period, increased even more.[43] When matchlocks were introduced from Portugal in 1543, Japanese swordsmiths immediately began to improve and mass-produce them. The Japanese matchlock was named after the Tanegashima island, which is believed to be the place where it was first introduced to Japan. By the end of the Sengoku Period, there were hundreds of thousands of arquebuses in Japan and a large army of nearly 100,000 men clashing with each other.[52]
On the battlefield, began to fight in close formation, using (spear) and . As a result,, (bow), and became the primary weapons on the battlefield. The, which was difficult to maneuver in close formation, and the long, heavy fell into disuse and were replaced by the, which could be held short, and the short, light, which appeared in the Nanboku-cho period and gradually became more common. The was often cut off from the hilt and shortened to make a . The, which had become inconvenient for use on the battlefield, was transformed into a symbol of authority carried by high-ranking samurai.[53] [54] [55] [43] Although the had become even more obsolete, some sengoku daimyo dared to organize assault and kinsmen units composed entirely of large men equipped with to demonstrate the bravery of their armies.[56]
These changes in the aspect of the battlefield during the Sengoku period led to the emergence of the style of armor, which improved the productivity and durability of armor. In the history of Japanese armor, this was the most significant change since the introduction of the and in the Heian period. In this style, the number of parts was reduced, and instead armor with eccentric designs became popular.[57]
By the end of the Sengoku period, allegiances between warrior vassals, also known as military retainers, and lords were solidified.[58] Vassals would serve lords in exchange for material and intangible advantages, in keeping with Confucian ideas imported from China between the seventh and ninth centuries.These independent vassals who held land were subordinate to their superiors, who may be local lords or, in the Edo period, the shogun.A vassal or samurai could expect monetary benefits, including land or money, from lords in exchange for their military services.
The Azuchi-Momoyama period refers to the period when Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi were in power. The name "Azuchi-Momoyama" comes from the fact that Nobunaga's castle, Azuchi Castle, was located in Azuchi, Shiga, and Fushimi Castle, where Hideyoshi lived after his retirement, was located in Momoyama. There are several theories as to when the Azuchi–Momoyama period began: 1568, when Oda Nobunaga entered Kyoto in support of Ashikaga Yoshiaki; 1573, when Oda Nobunaga expelled Ashikaga Yoshiaki from Kyoto; and 1576, when the construction of Azuchi Castle began. In any case, the beginning of the Azuchii–Momoyama period marked the complete end of the rule of the Ashikaga shogunate, which had been disrupted by the Onin War; in other words, it marked the end of the Muromachi period.
Oda Nobunaga was the well-known lord of the Nagoya area (once called Owari Province) and an exceptional example of a samurai of the Sengoku period.[59] He came within a few years of, and laid down the path for his successors to follow, the reunification of Japan under a new bakufu (shogunate).
Oda Nobunaga made innovations in the fields of organization and war tactics, made heavy use of arquebuses, developed commerce and industry, and treasured innovation. Consecutive victories enabled him to end the Ashikaga Bakufu and disarm of the military powers of the Buddhist monks, which had inflamed futile struggles among the populace for centuries. Attacking from the "sanctuary" of Buddhist temples, they were constant headaches to any warlord and even the emperor, who tried to control their actions. He died in 1582 when one of his generals, Akechi Mitsuhide, turned upon him with his army.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu, who founded the Tokugawa shogunate, were loyal followers of Nobunaga. Hideyoshi began as a peasant and became one of Nobunaga's top generals, and Ieyasu had shared his childhood with Nobunaga. Hideyoshi defeated Mitsuhide within a month and was regarded as the rightful successor of Nobunaga by avenging the treachery of Mitsuhide. These two were able to use Nobunaga's previous achievements on which build a unified Japan and there was a saying: "The reunification is a rice cake; Oda made it. Hashiba shaped it. In the end, only Ieyasu tastes it."[60] (Hashiba is the family name that Toyotomi Hideyoshi used while he was a follower of Nobunaga.)
Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who became a grand minister in 1586, created a law that non-samurai were not allowed to carry weapons, which the samurai caste codified as permanent and hereditary, thereby ending the social mobility of Japan, which lasted until the dissolution of the Edo shogunate by the Meiji revolutionaries.
The distinction between samurai and non-samurai was so obscure that during the 16th century, most male adults in any social class (even small farmers) belonged to at least one military organization of their own and served in wars before and during Hideyoshi's rule. It can be said that an "all against all" situation continued for a century. The authorized samurai families after the 17th century were those that chose to follow Nobunaga, Hideyoshi and Ieyasu. Large battles occurred during the change between regimes, and a number of defeated samurai were destroyed, went rōnin or were absorbed into the general populace.
See also: Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–1598).
In 1592 and again in 1597, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, aiming to invade China through Korea, mobilized an army of 160,000 peasants and samurai and deployed them to Korea in one of the largest military endeavors in Eastern Asia until the late 19th century.[61] [62] Taking advantage of arquebus mastery and extensive wartime experience from the Sengoku period, Japanese samurai armies made major gains in most of Korea. A few of the famous samurai generals of this war were Katō Kiyomasa, Konishi Yukinaga, and Shimazu Yoshihiro. Katō Kiyomasa advanced to Orangkai territory (present-day Manchuria) bordering Korea to the northeast and crossed the border into northern China.
Kiyomasa withdrew back to Korea after retaliatory counterattacks from the Jurchens in the area, whose castles his forces had raided.[63] Shimazu Yoshihiro led some 7,000 samurai into battle, and despite being heavily outnumbered, defeated a host of allied Ming and Korean forces at the Battle of Sacheon in 1598. Yoshihiro was feared as Oni-Shimazu ("Shimazu ogre") and his nickname spread across Korea and into China.In spite of the superiority of Japanese land forces, the two expeditions ultimately failed after Hideyoshi's death,[64] though the invasions did devastate the Korean peninsula. The causes of the failure included Korean naval superiority (which, led by Admiral Yi Sun-sin, harassed Japanese supply lines continuously throughout the wars, resulting in supply shortages on land), the commitment of sizable Ming forces to Korea, Korean guerrilla actions, wavering Japanese commitment to the campaigns as the wars dragged on, and the underestimation of resistance by Japanese commanders.
In the first campaign of 1592, Korean defenses on land were caught unprepared, under-trained, and under-armed. They were rapidly overrun, with only a limited number of successfully resistant engagements against the more experienced and battle-hardened Japanese forces. During the second campaign in 1597, Korean and Ming forces proved far more resilient and with the support of continued Korean naval superiority, managed to limit Japanese gains to parts of southeastern Korea. The final death blow to the Japanese campaigns in Korea came with Hideyoshi's death in late 1598 and the recall of all Japanese forces in Korea by the Council of Five Elders, established by Hideyoshi to oversee the transition from his regency to that of his son Hideyori.
See also: Battle of Sekigahara.
Before his death, Hideyoshi ordered that Japan be ruled by a council of the five most powerful sengoku daimyo,, and Hideyoshi's five retainers,, until his only heir, the five-year-old Toyotomi Hideyori, reached the age of 16.[65] However, having only the young Hideyori as Hideyoshi's successor weakened the Toyotomi regime. Today, the loss of all of Hideyoshi's adult heirs is considered the main reason for the downfall of the Toyotomi clan.[66] [67] [68] Hideyoshi's younger brother, Toyotomi Hidenaga, who had supported Hideyoshi's rise to power as a leader and strategist, had already died of illness in 1591, and his nephew, Toyotomi Hidetsugu, who was Hideyoshi's only adult successor, was forced to commit seppuku in 1595 along with many other vassals on Hideyoshi's orders for suspected rebellion.[66] [67] [68]
In this politically unstable situation, Maeda Toshiie, one of the Gotairō, died of illness, and Tokugawa Ieyasu, one of the Gotairō who had been second in power to Hideyoshi but had not participated in the war, rose to power, and Ieyasu came into conflict with Ishida Mitsunari, one of the Go-Bukyō and others. This conflict eventually led to the Battle of Sekigahara, in which the led by Ieyasu defeated the led by Mitsunari, and Ieyasu nearly gained control of Japan.[65]
Social mobility was high, as the ancient regime collapsed and emerging samurai needed to maintain a large military and administrative organizations in their areas of influence. Most of the samurai families that survived to the 19th century originated in this era, declaring themselves to be the blood of one of the four ancient noble clans: Minamoto, Taira, Fujiwara, and Tachibana. In most cases, however, it is difficult to prove these claims.
See also: Edo period.
After the Battle of Sekigahara, when the Tokugawa shogunate defeated the Toyotomi clan in the summer campaign of the siege of Osaka in 1615, the long war ended. During the Tokugawa shogunate, samurai increasingly became courtiers, bureaucrats, and administrators rather than warriors. With no warfare since the early 17th century, samurai gradually lost their military function during the Tokugawa era (also called the Edo period).
Following the passing of a law in 1629, samurai on official duty were required to wear two swords).[69] However, by the end of the Tokugawa era, samurai were aristocratic bureaucrats for their daishō, becoming more of a symbolic emblem of power than a weapon used in daily life. They still had the legal right to cut down any commoner who did not show proper respect, but to what extent this right was used is unknown.[70] When the central government forced daimyōs to cut the size of their armies, unemployed rōnin became a social problem.
Theoretical obligations between a samurai and his lord (usually a daimyō) increased from the Genpei era to the Edo era, strongly emphasized by the teachings of Confucius and Mencius, required reading for the educated samurai class. The leading figures who introduced Confucianism in Japan in the early Tokugawa period were Fujiwara Seika (1561–1619), Hayashi Razan (1583–1657), and Matsunaga Sekigo (1592–1657).
Pederasty permeated the culture of samurai in the early seventeenth century.[71] The relentless condemnation of pederasty by Jesuit missionaries also hindered attempts to convert Japan's governing elite to Christianity.[72] Pederasty had become deeply institutionalized among the daimyo and samurai, prompting comparisons to ancient Athens and Sparta.[73] The Jesuits' strong condemnation of the practice alienated many of Japan's ruling class, creating further barriers to their acceptance of Christianity.[74] Tokugawa Iemitsu, the third shogun, was known for his interest in pederasty.[75]
The samurai served as role modeld for the other social classes.[76] With time on their hands, samurai spent more time in pursuit of other interests such as scholarship. After the Edo period, it