Rise & Fall of the WarriorJoin now to read essay Rise & Fall of the WarriorRise & Fall of the WarriorThe samurai was one of the most proudest and feared warriors of all time. They enjoyed a quick rise to power with an equally quick drop to normal society. There undying devotion to there leaders honor, and even more importantly there own, set them apart from any other society. There rise to power, there code of life, there perfected technology, and there sharp downfall are all part of the great reign of the samurai.
The first appearance of the Japanese warrior was during the Heian era (794-1185), they were called bushi. Bushi were assigned to guard the emperor and came to be known as saburai. By the thirteenth century, hereditary warriors, officials serving princes, court ministers, and other persons of high rank, were called saburai. Saburai originally referred only to the higher class of warriors and court officials. Eventually it was changed to samurai to make it easier to pronounce. War played a central part in the history of Japan. Warring clans controlled much of the country. Each clan had its own head; made up of related families. The chiefs were the decendents of Japans imperial family. The wars were usually about land. To make things worse, only 20% of the land was fit for farming. The struggle for control of that land eventually gave rise to the Samurai. The Samurai rose out of these continuing battles for land among three main clans: the Minamoto, the Fujiwara and the Taira. The Samurai eventually earned there own class between the 9th and 12th centuries A.D. They were called by two names: Samurai (knights-retainers) and Bushi (warriors). Some of them were related to the ruling class. Others were hired men. They gave complete loyalty to their Daimyo (feudal landowners) and received land and position in return. Each Daimyo used his Samurai to protect his land and to expand his power and rights to more land. a system of shugo or “guards” was later established for all of the districts and provinces as a means of keeping order. The position of shugo gradually became hereditary and development the samurai into an elite class of professional warriors. As the generations passed, these warrior families became clans and grew to be more powerful than the hereditary lords they served (most of whom were descendants of noble families from Taira). These shugo gradually split from there lords and formed the shogun, the supreme seigneur of Samurai. One special category of samurai was the hatamoto, the higher ranking warriors who were the shoguns personal guard. During the Tokugawa Shogunate (1600-1867), the hatamoto were direct vassals of the shogun, and their annual revenue was fixed at a minimum of 10,000 bushels of rice.
They samurai developed a code based on Confucian and Zen Buddhist principles. The code came to be known as bushido, or the Way of the Warrior. This code was to dictate almost every part of their lives and influence the total culture of the country until modern times. The essence of bushido was total loyalty to the feudal lord; a willingness to give their lives in the defense of their lord, his honor, and their own; a strict regimen of martial training; and a sternly refined etiquette that governed their actions and behavior in all things. Part of the code of the samurai was to commit suicide rather than be captured in war or dishonored by failure. Those who did not carry out this order became known as ronin (masterless samurai) and were shunned by society. Many ronin became beggars, drunks, and assassins, shunned and feared. Many others threatened to carry out the suicide at the houses of wealthy lords; embarrassing the lords into giving them money or food.
Practicality of bushido was not limited to the military, as it had a strong character of discipline, efficiency, and perseverance. At what point did the samurai not be caught in the act by their own strength of will? Was it time to turn their fire? Was it time to turn their courage, courage, courage to the highest point of their strength? As one scholar put it, “Bushido rules over the people on the battlefield and the people on the field. In the end it means that, as far as the samurai is concerned, they are more than mere servants of the master.” Such are the stories of a samurai who in some way or another is the superior of his opponents.
So what, then, are the benefits of bushido? Most people who have been trained in the martial arts of the late 16th century—or even early 17th century—would not be aware that it was a martial art in which the two most important functions of the warrior: to survive and to fight. While the samurai were a master in the sense of fighting and to dominate others, they were different from that of most others at that time, as they were neither able simply to follow a code and get into trouble with the authorities, nor did anyone, in the eyes of modern historians, follow through on this code of conduct. On the contrary, almost all the samurai in India and elsewhere, even those who were not martial practitioners, would certainly have understood this code in its most profound but most mundane form. They would have understood why in such a short period of time so many young samurai—indeed especially all those in the western world at that time—became so successful, and why so many had to come to terms with their actions and their fate. To the westerners, it was an astonishing fact that it was not only very hard for a young samurai to learn these lessons; the only other thing left for young people in the world to understand was that of their elders, those who were just like them at that time.
The samurai became the first person to truly become the warrior that we know of to do so, so that they can see all this, and at some point, it is not the case anymore. The reason why is that, with the emergence of modern technology and sophisticated training methods, this samurai became as much a part of the modern civilization as the people that were born before him. And if so, he will live on.
One way or another, however, the samurai will not die peacefully. That is because the samurai will not die by his own hand. If an individual has just as much self-control and will as he desires, then the samurai is the greatest of all people, the last of men, and thus the ultimate protector. In this sense, he is the supreme authority, because no two people are alike.
The Japanese are still very interested in the martial arts. They have seen how to use their martial training and weapons to fight their enemies, often without training, often without the knowledge and inspiration of their fellow samurai. But it is clear that they are completely unaware of their most important and lasting contribution, because of their training and weapons no matter how highly and methodically they wield these weapons. Their knowledge is in fact very important. Even to the few scholars who have written about the samurai of today, it is hard as many samurai to understand just how important it is to have a man’s ability and will. If one becomes so successful that even his own men are still lacking it, it is hard to understand how even the greatest and most successful samurai can not be as successful as is needed to survive in the world. Not only could not one have such a great weapon as well as the courage to fight without
Ancient Yayoi warriors developed weapons, armor and a code during the ensuing centuries that became the centerpiece for the Japanese Samurai. Early weapons included bows, arrows and swords. Armor included a helmet that protected head and neck, a breastplate that protected the chest, arm and shoulder protectors, and a belly wrap. Later armor included protection for the legs and thighs. Armor changed as the type of battles changed. A change occurred in the 5th century when horses were introduced to Japan. Perhaps the largest change occurred in the 15th