SAMURAI The Rōnin When a landowner died or otherwise lost his power his samurai became masterless warriors or ro nin Because they no longer protected a master the ro nin had to find either other work which disgraced them or a new master Many wound up simply wan dering about the country side stirring up trouble among the people and employed samurai The ro nin remained a great cause of disorder in Japan through out the first half of the seven teenth century An illustration from a copy of 47 Ro nin the supposedly true story of a group of samurai who took revenge for their master’s death 10
TO BE A SAMURAI WARRIOR huge privately owned estates called shoen Similar to the manors of medieval Europe the shoen were owned by powerful families court aristocrats or religious institutions Medieval Japanese aristocrats employed bodyguards called samurai to protect them and their landholdings The samurai were provincial Japanese warriors who resembled medieval European knights The samu rai often managed the estates of aristocrats and sometimes held land in their own right RISE TO POWER Beginning in the 1100s the samurai warrior class rose to political power The samurai had developed advanced military skills and set up a military government called a shogunate Each shogunate was headed by a shogun which is the Japanese word for general The term used in Japan to describe the rule of a shogun is bakufu which literally means tent government and suggests the field headquarters of a general while on mili tary campaign As the shoguns acquired increased control over national af fairs they became the actual rulers of Japan The country still had an emperor but he held less power than the shogun or military ruler For the most part the emperors lived mostly in seclusion and had only formal powers 11
An image of Minamoto Yoritomo center seated Japan’s first shogun rul er releasing cranes on a beach Setting captured animals free is an ancient Buddhist practice 12
TO BE A SAMURAI WARRIOR SAMURAI AND THE THREE SHOGUNATES There were three shogunates in Japanese history The first was founded by Minamoto Yoritomo in 1192 known as the Kamak ura shogunate The rule of the Kamakura shogunate lasted until 1333 During this time samurai were considered warriors during wars and conflicts but when there was peace these men over saw the farms owned by their lords To keep in fighting shape they hunted and performed martial arts training The second Japanese shogunate was named for the Ashikaga family and lasted from 1338 until 1573 The Ashikaga period was a time of great military struggles The position of the Ashik aga shoguns was rarely secure They usually ruled with the coop eration of lesser warlords Many samurai took advantage of the infighting to become daimyo or land-owning warlords themselves The empire’s third and final shogunate was founded by Tokugawa Ieyasu Its headquarters were at Edo modern Tokyo and it was in power from 1603 until 1867 It is known as either the Tokugawa or Edo shogunate During this shogunate a strict class structure was put into place in Japan Even though they made up only about 7 percent of Japan’s total population the warrior class of samurai were dominant over farmers artisans and merchants Eventually though samurai began to lose their power and their wealth By the time the Tokugawa shogunate was nearing its end many warriors had 13
