THE SAMURAI
By Clive Sinclaire
The
Way of the Samurai is Death - Yamamoto
– Hagakure
From
the end of the 12th century until the latter half of the 19th
century, a military elite, the samurai, governed Japan. Their rule was a
reflection of the spirit and codes that had been their own for centuries and
which had been forged on various battlefields throughout the length and breadth
of the country. This code became known as Bushido, the Way of the Warrior, and
it is from one of the written treatise on Bushido (the Hagakure) that the above
is a quote. Often misunderstood, this line means that a samurai should be
prepared to die in the service of his lord at a moment’s notice. He should
wake up every morning and believe he was already dead, thereby freeing his mind
of any complications and inhibitions that might cause him to hesitate from dying
in an appropriate and honorable manner. The manner of his going would enhance
his reputation incalculably, bring honour to his family and would be recounted
for generations to come. Bushido exists today, if in a somewhat toned down and
modified form, in the corporate warriors of Japan’s big business and in the
thousands that practice the Japanese martial arts such as kendo, iaido, judo and
karate. Its routes go back over 1,000 years and are an integral part of the
history of the country.
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.
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
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
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.
--oo0oo--
Originally
written for Art and Culture Magazine, Autumn 2003, both English language
Please
note that I neither sourced or provided the illustrations, nor did I write the
captions
Clive
Sinclaire
May
2008
Bexley,
Kent