The Ecology of Real Samurai

For the last post, I will introduce some strong samurai in different fields. 　　　　　　 　　　 Kenshin Uesugi ~The war genius~ He has never been defeated in his life and he got the first victory when he was 15 even though the war was the first time for him. Also, he was a eager Buddhist and definitely said his prayers before going to wars, so he took care of hearts and the story that he supplied salt to the enemy was well-know in Japan. Singen Takeda ~ The Tiger of Shinano~ He had the biggest and strongest army in Japan and also the talent to capture people's loyalty. even though he was born in  the lord family, he defeated old brothers(it's usual that oldest brother became the representative of the family in those days ) he banished his real father and robbed the position. However, his family has conquered almost Shinano(the middle of Japan) since he got the present head. Nobunaga Oda ~The Devil~ He did not mean the st...

Except the biggest island placed in the most northern Japan, Each lord conquered different color regions. in those days, Kyoto was the capital city instead of Tokyo and well-known samurai in 16th century established around Kyoto ( light blue region ). that's why, samurai born in red or blue regions could not showed their talents abilities because of long distances from Kyoto and when Hideyoshi Toyotomi(visit the Social Class in Japan ) in 1591, almost all of powerful samurai had to obey him. In 1603, as a new government was established, Tokyo has been working as the capital city instead of Kyoto. there were three reasons to change the capital city, 1) Tokyo had natural features to get plentiful blessings, 2)  lords from each region could access there equally, and 3) tried to abolish past government completely by abandoning Kyoto. as a result, new government had continued to exist successfully for 300 years, and when the next government was established, Tokyo was app...

It's sudden, but do you know how many countries allow to have plural wives? Burkina Faso, Ghana, Senegal, Nigeria, and etc, mainly some African countries introduced the polygamy because of Islam, but Japan also accepted the polygamy long time ago. the wives were divided into a legal wife(Seishitu) and concubines (Sokushitu) and many lords had concubines in addition to the legal wife. But, women jealousy has never changed since long long time ago, and concubines of every lord built the hierarchy between them before lords and the first wives and there were terrible bullying everywhere. especially, Ieyasu Tokugawa, who established new government in 17th century, had 20 concubines and he always had family troubles because of their jealousy. By the way, Buddhism did not forbid homosexuality in contrast of Christianity, so pages were often hired for serving as bedmates, and spending night with men was treated as the symbol of softy, or rather, masculinity. For Americ...

Bushido derives from the spirit that samurai around 11th century had in common, but means not Bushi(samurai) but also strength that faces with own heart, and it is the spiritual concept to be given to everybody even women and children. Bushido is based on 7 characters below; 仁( jin ): is the heart that understand other's feeling, especially weak people. 義( gi ): indicates the only justice, right rule as a human, and the highest virtue of Bushido. 礼( rei ): is the modesty that is created by bring up own "仁", and never despises others and respect. 勇( yu ): means the brave carrying out one's justice, and indicates also active practice to achieve "義". 誠( makoto ): is the honesty to complete something once they decided to do, and lies deception is treated as vices. 忠( chu ): is the absolute allegiance to lords but also means to persuade risking their life when lords make errors in their life. 名誉( meiyo ): recommend to have a sense of shame, and...

When do heard Japanese tradition, what are you coming up with? Kabuki, Geisha, Shrines, Japanese are taking many traditional culture over from past time. Japanese tea ceremony is also one of the tradition, and samurai in 15th century preferred to open it more than other traditions. the tea ceremony have been since long time ago, but it was not popular before 15th century and was getting treated as major Japanese culture thanks to samurai.  Also, Horses were significant buddies, helping samurai anytime in battle, and owning brilliant horses showed the person of high caliber. So, warlords winning fame definitely had famous horses and sometimes, horses had so much value that they overwhelmed thousands of enemy army once enemies found the horses. in contrast of the tea ceremony, to gain fine horses appealed samurai's masculine attitude and their prides. in addition, to collect products from European has been one of cultural activity since European came first ...

In present Japan, the Emperor, symbolizing the authority, and the Prime Minister, having supreme power in politics, stand on the highest position of the social class. this derives from the political system that mixed up the government, which was founded in 14th century by the General, and the original imperial rule, and each side established many classes. Therefore,  samurai were able to have two classes simultaneously, and posts from the government displayed their own authority in military situations, and offices from the imperial rule showed the authority in diplomatic situations (by the way, the posts were given besides jobs samurai originally had).  In those days numerous warlords competed with each other for power, but to respect traditions was the proof of the refined samurai.                                    Court Nobles    ...

From the middle of 15th century, the age of discovery began and simultaneously many sailors left their home to discover the new continents. Japan was also influenced by the age of discovery and invited some missionaries from Spain and Portugal. Francisco de Xavier was the first missionary, who propagated Christianity in Japan, and so well-known that nobody does not know him. However, Japanese lords, governing each region in those days, accepted Christianity actively, or rather, aimed rifles that they brought from Europe as gifts. To use rifles innovated in the way of war that people usually used bows, and introduced progressive tactics. So, the lords acquired a large quantity of rifles by inviting more missionaries. Whereas, every lord did not always invite them for rifles. A few samurai were noted as christians and actually, there are still christians live in the region they ruled over. Yukinaga Konishi, ruling a part of western Japan, was one of them and had a...

Any companies guarantee their salary by law if only getting jobs. However, in case of samurai, even if they always join wars, it was not definitely guaranteed because it depended on how many heads they got (you think it's cruel? but it was usual in that period). So, samurai rather focused on rummaging through dead bodies more than leading the victory and this motivation often became the important factor of the defeat. Meanwhile, the first person who hired people by monthly payment was Nobunaga Oda, and his army, introducing new value, successfully inspired soldiers to become genuine samurai from farmers (soldiers in those days were almost farmers called temporarily). as a result, he controlled main cities in those days and should have been the first conqueror of Japan, but he was suddenly killed by the betrayal of his assistant. By the way, Shingen Takeda, called the most strongest samurai in that period, introduced bonuses in addition to ordinal salary and his follower...