Changes

The medieval Japanese warriors known as the samurai have been a fascination source of fascination for people throughout the world for several centuries, and for . For a good reason – they were among the most elite warriors in human history. The samurai are renown renowned for a number of several reasons, which includes include their efficiency in battle, their well-crafted <i>katana</i> swords, and most importantly, their honor code is known as <i>bushido</i>. It was the code of bushido that set the samurai apart from other contemporary warrior groups and gave them their reasons to fight. Without the bushido code of bushido, the samurai would have just another one of the many warrior classes in history.

Bushido was a worldview that was an extremely complexworldview, but for the sake of comparison, it shared many attributes with the honor code of medieval European knights. The code of bushido was followed faithfully by the samurai and every . Every detail of how they conducted themselves in battle was dictated by the code, including some of the following matters: the types of weapons that were allowed, the treatment of enemies, and how death was preferred over cowardice, which was considered the worst form of dishonor. Bushido also required that samurai spare women and children from violence and to never engage engaged of wanton cruelty of animals. Besides these important ideas, the samurai were also expected to respect their culture and national traditions and to show the utmost respect for their lord and shoguns, even to the point of following them after death. An examination of the bushido code of bushido reveals that it is actually the result of three different but complimentary complementary Eastern religious and philosophical traditions – Shintoism, Confucianism, and Zen Buddhism.

The samurai rose to prominence in Japan gradually during the twelfth century AD, making themselves known when they helped to repulse the Mongols in the thirteenth century. Before the Mongols attempted their amphibious invasion of Japan, a highly militarized government took power in the Japanese city of Kamakura that established a <i>bakufu</i> or shogunate. The Kamakura shogunate defeated all but one other power in Japan by giving special concessions to the <i>buke</i> or warrior class during the Gempei War (1180-1185). The result was Japan’s first military government based in Kamakura, although the shogunate never ruled over a unified Japan. <ref> Mass, Jeffrey P. “Kamakura Bakufu.” <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0521484049/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0521484049&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=d03742615977e1c8e7d5b647be9981f9 Warrior Rule in Japan].</i> Edited by Marius B. Jansen. (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1995), pgs. 1-4</ref>

Once the buke class had attained prominence during the Gempei War, they did not relinquish that power and instead gradually became the most important class in Japan. By the time of Japan’s civil war in the sixteenth century, which was known as the <i>Senogku</i>, the buke were primarily referred to as samurai. The samurai led the armies of the <i>daimyos</i>, who were feudal lords in the brutal war that determined the leadership of Japan. The samurai were a privileged class set apart from all others in Japanese society, but they were also held to a higher standard. <ref> Friday, Karl F. “Bushido or Bull? A Medieval Historian’s Perspective on the Imperial Army and the Japanese Warrior Tradition.” <i>The History Teacher.</i> 27 (1994) p.343</ref> Finally, in 1603 the Sengoku came to an end when Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616) unified Japan under his rule and established the Tokugawa shogunate, which lasted until 1867.

Of the three major religious and philosophical traditions that comprised the samurai belief system and influenced the code of bushido, Shinto was the oldest. Shintoism is essentially the ancient, native religious traditions of Japan practiced in a highly ritualistic setting. The Shinto pantheon was full of many gods and goddesses who lived in the forests, mountains, water bodies of water, and even the air, but interestingly, none of these deities were considered omnipotent. The powers of the deities of the Shinto pantheon 's deities could only be harnessed by priests who knew the proper incantations and rituals. The rituals were so sometimes so esoteric that the meanings of the words in many of the incantations have long since been forgotten, but the perceived power of the act remains. Shinto priests perform their arcane rituals before important life events, which in medieval Japan would include battles. <ref> Aoki, Michiko Y. <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007EQHLDC/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B007EQHLDC&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=c3cb4e2a0493ac9477eb72be4bc9f7ff Ancient Myths and Early History of Japan: A Cultural Foundation].</i> (New York: Exposition Press, 1974), p. 125-27</ref> Ultimately, it was Shintoism that gave the samurai their strong belief in tradition and the will to fight for their homeland.

Shinto gave the samurai something to fight for and Confucianism established many of the rules in which they lived their lives. Still, but it was Zen Buddhism that gave them their moral compass and truly made them spiritual warriors instead of blood thirsty marauders. Buddhism originated in India in the fifth century BC and then quickly spread throughout the Far East. During the eighth century AD, a form of Buddhism known as <i>Chan</i> made its way across the Sea of Japan and was embraced by the Japanese who called the sect <i>Zen</i>. <ref> Eisai. “Zen for National Defense.” In <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/014044758X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=014044758X&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=2545b9667c42e731fc1c83e0fbd00c1b Buddhist Scriptures].</i> Edited by Donald S. Lopez Junior. (London: Penguin Books, 2004), p. 323</ref> Zen was different than many of the older Buddhist sects because it placed more emphasis on reaching enlightenment through meditation than on the study of the Buddha’s <i>sutras</i> or sayings, but it did not disregard the place of scholarship in the religion.

Foremost among Zen ideology were the Buddhist ideas of <i>samsara</i>, which is the idea of continual rebirths and <i>karma</i>. Karma is essentially a spiritual scorecard whereby an individual’s deeds, both good and bad, follow him or her them from life to life and determine certain obstacles and rewards that one will face. In order to To reduce one’s karma, the samurai were taught to follow the Noble Eightfold Path of Buddhism, which teaches one to practice right actions, thoughts, etc. It was these ideas that gave the samurai their respect for life and was more than likely a big factor in the fact that the samurai initiated few atrocities against civilians during their long history. Although Zen helped spiritually ground the samurai, it did not make them weak and in many ways actually made them better warriors.

The samurai are considered by many military historians to be among the most elite warriors in human history. Although it is true that the samurai were indeed excellent fighters on the battlefield and some were great strategists and tacticians, the true secret of their success was derived from their unique system of beliefs. At the core of the samurai beliefs was their honor code known as bushido. Still, but the bushido code was just the natural result of the three most important religions and philosophies the samurai followed – Shintoism, Confucianism, and Zen Buddhism. The Shinto beliefs connected the samurai to their people and land while Confucianism taught them to respect authority and the established social and political hierarchy of Japan. Finally, Zen Buddhism gave the samurai the morals that allowed them to be effective warriors without committing atrocities. Zen also gave the samurai the ability to better focus in combat and to practice the timeless adage of “mind over matter.”