Samurai

The samurai were the elite military class of Japan from the twelfth to the nineteenth centuries. Samurai were employed by feudal lords to defend their territories against rivals, to fight enemies identified by the imperial court, and battle with hostile tribes and bandits. As samurai eventually organised into groups with political power they were able to take over from a weak imperial court in the 12th century. The ideal samurai was a stoic warrior who followed an unwritten code of conduct, later formalized as Bushido, which held bravery, honour, and personal loyalty above life itself; ritual suicide by disembowelment (seppuku) was institutionalized as a respected alternative to dishonour or defeat. The romanticism of samurai is somewhat tempered by reality. Whilst there are many examples of samurai displaying great loyalty to their masters, the fact is that warfare in medieval Japan was as bloody and as uncompromising as it was anywhere else. Samurai had the right to kill anyone on the spot who had offended them and who was below their social rank without any legal repercussions. They sometimes tested the sharpness of their swords on passers-by, a practice known as `cutting down at the crossroads.' This short history takes the reader through the evolution of the samurai class, their military exploits and significant characters, and also looks at their arms and armour and fighting techniques.