Combat arms clan professional#
The Meiji Restoration ended their feudal roles, and they moved into professional and entrepreneurial roles.
As modern militaries emerged in the 19th century, the samurai were rendered increasingly obsolete and very expensive to maintain compared to the average conscript soldier. In the 1870s samurai families comprised 5% of the population.
During the peaceful Edo era (1603 to 1868), they became the stewards and chamberlains of the daimyo estates, gaining managerial experience and education. During the 13th century, the samurai proved themselves as adept warriors against the invading Mongols. They became the ruling political class, with significant power but also significant responsibility. Though they had predecessors in earlier military and administrative officers, the samurai truly emerged during the Kamakura shogunate, ruling from c.1185–1333. They cultivated the bushido codes of martial virtues, indifference to pain, and unflinching loyalty, engaging in many local battles. They had high prestige and special privileges such as wearing two swords and Kiri-sute gomen (right to kill anyone of a lower class in certain situation).
They were the well-paid retainers of the daimyo (the great feudal landholders). Samurai ( 侍) were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. Samurai in armor in the 1860s hand-colored photograph by Felice Beato
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