The Japanese samurai warriors came into existence in the 12th century when the Taira and the Minamato, two powerful Japanese clans fought a war against each other. Samurai means to serve. During the 12th century the samurai had a ranking system that distinguished three major ranks. The highest rank was the kenin meaning “horsemen”. The kenin were the administrators or vassals. The second rank was the mounted samurai who were allowed to fight on horse-back. (Only high ranking samurai were allowed to fight on horses) The lowest ranking samurai were the foot soldiers. The samurai warriors followed an ethic code of behavior called bushido. Bushido means “way of the warrior” and the central point of bushido was complete loyalty towards the lord, the daimyo. The bushido code had seven virtues that were to be followed and they were rectitude, courage, benevolence, respect, honesty, loyalty, and honor. The samurai warriors were fierce fighters and refused to use firearms. They were only allowed to wear two swords- a long one and a short one. To the samurai the sword represented the soul. When the samurai fought they wore armor called the rokugu, that was composed of six different parts. The six components to the armor were the chest protector (yoroi), the helmet (kabuto), the mask (ho-ate or mempo), the armored sleeves (kote), the shin guards (sune-ate), and the loin guards (koshi-ate). The samurai wore something very different for their everyday wear. Everyday they wore robes called kimono. Men usually wore dull colored kimono’s such as black, brown, or gray, to hide the fact that they were old. Women would wear colored and layered kimono’s that was determined by the station and power of their husband. Children wore bright, colorful, patterned kimono’s until they had their coming of age ceremony which tended to make the colors duller and boring. The samurai warriors followed bushido very strictly and considered it a weakness to back down in a battle and the strongly believed in never giving up. If the samurai were to be beaten in battle they were to commit suicide to have an honorable death, this was called seppuku, and this was part of bushido. One practiced form of seppuku was hara-kiri which literally means stomach-cutting. When hara-kiri was performed outside a battle, it was performed in a ceremony and many people would attend this ceremony. The person doing hara-kiri had to slice up his abdomen and when they were finished they stretched out their neck. They had an assistant standing behind them to behead them with one stroke of their sword. Seppuku was often performed for reasons that were connected to honor and disgrace. It was also a way of showing a disagreement with ones master. One of the most common reasons for performing seppuku was a lose in battle to avoid the disgrace of falling into the hands of an enemy. Samurai’s were taught from a young age how to fight. As children they started learning how to use a sword and how to defend themselves with it. They would practice fighting each other with sticks, and this practice was continued throughout their lives. The samurai never stop practicing and trying to improve their fighting skills, no matter how old they are or how experienced they are. The samurai are very fierce warriors and live very different lives than we do in America.
~ To find our more info about the kimono’s the samurai wear visit this website. http://www.samurai-archives.com/cultcat.html
~ To find out more about Bushido visit this website. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushido
~ To find out more about the samurai’s armor visit this website. http://onibushi.tripod.com/id96.htm
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