Samurai
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Samurai (侍) or bushi (武士, [bɯ.ɕi]) were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were most prominent as aristocratic warriors during the country's feudal period from the 12th century to early 17th century, and thereafter as a top class in the social hierarchy of the Edo period until their abolishment in the 1870s during the Meiji era.
The first samurai emerged during the Heian period, during which nobles entrusted their regional estates to local warrior families. Powerful noble families began raising samurai armies and fighting others; in the Genpei War, the Minamoto clan defeated the Taira clan, leading to the beginning of the Kamakura period in 1185. This period is known for the establishment of feudalism and emergence of samurai as a hereditary, aristocratic class. By the Sengoku period, some samurai owned land, while others served as retainers to lords (daimyo) or mercenaries. During the Edo period (1600–1868), internal warfare largely ceased and many samurai continued as stewards of daimyo estates or became administrators. Samurai were formalized as a class positioned near the top of social hierarchy, comprising some 5% of the population. They were held up as examples of good morality, as formalized in the bushido code and displayed in incidents such as the Forty-Seven Rōnin in 1703. From the mid-Edo period, chōnin (townsman) and farmers could rise to the samurai class by being adopted into gokenin families or serving in daikan offices, and low-ranking samurai could fall to lower classes, such as chōnin, by changing jobs.
In 1853, Japan was opened to the West by U.S. Commodore Matthew C. Perry, beginning the Bakumatsu ("end of the bakufu") era. Samurai from the rebellious Chōshū and Satsuma Domains played a major role in the sonnō jōi movement against the Tokugawa shogunate, and later in the Meiji Restoration and Boshin War of 1868, which restored power to the emperor. As modern militaries emerged in the late 19th century, the samurai were considered obsolete and expensive to maintain compared to the average conscript soldier. Their class was abolished in the 1870s by the policies of the new Meiji government. Most former samurai became members of the shizoku class, ranking above the commoner class and allowing them to move into professional and entrepreneurial roles; the shizoku class was later abolished in 1947.
Remixes - 2012-08-12 00:00:00
Smalltalk - 2010-01-29 00:00:00
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