The Contrast of the Heian-Era Courtier and the Kamakura Samurai

While ongoing change became the status quo in late-Tokugawa era Japan the ideals of the samurai—and the respect they receive—endured. And, because samurai could still fall back on the prestige their class represented, members of society still

The Minamotos won, and the emperor made Minamoto Yoritomo shogun, the head of the military. Yoritomo however wanted more and took all power away from the emperor and made himself dictator. At this time the samurai gained power, through land given to them by the new shogun. Their rise in status was beginning.

Unlike the Europeans they did not have much political control but were very wealthy.After a while the nobles took over and there were no more emperors.The Shogun which had the most political control and became the ruler of Japan. The Shoguns also had control over the army of Japan.The Shoguns were considered the vassals to the Emperors. The different rulers for both European and Japanese Feudalism were similar and had many rules and regulations that they had to follow.

The samurai were the feudal warriors of ancient Japan. For thousands of years they upheld the code of bushido, the way of the warrior. Samurai were around for thousands of years, but when did they disappear? Does the code of bushido still exist to this day? Exploring the history of the samurai will give an explanation to what has happened to these formidable warriors.

The emperor is an important religious figure, he swapped lands swapped land with nobles exchange for their support for he couldn't handle all the land far far away from him. In the shogunate period the emperor didn't have much power for the shoguns had basically controlled the government.

The Japanese society was divided into four classes: samurai, peasants, artisans, and merchants. The samurai was a class of warriors, emerged from Japan during the constant

a. The Ahikaga bakufu collapsed in 1467 over a dispute about who would be the next

The Japanese samurai had a specific code to live by called the Bushido. To be a samurai you must have courage, be just, have mercy,and be polite. You must also have honesty, have a sense of honor, be loyal, and have self-control. In Europe knights also had a code to live by and it was called the Knights Code of Chivalry. Like the samurai the knights lived by the following guidelines: Faith, Charity, Justice, Sagacity, Prudence, Temperance, Resolution, Truth, Liberality, Diligence, Hope, and Valour. The knights were taught these characteristics and lived by these to be the best they could at there job.

By the 900’s, the Japanese government began losing control over rural areas due to its weak ruler and the samurai warrior class stepped in to take control. This was due to a civil war called the “Hogen Rebellion” in 1156. This rebellion was due to conflicts regarding Imperial Japanese succession and unexpectedly laid the groundwork for the samurai clans to gain dominance. With both “would-be emperors” losing the Hogen Rebellion, the imperial government of Japan lost all of its remaining power. This led to the Heiji Rebellion in 1160 which was fought between two samurai clans, the Minamoto and Taira. With the victory of the Taira clan, the first samurai-led government (Shogunate) was formed. This type of government was controlled by the samurai clans, and the Emperor of Japan was only used as a figurehead to the government.

Though the Minamoto clan, which was led by Yoritomo, overcame the Taira which gave them control over most of Japan under a rival government

Two descends from two different royal family. Both became samurais. In the East ruled the Minamoto family. The West was the home of the Taira. The leader of the Minamoto family was Yoshitomo. The leader of Taira was Kiyomori. As respected men they felt they were better than each other. Each clan stayed on their sides.

The Western depictions of samurai take the common practice of the relationship between a young boy and his master out of context and makes it seem as if the relationship was forced. The relationship between a boy and his master, one that includes sodomy, was heavily looked down upon by the west, and in turn, led to the mindset that all of the Japanese sodomized little boys. While it was common, it was not practiced by everyone. One similarity that was apparent in The Tale of the Heike is the portrayal is how uptight the Japanese were about maintaining their look.

Japan is an unique oriental country in many aspects, especially in politics and economy, both western practices and traditional nationalism are coexisted in this country. The period 1890-1940 was just followed the Meiji restoration, and was typical in the history of Japan, at that time, Japan was on the way from a feudal country to a capitalistic country, called modernization. Many western practices were being more and more adopted, however, at the same time, traditional rules still had strong influences in Japan. Under this background, this report will discuss the Japanese cultural factors during 1890-1940 that influenced the disclosure

War played a central part in the history of Japanese samurai. As regional clans gathered manpower, resources and struck alliances with each other, they formed a hierarchy centered around a toryo, or chief. This chief was typically a relative of the emperor

In May 1180 Prince Mochihito, the son of Retired emperor Go-Shirakawa, issued a statement urging the Minamoto to rise against the Taira. While Mochihito would be killed in June and Minamoto Yorimasa crushed at the Battle of the Uji, a fire had been set. In September Minamoto Yoritomo, who had recieved Mochihito's call from Miyoshi Yasukiyo, set about raising an army in the Province of Izu, where he had been in exile. There was an irony in the preceeding events, as Taira Kiyomori had himself sown the seeds of the war, so the poetic tale goes. His great error, we are told, had been to spare the sons of Minamoto Yoshitomo in the wake of the Heiji disturbance, allowing these three boys - Yoritomo, Noriyori, and