BROTHER-IN-ARMS: This 19th-Century Illustration Depicts the Legendary Samurai Honda Tadakatsu on Horseback After His Victory in the Battle of Mount Komaki in 1584. He Was One of Tokugawa Ieyasu’s Main Collaborators in His Fight for the Shogunate.
Whatever Happened to the Samurai? - by Antonio Míguez | The National Geographic - History & Culture | 10th/05/2025
The Samurai Were a Preeminent Class Defending Japan for Centuries. But as the Tokugawa Shogunate Ushered in an Era of Stability, the Need for Them Faded, Forcing Them to Find a New Way of Life.
The Samurai, Japan’s celebrated lineage of warriors, emerged in the Heian period (794-1185), when the rise of their status enabled them to mingle with the refined nobility in the then-capital of Heian-kyō (Kyoto). Samurai fought in the Ōnin War & in the following period of unrest. From then on, the Bushi, as the samurai were also called, made their mark on Japanese history with their exceptional fighting prowess, becoming emblematic of Japanese culture.
The peak of samurai history is often associated with the Tokugawa Shogunate, also known as the Edo period (1603–1868), a time of peace, prosperity, isolationist policies & cultural growth. It is the most studied era of Japanese history & the period in which novelists, filmmakers & comic book creators tend to place their samurai characters. However, far from being the zenith of samurai culture, this era marked the beginning of the end of the samurai, or at least as the warrior caste they had been during the previous centuries.
(This Cunning Japanese Shogun Out-Lasted his Rivals to Found his Own Dynasty)
Once the Tokugawa regime was established after the fall of Ōsaka Castle in 1615, Japan enjoyed a period of peace, disturbed only by a few peasant revolts. The last major insurrection was the Shimabara Rebellion (1637–1638), starting in a village on the isle of Kyushu in the South West of the archipelago. It was Sparked by excess taxation & persecution of Japanese converts to Christianity. The leader of the uprising, Amakusa Shiro, perfectly exemplified the paradoxes of the new era. He was a Christian samurai capable of bringing together the warlike bearing of the bushi with the ideals of salvation, transmitted by Jesuit evangelists who arrived in the 16th century. The uprising was brutally put down by government troops, with the help of cannons provided by Dutch merchants settled in the Isles.
Built in the 16th Century, This Fortress Was the Main Stronghold of the Toyotomi Clan, Which Maintained its Resistance Against the Armies of Tokugawa Ieyasu. The Capture of the Castle in 1615 Led to the Unification of Japan Under the Tokugawa Shogunate.
Alamy/Cordon Press
With the revolt crushed, Iemitsu, the 3rd Tokugawa shogun, decided to slam shut the gates of the country to all foreign influence & impose a self-isolating, draconian policy of control, the Sakoku. His measures guaranteed more than 2 centuries without war in Japan. The downside was that the samurai were rendered obsolete. 10's, even 100's of 1,000's, of samurai whose forebears had been waging war for centuries, suddenly had to find new ways to survive outside the army.
Even in this new context, there were samurai who continued to demonstrate their swordsmanship in duels & exhibitions. The most famous of these was undoubtedly Miyamoto Musashi (1584–1645). Scholars are divided over whether or not he, as a teenager, participated in the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, one of the last major conflicts before the Tokugawa Shogunate. In any case, he was left without a lord to serve & devoted himself to developing his own technique of combat with 2 swords: the wakizashi (short sword) & the katana (long sword). He showed off his skill in nearly 70 duels, all of them ending in victory for him & many with the death of his opponent. Before he died Miyamoto wrote a martial arts treatise that is well-known today: Gorin No Sho (The Book of 5 Rings).
In the Mid-17th century, duels were banned & the use of swords was allowed only in self-defense. Faced with this restriction, the samurai resorted to provocations & insults so that their opponents would attack first. A Samurai could then be justified in defending himself. Many Samurai perfected the technique of Iaijutsu, unsheathing their katanas at lightning speed before the opponent was able to land a blow. Iaijutsu derived from the martial art Kenjutsu but soon became more popular. The samurai created a large number of dojos (martial arts schools) in which an aesthetic style of combat developed.
The dramatic change in the status of the samurai was reflected in the emergence of the Rōnin; it was the name given to samurai left without a master. The Japanese word Rōnin means “men of the waves”, evokes an aimless wandering & a sense of being untethered, like floating leaves on the water. A romantic idea of the Japanese warrior par excellence soon grew around the figure of the Rōnin; seen as mavericks who could perform all kinds of feats. This ideal was best embodied in the figure of Miyamoto Musashi. However, Miyamoto was an exception. In reality most Rōnin Tended to be Sword-Wielding Vagabonds, their need to survive forcing them to accept unglamorous jobs like bodyguards, enforcers, or simply laborers.
A Daimyo (Feudal Lord or Land-Holding Master) Accompanied by his Retunue of Warriors, About to Set Off for Edo (Modern-Day Tokyo) in a Norimono (Palanquin). Photo Taken Around 1867, Just Before the Meiji Restoration, Which Would Put an End to the Feudal Tokugawa Shogunate & Force a Western-i-Zation of Japanese Society.
Musée Guimet/RMN-Grand Palais
Meanwhile, in the city of Edo (today’s Tokyo) everything seemed to be flourishing. Businesses & Services grew year over year, creating a rich & populous city that impressed the few foreign visitors who came to Japan. Among these was the German physician & naturalist Engelbert Kaempfer, who claimed in the late 17th century that Edo was “the center of the world.” The city’s prosperity was largely due to a law that required feudal lords to live in Edo for 6 months of the year, maintaining their entire court of samurai & other servants there.
The Mood of Edo at Night is Captured in This 19th-Century Painting.
Bridgeman/ACI
Many Rōnin also flocked to Edo. Some of founded organized gangs operating on the margins, practicing extortion & running prostitution rings. Over decades, the groups adopted increasingly complex codes & hierarchies, based on a distorted vision of Bushido, the Samurai Code. Giving rise to what would later become known as the Yakuza, the Japanese Mafia, made up of families comparable to samurai clans. The weapons, tattoos & clothing of its members made them immediately recognizable, instilling fear among the common folk. This was analogous to the way the Bushi had identified themselves by carrying the Daisho (traditional pair of swords comprising a long-bladed katana & short-bladed wakizashi) & displaying their family crest (Kamon). Yakuza members would amputate sections of their own fingers (in an imitation of Hara-Kiri, suicide by disembowelment) as an honorable punishment if they ever made a mistake.
A Yakuza, the Term for Gangster, is Depicted in This 19th-Century Illustration With his Body Covered in Tattoos.
Album
The Samurai who did manage to remain in the service of a Daimyo, or feudal lord, had to accompany him in the annual season he was obliged to spend in the capital. There, they received a minimal stipend in exchange for sporadic administrative or surveillance work on the master’s estate. Since the code of their class prohibited them from making investments or engaging in any commercial activity, these Samurai were often in dire economic straits. It was not uncommon for them to spend the day drinking in taverns & hiring prostitutes in Yoshiwara, (Edo’s pleasure district). They often ended up in debt to members of the city’s emerging merchant bourgeoisie. Many Samurai of ancient lineage even sold their Katanas to pay for the Mizuage (De-Flowering) of a Maiko (Apprentice Geisha), a ceremony in fashion at the time. But not all fell into such debauchery.
There were also those who became notable personalities in the world of art. A case in point is that of Matsuo Bashō (1644-1694), one of the greatest Haiku poets in Japanese History. He was the son of Matsuo Yozaemon, of an Old Samurai family. In his youth he began serving the firstborn of the Todo clan, but his literary talent enabled him to distance himself from the military field. In the realm of painting, Watanabe Kazan (1793-1841), whose family was loyal to the Daimyo Tahara, combined the traditional Japanese painting style Ukiyo-e with European-style realism & shading (Namban). Almost equally subversive in technique was the artist Kawanabe Kyōsai (1831-1889), considered one of the fathers of manga.
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Bashō, From Samurai to Poet
Wandering Poet Matsuo Bashō Converses With 2 Roadside Tea Drinkers in This 19th-Century Print in Ukiyo-e Style, Which Depicts Subjects From Daily Life.
Album
The family of Matsuo Bashō, the most famous poet of the Edo era, were samurai. But he had a simple peasant lifestyle growing up in the domain of the Todo clan, owners of Iga castle, between the ancient capitals of Nara & Kyoto. At an early age, he began serving the master of the castle, which gave him the opportunity to take up poetry. After the death of his master, he moved to Edo, where he made a name for himself as a poet, working particularly in the genre of the haikai, which, under his influence, evolved into haiku. This poetic form comprises 3 lines, the first & last lines having 5 syllables & the middle line 7 syllables. Through this precise format, he sought to capture moments of nature. The haiku, then known as a haikai, had been seen as a popular amusement, but he instilled in it a meditative power:
an old pond
a frog jumps into
the sound of water
Matsuo left Edo to settle in a countryside cottage. In those years, he also made various trips around Japan, which inspired many of his most celebrated haiku.
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Officials & Bureaucrats
Some samurai rose to positions of power in the Courts of Tokugawa shoguns - not as warriors, but as ministers & bureaucrats. This was the case of Kira Yoshinaka (1641-1703), who became a Kōke, a master of ceremonies managing high-level events. Daimyo Asano Naganori assaulted Kira during a disagreement and was then forced to die by seppuku, also known as hara-kiri, as punishment. This led to the infamous vendetta waged by the 47 samurai. After Asano’s suicide, the samurai in his service became Rōnin, then waited more than a year for the best moment to assassinate Kira & avenge their master. They were then condemned to commit Hara-Kiri.
Paradoxical as it may seem, the triumph of the most important Samurai in the history of Japan, Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, marked the beginning of the decline of his own caste. The Bushi code lost much of the meaning it earlier held, while an idealized image of the Samurai emerged describing a phenomenon that had never existed. In the 19th century, as Japan felt its integrity threatened by the English, Russians & Americans, there was an attempt to shake off the old-fashioned, purist ideology of the warrior and instead mix it with one of nationalism in the service of the emperor. Today something of the samurai essence remains in Japan, whether in the militaristic tradition, in the activity of the yakuza, or in deeply rooted values such as discipline & artistic sensibility.
I resolved to see the moon over the mountains of Kashima Shrine this autumn. I was accompanied by two men, a masterless samurai & an itinerant monk. The monk was dressed in robes as black as a crow… Off he strutted, thumping his staff, alone in the universe… I, however, am neither a monk nor a man of the world; I could be called a bat—in between a bird & mouse!
— Matsuo Bashō, Kashima Journal
Nostalgia for the Old Ways of the Samurai
An 1864 Portrait of a Samurai - by Felice Beato
RMN-Grand Palais
The Hagakure is an 18th-Century compilation of the reflections of Yamamoto Tsunetomo, a high-ranking Samurai official. The collection, later translated into English, is a handbook & ethical code of sorts for the Samurai at a time when its warrior values were no longer seen as relevant. Having pursued a career as a scholar, a warrior & a librarian, he became a Buddhist priest, Retiring to the woods where he noted the thoughts that were later compiled into his masterpiece. Evocative of his woodland surroundings, Hagakure is translated either as “in the shade of the leaves” or “fallen leaves.” It recalls with nostalgia a time when Samurai were true warriors willing to die at any moment. He writes extensively on how to approach death, show obedience to one’s master & be serene in the face of adversity. A few examples of the many aphorisms are included in the following translation of the Hagakure by William Scott Wilson. The original work also criticizes young samurai for abandoning the old ways. The emphasis on devotion & bravery follow the ideals of the Old Bushi - a far cry from modern Samurai, whose role lacked the same need for discipline.
A 19th Century Wood Cut of a Samurai
DEA/Album
This Story Appeared in the May/June 2025 Issue of National Geographic History Magazine.
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