Samurai

Fig. 1.1: A samurai

The Samurai were a warrior class which existed in premodern japan. In the Heian Period (794 to 1185) the Imperial government in Kyoto turned to rely on a type of militarized peasants given special offices for cavalry soldiers in wars of conquest against the people of Northern Honshu and as enforcers against rebels and people late with their taxes and as they were full time fighters they were generally more reliable than peasant levies. These would be put under the command of a leader known as a Shogun. After the end of the Heian Period, central power broke down and local leaders took power. In this time of division the Samurai became the main fighters in war as well as leaders, both of soldiers (both Samurai and Ashigaru, peasant infantry) on the battlefield and eventually political leaders, founding powerful clans vying for power. Eventually order was restored under the Tokugawa Shogunate, in which the land was divided among various prominent samurai clans and lower ranking samurai served as policeman, bureaucrats and public officials. After the Boshin War (1868-1869) and the subsequent Meiji Restoration, the Samurai class was formally abolished with the rest of the Japanese feudal system. In government, samurai were replaced by non-hereditary civil servants and in military affairs they were replaced by a new conscript army. While some samurai resented the loss of their power and attempted to rebel, the majority of them were able to exploit their superior education and found new positions as teachers, gun makers, military officers, and government officials.

In that they were generally heavy cavalrymen, the class was generally hereditary and eventually became the main holders of power, Samurai could be thought of as rough analogues to western knights.

Samurai Weapons and equipment

Samurai were very fond of these

• Yumi: Composite bows made of bamboo. The first Samurai were mainly archers and archery would remain a very big part of samurai fighting.
• Yari: Spears, usually used to fend off cavalry and as lances. Some had pronged head, some did not.
• Naginata: Pole-arms with a sword blade at the end. In general, it was better against infantry than a spear and better against cavalry than a sword. It also had a more powerful slash, even if it did have more of a risk of being decapitated. If you had melee focused samurai, this was often their go to weapon.
• Tanegashima: in 1543, some Portuguese ships got to Japan in search of business opportunities. When they got to Japan, they sold a few of their matchlocks muskets to a Daimyo in the south of Japan, who promptly had his smiths take them apart and soon had them replicated. The Samurai quickly became very keen on these new weapons and made heavy use of them. By the end of the 16th century Japan had the highest number of guns per capita of any place in the world, had good line fire tactics and had worked out sights and boxes to keep rain from putting out the matches. Matchlock pistols (bajōzutsu) were used by cavalry. During the Tokugawa period, the manufacturing Japan declined (though it did not completely die away) as there was no pressing internal or external threats, so they stuck with what designs they had until the 19th century. A major reason for the Boshin War was because the Samurai control the key gun making regions.
• Sword: Their katanas of destruction Several varieties, including no-dachi (huge blades intended for anti-cavalry work with a blade up to 180cm long), wakizashi (a short sword with a 30-60cm long blade) and katana (a general purpose sword between 60 and 90 cm long). Originally their blades were straight, but eventually became single edged and curved. The iron ore in Japan has a high level of impurities, as such Japanese swordsmiths worked out a method of folding and refolding steel during forging to work out impurities. This made them rather sharp and fairly strong, though they were also fairly brittle and not the best weapons for use against heavy armor. Additionally, samurai swords were mostly a symbol of their position and authority than the super death weapon romantics would insist. This is because after the unification of Japan the array of swords samurais carry were reserved to their class alone, no other class may carry the arrangement of swords samurais carry. This is why samurais normally carry out their popularized duels using their swords than their full arsenal; it is a matter of their class' honor than it being the ultimate weapon. In actual combat, however, the swords were normally reserved as backup weapons, since they have long learned that poking their enemies to death with pointy sticks and/or shooting them with guns were a more pragmatic options. It was also the go to weapon to execute people.

Samurai Armor, those dents were made by bullets

• Armor: Several varieties existed, including chainmail, scale armor, laminar armor and eventually plate. Often suits of samurai armor would incorperate several types of armor, having laminar leg and shoulder guards with plate torso armor. Generally this would backed up with leather and padded silk (silk having a high tensile strength) and would often be laminated to keep off rust. Towards the end of the 16th century, western elements (such as western style breastplates and morion style helmets) were incorporated into this, either being bought from European merchants or made locally. In general it was fairly good for its time period, sometimes even being proofed against musket fire, though it was not as extensive in its coverage as European Full Plate.

Bushido

In general samurai (or at least those who got somewhere besides an early grave) were a pragmatic and practical lot. Doing what needed to be done to win and go forward. Even so, they did not want their subordinates to be a bunch of unruly drunken armed louts, a hazard to themselves and others. As such they were generally instructed to follow Buddhist and Confucian teachings and (especially for the latter) loyalty to one's superiors was a key part in this. Eventually you got rough codes of conduct emerging for samurai called Bushido, which stressed (along with loyalty) frugality, honesty, duty and conducting their tasks and affairs in a proper manner. As is the case with other people elsewhere some Samurai were more pious than normal and some of these spent time as Buddhist Monks.

This rough mentality was taken after the Samurai were abolished during the 1920s-40s and blown out of proportions with a heaping dose of nationalism and became a big part of the standard school curriculum. This was done militarists who had taken control of Japan and wanted a militarized society to crank out fanatical conscripts to conquer china and East Asia with. This manifested in fanatical loyalty, a willingness to die for their cause and utter contempt for anyone who ever surrendered. When modern people think of Bushido in the west, they are usually thinking of this.

Tabletop RPGs

Samurai are a prominent fixture in just about any fantasy setting with an "ancient Japan" derivative somewhere in the world, which is to say that they're a prominent fixture in just about any fantasy setting.

In Dungeons and Dragons, the samurai was introduced as a class in third edition. To make a long story short, it sucked. Later, under the quasi-D&D system of Pathfinder, the samurai class became a derivative of the cavalier class, which, in addition to making sense (the cavalier class is basically a mounted knight, and samurai were basically the Japanese equivalent) also makes them mechanically playable.

Outside the gigantic D&D juggernaut, most of the player characters in Legend of the Five Rings are going to be samurai of one stripe or another, though unlike D&D it refers to the entire social class, including courtiers and sorcerer-priests along with the warriors.

See also

• Rising Sons: Samurai Space Marines

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