A fourteenth-century century scroll depicts a dramatic battle between Minamoto and Taira samurai at the Rokuhara mansion in Kyoto.
Introduction
The period of Japanese history between 1550 and 1615 is often considered something of a golden era for the samurai. This is when the warriors reached the zenith of their powers and united the country under the sword. This in turn led Japan into a new epoch, where samurai underlings could rise through the ranks and become powerful leaders.
These warlords would then crush and conquer any clan that opposed them using the latest breakthrough in weapons technology – the arquebus. When the smoke cleared, Japan entered an enforced period of peace that would last for over 250 years. But this peace would also herald the beginning of the end for the samurai, who without wars to fight became an irrelevant burden on the feudal society they had created.
The samurai first began as eighth-century warriors hired by the Emperor to subdue native ‘barbarians’ who harassed the empire’s furthest frontiers. Their battles were often skirmishes fought at close quarters, and the warriors’ long, straight, thrusting sword proved utterly useless against them. Instead, the Emperor’s men had to adopt the fighting methods of the natives they were charged with subduing. This meant mounted duels with bows and arrows, and swords cast with a special curved edge for slashing at opponents on horseback.
Early samurai combat consisted of a mounted archery duel between two warriors of equal rank. A swordfight on the ground would often follow.
Soul of the Samurai
This sword would later become the mighty katana, often called the ‘soul of the samurai’. Considered a spiritual extension of the warrior himself, the katana was a masterpiece of sword-making. The genius of the blade lay in its bimetallic makeup – a hard cutting edge wrapped around a soft, flexible core. A samurai’s katana would only leave his side in death and even after the warrior order had ceased to exist the sword continued to be a symbol of the samurai ethos.Bushidō, or ‘Way of the Warrior’, was the samurai’s code of ethics, which enshrined loyalty, honour, fearlessness, honesty and self-sacrifice. Brave warriors would display their bushidō virtues on the battlefield, or die trying. Any samurai defeated in battle was expected to commit seppuku, or suicide by slitting open the stomach, as a matter of honour. To an extent, early battles between samurai warriors were considered an honourable exchange. They would start when one mounted warrior called out his rank, family name and achievements to attract an enemy warrior of similar standing. The en
