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![Way of the Warrior - Way of the Samurai [1/4]](http://web.archive.org./web/20121122095048im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/v9HR7TTOReE/default.jpg "Part of a eight part series documentary on the Martial Arts of south and south east Asia, originally broadcast on the BBC in the early 1980s. This episode follows an ancient Dojo in Japan who still practice the Samurai way. Part 1 of 4 parts.")
![Sucker Punch - Samurai Fight Scene [HD]](http://web.archive.org./web/20121122095048im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/c-bCGOthQ5k/default.jpg "Next scene to be uploaded: Love Is The Drug Scene [HD]")
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China
China (
i/ˈtʃaɪnə/; Chinese: 中国; pinyin: Zhōngguó; see also Names of China), officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is the world's most-populous country, with a population of over 1.3 billion. Covering approximately 9.6 million square kilometres, the East Asian state is the world's second-largest country by land area, and the third- or fourth-largest in total area, depending on the definition of total area.
The People's Republic of China is a single-party state governed by the Communist Party of China. It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four directly controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing), and two mostly self-governing special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau). Its capital city is Beijing. The PRC also claims Taiwan—which is controlled by the Republic of China (ROC), a separate political entity—as its 23rd province, a claim controversial due to the complex political status of Taiwan and the unresolved Chinese Civil War. The PRC government denies the legitimacy of the ROC.
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Fushimi Castle
Fushimi Castle (伏見城, Fushimi-jō?), also known as Momoyama Castle (桃山城 Momoyama-jō) or Fushimi-Momoyama Castle, is a castle in Kyoto's Fushimi Ward. The current structure is a 1964 replica of the original built by Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
The construction of the original castle was begun in 1592, the year after Hideyoshi's retirement from the regency, and completed in 1594. Twenty provinces furnished workers for the construction, which numbered between 20,000 and 30,000.
Though bearing the external martial appearance of a castle, the structure was intended as a retirement palace for Hideyoshi, and was furnished and decorated as such. It is particularly famous for its tea ceremony room in which both the walls and the implements were covered in gold leaf. The castle was intended to be the site for Hideyoshi's peace talks with Chinese diplomats seeking an end to the Seven-Year War in Korea, but an earthquake destroyed the castle entirely only two years after its completion.
It was rebuilt soon afterwards, and came to be controlled by Torii Mototada, a vassal of Tokugawa Ieyasu. In 1600, the castle fell in a famous and significant siege by Ishida Mitsunari. Torii Mototada, in a celebrated act of honor and bravery, defended the castle for eleven days, delaying Ishida's forces and allowing his lord Tokugawa time to build his own army. This had a profound effect on the Battle of Sekigahara, which came soon afterwards, and which marked the final victory of Tokugawa Ieyasu over all his rivals.
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Germany
Germany (i/ˈdʒɜrməni/), officially the Federal Republic of Germany (German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland, pronounced [ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant] (
listen)), is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With 81.8 million inhabitants, it is the most populous member state and the largest economy in the European Union. It is one of the major political powers of the European continent and a technological leader in many fields.
A region named Germania, inhabited by several Germanic peoples, was documented before AD 100. During the Migration Period, the Germanic tribes expanded southward, and established successor kingdoms throughout much of Europe. Beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation while southern and western parts remained dominated by Roman Catholic denominations, with the two factions clashing in the Thirty Years' War, marking the beginning of the Catholic–Protestant divide that has characterized German society ever since. Occupied during the Napoleonic Wars, the rise of Pan-Germanism inside the German Confederation resulted in the unification of most of the German states into the German Empire in 1871 which was Prussian dominated. After the German Revolution of 1918–1919 and the subsequent military surrender in World War I, the Empire was replaced by the Weimar Republic in 1918, and partitioned in the Treaty of Versailles. Amidst the Great Depression, the Third Reich was proclaimed in 1933. The latter period was marked by Fascism and World War II. After 1945, Germany was divided by allied occupation, and evolved into two states, East Germany and West Germany. In 1990 Germany was reunified.
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Hakata-ku, Fukuoka
Hakata-ku (博多区?) is one of the seven wards of Fukuoka City, in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. It is best known as the location of Fukuoka's main train station, Hakata Station.
Hakata-ku is a ward of Fukuoka City located on its eastern edge. It is 31.47 km2 with a population of 206,629 (current January 1, 2009). Most of the ward is plains where the Mikasa River (御笠川, Mikasagawa?) flows. The northwestern end of the ward faces Hakata Bay, which includes the ferry terminal Hakata Harbor (博多港, Hakata kō?). The northeast end of the ward is slightly elevated, and is named Higashihirao (東平尾?), with nearby Fukuoka Airport. Around Hakata Station is downtown; Nakasu (中洲?) is the red-light district in the ward along the Naka River (那珂川, Nakagawa?). Hakata-ku also houses the Fukuoka Prefectural office.
Many Japanese companies have established branch offices in Fukuoka City, particularly in Hakata-ku cause of its easy access to Hakata Station and Fukuoka Airport. Therefore, people on business trips often visit and stay in Hakata-ku.[citation needed] The headquarters of JR Kyūshū,Best Denki,[citation needed] and many other companies are in the ward.
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Honshū
Honshu (本州, Honshū?, literally "Main Province") ([hoɴɕuː] ( listen)) is the largest island of Japan. The nation's main island, it is south of Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyushu across the Kanmon Strait. It is the seventh largest island in the world, and the second most populous after Java in Indonesia.
It has a population of 103 million in 2005, (98,352,000 as of 1990; in 1975 it was 89,101,702), mostly concentrated in the available lowlands, notably in the Kantō plain where 25% of the total population reside in the Greater Tokyo Area, which includes Tokyo and Yokohama, Kawasaki, Saitama and Chiba cities. Most of the nation's industry is located along the belt running from Tokyo along Honshu's southern coastal cities, including Kyoto, Osaka, Nagoya, Kobe, and Hiroshima, part of the Taiheiyo Belt.
The economy along the northwestern coast by the Sea of Japan is largely fishing and agriculture;Niigata is noted as an important producer of rice. The Kantō and Nōbi plains produce rice and vegetables. Yamanashi is a major fruit-growing area, and Aomori is famous for its apples.
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India
India (i/ˈɪndiə/), officially the Republic of India (Bhārat Gaṇarājya), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the south-west, and the Bay of Bengal on the south-east, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west;China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north-east; and Burma and Bangladesh to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives; in addition, India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia.
Home to the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation and a region of historic trade routes and vast empires, the Indian subcontinent was identified with its commercial and cultural wealth for much of its long history. Four of the world's major religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism—originated here, whereas Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived in the 1st millennium CE and also helped shape the region's diverse culture. Gradually annexed by and brought under the administration of the British East India Company from the early 18th century and administered directly by the United Kingdom from the mid-19th century, India became an independent nation in 1947 after a struggle for independence that was marked by non-violent resistance led by Mahatma Gandhi.
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Jakarta
Jakarta (
/dʒəˈkɑrtə/), officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta (Indonesian: Daerah Khusus Ibu Kota Jakarta), is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Located on the northwest coast of Java, Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre, and with a population of 10,187,595 as of November 2011, it is the most populous city in Indonesia and in Southeast Asia, and is the twelfth-largest city in the world. The official metropolitan area, known as Jabodetabekjur, is the second largest in the world, yet the city's suburbs still continue beyond it. Jakarta is listed as a global city in the 2008 Globalization and World Cities Study Group and Network (GaWC) research. and has an area of 661 square kilometres (255 sq mi)
Based on Brooking Institute survey about growth, in 2011 Jakarta ranked 17th among the world's 200 largest cities, a significant jumps from 2007 when Jakarta ranked 171st. Jakarta has seen more rapid growth than Kuala Lumpur, Beijing and Bangkok.
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Japan
Japan
i/dʒəˈpæn/ (Japanese: 日本 Nihon or Nippon; formally 日本国 
Nippon-koku or Nihon-koku, literally the State of Japan) is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south. The characters that make up Japan's name mean "sun-origin", which is why Japan is sometimes referred to as the "Land of the Rising Sun".
Japan is an archipelago of 6,852 islands. The four largest islands are Honshū, Hokkaidō, Kyūshū and Shikoku, together accounting for ninety-seven percent of Japan's land area. Japan has the world's tenth-largest population, with over 127 million people. The Greater Tokyo Area, which includes the de facto capital city of Tokyo and several surrounding prefectures, is the largest metropolitan area in the world, with over 30 million residents.
Archaeological research indicates that people lived in Japan as early as the Upper Paleolithic period. The first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other nations followed by long periods of isolation has characterized Japan's history. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, victory in the First Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War and World War I allowed Japan to expand its empire during a period of increasing militarism. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Since adopting its revised constitution in 1947, Japan has maintained a unitary constitutional monarchy with an emperor and an elected parliament called the Diet.
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Kamakura, Kanagawa
Kamakura (鎌倉市, Kamakura-shi?) is a city located in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, about 50 kilometres (31 mi) south-south-west of Tokyo. It used to be also called Renpu (鎌府?) (short for Kamakura Bakufu (鎌倉幕府, or Kamakura Shogunate?)).
Although Kamakura proper is today rather small, it is often described in history books as a former de facto capital of Japan as the seat of the Shogunate and of the Regency during the Kamakura Period. Yet, despite Kamakura's annihilation of Kyoto-based political and military power at the Battle of Dan-no-ura in 1185, and the failure of the Emperor to free himself from Kamakura's control during the Jōkyū War, Takahashi (2005) has questioned whether Kamakura's nationwide political hegemony actually existed. Takahashi claims that if Kamakura ruled the Kantō, not only was the Emperor in fact still the ruler of Kansai, but during this period the city was in many ways politically and administratively still under the ancient capital of Kyoto. Kamakura was simply a rival center of political, economic and cultural power in a country that had Kyoto as its capital.
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Korea
Korea (/kəˈriːə/ kə-REE-ə; Korean: 한국 Hanguk [hanɡuːk] or 조선 Joseon [tɕosʌn] – (see etymology) is an East Asian region that is divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the east by the Korea Strait and the Sea of Japan (East Sea), and separated from Taiwan to the south by the East China Sea.
Archaeological and linguistic evidence suggest the origins of the Korean people might have been Altaic language-speaking people from south-central Siberia,[dubious – discuss] who populated ancient Korea in successive waves from the Neolithic age to the Bronze Age. The adoption of the Chinese writing system ("Hanja" in Korean) in the 2nd century BC, and Buddhism in the 4th century AD, had profound effects on the Three Kingdoms of Korea.
The Three Kingdoms of Korea was first united during the Silla dynasty under the king Munmu of Silla. The united Silla dynasty fell to Goryeo Dynasty in 935 at the end of Later Three Kingdoms of Korea era. Goryeo was a highly cultural state and created the Jikji in the 14th century, using the world's first movable metal type printing press. The Mongol invasions in the 13th century, however, greatly weakened the nation which was forced to become a tributary state. After the Mongol Empire's collapse, severe political strife followed and Goryeo was replaced by the Joseon Dynasty in 1388.
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Kyoto
Kyoto (京都市, Kyōto-shi?, "Capital City") (Japanese pronunciation: [kʲoːto] ( listen)) is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe metropolitan area.
Although archaeological evidence places the first human settlement on the islands of Japan to approximately 10,000 BC, relatively little is known about human activity in the area before the 6th century AD, around which time the Shimogamo Shrine is believed to have been established. During the 8th century, when powerful Buddhist clergy became involved in the affairs of the Imperial government, the Emperor chose to relocate the capital to a region far from the Buddhist influence. Emperor Kammu selected the village of Uda, at the time in the Kadono district of Yamashiro Province, for this honor.
The new city, Heian-kyō (平安京, "tranquility and peace capital"), a scaled replica of the then Tang capital Chang'an, became the seat of Japan's imperial court in 794, beginning the Heian period of Japanese history. Although military rulers established their governments either in Kyoto (Muromachi shogunate) or in other cities such as Kamakura (Kamakura shogunate) and Edo (Tokugawa shogunate), Kyoto remained Japan's capital until the transfer of the imperial court to Tokyo in 1869 at the time of the Imperial Restoration. (Some believe that it is still a legal capital: see Capital of Japan.)
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Kyūshū
Kyushu (九州, Kyūshū?, lit. "Nine Provinces") is the third largest island of Japan and most southwesterly of its four main islands. Its alternate ancient names include Kyūkoku (九国?, "Nine States"), Chinzei (鎮西?, "West of the Pacified Area"), and Tsukushi-no-shima (筑紫島?, "Island of Tsukushi"). The historical regional name is Saikaidō (西海道?, lit. West Sea Circuit) referred to Kyushu and its surrounding islands.
In the 8th century Taihō Code reforms, Dazaifu was established as a special administrative term for the region.
As of 2006, Kyushu has a population of 13,231,995 and covers 35,640 square kilometres (13,760 sq mi).
The island is mountainous, and Japan's most active volcano, Mt Aso at 1,591 metres (5,220 ft), is on Kyushu. There are many other signs of tectonic activity, including numerous areas of hot springs. The most famous of these are in Beppu, on the east shore, and around Mt. Aso, in central Kyushu.
The name Kyūshū comes from the nine ancient provinces of Saikaidō situated on the island: Chikuzen, Chikugo, Hizen, Higo, Buzen, Bungo, Hyūga, Osumi, and Satsuma.
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Nagoya, Aichi
Nagoya (名古屋市, Nagoya-shi?) is the largest city in the Chūbu region of Japan. It is the third-largest incorporated city and the fourth most populous urban area in Japan. (Tokyo is not a single incorporated city - see Tokyo for more information on the definition and makeup of Tokyo.)
Located on the Pacific coast on central Honshu, it is the capital of Aichi Prefecture and is one of Japan's major ports along with those of Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe, Yokohama, Chiba, and Kitakyushu. It is also the center of Japan's third largest metropolitan region, known as the Chūkyō Metropolitan Area. As of 2000, Chūkyō Metropolitan Area has 8.74 million people, of which 2.27 million live in the city of Nagoya.
The city's name was historically written as 那古野 or 名護屋 (both read as Nagoya). One possible etymology for the city's name is the adjective なごやか (nagoyaka), meaning 'peaceful'. [2]
The name Chūkyō (中京) is also used (chū (middle) + kyō (capital)), since it is the main city of the central Chūbu region. Various things are named after Chūkyō, for example the Chūkyō Industrial Area, Chūkyō Metropolitan Area, Chūkyō Television Broadcasting, Chukyo University and the Chukyo Racecourse.
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Portugal
Portugali/ˈpɔrtʃʉɡəl/ (Portuguese: Portugal, IPA: [puɾtuˈɣaɫ]), officially the Portuguese Republic (Portuguese: República Portuguesa) is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula . Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira are part of Portugal. The country is named after its second largest city, Porto, whose Latin name was Portus Cale.
The land within the borders of the current Portuguese Republic has been continuously settled since prehistoric times: occupied by Celts like the Gallaeci and the Lusitanians, integrated into the Roman Republic and later settled by Germanic peoples such as the Suebi, Swabians, Vandals and the Visigoths. In the 8th century most of the Iberian Peninsula was conquered by Moorish invaders professing Islam, which were later expelled by the Knights Templar under the Order of Christ. During the Christian Reconquista, Portugal established itself as an independent kingdom from León in 1139, claiming to be the oldest European nation state.
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Portuguese Empire
The Portuguese Empire (Portuguese: Império Português), also known as the Portuguese Overseas Empire (Ultramar Português) or the Portuguese Colonial Empire (Império Colonial Português), was the first global empire in history. In addition, it was the longest-lived of the modern European colonial empires, spanning almost six centuries, from the capture of Ceuta in 1415 to the handover of Macau in 1999 or the grant of sovereignty to East Timor in 2002. The empire spread throughout a vast number of territories that are now part of 53 different sovereign states.
Portuguese sailors began exploring the coast of Africa in 1419, using recent developments in navigation, cartography and maritime technology such as the caravel, in order that they might find a sea route to the source of the lucrative spice trade. In 1488, Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and in 1498, Vasco da Gama reached India. In 1500, either by an accidental landfall or by the crown's secret design, Pedro Álvares Cabral discovered Brazil on the South American coast. Over the following decades, Portuguese sailors continued to explore the coasts and islands of East Asia, establishing forts and factories as they went. By 1571, a string of outposts connected Lisbon to Nagasaki along the coasts of Africa, the Middle East, India, and Asia. This commercial network brought great wealth to Portugal.
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Rome
Rome (/ˈroʊm/; Italian: Roma pronounced [ˈroːma] ( listen); Latin: Rōma) is a city and special comune ("Roma Capitale") in Italy. Rome is the capital of Italy and the capital of Lazio (Latin: Latium). With 2.8 million residents in 1,285.3 km2 (496.3 sq mi), it is also the country's largest and most populated comune and fourth-most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. Between 3.2 and 3.7 million people live in the Rome metropolitan area. The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.
Rome's history spans two and a half thousand years. It was the capital city of the Roman Kingdom, the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, which was the dominant power in Western Europe and the lands bordering the Mediterranean for over seven hundred years from the 1st century BC until the 7th century AD and the city is regarded as one of the birthplaces of western civilization. Since the 1st century AD Rome has been the seat of the Papacy and, after the end of Byzantine domination, in the 8th century it became the capital of the Papal States, which lasted until 1870. In 1871 Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, and in 1946 that of the Italian Republic.
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Silla
Silla (57 BC – 935 AD) (Korean pronunciation: [ɕilːa]) was one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, and one of the longest sustained dynasties in Asian history. Although it was founded by King Park Hyeokgeose, who is also known to be the originator of the Korean family name Park (박, 朴), the dynasty was to see the Gyeongju Kim (김, 金) clan hold rule for most of its 992-year history. What began as a chiefdom in the Samhan confederacies, once allied with China, Silla eventually conquered the other two kingdoms, Baekje in 660 and Goguryeo in 668. Thereafter, Unified Silla or Later Silla, as it is often referred to, occupied most of the Korean Peninsula, while the northern part re-emerged as Balhae, a successor-state of Goguryeo. After nearly 1000 years of rule, Silla fragmented into the brief Later Three Kingdoms, handing over power to its successor dynasty Goryeo in 935.
From its founding until its growth into a full-fledged kingdom, Silla was recorded with various hanja phonetically approximating its native Korean name: 斯盧 (사로, Saro), 斯羅 (사라, Sara), 徐那(伐) (서나[벌], Seona[beol]), 徐耶(伐) (서야[벌], Seoya[beol]), 徐羅(伐) (서라[벌], Seora[beol]), and 徐伐 (서벌, Seobeol). In 503, King Jijeung standardized on the characters 新羅(신라), which in Modern Korean is pronounced "Shilla".
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Tokyo Station
Tokyo Station (東京駅, Tōkyō-eki?) is a railway station in the Marunouchi business district of Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan, near the Imperial Palace grounds and the Ginza commercial district.
It is the main intercity rail terminal in Tokyo, the busiest station in Japan in terms of number of trains per day (over 3,000), and the fifth-busiest in Eastern Japan in terms of passenger throughput. It is the starting point and terminus for most of Japan's Shinkansen high-speed rail lines, and is served by many local and regional commuter lines of Japan Railways, as well as the Tokyo Metro network.
The following lines pass through or terminate at Tokyo Station:
The station is linked by underground passageways to the Ōtemachi underground (subway) station complex served by the Tōzai, Chiyoda, Hanzōmon, and Mita subway lines.
It is also possible to walk to the Nijūbashimae, Hibiya, Yūrakuchō, Ginza, and Higashi-ginza Stations completely underground (the last a distance of over 2 km), but these stations can usually be reached more quickly by train.
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United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain) is a sovereign state located off the north-western coast of continental Europe. The country includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea.
The United Kingdom is a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system, with its seat of government in the capital city of London. It is a country in its own right and consists of four countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. There are three devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff, the capitals of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Associated with the UK, but not constitutionally part of it, are three Crown Dependencies. The United Kingdom has fourteen overseas territories. These are remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in 1922, encompassed almost a quarter of the world's land surface and was the largest empire in history. British influence can still be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former territories.
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Yaesu
Yaesu (八重洲?) is a neighborhood in Chūō, Tokyo, Japan, located north of Ginza, west of Nihonbashi and Kyōbashi, and adjacent to the east side of Tokyo Station. The Yaesu exit, which faces Nihonbashi, is recent and primarily provides access to the Shinkansen platforms.
The area was named after the 17th century Dutch adventurer Jan Joosten, who, for his services to Tokugawa Ieyasu, was granted a house in Edo (today's Tokyo). The area came to be called Yayosu Quay after him—his name was pronounced yan yōs'ten in Japanese—and the name exists in the name of Yaesu side of Tokyo Station. Yaesu Avenue has a monument dedicated to Jan Joosten and his life after his arrival in Japan on the Liefde with William Adams.
35°40′48″N 139°46′11″E / 35.680104°N 139.769806°E / 35.680104; 139.769806Coordinates: 35°40′48″N 139°46′11″E / 35.680104°N 139.769806°E / 35.680104; 139.769806 (Yaesu Avenue)
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Yuan Dynasty
The Yuan Dynasty (Chinese: 元朝, p Yuán Cháo; Mongolian: Их Юань улс) was the branch of Mongol Borjigin dynasty established by Kublai Khan. Although the Mongols had ruled northern China for decades, it was not until 1271 that Kublai Khan officially proclaimed the dynasty in the traditional Chinese style. His realm – the Great Yuan Empire (t 大元帝國, s 大元帝国, p Dà Yuán Dìguó) – was by this point isolated from the other khanates and controlled only most of present-day China and its surrounding areas including modern Mongolia. It was the first non-Han dynasty to rule all of China and lasted until 1368, after which its remnants in Mongolia were known as the Northern Yuan.
The Yuan is considered both a successor to the Mongol Empire and as an imperial Chinese dynasty. In official Chinese histories, the Yuan Dynasty bore the Mandate of Heaven, following the Song Dynasty and preceding the Ming Dynasty. Although the dynasty was established by Kublai Khan, he placed his grandfather Genghis Khan on the imperial records as the official founder of the dynasty as Taizu.
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Akechi Mitsuhide
Akechi Mitsuhide (明智 光秀?, 1528? – July 2, 1582 Japanese calendar 6th month 13th day), nicknamed Jūbei or called Koretō Hyūga no Kami (惟任日向守?) from his clan name and title, was a samurai who lived during the Sengoku period of Feudal Japan.
Mitsuhide was a general under daimyo Oda Nobunaga, although he became infamous for his betrayal in 1582, which led to Nobunaga's death at Honno-ji.
His birthplace is not specified but is inferred to be in Kyoto or in Kani of Mino Province—now Gifu Prefecture. Toki-Akechi is a descendant of the shugo Toki clan. Mitsuhide began serving Nobunaga after the latter's conquest of Mino province in 1566 and received Sakamoto (in Omi, 100,000 koku) in 1571. Before serving Nobunaga, Mitsuhide had served Ashikaga Yoshiaki after Asakura Yoshikage. Although Nobunaga rarely put too much trust in his retainers, he particularly trusted Shibata Katsuie, Hashiba Hideyoshi, and Akechi Mitsuhide. Akechi Mitushide was the first subordinate who received a castle from Nobunaga. After Mitsuhide received Sakamoto he moved to pacify the Tamba region by defeating several clans such as Hatanao and the Isshiki of Tango. Mitsuhide also received Kamiyama castle and the Tanba region.
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Asakura Norikage
Asakura Norikage (朝倉 教景?, 1477 – September 23, 1555), also known as Asakura Sōteki (朝倉 宗滴), was the eighth son of Asakura Toshikage and a powerful figure during the early Sengoku Period of Feudal Japan.
In 1506, he led the Asakura to victory against militant monks from Hongan-ji in battle at the Kuzuryu River, despite unfavorable numbers.
In 1548, he became a priest and changed his name to Soteki; however, this did not keep him from engaging in war.
He engaged in his last campaign at the age of 79 against Ikko adherents. He died of natural causes during this campaign.
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Ashikaga Yoshimasa
Ashikaga Yoshimasa (足利 義政?, January 20, 1435 – January 27, 1490) was the 8th shogun of the Ashikaga shogunate who reigned from 1449 to 1473 during the Muromachi period of Japan. Yoshimasa was the son of the sixth shogun Ashikaga Yoshinori.
On the August 16, 1443 (Kakitsu 3, 21st day of the 7th month), 10-year-old shogun Yoshikatsu died of injuries sustained in a fall from a horse. He had been shogun for only three years. Immediately, the bakufu elevated Yoshinari, the young shogun's even younger brother, to be the new shogun. Several years after becoming shogun, Yoshinari changed his name to Yoshimasa, by which name he is better known.
Significant events which shaped the period during which Yoshimasa was shogun:
A number of decisions lead eventually to armed conflict:
By 1464, Yoshimasa had no heir, so he adopted his younger brother, Ashikaga Yoshimi, in order to avoid any conflicts which might arise at the end of his shogunate. However, in the next year, Yoshimasa was surprised by the birth of a son. The infant's birth created a conflict between the two brothers over who would follow Yoshimasa as shogun. By 1467 the simmering dispute had evolved, encouraging a split amongst the powerful daimyō and clan factions. The armed conflict which ensued has come to be known as the Ōnin War. This armed contest marks the beginning the Sengoku period of Japanese history, a troubled period of constant military clashes which would last over a century. A number of developments affect the unfolding Ōnin War's battles:
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Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy indigenous to the Indian subcontinent and encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs, and practices largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, who is commonly known as the Buddha (meaning "the awakened one" in Sanskrit and Pāli). The Buddha lived and taught in the eastern part of Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE. He is recognized by Buddhists as an awakened or enlightened teacher who shared his insights to help sentient beings end ignorance (avidyā), craving (taṇhā), and suffering (dukkha), by recognizing dependent origination and sunyata, and attain Nirvana.
Two major branches of Buddhism are recognized: Theravada ("The School of the Elders") and Mahayana ("The Great Vehicle"). Theravada has a widespread following in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. Mahayana is found throughout East Asia and includes the traditions of Pure Land, Zen, Nichiren Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, Shingon, Tiantai (Tendai) and Shinnyo-en. In some classifications, Vajrayana—practiced mainly in Tibet and Mongolia, and adjacent parts of China and Russia—is recognized as a third branch, while others classify it as a part of Mahayana. There are other categorisations of these three Vehicles or Yanas.
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Carl Steenstrup
Carl Steenstrup (born in 1934 in Vaasa, Finland) is a Danish translator of Japanese literature.
Carl Steenstrup is known for translating several works of Japanese literature, mostly those relating to the historical development of Bushido, Japanese Feudal Law, and the Kakun (House Codes) of famous Samurai Leaders Hōjō Shigetoki and Imagawa Ryoshun. Steenstrup's dissertation at Harvard University was entitled Hôjô Shigetoki (1198–1261) and his Role in the History of Political and Ethical Ideas in Japan.
He was a civil servant for the Danish Government from 1952 to 1985 and Professor of Japanese History at Munich University (1985 to 2000). From 1971 to 1972 he was a lecturer in Nordic languages for Tōkai University in Tokyo, Japan. Until his retirement, he lectured at Humboldt University in Berlin, and the Government Academy of Law and Economics in Irkutsk.
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China
China (i/ˈtʃaɪnə/; Chinese: 中国; pinyin: Zhōngguó; see also Names of China), officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is the world's most-populous country, with a population of over 1.3 billion. Covering approximately 9.6 million square kilometres, the East Asian state is the world's second-largest country by land area, and the third- or fourth-largest in total area, depending on the definition of total area.
The People's Republic of China is a single-party state governed by the Communist Party of China. It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four directly controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing), and two mostly self-governing special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau). Its capital city is Beijing. The PRC also claims Taiwan—which is controlled by the Republic of China (ROC), a separate political entity—as its 23rd province, a claim controversial due to the complex political status of Taiwan and the unresolved Chinese Civil War. The PRC government denies the legitimacy of the ROC.
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Confucius
Confucius (551–479 BC) was a Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher of the Spring and Autumn Period of Chinese history.
The philosophy of Confucius emphasized personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice, and sincerity. His followers competed successfully with many other schools during the Hundred Schools of Thought era only to be suppressed in favor of the Legalists during the Qin Dynasty. Following the victory of Han over Chu after the collapse of Qin, Confucius's thoughts received official sanction and were further developed into a system known as Confucianism.
Confucius is traditionally credited with having authored or edited many of the Chinese classic texts including all of the Five Classics, but modern scholars are cautious of attributing specific assertions to Confucius himself. Aphorisms concerning his teachings were compiled in the Analects, but only many years after his death.
Confucius's principles had a basis in common Chinese tradition and belief. He championed strong family loyalty, ancestor worship, respect of elders by their children (and in traditional interpretations of husbands by their wives), and family as a basis for ideal government. He espoused the well-known principle "Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself", an early version of the Golden Rule.
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Eiji Yoshikawa
Eiji Yoshikawa (吉川 英治, Yoshikawa Eiji?, August 11, 1892 – September 7, 1962) was a well known Japanese historical novelist. Among his most well-known novels, most are revisions of older classics. He was mainly influenced by classics such as The Tale of the Heike, Tale of Genji, Outlaws of the Marsh, and Romance of the Three Kingdoms, many of which he retold in his own style. As an example, the original manuscript of Taiko is 15 volumes, Yoshikawa took up the job to retell it in a more accessible tone, and reduced it to only two volumes. His other books also serve similar purposes and, although most of his novels are not original works, he created a huge amount of work and a renewed interest in the past. He was awarded the Cultural Order of Merit in 1960 (the highest award for a man of letters in Japan), the Order of the Sacred Treasure and the Mainichi Art Award just before his death from cancer in 1962. He is cited as one of the best historical novelists in Japan.
He was born Hidetsugu Yoshikawa (吉川英次, Yoshikawa Hidetsugu?) in Kanagawa Prefecture, in what is now a part of Yokohama. Because of his father's failed business, he had to drop out of primary school to work when he was 11 years old. When he was 18, after a near-fatal accident working at the Yokohama docks, he moved to Tokyo and became an apprentice in a gold lacquer workshop. Around this time he became interested in comic haiku. He joined a poetry society and started writing comic haiku under the pseudonym "Kijiro."
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Emishi
The Emishi or Ebisu (蝦夷?) constituted a group of people who lived in northeastern Honshū in the Tōhoku region which was referred to as michi no oku (道の奥?) in contemporary sources. Some Emishi tribes resisted the rule of the Japanese Emperors during the late Nara and early Heian periods (7th–10th centuries CE). More recently, scholars believe that they were natives of northern Honshū and were descendants of those who developed the Jōmon culture. They are thought to have been related to the Ainu. The separate ethnic status of the Emishi is not in doubt; this understanding is based upon a language that is separate from Japanese and that scholars have been unable to reconstruct.
The Emishi were represented by different tribes, some of whom became allies of the Japanese (fushu, ifu) and others of whom remained hostile (iteki). The Emishi in northeastern Honshū relied on their horses in warfare. They developed a unique style of warfare where horse archery and hit-and-run tactics proved very effective against the slower contemporary Japanese imperial army that mostly relied on heavy infantry. Their livelihood was based on hunting and gathering as well as on the cultivation of grains such as millet and barley. Recently, it has been thought that they practiced rice cultivation in areas where rice could be easily grown. The first major attempts to subjugate the Emishi in the 8th century were largely unsuccessful. The imperial armies, which were modeled after the mainland Chinese armies, were no match for the guerrilla tactics of the Emishi.
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Emperor Kammu
Emperor Kammu (桓武天皇, Kanmu-tennō?, 737–806) was the 50th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Kammu reigned from 781 to 806.
Kammu's personal name (imina) was Yamabe (山部?). He was the eldest son of Prince Shirakabe (later known as Emperor Kōnin), and was born prior to Shirakabe's ascension to the throne. According to the Shoku Nihongi (続日本紀?), Yamabe's mother, Yamato no Niigasa (later called Takano no Niigasa), was a 10th generation descendant of King Muryeong of Baekje.
After his father, Kōnin, became emperor, Kammu's half-brother Prince Osabe was appointed to the rank of crown prince. His mother Princess Inoe was a daughter of Emperor Shōmu; but instead of Prince Osabe, it was Kammu who was later named to succeed their father. After Princess Inoe and Prince Osabe were confined and then died in 775, Prince Osabe's sister – Kammu's half-sister Princess Sakahito – became Kammu's wife. Later, when he ascended to the throne in 781, Kammu appointed his young brother, Prince Sawara, whose mother was Takano no Niigasa, as crown prince. Hikami no Kawatsugu, a son of Emperor Temmu's grandson Prince Shioyaki and Shōmu's daughter Princess Fuwa, attempted to carry out a coup d'état in 782, but it failed and Kawatsugu and his mother were sent into exile. In 785, Prince Sawara was expelled and died in exile.
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Emperor Komei
Emperor Kōmei (孝明天皇, Kōmei-tennō?, 22 July 1831 – 30 January 1867) was the 121st emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession.
Kōmei's reign spanned the years from 1846 through 1867.
Before Kōmei's accession to the Chrysanthemum Throne, his personal name (imina) was Osahito (統仁?);, his title was Hiro-no-miya (煕宮?).
Emperor Kōmei was the fourth son of Emperor Ninkō and Empress Sukulito Sakayamas.
Kōmei's Imperial family lived with him in the Dairi of the Heian Palace. The family included six children, four daughters and two sons; but the future Emperor Meiji was the only one to survive childhood.
Kōmei principal consort was Asako Kujō (九条夙子). After Kōmei's death in 1867, Asako was given the title Empress Eishō (英照皇后) by Emperor Meiji.
Osahito-shinnō became emperor following the death of his emperor-father. The succession (the senso) was considered to have been received by the new monarch; and shortly thereafter, Emperor Kōmei is said to have acceded (the sokui). The events during his lifetime shed some light on his reign. The years of Kōmei's reign correspond with a period in which Tokugawa Ieyoshi, Tokugawa Iesada, Tokugawa Iemochi, and Tokugawa Yoshinobu were leaders at the pinnacle of the Tokugawa shogunate.
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Emperor Mommu
Emperor Mommu (文武天皇, Monmu-tennō?, 683–707) was the 42nd emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession.
Mommu's reign spanned the years from 697 through 707.
Before his ascension to the Chrysanthemum Throne, his personal name (imina) was Karu-shinnō.
He was a grandson of Emperor Temmu and Empress Jitō. He was the second son of Prince Kusakabe. Mommu's mother was Princess Abe, a daughter of Emperor Tenji. Mommu's mother would later accede to the throne herself, and she would be known as Empress Gemmei.
Karu-shinnō was only six years old when his father, Crown Prince Kusakabe, died.
Emperor Mommu ruled until his death in 707, at which point he was succeeded by his mother, Empress Gemmei, who was also his first cousin once removed and his first cousin twice removed. He left a young son by Fujiwara no Miyako, a daughter of Fujiwara no Fuhito: Obito no miko (Prince Obito), who eventually became Emperor Shōmu.
Emperor Mommu's reign lasted 10 years. He died at the age of 25.
The actual site of Mommu's grave is known. This emperor is traditionally venerated at a memorial Shinto shrine (misasagi) at Nara.
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Emperor Tenji
Emperor Tenji (天智天皇, Tenji-tennō?, 626 – January 7, 671), also known as Emperor Tenchi, was the 38th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession.
Tenji's reign spanned the years from 661 through 671.
He was the son of Emperor Jomei, but was preceded as ruler by his mother Empress Saimei.
Prior to his accession, he was known as Prince Naka-no-Ōe (中大兄皇子, Naka-no-Ōe no Ōji?).
As prince, Naka no Ōe played a crucial role in ending the near-total control the Soga clan had over the imperial family. In 644, seeing the Soga continue to gain power, he conspired with Nakatomi no Kamatari and Soga no Kurayamada no Ishikawa no Maro to assassinate Soga no Iruka in what has come to be known as the Isshi Incident. Although the assassination did not go exactly as planned, Iruka was killed, and his father and predecessor, Soga no Emishi, committed suicide soon after. Following the Isshi Incident, Iruka's adherents dispersed largely without a fight, and Naka no Ōe was named heir apparent. He also married the daughter of his ally Soga no Kurayamada, thus ensuring that a significant portion of the Soga clan's power was on his side.
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Enomoto Takeaki
Viscount Enomoto Takeaki (榎本 武揚?, 5 October 1836 – 26 October 1908) was a samurai and admiral of the Tokugawa navy of Bakumatsu period Japan, who remained faithful to the Tokugawa shogunate who fought against the new Meiji government until the end of the Boshin War. He later served in the Meiji government as one of the founders of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
Enomoto was born as a member of a samurai family in the direct service of the Tokugawa clan in the Shitaya district of Edo (modern Taito, Tokyo). Enomoto started learning Dutch in the 1850s, and after Japan's forced "opening" by Commodore Matthew Perry in 1854, he studied at the Tokugawa shogunate's Naval Training Center in Nagasaki and at the Tsukiji Warship Training Center in Edo.
At the age of 26, Enomoto was sent to the Netherlands to study western techniques in naval warfare and to procure western technologies. He stayed in Europe from 1862 to 1867, and became fluent in both the Dutch and English languages.
Enomoto returned to Japan onboard the Kaiyō Maru, a steam warship purchased from the Netherlands by the Shogunal government. During his stay in Europe, Enomoto had realized that the telegraph would be an important means of communication in the future, and started planning a system to connect Edo and Yokohama. Upon his return, Enomoto was promoted to Kaigun Fukusosai (海軍副総裁?), the second highest rank in the Tokugawa Navy, at the age of 31. He also received the court title of Izumi-no-kami (和泉守?).
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Eugène Collache
Eugène Collache (1850s?-?) was an officer of the French Navy in the 19th century. Based on the ship Minerva of the French Oriental Fleet, he deserted when the ship was anchored at Yokohama harbour, with his friend Henri Nicol to rally other French officers, led by Jules Brunet, who had embraced the cause of the Bakufu in the Boshin War. On November 29, 1868, Eugène Collache and Nicol left Yokohama on board a commercial ship, the Sophie-Hélène, chartered by a Swiss businessman.
The two French officers first reached Samenoura Bay (鮫ノ浦湾) in the province of Nambu (modern Miyagi Prefecture), where they learned that the Imperial forces had subdued the Daimyos of Northern Japan, and that the rebel forces favorable to the Shogun had fled to the island of Hokkaidō. They decided to go further north to Aomori, where they were warmly received by the Daimyo of Tsugaru. A visiting American ship brought them the news that an arrestation order against them had been issued. Eugène Collache and Nicol decided to board the American ship and reached Hokkaidō. During the winter of 1868-1869, Collache was put in charge of establishing fortifications in the volcanic mountain chain protecting Hakodate (Nicol was put in charge of organizing the Navy).
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Felice Beato
Felice Beato (1832 – 29 January 1909), also known as Felix Beato, was an Italian–British photographer. He was one of the first people to take photographs in East Asia and one of the first war photographers. He is noted for his genre works, portraits, and views and panoramas of the architecture and landscapes of Asia and the Mediterranean region. Beato's travels gave him the opportunity to create images of countries, people, and events that were unfamiliar and remote to most people in Europe and North America. His work provides images of such events as the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and the Second Opium War, and represents the first substantial oeuvre of photojournalism. He had an impact on other photographers, and his influence in Japan, where he taught and worked with numerous other photographers and artists, was particularly deep and lasting.
A death certificate discovered in 2009 shows that Beato was born in Venice in 1832 and died on 29 January 1909 in Florence. The death certificate also indicates that he was a British subject and a bachelor. It is likely that early in his life Beato and his family moved to Corfu, at the time part of the British protectorate of the Ionian Islands, and so Beato was a British subject.
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Hasekura Tsunenaga
Hasekura Rokuemon Tsunenaga (or "Francisco Felipe Faxicura", as he was baptized in Spain) (1571–1622) (Japanese: 支倉六右衛門常長, also spelled Faxecura Rocuyemon in period European sources, reflecting the contemporary pronunciation of Japanese) was a Japanese samurai and retainer of Date Masamune, the daimyo of Sendai.
In the years 1613 through 1620, Hasekura headed a diplomatic mission to the Vatican in Rome, traveling through New Spain (arriving in Acapulco and departing from Veracruz) and visiting various ports-of-call in Europe. This historic mission is called the Keichō Embassy (慶長使節), and follows the Tenshō embassy (天正使節) of 1582. On the return trip, Hasekura and his companions re-traced their route across Mexico in 1619, sailing from Acapulco for Manila, and then sailing north to Japan in 1620. He is conventionally considered the first Japanese ambassador in the Americas and in Europe.
Although Hasekura's embassy was cordially received in Europe, it happened at a time when Japan was moving toward the suppression of Christianity. European monarchs such as the King of Spain thus refused the trade agreements Hasekura had been seeking. Hasekura returned to Japan in 1620 and died of illness a year later, his embassy seemingly ending with few results in an increasingly isolationist Japan.
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Hattori Hanzō
Hattori Hanzō (服部 半蔵?, ~1542 – December 23, 1596), also known as Hattori Masanari (服部 正成?), was a famous samurai and ninja master of the Sengoku era, credited with saving the life of Tokugawa Ieyasu and then helping him to become the ruler of united Japan. Today, he is often a subject of varied portrayal in modern popular culture.
Hanzō was born as the son of Hattori Yasunaga, a minor samurai in the service of the Matsudaira (later Tokugawa) clan. He would later earn the nickname Oni no Hanzō (鬼の半蔵, Devil Hanzō?) because of the fearless tactics he displayed in his operations; this is to distinguish him from Watanabe Hanzo (Watanabe Moritsuna), who is nicknamed Yari no Hanzō (槍の半蔵, Spear Hanzō?).
Though Hanzō was born and raised in Mikawa Province, he often returned to Iga Province, home of the Hattori family. He fought his first battle at the age of 16 (a night-time attack on Udo castle) and went on to serve with distinction at the battles of Anegawa (1570) and Mikatagahara (1572). His most valuable contribution came in 1582 following Oda Nobunaga's death, when he led the future shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu to safety in Mikawa Province across Iga territory with the help of remnants of the local Iga ninja clans as well as their one-time rivals in Koga. According to some sources, Hanzō also helped in rescuing the captured family of Ieyasu.
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Hojo Shigetoki
Note:There were other Hojo Shigetoki within the ruling family, but with different characters.
Hōjō Shigetoki (北条重時?) (July 11, 1198 – November 26, 1261) was a Japanese samurai of the Kamakura period. He was the third Kitakata Rokuhara tandai, serving from 1230 to 1247. He was also known as Lord Gokuraku-ji (極楽寺殿, Gokurakuji-dono?). His writings influenced later samurai philosophy.
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Honda Tadakatsu
Honda Tadakatsu (本多 忠勝?, March 17, 1548 – December 3, 1610), also called Honda Heihachirō (本多 平八郎), was a Japanese general (and later a daimyo) of the late Sengoku through early Edo period, who served Tokugawa Ieyasu. Honda Tadakatsu was one of the Tokugawa Four Heavenly Kings along with Ii Naomasa, Sakakibara Yasumasa and Sakai Tadatsugu.
A native of Mikawa Province in Japan, he lived during the Azuchi-Momoyama and Edo periods. Ieyasu promoted him from daimyo of the Ōtaki han (100 000 koku) to the Kuwana han (150 000 koku) as a reward for his service. In addition, his son Honda Tadatomo became daimyo of Ōtaki. In 1609, he retired, and his other son Tadamasa took over Kuwana. His grandson, Tadatoki, married the granddaughter of Tokugawa Ieyasu, Senhime. Despite his years of loyal service, Tadakatsu became increasingly estranged from the Tokugawa shogunate (bakufu) as it evolved from a military to a civilian political institution. This was a fate shared by many other warriors of the time, who were not able to make the conversion from the chaotic lifetime of warfare of the Sengoku period to the more stable peace of the Tokugawa shogunate.
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Hōjō Ujimasa
Hōjō Ujimasa (北条 氏政?, 1538 – August 10, 1590) was the fourth head of the late Hōjō clan, and daimyo of Odawara.
Ujimasa commanded in many battles, consolidating his clan's position, and retired in 1590. His son Hōjō Ujinao became head of the clan and lord of Odawara, but later that year they failed to hold Odawara against the forces of Toyotomi Hideyoshi (see Siege of Odawara (1590)). Ujimasa was forced to commit suicide along with his brother Ujiteru.
Like many samurai who committed seppuku in the face of shameful defeat, Ujimasa composed a death poem:
(雨雲の おほへる月も 胸の霧も はらひにけりな 秋の夕風)
(我が身今 消ゆとやいかに 思ふべき 空より来たり 空へ帰れば)
(吹きとふく 風な恨みそ 花の春 紅葉も残る 秋あらばこそ)
Hōjō Ujimasa appears in Koei's video games Kessen, Samurai Warriors 2, Samurai Warriors 3 and Warriors Orochi., also in Capcom's Sengoku Basara, Sengoku Basara 2, and Sengoku Basara 2 Heroes. He also appears in The Creative Assembly's Total War: Shogun, and Total War: Shogun 2.
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Ignatius Loyola
Ignatius of Loyola (Basque: Iñigo Loiolakoa, Spanish: Ignacio de Loyola) (1491 – July 31, 1556) was a Spanish knight from a Basque noble family, hermit, priest since 1537, and theologian, who founded the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and was its first Superior General. Ignatius emerged as a religious leader during the Counter-Reformation. Loyola's devotion to the Catholic Church was characterized by unquestioning obedience to the Catholic Church's authority and hierarchy.
After being seriously wounded at the Battle of Pamplona in 1521, he underwent a spiritual conversion while in recovery. De Vita Christi by Ludolph of Saxony inspired Loyola to abandon his previous military life and devote himself to labour for God, following the example of spiritual leaders such as Francis of Assisi. He experienced a vision of the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus while at the shrine of Our Lady of Montserrat in March 1522. Thereafter he went to Manresa, where he began praying for seven hours a day, often in a nearby cave, while formulating the fundamentals of the Spiritual Exercises. In September 1523, Loyola reached the Holy Land to settle there, but was sent back to Europe by the Franciscans.
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Ignatius of Loyola
Ignatius of Loyola (Basque: Iñigo Loiolakoa, Spanish: Ignacio de Loyola) (1491 – July 31, 1556) was a Spanish knight from a Basque noble family, hermit, priest since 1537, and theologian, who founded the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and was its first Superior General. Ignatius emerged as a religious leader during the Counter-Reformation. Loyola's devotion to the Catholic Church was characterized by unquestioning obedience to the Catholic Church's authority and hierarchy.
After being seriously wounded at the Battle of Pamplona in 1521, he underwent a spiritual conversion while in recovery. De Vita Christi by Ludolph of Saxony inspired Loyola to abandon his previous military life and devote himself to labour for God, following the example of spiritual leaders such as Francis of Assisi. He experienced a vision of the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus while at the shrine of Our Lady of Montserrat in March 1522. Thereafter he went to Manresa, where he began praying for seven hours a day, often in a nearby cave, while formulating the fundamentals of the Spiritual Exercises. In September 1523, Loyola reached the Holy Land to settle there, but was sent back to Europe by the Franciscans.
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Ii Naotaka
Ii Naotaka (井伊 直孝?, March 16, 1590 – August 16, 1659) was a Japanese daimyo of the early Edo period who served under the Tokugawa shogunate. He was the son of the famous Tokugawa general Ii Naomasa.
Naotaka served in the Siege of Osaka in his brother Naokatsu's stead, where he would gain tremendous favor for his exploits at Tennoji. After the battle, he would be granted his brother's lands at Sawayama in Omi province. He would finish the construction of Hikone castle in 1622, a project which had been started by his brother in 1603.
Both Naotaka and his father Naomasa are playable characters from the Eastern Army in the original Kessen.
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Ikeda Nagaoki
Ikeda Nagaoki (池田 長発?, August 23, 1837 – September 12, 1879), formally "Ikeda Chikugo no kami Nagaoki", was the governor of small villages of Ibara, Bitchū Province (Okayama Prefecture), Japan, during the end of the Tokugawa shogunate.
He was, at 27, the head of the Second Japanese Embassy to Europe (Japanese:第２回遣欧使節), also called the Ikeda Mission, sent in 1863-1864 by the Tokugawa shogunate to negotiate the cancellation of the open-port status of Yokohama. The mission was sent following the 1863 "Order to expel barbarians" (攘夷実行の勅命) edicted by Emperor Kōmei, and the Bombardment of Shimonoseki incidents, in a wish to close again the country to Western influence, and return to sakoku status.
Nagaoki left with a mission of 36 men on a French warship, stopped in Shanghai, India and Cairo through the Suez canal. His mission visited the pyramids, a feat which Antonio Beato photographed at the time. He finally arrived in Marseille and then Paris, where he met with Napoleon III and with Philipp Franz von Siebold. He stayed at the Grand Hotel in Paris.
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John Ford
John Ford (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973) was an American film director. He was famous for both his Westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath. His four Academy Awards for Best Director (1935, 1940, 1941, 1952) is a record, and one of those films, How Green Was My Valley, also won Best Picture.
In a career that spanned more than 50 years, Ford directed more than 140 films (although nearly all of his silent films are now lost) and he is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers of his generation. Ford's films and personality were held in high regard by his colleagues, with Ingmar Bergman and Orson Welles among those who have named him as one of the greatest directors of all time.
In particular, Ford was a pioneer of location shooting and the long shot which frames his characters against a vast, harsh and rugged natural terrain.
Ford was born John Martin "Jack" Feeney (though he later often gave his given names as Sean Aloysius, sometimes with surname O'Feeny or O'Fearna; an Irish language equivalent of Feeney) in Cape Elizabeth, Maine to John Augustine Feeney and Barbara "Abbey" Curran, on February 1, 1894 (though he occasionally said 1895 and that date is erroneously inscribed on his tombstone). His father, John Augustine, was born in Spiddal,County Galway, Ireland in 1854. Barbara Curran had been born in the Aran Islands, in the town of Kilronan on the island of Inishmore (Inis Mór). John A. Feeney's grandmother, Barbara Morris, was said to be a member of a local (impoverished) gentry family, the Morrises of Spiddal, headed at present by Lord Killanin.
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Kampaku
In Japan, Sesshō (摂政?) was a title given to a regent who was named to assist either a child emperor before his coming of age, or an empress. The Kampaku (関白?) was theoretically a sort of chief advisor for the emperor, but was the title of both first secretary and regent who assists an adult emperor. During the Heian era, they were the effective rulers of Japan. There was little, if any, effective difference between the two titles, and several individuals merely changed titles as child emperors grew to adulthood, or adult emperors retired or died and were replaced by child emperors. The two titles were collectively known as Sekkan (摂関?), and the families that exclusively held the titles were called Sekkan-ke or Sekkan family. After the Heian era, shogunates took over the power.
A retired kampaku is called Taikō (太閤?), which came to commonly refer to Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
In earlier times, only members of the Imperial Family could be appointed sesshō. Kojiki reported that Emperor Ōjin was assisted by his mother, Empress Jingū, but it is doubtful if it is a historical fact. The first historical sesshō was Prince Shōtoku who assisted Empress Suiko.
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Kato Kiyomasa
Katō Kiyomasa (加藤 清正?, July 25, 1562 – August 2, 1611) was a Japanese daimyō of the Azuchi-Momoyama and Edo period.
Kiyomasa was born in what is now Nakamura-ku, Nagoya (situated in contemporary Aichi District, Owari Province) to Katō Kiyotada. Kiyotada's wife, Ito, was a cousin of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's mother. Kiyotada died while his son (then known as Toranosuke) was still young. Soon after, Toranosuke entered service with Hideyoshi, and in 1576, at age 14, was granted a revenue of 170 koku. He fought in Hideyoshi's army at the Battle of Yamazaki, and later, at the Battle of Shizugatake. Owing to his distinguished conduct in that battle, he became known as one of the Seven Spears of Shizugatake. Hideyoshi rewarded Kiyomasa with an increased revenue of 3000 koku.
When Hideyoshi became the kampaku in the summer of 1585, Kiyomasa received the court title of Kazue no Kami (主計頭) and junior 5th court rank, lower grade (ju go-i no ge 従五位下). In 1586, after Higo Province was confiscated from Sassa Narimasa, he was granted 250,000 koku of land in Higo (roughly half of the province), and given Kumamoto Castle as his provincial residence.
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Katō Kiyomasa
Katō Kiyomasa (加藤 清正?, July 25, 1562 – August 2, 1611) was a Japanese daimyō of the Azuchi-Momoyama and Edo period.
Kiyomasa was born in what is now Nakamura-ku, Nagoya (situated in contemporary Aichi District, Owari Province) to Katō Kiyotada. Kiyotada's wife, Ito, was a cousin of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's mother. Kiyotada died while his son (then known as Toranosuke) was still young. Soon after, Toranosuke entered service with Hideyoshi, and in 1576, at age 14, was granted a revenue of 170 koku. He fought in Hideyoshi's army at the Battle of Yamazaki, and later, at the Battle of Shizugatake. Owing to his distinguished conduct in that battle, he became known as one of the Seven Spears of Shizugatake. Hideyoshi rewarded Kiyomasa with an increased revenue of 3000 koku.
When Hideyoshi became the kampaku in the summer of 1585, Kiyomasa received the court title of Kazue no Kami (主計頭) and junior 5th court rank, lower grade (ju go-i no ge 従五位下). In 1586, after Higo Province was confiscated from Sassa Narimasa, he was granted 250,000 koku of land in Higo (roughly half of the province), and given Kumamoto Castle as his provincial residence.
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Konishi Yukinaga
Konishi Yukinaga (小西 行長, baptised under the personal name Agostinho (Portuguese for Augustine); 1555 – November 6, 1600) was a Kirishitan daimyō under Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
Konishi Yukinaga was the son of a wealthy Sakai merchant, Konishi Ryūsa. His wife was also baptised under the name of Maria.
In 1587, during the Invasion of Kyushu, he quelled the local uprising in Higo Province and was awarded a fief in that province.
Yukinaga led the initial forces under Toyotomi Hideyoshi to invade Korea in the Seven-Year War. He was noted for his role in the capture of Busan and Seoul and the defensive at Pyongyang. Afterwards, his vassal, Naitō Joan acted as the envoy to negotiate peace with Ming China.
In order to achieve a truce, he negotiated a false surrender to China, although to Toyotomi Hideyoshi it was a truce between two equal states. Later, a Ming envoy came to Japan to award Toyotomi the position of the King of Japan. This enraged Hideyoshi and exposed the truth behind Yukinaga's earlier diplomatic mission and resultant deception. Despite the charge of disloyalty, Yukinaga again led forces alongside Katō Kiyomasa to invade Korea a second time. He defended Suncheon Castle, and repelled Ming (China) and Joseon allied forces.
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Kotaro Satomi
Kōtarō Satomi (里見浩太朗, Satomi Kōtarō?, real name kunitoshi sano 佐野邦俊) (born 28 November 1936) is a Japanese actor from the city of Fujinomiya, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. He appears in both contemporary and jidaigeki roles.
Satomi has appeared in over 130 films. Among these are
Satomi has portrayed many historical personages. Among them are Ōishi Kuranosuke, Saigō Takamori, Enomoto Takeaki, Musashibō Benkei, and Yamamoto Kansuke. In addition, he has had prominent roles in several series:
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Kusunoki Masashige
Kusunoki Masashige (楠木 正成?, 1294 - July 4, 1336) was a 14th century samurai who fought for Emperor Go-Daigo in his attempt to wrest rulership of Japan away from the Kamakura shogunate and is remembered as the ideal of samurai loyalty.
A brilliant tactician and strategist, Kusunoki's cunning defense of two key Loyalist fortresses at Akasaka and Chihaya helped allow Go-Daigo to briefly return to power. However, one of the loyalist generals, Ashikaga Takauji, betrayed Go-Daigo and led an army against Kusunoki and the remaining loyalists. Kusunoki suggested to the Emperor that they take refuge on sacred Mount Hiei and allow Takauji to take Kyoto, only to swoop down from the mountain, and with the help of the monks of Mount Hiei, trap Takauji in the city and destroy him.
Go-Daigo was unwilling to leave the capital however, and insisted that Kusunoki meet Takauji's superior forces in the field in a pitched battle. Kusunoki, in what would later be viewed as the ultimate act of samurai loyalty, obediently accepted his Emperor's foolish command, left his death poem with his young son Masatsura and knowingly marched his army into almost certain death. The battle, which took place at Minatogawa in modern-day Chūō-ku, Kobe, was a tactical disaster. Kusunoki, his army completely surrounded, down to only 73 of the original 700 horsemen, committed suicide along with his brother Masasue, 11 close clan members, and 60 others. According to legend, his brother's last words were Shichisei Hōkoku! (七生報國; "Would that I had seven lives to give for my country!") and Kusunoki Masashige agreed. There are two accounts of arguments that Kusunoki Masashige made to emperor Go-Daigo. One was that they regroup and attack from two sides, the other was that they bring back general Takauji to their side thus balancing the scales. Both arguments were ignored.
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Matsudaira Katamori
Matsudaira Katamori (松平 容保?, February 15, 1836−December 5, 1893) was a samurai who lived in the last days of the Edo period and the early to mid Meiji period. He was the 9th daimyo of the Aizu han and the Military Commissioner of Kyoto during the Bakumatsu period. During the Boshin War, Katamori and the Aizu han fought against the Meiji Government armies, but were severely defeated. Katamori's life was spared, and he later became the Chief of the Tōshōgū Shrine. He, along with his three brothers Sadaaki, Yoshikatsu, and Mochiharu, had highly influential roles during the Meiji Restoration and were called the four Takasu brothers (Takasu yon-kyōdai 高須四兄弟).
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Matsuo Bashō
Matsuo Bashō (松尾 芭蕉?, 1644 – November 28, 1694), born Matsuo Kinsaku (松尾 金作?), then Matsuo Chūemon Munefusa (松尾 忠右衛門 宗房?), was the most famous poet of the Edo period in Japan. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works in the collaborative haikai no renga form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as a master of brief and clear haiku. His poetry is internationally renowned, and in Japan many of his poems are reproduced on monuments and traditional sites. Although Bashō is justifiably famous in the west for his hokku, he himself believed his best work lay in leading and participating in renku. He is quoted as saying, “Many of my followers can write hokku as well as I can. Where I show who I really am is in linking haikai verses.”
Bashō was introduced to poetry at a young age, and after integrating himself into the intellectual scene of Edo (modern Tokyo), he quickly became well-known throughout Japan. He made a living as a teacher, but renounced the social, urban life of the literary circles and was inclined to wander throughout the country, heading west, east, and far into the northern wilderness to gain inspiration for his writing. His poems were influenced by his firsthand experience of the world around him, often encapsulating the feeling of a scene in a few simple elements.
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Mencius
Mencius (Chinese: 孟子; pinyin: Mèng Zǐ; Wade–Giles: Meng Tzu; Zhuyin Fuhao: ㄇㄥˋ ㄗˇ, most accepted dates: 372 – 289 BCE; other possible dates: 385 – 303/302 BCE) was a Chinese philosopher who was arguably the most famous Confucian after Confucius himself.
Mencius, also known by his birth name Meng Ke or Ko, was born in the State of Zou, now forming the territory of the county-level city of Zoucheng (originally Zouxian), Shandong province, only thirty kilometres (eighteen miles) south of Qufu, Confucius' birthplace.
He was an itinerant Chinese philosopher and sage, and one of the principal interpreters of Confucianism. Supposedly, he was a pupil of Confucius' grandson, Zisi. Like Confucius, according to legend, he travelled China for forty years to offer advice to rulers for reform. During the Warring States Period (403–221 BCE), Mencius served as an official and scholar at the Jixia Academy in the State of Qi (1046 BCE to 221 BCE) from 319 to 312 BCE. He expressed his filial devotion when he took an absence of three years from his official duties for Qi to mourn his mother's death. Disappointed at his failure to effect changes in his contemporary world, he retired from public life.
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Minamoto no Yoshiie
Minamoto no Yoshiie (源 義家; 1039 – 4 August 1106), also known as Hachimantarō, was a Minamoto clan samurai of the late Heian period, and Chinjufu shogun (Commander-in-chief of the defense of the North). The first son of Minamoto no Yoriyoshi, he proved himself in battle with the Abe clan in the Zenkunen War (Early Nine Years' War) and the Kiyowara clan in the Gosannen War (Later Three Years' War). Subsequently, he became something of a paragon of samurai skill and bravery.
In 1050, Abe no Yoritoki held the post of Chinjufu shogun, as the Abe clan had for many generations; he was the chief commander of the defense of northern Honshū against the native Ezo (Ainu) people. Effectively, however, Yoritoki commanded the entire region, denying the official Governor any true power. As a result, Yoshiie's father was appointed both chinjufu shogun and governor, and Yoshiie traveled north with him to resolve the situation.
The campaign against the Abe clan lasted twelve years (nine, with three years truce). Yoshiie fought alongside his father in most if not every battle. Abe no Yoritoki died in 1057, but his son Abe no Sadato took up command of his father's forces.
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Miyamoto Musashi
Miyamoto Musashi (宮本 武蔵?, c. 1584 – June 13, 1645), also known as Shinmen Takezō, Miyamoto Bennosuke or, by his Buddhist name, Niten Dōraku, was a Japanese swordsman and rōnin. Musashi, as he was often simply known, became renowned through stories of his excellent swordsmanship in numerous duels, even from a very young age. He was the founder of the Hyōhō Niten Ichi-ryū or Niten-ryū style of swordsmanship and the author of The Book of Five Rings (五輪の書, Go Rin No Sho?), a book on strategy, tactics, and philosophy that is still studied today. Miyamoto Musashi is widely considered as a Kensei and one of the greatest warriors of all time.
The details of Miyamoto Musashi's early life are difficult to verify. Musashi himself simply states in Gorin no Sho that he was born in Harima Province.Niten Ki (an early biography of Musashi) supports the theory that Musashi was born in 1584: "[He] was born in Banshū, in Tenshō 12 [1584], the Year of the Monkey." The historian Kamiko Tadashi, commenting on Musashi's text, notes: "[...]Munisai was Musashi's father...he lived in Miyamoto village, in the Yoshino district [of Mimasaka Province]. Musashi was most probably born here." His childhood name was Bennosuke 弁之助.
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Oda Nobunaga
Oda Nobunaga (織田 信長, Oda Nobunaga (help·info)?, June 23, 1534 – June 21, 1582) was the initiator of the unification of Japan under the shogunate in the late 16th century, which ruled Japan until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was also a major daimyo during the Sengoku period of Japanese history. His opus was continued, completed and finalized by his successors Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu. He was the second son of Oda Nobuhide, a deputy shugo (military governor) with land holdings in Owari Province. Nobunaga lived a life of continuous military conquest, eventually conquering a third of Japan before his death in 1582. His successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a loyal Oda supporter, would become the first man to unify all of Japan, and was thus the first ruler of all Japan since the Ōnin War.
Oda Nobunaga was born on June 23, 1534, and was given the childhood name of Kippōshi (吉法師?). He was the second son of Oda Nobuhide. Through his childhood and early teenage years, he was well known for his bizarre behavior and received the name of Owari no Ōutsuke (尾張の大うつけ?, The Fool of Owari). With the introduction of firearms into Japan, though, he became known for his fondness of Tanegashima firearms. He was also known to run around with other youths from the area, without any regard to his own rank in society. He is said to be born in Nagoya Castle, although this is subject to debate. It is however certain that he was born in the Owari domain. In 1574 Nobunaga accepted the title of Kuge (or Court Noble), then in 1577 he was given the title of Udaijin (or Minister of the Right), the third highest position in the Imperial court.
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Saigo Takamori
Saigō Takamori (Takanaga) (西郷 隆盛(隆永）?, January 23, 1828 – September 24, 1877) was one of the most influential samurai in Japanese history, living during the late Edo Period and early Meiji Era. He has been dubbed the last true samurai. He was born Saigō Kokichi (西郷 小吉), and received the given name Takamori in adulthood. He wrote poetry under the name Saigō Nanshū (西郷 南洲).
Saigō Takamori was born on December 7 in the lunar calendar, on the tenth year of the Bunsei era (January 23, 1828), in Kagoshima in the Satsuma domain (present-day Kagoshima Prefecture). Saigō served as a low-ranking samurai official in his early career. He was recruited to travel to Edo in 1854 to assist Satsuma Daimyo Shimazu Nariakira in promoting reconciliation and closer ties between the Tokugawa shogunate and the Imperial court (公武合体).
However, Saigō’s activity in Edo came to an abrupt end with the Ansei Purge by Tairo Ii Naosuke against anti-Shogunal activities, and the sudden death of Shimazu Nariakira. Saigō fled back to Kagoshima, only to be arrested and banished to Amami Ōshima island. He was recalled briefly in 1861, only to be banished again by the new Satsuma Daimyo Shimazu Hisamitsu. Hisamitsu finally pardoned Saigō in 1864, and sent him to Kyoto to handle the domain's interests towards the imperial court.
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Saigō Takamori
Saigō Takamori (Takanaga) (西郷 隆盛(隆永）?, January 23, 1828 – September 24, 1877) was one of the most influential samurai in Japanese history, living during the late Edo Period and early Meiji Era. He has been dubbed the last true samurai. He was born Saigō Kokichi (西郷 小吉), and received the given name Takamori in adulthood. He wrote poetry under the name Saigō Nanshū (西郷 南洲).
Saigō Takamori was born on December 7 in the lunar calendar, on the tenth year of the Bunsei era (January 23, 1828), in Kagoshima in the Satsuma domain (present-day Kagoshima Prefecture). Saigō served as a low-ranking samurai official in his early career. He was recruited to travel to Edo in 1854 to assist Satsuma Daimyo Shimazu Nariakira in promoting reconciliation and closer ties between the Tokugawa shogunate and the Imperial court (公武合体).
However, Saigō’s activity in Edo came to an abrupt end with the Ansei Purge by Tairo Ii Naosuke against anti-Shogunal activities, and the sudden death of Shimazu Nariakira. Saigō fled back to Kagoshima, only to be arrested and banished to Amami Ōshima island. He was recalled briefly in 1861, only to be banished again by the new Satsuma Daimyo Shimazu Hisamitsu. Hisamitsu finally pardoned Saigō in 1864, and sent him to Kyoto to handle the domain's interests towards the imperial court.
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Sakamoto Ryōma
Sakamoto Ryōma (坂本 龍馬?, January 3, 1836 – December 10, 1867) was a leader of the movement to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate during the Bakumatsu period in Japan. Ryōma used the alias Saidani Umetarō (才谷 梅太郎?).
Ryōma was born in Kōchi, of Tosa han (present day Kōchi Prefecture), on the island of Shikoku. By the Japanese calendar, this was the sixth year of Tenpō. Previous generations of his family had acquired enough wealth as sake brewers to purchase the rank of merchant samurai, or goshi, which was the lowest rank in the samurai social hierarchy (unlike other domains, Tosa had very strictly distinct joshi (high rank samurai) and kashi (low rank samurai). Joshi and kashi were treated unequally and they lived in separate places, also in Sakamoto Ryōma generation's (the third generation in the Sakamoto family), his family's samurai rank was kashi. At the age of twelve, Ryōma was enrolled in a private school, but this was a short-lived episode in his life, as he showed little scholarly inclination. His older sister enrolled him in fencing classes when he was 14, after he was bullied at school. By the time he reached adulthood he was a master swordsman. In 1853, he was in Edo as a disciple of Chiba Sadakichi, a master swordsman of the Hokushin Ittō-ryū style of kenjutsu. That year, Commodore Perry of the United States arrived with a fleet of ships to force Japan out of its centuries-old national isolation policy.
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Sanada Yukimura
Sanada Saemon-no-Suke Yukimura (真田 左衛門佐 幸村, Sanada Yukimura?, 1567–June 3, 1615 (Keichō 20. 5.7)) was a Japanese samurai, second son of the Sengoku period daimyo Sanada Masayuki (1544–1611). His proper name was Sanada Nobushige (真田 信繁), named after Takeda Shingen's younger brother Takeda Nobushige, who was a brave and respected warrior. He and his father were known as excellent military tacticians. Though their army was very small, they won many battles in which they were outnumbered. Sanada Yukimura was called "A Hero who may appear once in a hundred years" and "Crimson Demon of War", and the famed veteran of the invasion of Korea, Shimazu Tadatsune, called him the "Number one warrior in Japan" (日本一の兵?).
He was the second son of Sanada Masayuki, his elder brother was Sanada Nobuyuki. He was married to Akihime (Chikurinin), a foster-daughter of Ōtani Yoshitsugu. They had two sons, Daisuke (Yukimasa) and Daihachi (Morinobu).
In 1575, the Battle of Nagashino claimed the lives of two of Sanada Masayuki's elder brothers. Masayuki, previously serving Takeda Shingen and Takeda Katsuyori as a retainer, inherited the Sanada clan and left for Ueda Castle. Yukimura also went, taking the Sanada name as well.
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Sasaki Kojirō
Sasaki Kojirō (佐々木 小次郎?, also known as Ganryū Kojirō) (1585? – April 13, 1612) was a prominent Japanese swordsman widely considered a Kensei, born in Fukui Prefecture. He lived during the Sengoku and early Edo periods and is most remembered for his death while battling Miyamoto Musashi in 1612.
He went by the fighting name of Ganryū (巌流 lit. "Large Rock style"), which was also the name of the kenjutsu school he had founded. It is said that Kojirō studied the Chūjō-ryu of sword fighting from either Kanemaki Jisai or Toda Seigen. Toda Seigen was a master of the kodachi. If Kojirō had indeed learned Chūjō-ryu from Seigen, he would have been his master's sparring partner. Due to his master's use of the kodachi, Kojirō used a nodachi, or a long katana, against him, therefore eventually excelling in its use. It was after defeating his master's younger brother that he left and founded the Ganryū. The first reliable account of his life states that in 1610, because of the fame of his school and his many successful duels, including once when he fended off three opponents with a tessen, Kojirō was honored by Lord Hosokawa Tadaoki as the chief weapons master of the Hosokawa fief north of Kyūshū. Sasaki later became skilled in the wielding of a nodachi, and used one he called "Monohoshizao" ("The Laundry-Drying Pole") as his main weapon.
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Shibata Katsuie
Shibata Katsuie (柴田 勝家?, 1522 – June 14, 1583) or Gonroku (権六?) was a Japanese military commander during the Sengoku Period who served Oda Nobunaga.
Katsuie was born in the village of Kamiyashiro(present-day Meitō-ku, Nagoya), a branch of the Shiba clan (who descended from the Ashikaga clan, and were the former suzerains of the Oda clan). Note the differences between Shibata (柴田?), Shiba (斯波?), and the Shibata clan of Echigo (新発田?).
Katsuie was the retainer of Oda Nobukatsu (Oda Nobuyuki). When control of the Oda clan was contested, Katsuie initially supported his lord, Nobukatsu, against his elder brother Oda Nobunaga. In 1556, Katsuie launched a coup d'etat against Nobunaga. He was defeated at the Battle of Inō, and in the aftermath Nobunaga had his brother executed, but impressed with the retainer's loyalty and bravery, decided to spare the life of Katsuie. Katsuie pledged his services to Nobunaga, earning his praise until eventually Nobunaga would offer Katsuie the hand of his younger sister, Oichi, in marriage. In 1570, while a joint Oda-Tokugawa coalition fought the battle of Anegawa, Katsuie was under siege at Chokoji Castle by 4000 soldiers of the Rokkaku clan. Katsuie eventually won via an all-out attack, forcing the Rokkaku to retreat. This action, along with a series of brilliant victories, gained him renown as "Oni Shibata".
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Shimazu Yoshihiro
Shimazu Yoshihiro (島津 義弘?, August 21, 1535 – August 30, 1619) was the second son of Shimazu Takahisa and younger brother of Shimazu Yoshihisa. It had traditionally been believed that he became the seventeenth head of the Shimazu clan after Yoshihisa, but it is currently believed that he let Yoshihisa keep his position.
He was a skilled general and the victory against Ito clan at the battle of Kizaki on 1572 is counted as one of his many victories. He contributed greatly to the unification of Kyūshū. On 1587, facing Toyotomi Hideyoshi's troops that sought to pacify Kyūshū, Yoshihiro pressed for a war even after his brother and the head of clan Yoshihisa surrendered. After Yoshihisa repeatedly asked for the surrender, Yoshihiro finally did surrender. After Yoshihisa became a Buddhist monk, it had been believed that he became the head of the clan but the real power remained in Yoshihisa's hands.
He had been a willing and a skillful general for Hideyoshi. On both 1592 and 1597 of the Seven-Year War, Yoshihiro set his foot on the Korean peninsula and successfully carried out a series of battles. On 1597, working together with Todo Takatora, Katō Yoshiaki and Konishi Yukinaga, Yoshihiro defeated Won Kyun's navy. At the Battle of Sacheon (泗川) in 1598, facing Ming army counting 37,000, Yoshihiro defeated them with only 7,000 soldiers. Shimazu troops under Yoshihiro were called "Oni-Shimazu (literal translation-Shimazu demons or Shimazu ogres)" by Ming. On the final battle of the war, the Battle of Noryang, Yoshihiro's objective was to cross the Noryang Strait, link up with Konishi and retreat to Japan. The Korean admiral Yi Soon Shin that had obstructed Yoshiaki died in this battle. Afterwards, Yoshihiro rescued the Japanese commanders and returned to Japan.
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Silla
Silla (57 BC – 935 AD) (Korean pronunciation: [ɕilːa]) was one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, and one of the longest sustained dynasties in Asian history. Although it was founded by King Park Hyeokgeose, who is also known to be the originator of the Korean family name Park (박, 朴), the dynasty was to see the Gyeongju Kim (김, 金) clan hold rule for most of its 992-year history. What began as a chiefdom in the Samhan confederacies, once allied with China, Silla eventually conquered the other two kingdoms, Baekje in 660 and Goguryeo in 668. Thereafter, Unified Silla or Later Silla, as it is often referred to, occupied most of the Korean Peninsula, while the northern part re-emerged as Balhae, a successor-state of Goguryeo. After nearly 1000 years of rule, Silla fragmented into the brief Later Three Kingdoms, handing over power to its successor dynasty Goryeo in 935.
From its founding until its growth into a full-fledged kingdom, Silla was recorded with various hanja phonetically approximating its native Korean name: 斯盧 (사로, Saro), 斯羅 (사라, Sara), 徐那(伐) (서나[벌], Seona[beol]), 徐耶(伐) (서야[벌], Seoya[beol]), 徐羅(伐) (서라[벌], Seora[beol]), and 徐伐 (서벌, Seobeol). In 503, King Jijeung standardized on the characters 新羅(신라), which in Modern Korean is pronounced "Shilla".
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St Francis Xavier
Francis Xavier, born Francisco de Jasso y Azpilicueta (7 April 1506 – 3 December 1552) was a pioneering Roman Catholic missionary born in the Kingdom of Navarre (now part of Spain) and co-founder of the Society of Jesus. He was a student of Ignatius of Loyola and one of the first seven Jesuits, dedicated at Montmartre in 1534. He led an extensive mission into Asia, mainly in the Portuguese Empire of the time. He was influential in the spreading and upkeep of Catholicism most notably in India, but also ventured into Japan, Borneo, the Moluccas, and other areas which had thus far not been visited by Christian missionaries. In these areas, being a pioneer and struggling to learn the local languages in the face of opposition, he had less success than he had enjoyed in India. It was a goal of Xavier to one day reach China. However, the government in China disliked most missionaries and many were killed.
Francis Xavier was born in the family castle of Xavier (Xabier, toponymic name whose origin comes from "etxaberri" meaning "new house" in the Basque language) in the Kingdom of Navarre on April 7, 1506 according to a family register. He was born to an aristocratic family of the Kingdom of Navarre, the youngest son of Juan de Jaso, privy counsellor to King John III of Navarre (Jean d'Albret), and Doña Maria de Azpilcueta y Aznárez, sole heiress of two noble Navarrese families. He was thus related to the great theologian and philosopher Martín de Azpilcueta. Notwithstanding different interpretations on his first language, no evidence suggests that Xavier's mother tongue was other than Basque, as stated by himself and confirmed by the sociolinguistic environment of the time.
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St. Francis Xavier
Francis Xavier, born Francisco de Jasso y Azpilicueta (7 April 1506 – 3 December 1552) was a pioneering Roman Catholic missionary born in the Kingdom of Navarre (now part of Spain) and co-founder of the Society of Jesus. He was a student of Ignatius of Loyola and one of the first seven Jesuits, dedicated at Montmartre in 1534. He led an extensive mission into Asia, mainly in the Portuguese Empire of the time. He was influential in the spreading and upkeep of Catholicism most notably in India, but also ventured into Japan, Borneo, the Moluccas, and other areas which had thus far not been visited by Christian missionaries. In these areas, being a pioneer and struggling to learn the local languages in the face of opposition, he had less success than he had enjoyed in India. It was a goal of Xavier to one day reach China. However, the government in China disliked most missionaries and many were killed.
Francis Xavier was born in the family castle of Xavier (Xabier, toponymic name whose origin comes from "etxaberri" meaning "new house" in the Basque language) in the Kingdom of Navarre on April 7, 1506 according to a family register. He was born to an aristocratic family of the Kingdom of Navarre, the youngest son of Juan de Jaso, privy counsellor to King John III of Navarre (Jean d'Albret), and Doña Maria de Azpilcueta y Aznárez, sole heiress of two noble Navarrese families. He was thus related to the great theologian and philosopher Martín de Azpilcueta. Notwithstanding different interpretations on his first language, no evidence suggests that Xavier's mother tongue was other than Basque, as stated by himself and confirmed by the sociolinguistic environment of the time.
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Takeda Shingen
Takeda Shingen (武田 信玄?, December 1, 1521 – May 13, 1573), of Kai Province, was a preeminent daimyo in feudal Japan with exceptional military prestige in the late stage of the Sengoku period.
Shingen was called "Tarō" (a commonly used pet name for the eldest son of a Japanese family) or "Katsuchiyo" (勝千代) during his childhood. When he celebrated his coming of age, he was given a formal name of "Harunobu" (晴信), which included a character from the name of Ashikaga Yoshiharu (足利義晴), the 12th Ashikaga Shogun. It was a common practice in feudal Japan for a higher-ranked warrior to bestow a character from his own name to his inferiors as a symbol of recognition. From the local warlord's perspective, it was glorious to receive a character from the shogunate, although the authority of the latter had greatly degenerated in the mid-16th century.
Both the Ashikaga and the Takeda clans descended from the noble Minamoto (源) clan. Technically, Harunobu, as well as his forefathers, had borne the surname of Minamoto. Therefore, Harunobu would be referred to as "Minamoto-no Harunobu" (源晴信) in official records kept by the Imperial Court when he was conferred the official title of "Daizen Dayu" (大膳大夫). The Imperial Court had maintained a system of ritsuryō (律令) that was parallel to the shogunate apparatus.
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Tokugawa Ieyasu
Tokugawa Ieyasu (徳川 家康?, January 31, 1543 – June 1, 1616) was the founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, which ruled from the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. Ieyasu seized power in 1600, received appointment as shogun in 1603, abdicated from office in 1605, but remained in power until his death in 1616. His given name is sometimes spelled Iyeyasu, according to the historical pronunciation of we. Ieyasu was posthumously enshrined at Nikkō Tōshō-gū with the name Tōshō Daigongen (東照大権現?).
Tokugawa Ieyasu was born in Okazaki Castle in Mikawa on the 26th day of the twelfth month of the eleventh year of Tenbun, according to the Japanese calendar. Originally named Matsudaira Takechiyo (松平 竹千代), he was the son of Matsudaira Hirotada (松平 広忠), the daimyo of Mikawa of the Matsudaira clan, and Odainokata (於大の方), the daughter of a neighboring samurai lord Mizuno Tadamasa (水野 忠政). His mother and father were step-siblings. They were just 17 and 15 years old, respectively, when Ieyasu was born. Two years later, Odainokata was sent back to her family and the couple never lived together again. As both husband and wife remarried and both went on to have further children, Ieyasu in the end had 11 half-brothers and sisters.
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Tom Cruise
Thomas Cruise Mapother IV ( /ˈtɒməs ˈkruːz ˈmeɪpɒθər/; born July 3, 1962), widely known as Tom Cruise, is an American film actor and producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and has won three Golden Globe Awards for the same movies: Born on the Fourth of July (1989), Jerry Maguire (1996), Magnolia (1999). He started his career with the movie Endless Love. Cruise's first appearance in a major film was in 1981's Taps. His first leading role was in the film Risky Business, released in August 1983. Cruise played the role of a heroic naval pilot in the popular and successful 1986 film Top Gun, and also secret agent Ethan Hunt in the series of Mission: Impossible action films.
He has starred in a variety of other successful films, including: Rain Man (1988), Days of Thunder (1990), A Few Good Men (1992), Vanilla Sky (2001), Minority Report (2002), The Last Samurai (2003), Collateral (2004), and War of the Worlds (2005).
Since 2005, Cruise and Paula Wagner have been in charge of the United Artists film studio, with Cruise as producer and star and Wagner as the chief executive. Cruise is also known for his support of and adherence to the Church of Scientology.
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Torii Mototada
Torii Mototada (鳥居 元忠?, 1539 – September 8, 1600) was a Japanese samurai of the Sengoku period through late Azuchi-Momoyama Period, who served Tokugawa Ieyasu. Torii died at the siege of Fushimi where his garrison was greatly outnumbered and destroyed by the army of Ishida Mitsunari. Torii's refusal to surrender changed the course of Japanese history; the fall of Fushimi bought Ieyasu some time to regroup and eventually win the Battle at Sekigahara.
Torii was born in Okazaki, the son of Torii Tadayoshi. As a boy, he was sent as hostage to the Imagawa clan, together with the future Tokugawa Ieyasu. The young Mototada served the then-Matsudaira Takechiyo as a page. After Ieyasu's return from the Imagawa clan, and his unification of Mikawa Province, Mototada served as one of his chief generals.
In 1572, Mototada succeeded the Torii family headship, following the death of his father. He fought at the Battle of Mikata-ga-hara and Battle of Suwahara Castle the following year and was wounded in the legs, which rendered walking difficult for him from then on.
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Toyotomi Hideyoshi
Toyotomi Hideyoshi (豊臣 秀吉?, February 2, 1536 or March 26, 1537 – September 18, 1598) was a daimyo, warrior, general and politician of the Sengoku period. He unified the political factions of Japan. He succeeded his former liege lord, Oda Nobunaga, and brought an end to the Sengoku period. The period of his rule is often called the Momoyama period, named after Hideyoshi's castle. He is noted for a number of cultural legacies, including the restriction that only members of the samurai class could bear arms. Hideyoshi is regarded as Japan's second "great unifier".
Very little is known for certain about Hideyoshi before 1570, when he begins to appear in surviving documents and letters. His autobiography starts in 1577 but in it Hideyoshi spoke very little about his past. By tradition, he was born in what is now Nakamura-ku, Nagoya (situated in contemporary Aichi District, Owari Province), the home of the Oda clan. He was born of no traceable samurai lineage, being the son of a peasant-ashigaru (foot soldier) named Yaemon. He had no surname, and his childhood given name was Hiyoshi-maru (日吉丸?) ("Bounty of the Sun") although variations exist.
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Tsunetomo Yamamoto
Yamamoto Tsunetomo (山本 常朝?), also read Yamamoto Jōchō (June 11 1659 – November 30, 1719) was a samurai of the Saga Domain in Hizen Province under his lord Nabeshima Mitsushige. For thirty years Yamamoto devoted his life to the service of his lord and clan. When Nabeshima died in 1700, Yamamoto did not choose to follow his master in death in junshi because the master had expressed a dislike of the practice in his life. Instead, Yamamoto followed his lord's wishes and refrained from junshi. After some disagreements with Nabeshima's successor, Yamamoto renounced the world and retired to a hermitage in the mountains. Later in life (between 1709 and 1716), he narrated many of his thoughts to a fellow samurai, Tsuramoto Tashiro. Many of these aphorisms concerned his lord's father and grandfather Naoshige and the failing ways of the samurai caste. These commentaries were compiled and published in 1716 under the title of Hagakure, a word that can be translated as either In the shadow the Leaves or hidden leaves.
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Uesugi Kenshin
Uesugi Kenshin (上杉 謙信?, February 18, 1530 – April 19, 1578) was a daimyo who ruled Echigo province in the Sengoku period of Japan.
He was one of the most powerful lords of the Sengoku period. While chiefly remembered for his prowess on the battlefield, Kenshin is also regarded as an extremely skillful administrator who fostered the growth of local industries and trade; his rule saw a marked rise in the standard of living of Echigo. Kenshin is famed for his honourable conduct, his military expertise, a long-standing rivalry with Takeda Shingen, his numerous campaigns to restore order in the Kanto region as the Kanto Kanrei, and his belief in the Buddhist god of war — Bishamonten. In fact, many of his followers and others believed him to be the Avatar of Bishamonten, and called Kenshin god of war.
His original name was Nagao Kagetora (長尾景虎). He changed his name to Uesugi Masatora (上杉政虎) when he inherited the Uesugi family name in order to accept the official title of Kantō Kanrei (関東管領). Later he changed his name again to Uesugi Terutora (上杉輝虎) to honor the Shogun Ashikaga Yoshiteru (足利義輝), and finally to Kenshin (上杉謙信) after he became a Buddhist monk; in particular, he would become renowned for being a devotee of Bishamonten. For the majority of this description, the name of Kenshin will be used.
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Yagyū Munenori
Yagyū Munenori (柳生 宗矩?, 1571 - May 11, 1646) was a Japanese swordsman, founder of the Edo branch of Yagyū Shinkage-ryū, which he learned from his father Yagyū "Sekishusai" Muneyoshi. This was one of two official sword styles patronized by the Tokugawa Shogunate (the other one being Ittō-ryū). Munenori began his career in the Tokugawa administration as a hatamoto, a direct retainer of the Tokugawa house, and later had his income raised to 10,000 koku, making him a minor fudai daimyo (vassal lord serving the Tokugawa), with landholdings around his ancestral village of Yagyū-zato. He also received the title of Tajima no Kami (但馬守).
Munenori entered the service of Tokugawa Ieyasu at a young age, and later was an instructor of swordsmanship to Ieyasu's son Hidetada. Still later, he became one of the primary advisors of the third shogun Iemitsu.
Shortly before his death in 1606, Sekishusai passed the leadership of Yagyū Shinkage-ryū to his grandson Toshiyoshi. Following a period of musha shugyō, Toshiyoshi entered the service of a cadet branch of the Tokugawa clan that controlled the Owari province. Toshiyoshi's school was based in Nagoya and came to be called Owari Yagyū-ryū (尾張柳生流), while Munenori's, in Edo, the Tokugawa capital, came to be known as Edo Yagyū-ryū (江戸柳生流). Takenaga Hayato, the founder of the Yagyū Shingan-ryū, was a disciple of Yagyū Munenori and received gokui (secret teachings) of the Yagyū Shinkage-ryū from him.
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Yamamoto Tsunetomo
Yamamoto Tsunetomo (山本 常朝?), also read Yamamoto Jōchō (June 11 1659 – November 30, 1719) was a samurai of the Saga Domain in Hizen Province under his lord Nabeshima Mitsushige. For thirty years Yamamoto devoted his life to the service of his lord and clan. When Nabeshima died in 1700, Yamamoto did not choose to follow his master in death in junshi because the master had expressed a dislike of the practice in his life. Instead, Yamamoto followed his lord's wishes and refrained from junshi. After some disagreements with Nabeshima's successor, Yamamoto renounced the world and retired to a hermitage in the mountains. Later in life (between 1709 and 1716), he narrated many of his thoughts to a fellow samurai, Tsuramoto Tashiro. Many of these aphorisms concerned his lord's father and grandfather Naoshige and the failing ways of the samurai caste. These commentaries were compiled and published in 1716 under the title of Hagakure, a word that can be translated as either In the shadow the Leaves or hidden leaves.
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Yamaoka Tesshū
Yamaoka Tesshū (山岡 鉄舟?, June 10, 1836 – July 19, 1888) also known as Ono Tetsutarō, or Yamaoka Tetsutarō, was a famous samurai of the Bakumatsu period, who played an important role in the Meiji Restoration. He is also noted as the founder of the Itto Shoden Muto-ryu school of swordsmanship.
Yamaoka was born in Edo (present-day Tokyo) as Ono Tetsutaro, where his father was a retainer of the Tokugawa Shogunate and his mother was the daughter of a Shinto priest from Kashima Shrine. Yamaoka practiced swordsmanship from the age of nine, starting in the Jikishinkage Ryu tradition. Later his family moved to Takayama where he began the Ono Ha Itto-Ryu style of fencing. When he was seventeen, he returned to Edo and joined the government's Kobukan Military Institute and the Yamaoka School of Spear Fighting under Yamaoka Seizan. Not long after Yamaoka had joined the dojo, Seizan died, Yamaoka went on to marry Seizan’s sister in order to carry on the Yamaoka name. From an early age, Yamaoka showed dedication and talent in the practice of martial arts. As he grew up, he became well-known for several things: his swordsmanship, calligraphy, drinking, and sleeping.
wn.com/Yamaoka_Tesshū
Shichinin No Samurai (1954)
"Shichinin No Samurai (1954)" Actors
- Takashi Shimura
- Toshirô Mifune
- Yoshio Inaba
- Seiji Miyaguchi
- Minoru Chiaki
- Daisuke Katô
- Isao Kimura
- Keiko Tsushima
- Yukiko Shimazaki
- Kamatari Fujiwara
- Yoshio Kosugi
- Bokuzen Hidari
- Yoshio Tsuchiya
- Kokuten Kodo
- Jiro Kumagai
"Shichinin No Samurai (1954)" Director
karaoke
When you came into
My room last night
And took off all your clothes
Did you think I would resist
Letting you inside
Did you think I could resist you
My favorite Samurai
You swam across the bedroom
Drunk on my champagne
You got into the air
Across the River Wye
And pushed aside your headstone
My favorite Samurai
Then you showed me something
I didn't know
How to let go
I was falling
Through the Tivoli sky
Expecting to fly
Expecting to fly
When I stood beside your tomb
Last night
Recalling how you rose
Did you think I would persist
Refusing to die
See how I've persisted
a one two two three four
walkin' the line of the razor's edge
talkin' a long time ago-whoa
a slice of the sky in a silver wedge
higher and higher we go-whoa
let's go
born to the gods on the silken trail
thrust from the earth far below
unspoken lass never seek the grail
so be it i need it long legs blue eyes
oo she drives me crazy
ooo whoa drive me cra'-yeah-ah
ooo whoa drive me crazy yeah-yeah
ladies in black put a spell on me
feels like my head's goin' round and round
round and round around
ladies in white ain't my cup of tea
so be it well i need it long hair blue eyes
oo she drives me crazy
ooo whoa whoa whoa w-w-whoa ah
ooo whoa ya drive me cra' yeah yeah-ah-ah
so many things that i know about you
still ten thousand light years away
how can i make love to both of you
so be it well i need it long hair blue eyes
oo she drives me crazy
ooo whoa
ya drives me cra' what she do what she do
ooo whoa oh drive me cra' yeah-yeah
ooo whoa whoa
oh drive me cra' what she do when she do
ooo whoa whoa oh samurai ah whoa whoa whoa
look out look out
I did some time in Tokyo in a dojo
Learned karate and kung fu
And judo because you know
I'm a fuckin' samurai from the darkside
Eating fried rice, and I lie
I'm not Bruce Lee, I'm not Chinese
I'm on the trapeze, and I'm free
In Nagasaki, I'm drinking saki
And watching hockey in my jockeys
And I'm a servant to technology
I'm a fuckin' samurai, from the darkside
Eating fried rice, and I lie
I'm not Bruce Lee, I'm not Chinese
I'm on the trapeze, and I'm free
In my Nissan, I put the priest on
And I head out on the highway to Budokan
I'm metal basted and domo wasted
I'm a fuckin' samurai from the darkside
Eating fried rice, and I lie
I'm not Bruce Lee, I'm not Chinese
Ai....
Quanto querer
Cabe em meu coração
Ai....
Me faz sofrer
Faz que me mata
E se não mata fere
Vai....
Sem me dizer
Na casa da paixão
Sai....
Quando bem quer
Traz uma praga
E me afaga a pele
Crescei, luar
Prá iluminar as trevas
Fundas da paixão
Eu quis lutar
Contra o poder do amor
Caí nos pés do vencedor
Para ser o serviçal
De um samurai
Mas eu tou tão feliz!
Dizem que o amor
Atrai...
I am absolutely now prepared to pay the price
Even if I ultimately pay with my own life
Where did you give everything, to sacrifice it all
and without the will to die I know that I can't win
No mind, no pain, nothing can hold me back
Now I stand without fear in the valley of death
I'm willing to die, die, willing to die
Samurai
Die, willing to die, like a Samurai
Deep within my self is a decision that I made
to win it all, overwhelm those
who would want to bury me
To never, never yield and even with my only ?sprat?
to remain defiant, never to admit defeat
No mind, no pain, nothing can hold me back
Now I stand without fear in the valley of death
I'm willing to die, die, willing to die
Samurai
Die, willing to die, like a Samurai
Die!
Are you willing to die?
Die!
Are you willing to die?
Like a samurai
[Solo]
No mind, no pain, nothing can hold me back
Now I stand without fear in the valley of death
I'm willing to die, die, willing to die
Samurai
Lay me down
On the street
Where the hobos meet
Southern day dreams
I don’t know
Which way the wind blows
But I’ll tell you what comes and goes
People grow old and die
Cold like a Samurai
Under a dim, breathtaking winter sky
Perrier c’est foux
Lonely days
By the sea
Watch the ships go by
Taiwanese
Half as old
As the sky seems
In my larger dreams
Mangosteen
You are (the) sun.
You are (the) light.
You are the love who controls the night.
You are my support.
You are (the) sun.
You are (the) light.
You are the love who controls the night.
You are my support.
You are (the) sun.
You are (the) sun.
You are (the) light.
You are the love who controls the night.
You give me power.
You protect me.
You are my love.
wassup wassup hi hi, where my niggaz thats reaching for the sky
blowing up fireworks, fourth of july
keep the swagger on a hundred, countings stacks on the side
this avias avias in yo speakers, thugs my music blowing up in yo tweakers
yall rappers old news like neon beepers
i bury yall lyrics 6 feet, um the reaper
verse1:
i once was lost but now im found, as i stand in my armor head facing the
ground
i remember those days that i thought i was a goner, now they call me
emperor bringing my family honor
everytime i refer back to the past i think of how i was clowned sitting in
class
now my life is the bomb it is a blast, and like gum i always wonder how
long its gonna last
theres was tough times getting kicked out in the streets
in my teens a runaway then to shelter would seek
i had fury so deep my face redder than dragons
always desired love so in music found passion
i stand 5 foot 8 with my shield on my side
blocking out all haters with envys and pride
cute face thin waist so im fit for a bride
an ill slice a ninja neck i have nothing to hide
every since i was younger niggas called me gay
they ridicule played in my head like symphonaes
i just wanted to fit in this all i was begging
wanted them to realize i was the next rap legend
and so the truth then hit the light now um chirping like crickets
niggaz downloading music, selling out show tickets
now the tables turned im surrounded by troops
lyrics wetter than a fresh bowl of egg drop soup
and i owe thanks to my god
my spiritual uplifter, who was there from the start
i now desire serenity, spread my wings and be free
shivers running through my body like a cold mug of tea
who gone make it to top yo we gonna see
music play more than videogames on a wii
im a samurai im the seed of prosperity
and i say
take me away
i tell him
take me away
i just wanna be free
take me away
take me away
whats comes around goes around
im the king of the this city im the king of this town
i have the victory so put ya swords down
RELEASE
ALBUMS
- Moto
- Cassablanca
- The Masters
- La traicion de la sonrisa
- Vomito cordíaco
- Más rápido
- Tierra helada
- When I Learn
- Todo el odio del unicornio
- Saving It Up for So Long
- More Rain
- Maudie James
- Holy Padlock
- Give a Little Love
- Face in the Mirror
- As I Dried the Tears Away
- Intro
- So Frish
- Mached Stuzz
- Keine wie ich (feat. P. Moos)
- Down Ass Chick (feat. Sergio)
- Hine im Club
- Afroswiss Kingz (feat. Nega)
- Tag&Nacht;
- Dale Fuego (feat. Mangu)
- Bordolatenight, Part II (Skit)
- Lauf mit mir
- Leaders (feat. Ras Charmer)
- Stahn uf!
- Telefonskit
- Guete Ziite
- Danke
- Saving It Up for So Long
- More Rain
- Maudie James
- Holy Padlock
- Give a Little Love
- Face in the Mirror
- As I Dried the Tears Away
- Give a Little Love (live)
- Holy Padlock (live)
- More Rain (live)
- Concerto for Bedsprings (live)
- Love You (live)
- Fires Of Hell
- Attack
- Rock Steady
- I've Got What You Need
- Fire In Our Eyes
- Spirit Woman
- Survivor
- Gotta Rock Tonight
Send this Playlist by SMS
Email this Page
The Way of the Samurai
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 55:18
- Updated: 21 Nov 2012
www.pbs.org - Tokugawa Ieyasu unifies Japan and establishes a dynasty that will rule Japan for over 250 years.
http://wn.com/The_Way_of_the_Samurai
Modern Samurai UNBELIEVABLE SKILLS. with subtitles
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:56
- Updated: 21 Nov 2012
Modern Samurai -- UNBELIEVABLE SKILLS with subtitles
http://wn.com/Modern_Samurai_UNBELIEVABLE_SKILLS_with_subtitles
The traditional Making of a Samurai Sword (Katana)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:58
- Updated: 21 Nov 2012
10 Minutes Summary of the Documentary with the same title *No Copyright Infringement Intended*
http://wn.com/The_traditional_Making_of_a_Samurai_Sword_Katana
Way of the Warrior - Way of the Samurai [1/4]
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 10:00
- Updated: 19 Nov 2012
Part of a eight part series documentary on the Martial Arts of south and south east Asia, originally broadcast on the BBC in the early 1980s. This episode follows an ancient Dojo in Japan who still practice the Samurai way. Part 1 of 4 parts.
http://wn.com/Way_of_the_Warrior_Way_of_the_Samurai_1_4_
"Modern Samurai" Isao Machii - Cutting "350km/h BB pellet & 300km/h and 500km/h Baseball" by Katana
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 10:56
- Updated: 21 Nov 2012
He is Japanese "Modern Samurai" with Four Guinness World Records. "Modern Samurai" Isao Machii VS Archer - Cutting over 200km/h Arrow by Katana www.youtube.com "Modern Samurai" Isao Machii - Cutting 5mm grain Rice & Skipjack Tuna & Toilet Paper Roll by Katana www.youtube.com "Modern Samurai" Isao Machii - Katana Embu demonstration in American Documentary (2004) www.youtube.com
http://wn.com/Modern_Samurai_Isao_Machii_Cutting_350km_h_BB_pellet_300km_h_and_500km_h_Baseball_by_Katana
Sucker Punch - Samurai Fight Scene [HD]
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:02
- Updated: 21 Nov 2012
Next scene to be uploaded: Love Is The Drug Scene [HD]
http://wn.com/Sucker_Punch_Samurai_Fight_Scene_HD_
Last Samurai Battle
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:34
- Updated: 21 Nov 2012
Comments and enjoy
http://wn.com/Last_Samurai_Battle
Samurai Battle
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 10:22
- Updated: 20 Nov 2012
I pay tribute to all the the great samurai movies makers. This video covers great battles from the 16th century Japan.
http://wn.com/Samurai_Battle
Japanese Katana VS European Longsword - Samurai sword VS Knight Broadsword
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 7:57
- Updated: 21 Nov 2012
Japanese Katana VS European Longsword - Samurai sword VS Knight Broadsword. samurai katana tachi broad long sword tameshigiri war warrior knight load swordsmanship bushido bushi sword smith master weapon technology test cut cold steel armour armor iron steel machine gun century late middle ages early modern period east west western japan japanese europe european 日本刀 刀 太刀 剣 ソード ロングソード ブロードソード 騎士 武士 侍 騎士道 武士道 西洋 東洋 検証 実験 試し斬り 試し斬り
http://wn.com/Japanese_Katana_VS_European_Longsword_Samurai_sword_VS_Knight_Broadsword
Samurai Rebellion (1967) trailer
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:13
- Updated: 29 Oct 2012
Mifune Toshiro in Kobayashi Masaki classic movie Samurai Rebellion aka Joi-Uchi: Hairyo Tsuma Shimatsu, Japan, 1967. Screen writer: Hashimoto Shinobu.
http://wn.com/Samurai_Rebellion_1967_trailer
Real Samurai Sword Technique - Cutting BB Gun pellet by Isao Machii - Japanese Katana Kenjutsu
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:58
- Updated: 20 Nov 2012
Real Samurai Sword Technique - Cutting BB Gun pellet by Isao Machii - Japanese Katana Kenjutsu
http://wn.com/Real_Samurai_Sword_Technique_Cutting_BB_Gun_pellet_by_Isao_Machii_Japanese_Katana_Kenjutsu
Michael Cretu - Samurai
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:43
- Updated: 21 Nov 2012
Promo video of the Greatest Michael Cretu's hit "Samurai". 1985 Virgin Schallplatten GmbH. Taken from the album "The Invisible Man". 5 years later Cretu will introduce his best music project ENIGMA! "Samurai" was 1st in Greece, 4th in Italy, 10th in Scandinavia, 12th in Germany.
http://wn.com/Michael_Cretu_Samurai
Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai (Trailer)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:25
- Updated: 18 Nov 2012
Revenge, honor and disgrace collide when a samurai's request to commit ritual suicide leads to a tense showdown with his feudal lord. From visionary auteur Takashi Miike (13 ASSASSINS) comes the story of a mysterious samurai who arrives at the doorstep of his feudal lord, requesting an honorable death by ritual suicide in his courtyard. The lord threatens him with the brutal tale of Motome, a desperate young ronin who made a similar request with ulterior motives, only to meet a grisly end. Undaunted, the samurai begins to tell a story of his own, with an ending no one could see coming. With stunning cinematography and gripping performances, HARA-KIRI: DEATH OF A SAMURAI is a thrilling exploration of revenge, honor, and individuality in the face of oppressive power. Find out where to watch: www.tribecafilm.com
http://wn.com/Hara-Kiri_Death_of_a_Samurai_Trailer
Suzuki Samurai offroad, mud , trails, falls and so on.
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:18
- Updated: 20 Nov 2012
Mud,trails,rocks and snow. A video i made in 03 ,someday i will put a new one together. Song is Beautiful Terrible by Boiler from Cortland NY
http://wn.com/Suzuki_Samurai_offroad,_mud_,_trails,_falls_and_so_on
Samurai Sword
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:18
- Updated: 09 Nov 2012
***LATEST NEWS*** We've just made a new video with an interview with a real sword master. Just sign up to see the video: learnjapanesepod.com _____________________________________________________________________ On a trip to Kyoto, Waka sensei, my friend Naho and I stumbled on a shop that stocks swords and samurai armor called Tozando. It was a treasure trove that the makers of Kill Bill would be proud of. In fact, the craftsmen who made the armor stocked in the shop also made the armor used in "The Last Samurai" with Tom Cruise. According to the guy we spoke to, the armor and swords were all made recently but the armor was modeled in the style of the Sengoku period or "Warring states period" roughly 1478 to 1605. The craftsman ship was just incredible. The owners of Tozando kindly let us film in their shop and patiently answered all my questions. If you are in Kyoto it is worth checking out. www.tozandoshop.com
http://wn.com/Samurai_Sword
Aikido, The Samurai Spirit
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 44:01
- Updated: 21 Nov 2012
Recomendado, esta muy bien explicado. La traduccion es normal, espero que les guste! Good, very well explained. The translation is normal, I hope you like it! To download: 1- Enter here: keepvid.com 2- Now copy and paste the video link: www.youtube.com 3- Choose the format you want (I recommend the mp4) ENJOY :)
http://wn.com/Aikido,_The_Samurai_Spirit
Seven Samurai (1954) HD trailer2
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:12
- Updated: 20 Nov 2012
Seven Samurai (1954) trailer
http://wn.com/Seven_Samurai_1954_HD_trailer2
Samurai Champloo AMV: Gang Starr - Battle
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:58
- Updated: 20 Nov 2012
Please rate and comment. High-Quality Download(54 MB): www.zshare.net I wanna know if it's good. I have more videos so check em out please. Samurai Champloo music video. Made by me. Song off of 8 Mile Soundtrack. Gang Starr's "Battle".
http://wn.com/Samurai_Champloo_AMV_Gang_Starr_Battle
Samurai Storm
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:59
- Updated: 21 Nov 2012
Yoshida Brothers music put to Samurai Champloo
http://wn.com/Samurai_Storm
Superhuman Super Samurai
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:58
- Updated: 21 Nov 2012
Superhuman Super Samurai
http://wn.com/Superhuman_Super_Samurai
Samurai Jack vs the Shinobi Shadow Warrior
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:58
- Updated: 21 Nov 2012
One of the coolest fight scenes of the entire series. Very creative play on the battle of light vs darkness
http://wn.com/Samurai_Jack_vs_the_Shinobi_Shadow_Warrior
Samurai Photographs of the Nineteenth Century
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:02
- Updated: 18 Nov 2012
These Photographs were taken in the final days of the samurai class, before its abolition in 1867. It should be noted that some of these photographs date to the Meiji period. Many of these pictures were taken in the 1880's -therefore they show former samurai, or sometimes just ordinary people posing as samurai. NOTE: The last few pictures seen in this video show Tokugawa Yoshinobu, Japan's last Shogun and the famous reformer, Sakamoto Ryoma, who played a pivotal role in the modernisation of the country. We also see the new Police force(The seated uniformed man with the katana) as well as the last picture which displays the European military reformers and the westernized Japanese officers. Although these aren't samurai, they were added to show the revolutionary changes that were taking place in Japanese society at this time. Several of these Photographs were taken by the renowned photographer Felice Beato and his pupil, Raimund von Stillfried.
http://wn.com/Samurai_Photographs_of_the_Nineteenth_Century
Yamada: Way of the Samurai
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:10
- Updated: 20 Nov 2012
Yamada's burning revenge against his former evil Japanese warlord would ultimately push him and the King's elite guard into the most dangerous fight of their lives.
http://wn.com/Yamada_Way_of_the_Samurai
photo: AP / Pablo Martinez Monsivais
20 Nov 2012
Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling President Barack Obama's whirlwind tour of southeast Asia and meetings with dignitaries will have to walk a tightrope between either appearing to endorse military juntas or truly being committed to ongoing pro-democracy movements. Specifically at issue is Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi, a democratic advocate...(size: 5.0Kb)
photo: AP / Sebastian D'souza
21 Nov 2012
MUMBAI, India - India executed the lone surviving gunman from the 2008 terror attack on Mumbai early Wednesday, India's home ministry said. Ajmal Kasab, a Pakistani citizen, was one of 10 gunmen who rampaged through the streets of India's financial capital in November 2008, killing 166 people. Kasab was hung at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday at a jail in...(size: 4.5Kb)
photo: AP / Pablo Martinez Monsivais
19 Nov 2012
Yangon, November 19: Newly re-elected US President Barack Obama arrived here Monday to kick off his visit to Myanmar, becoming the first sitting US president to visit the Southeast Asian nation. As part of his four-day Southeast Asian tour to Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia, which started Saturday, Obama flew over from Thailand after completing his...(size: 2.6Kb)
photo: AP / Hatem Moussa
19 Nov 2012
Gaza/Jerusalem - Israel bombed dozens of targets in the Gaza Strip on Monday and said that while it was prepared to step up its offensive by sending in troops, it preferred a diplomatic solution that would end Palestinian rocket fire. Mediator Egypt said a deal for a truce to end the fighting could be close. The leader of Hamas said it was up to...(size: 4.1Kb)
photo: UN / Logan Abassi
21 Nov 2012
A report by the UN says global attempts to curb emissions of CO2 are falling well short of what is needed to stem dangerous climate change. The UN's Environment Programme says greenhouse gases are 14% above where they need to be in 2020 for temperature rises this century to remain below 2C. The authors say this target is still technically...(size: 3.5Kb)
BBC News
22 Nov 2012
Japan's era of shoguns and samurai is long over, but the country does have one, or maybe two, surviving ninjas. Experts in the dark arts of espionage and silent assassination,...(size: 1.2Kb)
The News Tribune
22 Nov 2012
Years ago, your Thanksgiving Day gift shopping would mean a trip to a convenience store for a cheap Samurai sword, a Bic lighter 3-pack or an artificial rose. No more. The lines are already forming and the doors are opening early, even before the last of your turkey cools. In fact, Kmart has been open since before you probably awoke this morning....(size: 6.4Kb)
The New York Times
21 Nov 2012
Hours turn into days — so stay up to date with the latest calendar-equipped watches. Men's Fashion, t holiday 2012, watches Related Posts From T Magazine Styled To a T | Elisabeth Moss The Not So Swiss Chalet Highland Life Cuff Love | Annelise Michelson Styled To a T | Lily McMenamy Previous Post November 20, 2012The Big Picture Previous Post The...(size: 2.6Kb)
Stockhouse
21 Nov 2012
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Nov. 21, 2012) - Huaxing Machinery Corp. (TSX VENTURE:HUA) ("Huaxing" or the "Company") (formerly Samurai Capital Corp. (TSX VENTURE:SMU.P)) is pleased to announce the results of the Company's special meeting (the "Meeting") held on Friday, November 9, 2012. At the Meeting, disinterested shareholders of...(size: 2.5Kb)
The New York Times
21 Nov 2012
Sweat pants, previously relegated to the gym or, conversely, the couch, are becoming a worthy alternative to jeans and chinos in the limited industry of men’s bottoms. Designers like Sacai, J.Crew and Kolor showed them in their spring 2013 presentations. They’re the foundation of Alexander Wang’s lifestyle line T –– a pair running...(size: 3.4Kb)
Bloomberg
21 Nov 2012
Panasonic Corp. (6752)’s success in persuading investors it can switch focus to intelligent appliances from loss-making televisions may help its bonds withstand a rating cut from Moody’s Investors Service. Notes in the company, which sells fridges that send recipes and energy-use readings to smartphones, returned 5.03 percent since Nov. 8, the most...(size: 8.8Kb)
DNA India
21 Nov 2012
New action entertainment channel bursts onto television screens BANGKOK, Nov. 21, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- A new adventure begins as the world's greatest heroes gather together on Toonami, the country's most exciting action TV channel. Launching in Thailand on December 1, Toonami is a 24-hour, high-octane ride, serving up animated hits like Young...(size: 2.5Kb)
DNA India
21 Nov 2012
New action entertainment channel bursts onto television screens SINGAPORE, Nov. 21, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- A new adventure begins as the world's greatest heroes gather together on Toonami, Singapore's most exciting new action TV channel. Launching on December 1, Toonami is a 24-hour, high-octane ride, serving up animated hits like Young Justice,...(size: 2.5Kb)
DNA India
21 Nov 2012
New action entertainment channel bursts onto television screens HONG KONG, Nov. 21, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- A new adventure begins as the world's greatest heroes gather together on Toonami, the city's most exciting action TV channel. Launching in Hong Kong on December 1, Toonami is a 24-hour, high-octane ride, serving up animated hits like Young...(size: 2.8Kb)
my SA
21 Nov 2012
Not even thoughts of second (or third) helpings can slow our music writers, who also suggest these shows in addition to what's in their columns: Thursday 10th annual David Lee Garza & Friends at Graham Central Station. Beloved Tejano star David Lee Garza y Los Musicales gather some heavyweight musical pals for this Tejano Thanksgiving holiday...(size: 8.9Kb)
PR Newswire
21 Nov 2012
Collider
21 Nov 2012
With Black Friday approaching, Amazon has started offering some great DVD and Blu-ray deals. Here are some of the highlights. Look for updates all day and all week. Despicable Me (Three-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo) $9.99 (67% off) The Prestige [Blu-ray] $7.99 (50% off) In Time [Blu-ray + DVD + Digital copy] $5.99 (76% off) John Carter (Two-Disc...(size: 4.8Kb)
Yahoo Daily News
21 Nov 2012
Consumer watchdogs have put these toys on their 2012 Dangerous Toys lists. (Photo: Fisher Price and Hasbro)Dora the Explorer guitars and backpacks, toy food, Power Rangers helmets, and Incredible Hulk hands are among the toys that consumer watchdogs have listed among their most-dangerous toys of 2012. Related: 7 Baby Toys That Drive Parents Crazy...(size: 28.1Kb)
For other uses, see Samurai (disambiguation).
 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2012) |
Samurai (侍?) is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a persons in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau. In both countries the terms were nominalized to mean "those who serve in close attendance to the nobility," the pronunciation in Japanese changing to saburai. According to Wilson, an early reference to the word "samurai" appears in the Kokin Wakashū (905–914), the first imperial anthology of poems, completed in the first part of the 10th century.[1]
By the end of the 12th century, samurai became almost entirely synonymous with bushi (武士), and the word was closely associated with the middle and upper echelons of the warrior class. The samurai followed a set of rules that came to be known as bushidō. While they numbered less than 10% of Japan's population[2] samurai teachings can still be found today in both everyday life and in modern Japanese martial arts.
Contents |
History[link]
Following the Battle of Hakusukinoe against Tang China and Silla in 663 AD that led to a Japanese retreat from Korean affairs, Japan underwent widespread reform. One of the most important was that of the Taika Reform, issued by Prince Naka no Ōe (Emperor Tenji) in 646 AD. This edict allowed the Japanese aristocracy to adopt the Tang Dynasty political structure, bureaucracy, culture, religion, and philosophy.[3] As part of the Taihō Code, of 702 AD, and the later Yōrō Code,[4] the population was required to report regularly for census, which was used as a precursor for national conscription. With an understanding of how the population was distributed, Emperor Mommu introduced the law whereby 1 in 3–4 adult males was drafted into the national military. These soldiers were required to supply their own weapons, and in return were exempted from duties and taxes.[3] This was one of the first attempts by the Imperial government to form an organized army modeled after the Chinese system. It was called gundan-sei (軍団制) by later historians and is believed to have been short-lived.[citation needed]
The Taihō Code classified most of the imperial bureaucrats into 12 ranks, each divided into two sub-ranks, 1st rank being the highest adviser to the emperor. Those of 6th rank and below were referred to as "samurai" and dealt with day-to-day affairs. Although these "samurai" were civilian public servants, the name is believed[by whom?] to have derived from this term. Military men, however, would not be referred to as "samurai" for many more centuries.[citation needed]
In the early Heian period, the late 8th and early 9th centuries, Emperor Kammu sought to consolidate and expand his rule in northern Honshū, but the armies he sent to conquer the rebellious Emishi people lacked motivation and discipline, and failed in their task.[citation needed] Emperor Kammu introduced the title of Seiitaishogun (征夷大将軍) or shogun, and began to rely on the powerful regional clans to conquer the Emishi. Skilled in mounted combat and archery (kyūdō), these clan warriors became the emperor's preferred tool for putting down rebellions.[citation needed] Though this is the first known use of the 'shogun' title, it was a temporal title, and was not imbued with political power until the 13th century. At this time (the 7th to 9th century) the imperial court officials considered them merely a military section under the control of the imperial court.
Ultimately, Emperor Kammu disbanded his army. From this time, the emperor's power gradually declined. While the emperor was still the ruler, powerful clans around Kyoto (京都) assumed positions as ministers, and their relatives bought positions as magistrates.[citation needed] To amass wealth and repay their debts, magistrates often imposed heavy taxes, resulting in many farmers becoming landless.[citation needed]
Through protective agreements and political marriages, they accumulated political power, eventually surpassing the traditional aristocracy.[citation needed]
Some clans were originally formed by farmers who had taken up arms to protect themselves from the imperial magistrates sent to govern their lands and collect taxes.[citation needed] These clans formed alliances to protect themselves against more powerful clans, and by the mid-Heian period they had adopted characteristic Japanese armor and weapons, and laid the foundations of Bushido, their ethical code.[citation needed]
After the Genpei war of the late 12th century, a clan leader Minamoto no Yoritomo obtained the right to appoint shugo and jito, and was allowed to organize soldiers and police, and to collect certain amount of tax. Initially, their responsibility was restricted to arresting rebels and collecting needed army provisions, and they were forbidden to interfere with kokushi governors, but their responsibility gradually expanded and thus the samurai-class appeared as the political ruling power in Japan. Minamoto no Yoritomo opened the Kamakura Bakufu shogunate in 1192.
Samurai warriors described themselves as followers of "The Way of the Warrior" or Bushido. Bushidō is defined by the Japanese dictionary Shogakukan Kokugo Daijiten as "a unique philosophy (ronri) that spread through the warrior class from the Muromachi (chusei) period. From the earliest times, the Samurai felt that the path of the warrior was one of honor, emphasizing duty to one's master, and loyalty unto death.[5]
In the 13th century, Hojo Shigetoki (1198–1261 AD) wrote: "When one is serving officially or in the master's court, he should not think of a hundred or a thousand people, but should consider only the importance of the master."[6]
In his 1979 Dissertation about the Hojo, Carl Steenstrup noted that 13th and 14th century warrior writings (gunki) "portrayed the bushi in their natural element, war, eulogizing such virtues as reckless bravery, fierce family pride, and selfless, at times senseless devotion of master and man."[7]
Feudal lords such as Shiba Yoshimasa (1350–1410 AD) stated that a warrior looked forward to a glorious death in the service of a military leader or the emperor: "It is a matter of regret to let the moment when one should die pass by....First, a man whose profession is the use of arms should think and then act upon not only his own fame, but also that of his descendants. He should not scandalize his name forever by holding his one and only life too dear....One's main purpose in throwing away his life is to do so either for the sake of the Emperor or in some great undertaking of a military general. It is that exactly that will be the great fame of one's descendants."[8]
In 1412 AD, Imagawa Sadayo wrote a letter of admonishment to his brother stressing the importance of duty to one's master. Imagawa was admired for his balance of military and administrative skills during his lifetime and his writings became widespread. The letters became central to Tokugawa-era laws and were a required study for traditional Japanese until World War II[citation needed]:
"First of all, a samurai who dislikes battle and has not put his heart in the right place even though he has been born in the house of the warrior, should not be reckoned among one's retainers....It is forbidden to forget the great debt of kindness one owes to his master and ancestors and thereby make light of the virtues of loyalty and filial piety....It is forbidden that one should...attach little importance to his duties to his master...There is a primary need to distinguish loyalty from disloyalty and to establish rewards and punishments."[9]
Similarly, the feudal lord Takeda Nobushige (1525–1561 AD) stated: "In matters both great and small, one should not turn his back on his master's commands...One should not ask for gifts or enfiefments from the master...No matter how unreasonably the master may treat a man, he should not feel disgruntled...An underling does not pass judgments on a superior"[10]
Nobushige's brother Takeda Shingen (1521–1573 AD) also made similar observations: "One who was born in the house of a warrior, regardless of his rank or class, first acquaints himself with a man of military feats and achievements in loyalty....Everyone knows that if a man doesn't hold filial piety toward his own parents he would also neglect his duties toward his lord. Such a neglect means a disloyalty toward humanity. Therefore such a man doesn't deserve to be called 'samurai'."[11]
The feudal lord Asakura Yoshikage (1428–1481 AD) wrote: "In the fief of the Asakura, one should not determine hereditary chief retainers. A man should be assigned according to his ability and loyalty." Asakura also observed that the successes of his father were obtained by the kind treatment of the warriors and common people living in domain. By his civility, "all were willing to sacrifice their lives for him and become his allies."[12]
Kato Kiyomasa was one of the most powerful and well-known lords of the Sengoku Era. He commanded most of Japan's major clans during the invasion of Korea (1592–1598). In a handbook he addressed to "all samurai, regardless of rank" he told his followers that a warrior's only duty in life was to "grasp the long and the short swords and to die". He also ordered his followers to put forth great effort in studying the military classics, especially those related to loyalty and filial piety. He is best known for his quote:[13] "If a man does not investigate into the matter of Bushido daily, it will be difficult for him to die a brave and manly death. Thus it is essential to engrave this business of the warrior into one's mind well."
Nabeshima Naoshige (1538–1618 AD) was another Sengoku Daimyo who fought alongside Kato Kiyomasa in Korea. He stated that it was shameful for any man to have not risked his life at least once in the line of duty, regardless of his rank. Nabeshima's sayings would be passed down to his son and grandson and would become the basis for Tsunetomo Yamamoto's Hagakure. He is best known for his saying "The way of the Samurai is in desperateness. Ten men or more cannot kill such a man."[14][15]
Torii Mototada (1539–1600) was a feudal lord in the service of Tokugawa Ieyasu. On the eve of the battle of Sekigahara, he volunteered to remain behind in the doomed Fushimi Castle while his lord advanced to the east. Torii and Tokugawa both agreed that the castle was indefensible. In an act of loyalty to his lord, Torii chose to remain behind, pledging that he and his men would fight to the finish. As was custom, Torii vowed that he would not be taken alive. In a dramatic last stand, the garrison of 2,000 men held out against overwhelming odds for ten days against the massive army of Ishida Mitsunari's 40,000 warriors. In a moving last statement to his son Tadamasa, he wrote:[16]
"It is not the Way of the Warrior [i.e., bushido] to be shamed and avoid death even under circumstances that are not particularly important. It goes without saying that to sacrifice one's life for the sake of his master is an unchanging principle. That I should be able to go ahead of all the other warriors of this country and lay down my life for the sake of my master's benevolence is an honor to my family and has been my most fervent desire for many years."
It is said that both men cried when they parted ways, because they knew they would never see each other again. Torii's father and grandfather had served the Tokugawa before him and his own brother had already been killed in battle. Torii's actions changed the course of Japanese history. Ieyasu Tokugawa would successfully raise an army and win at Sekigahara.
The translator of Hagakure, William Scott Wilson observed examples of warrior emphasis on death in clans other than Yamamoto's: "he (Takeda Shingen) was a strict disciplinarian as a warrior, and there is an exemplary story in the Hagakure relating his execution of two brawlers, not because they had fought, but because they had not fought to the death."[17][18]
The rival of Takeda Shingen (1521–1573) was Uesugi Kenshin (1530–1578), a legendary Sengoku warlord well-versed in the Chinese military classics and who advocated the "way of the warrior as death". Japanese historian Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki describes Uesugi's beliefs as: "Those who are reluctant to give up their lives and embrace death are not true warriors.... Go to the battlefield firmly confident of victory, and you will come home with no wounds whatever. Engage in combat fully determined to die and you will be alive; wish to survive in the battle and you will surely meet death. When you leave the house determined not to see it again you will come home safely; when you have any thought of returning you will not return. You may not be in the wrong to think that the world is always subject to change, but the warrior must not entertain this way of thinking, for his fate is always determined."[19]
Families such as the Imagawa were influential in the development of warrior ethics and were widely quoted by other lords during their lifetime. The writings of Imagawa Sadayo were highly respected and sought out by Tokugawa Ieyasu as the source of Japanese Feudal Law. These writings were a required study among traditional Japanese until World War II[citation needed].
Historian H. Paul Varley notes the description of Japan given by Jesuit leader St. Francis Xavier (1506–1552): "There is no nation in the world which fears death less." Xavier further describes the honor and manners of the people: "I fancy that there are no people in the world more punctilious about their honour than the Japanese, for they will not put up with a single insult or even a word spoken in anger." Xavier spent the years 1549–1551 converting Japanese to Christianity. He also observed: "The Japanese are much braver and more warlike than the people of China, Korea, Ternate and all of the other nations around the Philippines."[20]
In December 1547, Francis was in Malacca (Malaysia) waiting to return to Goa (India) when he met a low-ranked samurai named Anjiro (possibly spelled "Yajiro"). Anjiro was not a nobleman or an intellectual, but he impressed Xavier because he took careful notes of everything he said in church. Xavier made the decision to go to Japan in part because this low-ranking samurai convinced him in Portuguese that the Japanese people were highly educated and eager to learn. They were hard workers and respectful of authority. In their laws and customs they were led by reason, and, should the Christian faith convince them of its truth, they would accept it en masse.[21]
By the 12th century, upper-class samurai were highly literate due to the general introduction of Confucianism from China during the 7th to 9th centuries, and in response to their perceived need to deal with the imperial court, who had a monopoly on culture and literacy for most of the Heian period. As a result they aspired to the more cultured abilities of the nobility.[22]
Examples such as Taira Tadanori (a samurai who appears in the Heike Monogatari) demonstrate that warriors idealized the arts and aspired to become skilled in them.
Tadanori was famous for his skill with the pen and the sword or the "bun and the bu", the harmony of fighting and learning. Samurai were expected to be cultured and literate, and admired the ancient saying "Bun Bu Ryo Do" (文武両道, lit., literary arts, military arts, both ways) or "The pen and the sword in accord." By the time of the Edo period, Japan had a higher literacy comparable to that in central Europe.[23]
The number of men who actually achieved the ideal and lived their lives by it was high. An early term for warrior, "uruwashii", was written with a kanji that combined the characters for literary study ("bun" 文) and military arts ("bu" 武), and is mentioned in the Heike Monogatari (late 12th century). The Heike Monogatari makes reference to the educated poet-swordsman ideal in its mention of Taira no Tadanori's death:[24]
Friends and foes alike wet their sleeves with tears and said,
What a pity! Tadanori was a great general,
pre-eminent in the arts of both sword and poetry.
In his book "Ideals of the Samurai" translator William Scott Wilson states: "The warriors in the Heike Monogatari served as models for the educated warriors of later generations, and the ideals depicted by them were not assumed to be beyond reach. Rather, these ideals were vigorously pursued in the upper echelons of warrior society and recommended as the proper form of the Japanese man of arms. With the Heike Monogatari, the image of the Japanese warrior in literature came to its full maturity."[24] Wilson then translates the writings of several warriors who mention the Heike Monogatari as an example for their men to follow.
Plenty of warrior writings document this ideal from the 13th century onward. Most warriors aspired to or followed this ideal otherwise there would have been no cohesion in the samurai armies.[25]
Kamakura Bakufu and the rise of samurai[link]
Originally the emperor and nobility employed these warriors. In time, they amassed enough manpower, resources and political backing in the form of alliances with one another, to establish the first samurai-dominated government.
As the power of these regional clans grew, their chief was typically a distant relative of the emperor, and a lesser member of either the Fujiwara, Minamoto, or Taira clans.
Though originally sent to provincial areas for a fixed four-year term as a magistrate, the toryo declined to return to the capital when their terms ended, and their sons inherited their positions and continued to lead the clans in putting down rebellions throughout Japan during the middle- and later-Heian period.
Samurai fought at the naval battle of Dan-no-Ura in 1185. Because of their rising military and economic power, the warriors ultimately became a new force in the politics of the court. Their involvement in the Hōgen in the late Heian period consolidated their power, and finally pitted the rival Minamoto and Taira clans against each other in the Heiji Rebellion of 1160.
The winner, Taira no Kiyomori, became an imperial advisor, and was the first warrior to attain such a position. He eventually seized control of the central government, establishing the first samurai-dominated government and relegating the emperor to figurehead status.
However, the Taira clan was still very conservative when compared to its eventual successor, the Minamoto, and instead of expanding or strengthening its military might, the Taira clan had its women marry emperors and exercise control through the emperor.
The Taira and the Minamoto clashed again in 1180, beginning the Gempei War, which ended in 1185. The victorious Minamoto no Yoritomo established the superiority of the samurai over the aristocracy. In 1190 he visited Kyoto, and in 1192 became Seii Taishogun, establishing the Kamakura Shogunate, or Kamakura Bakufu. Instead of ruling from Kyoto, he set up the Shogunate in Kamakura, near his base of power. "Bakufu" means "tent government", taken from the encampments the soldiers would live in, in accordance with the Bakufu's status as a military government.[26]
Over time, powerful samurai clans became warrior nobility, or "buke", who were only nominally under the court aristocracy. When the samurai began to adopt aristocratic pastimes like calligraphy, poetry and music, some court aristocrats in turn began to adopt samurai customs. In spite of various machinations and brief periods of rule by various emperors, real power was now in the hands of the Shogun and the samurai.
Ashikaga Shogunate[link]
Various samurai clans struggled for power during the Kamakura and Ashikaga Shogunates.
Zen Buddhism spread among the samurai in the 13th century and helped to shape their standards of conduct, particularly overcoming fear of death and killing, but among the general populace, Pure Land Buddhism was favored.
In 1274, the Mongol-founded Yuan Dynasty in China sent a force of some 40,000 men and 900 ships to invade Japan in northern Kyūshū. Japan mustered a mere 10,000 samurai to meet this threat. The invading army was harassed by major thunderstorms throughout the invasion, which aided the defenders by inflicting heavy casualties. The Yuan army was eventually recalled and the invasion was called off. The Mongol invaders used small bombs, which was likely the first appearance of bombs and gunpowder in Japan.
The Japanese defenders recognized the possibility of a renewed invasion, and began construction of a great, stone barrier around Hakata Bay in 1276. Completed in 1277, this wall stretched for 20 kilometers around the border of the bay. This would later serve as a strong defensive point against the Mongols. The Mongols attempted to settle matters in a diplomatic way from 1275 to 1279, but every envoy sent to Japan was executed. This set the stage for one of the most famous engagements in Japanese history.
In 1281, a Yuan army of 140,000 men with 5,000 ships was mustered for another invasion of Japan. Northern Kyūshū was defended by a Japanese army of 40,000 men. The Mongol army was still on its ships preparing for the landing operation when a typhoon hit north Kyūshū island. The casualties and damage inflicted by the typhoon, followed by the Japanese defense of the Hakata Bay barrier, resulted in the Mongols again recalling their armies.
The thunderstorms of 1274 and the typhoon of 1281 helped the samurai defenders of Japan repel the Mongol invaders despite being vastly outnumbered. These winds became known as kami-no-kaze, which literally translates as "wind of the gods." This is often given a simplified translation as "divine wind." The kami-no-kaze lent credence to the Japanese belief that their lands were indeed divine and under supernatural protection.
In the 14th century, a blacksmith called Masamune developed a two-layer structure of soft and hard steel for use in swords. This structure gave much improved cutting power and endurance, and the production technique led to Japanese swords (katana) being recognized as some of the most potent hand weapons of pre-industrial East Asia. Many swords made using this technique were exported across the East China Sea, a few making their way as far as India.
Issues of inheritance caused family strife as primogeniture became common, in contrast to the division of succession designated by law before the 14th century. To avoid infighting, invasions of neighboring samurai territories became common and bickering among samurai was a constant problem for the Kamakura and Ashikaga Shogunates.
The Sengoku jidai ("warring-states period") was marked by the loosening of samurai culture with people born into other social strata sometimes making names for themselves as warriors and thus becoming de facto samurai. In this turbulent period, bushido ethics became important factors in controlling and maintaining public order.
Japanese war tactics and technologies improved rapidly in the 15th and 16th century. Use of large numbers of infantry called ashigaru ("light-foot," due to their light armor), formed of humble warriors or ordinary people with nagayari (a long lance) or (naginata), was introduced and combined with cavalry in maneuvers. The number of people mobilized in warfare ranged from thousands to hundreds of thousands.
The arquebus, a matchlock gun, was introduced by the Portuguese via a Chinese pirate ship in 1543 and the Japanese succeeded in assimilating it within a decade. Groups of mercenaries with mass-produced arquebuses began playing a critical role.
By the end of the Sengoku Period, several hundred thousand firearms existed in Japan and massive armies numbering over 100,000 clashed in battles.
In 1592, and again in 1597, Toyotomi Hideyoshi decided to invade China (唐入り) through Korea and mobilized an army of 160,000 peasants and samurai.(See Hideyoshi's invasions of Korea, 朝鮮征伐.) Taking advantage of its mastery of the arquebus, Japanese samurai made major gains in most of Korea (Kato Kiyomasa did in fact enter Manchuria, but withdrew when it was clear he had outpaced the rest of the Japanese invasion force), but were unable to advance all the way through Korea into China due to the Japanese navy's defeats at sea at the hands of the Korean navy (resulting in the Japanese supply lines being severed) and the entry of Ming Chinese troops into Korea. A few of the more famous samurai generals of this war were Katō Kiyomasa, Konishi Yukinaga, and Shimazu Yoshihiro.
Social mobility was high, as the ancient regime collapsed and emerging samurai needed to maintain large military and administrative organizations in their areas of influence. Most of the samurai families that survived to the 19th century originated in this era, declaring themselves to be the blood of one of the four ancient noble clans, Minamoto, Taira, Fujiwara and Tachibana. In most cases, however, it is hard to prove these claims.
See also: Nanban trade period
Oda, Toyotomi and Tokugawa[link]
Oda Nobunaga was the well-known lord of the Nagoya area (once called Owari Province) and an exceptional example of a samurai of the Sengoku Period. He came within a few years of, and laid down the path for his successors to follow, the reunification of Japan under a new Bakufu (Shogunate).
Oda Nobunaga made innovations in the fields of organization and war tactics, heavily used arquebuses, developed commerce and industry and treasured innovation. Consecutive victories enabled him to realize the termination of the Ashikaga Bakufu and the disarmament of the military powers of the Buddhist monks, which had inflamed futile struggles among the populace for centuries. Attacking from the "sanctuary" of Buddhist temples, they were constant headaches to any warlord and even the emperor who tried to control their actions. He died in 1582 when one of his generals, Akechi Mitsuhide, turned upon him with his army.
Importantly, Toyotomi Hideyoshi (see below) and Tokugawa Ieyasu, who founded the Tokugawa Shogunate, were loyal followers of Nobunaga. Hideyoshi began as a nameless peasant and became one of Nobunaga's top generals, and Ieyasu had shared his childhood with Nobunaga. Hideyoshi defeated Mitsuhide within a month, and was regarded as the rightful successor of Nobunaga by avenging the treachery of Mitsuhide.
These two were gifted with Nobunaga's previous achievements on which build a unified Japan and there was a saying: "The reunification is a rice cake; Oda made it. Hashiba shaped it. At last, only Ieyasu tastes it."[citation needed] (Hashiba is the family name that Toyotomi Hideyoshi used while he was a follower of Nobunaga.)
Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who became a grand minister in 1586, himself the son of a poor peasant family, created a law that the samurai caste became codified as permanent and hereditary, and that non-samurai were forbidden to carry weapons, thereby ending the social mobility of Japan up until that point, which lasted until the dissolution of the Edo Shogunate by the Meiji revolutionaries.
It is important to note that the distinction between samurai and non-samurai was so obscure that during the 16th century, most male adults in any social class (even small farmers) belonged to at least one military organization of their own and served in wars before and during Hideyoshi's rule. It can be said that an "all against all" situation continued for a century.
The authorized samurai families after the 17th century were those that chose to follow Nobunaga, Hideyoshi and Ieyasu. Large battles occurred during the change between regimes, and a number of defeated samurai were destroyed, went ronin or were absorbed into the general populace.
Tokugawa Shogunate[link]
During the Tokugawa shogunate, samurai increasingly became courtiers, bureaucrats, and administrators rather than warriors. With no warfare since the early 17th century, samurai gradually lost their military function during the Tokugawa era (also called the Edo period).
By the end of the Tokugawa era, samurai were aristocratic bureaucrats for the daimyo, with their daisho, the paired long and short swords of the samurai (cf. katana and wakizashi) becoming more of a symbolic emblem of power rather than a weapon used in daily life.
They still had the legal right to cut down any commoner who did not show proper respect (kiri sute gomen (斬り捨て御免)), but to what extent this right was used is unknown. When the central government forced daimyos to cut the size of their armies, unemployed ronin became a social problem.
Theoretical obligations between a samurai and his lord (usually a daimyo) increased from the Genpei era to the Edo era. They were strongly emphasized by the teachings of Confucius and Mencius (ca 550 BC), which were required reading for the educated samurai class. Bushido was formalized by several influential leaders and families before the Edo Period. Bushido was an ideal, and it remained fairly uniform from the 13th century to the 19th century — the ideals of Bushido transcended social class, time and geographic location of the warrior class.
Bushido was formalized by samurai such as Imagawa Ryoshun as early as the 13th century. The conduct of samurai served as role model behavior for the other social classes. With time on their hands, samurai spent more time in pursuit of other interests such as becoming scholars.
Bushido itself is no longer particularly prominent in modern Japan, though some of its ideals and precepts live on.
Modernization[link]
Main article: Late Tokugawa shogunate
The relative peace of the Tokugawa era was shattered with the arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry's massive U.S. Navy steamships in 1853. Perry used his superior firepower to force Japan to open its borders to trade. Prior to that only a few harbor towns, under strict control from the Shogunate, were allowed to participate in Western trade, and even then, it was based largely on the idea of playing the Franciscans and Dominicans off against one another (in exchange for the crucial arquebus technology, which in turn was a major contributor to the downfall of the classical samurai).
From 1854, the samurai army and the navy were modernized. A Naval training school was established in Nagasaki in 1855. Naval students were sent to study in Western naval schools for several years, starting a tradition of foreign-educated future leaders, such as Admiral Enomoto.
French naval engineers were hired to build naval arsenals, such as Yokosuka and Nagasaki. By the end of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1867, the Japanese navy of the shogun already possessed eight western-style steam warships around the flagship Kaiyō Maru, which were used against pro-imperial forces during the Boshin war, under the command of Admiral Enomoto. A French Military Mission to Japan (1867) was established to help modernize the armies of the Bakufu.
The last showing of the original samurai was in 1867 when samurai from Chōshū and Satsuma provinces defeated the Shogunate forces in favor of the rule of the emperor in the Boshin War (1868–1869). The two provinces were the lands of the daimyo that submitted to Ieyasu after the Battle of Sekigahara (1600).
The Tokugawa Shogunate also isolated Japan until 1868 when the Meiji restoration shifted power from the shogunate to the Imperial family.
Decline[link]
Emperor Meiji abolished the samurai's right to be the only armed force in favor of a more modern, western-style, conscripted army in 1873. Samurai became Shizoku (士族) who retained some of their salaries, but the right to wear a katana in public was eventually abolished along with the right to execute commoners who paid them disrespect.
The samurai finally came to an end after hundreds of years of enjoyment of their status, their powers, and their ability to shape the government of Japan. However, the rule of the state by the military class was not yet over.
In defining how a modern Japan should be, members of the Meiji government decided to follow the footsteps of the United Kingdom and Germany, basing the country on the concept of "noblesse oblige". Samurai were not a political force under the new order.
With the Meiji reforms in the late 19th century, the samurai class was abolished, and a western-style national army was established. The Imperial Japanese Armies were conscripted, but many samurai volunteered as soldiers, and many advanced to be trained as officers. Much of the Imperial Army officer class was of samurai origin, and were highly motivated, disciplined, and exceptionally trained.
The last samurai conflict was arguably in 1877, during the Satsuma Rebellion in the Battle of Shiroyama. This conflict had its genesis in the previous uprising to defeat the Tokugawa Shogunate, leading to the Meiji Restoration.
The newly formed government instituted radical changes, aimed at reducing the power of the feudal domains, including Satsuma, and the dissolution of samurai status. This led to the ultimately premature uprising, led by Saigō Takamori.
Samurai were many of the early exchange students, not directly because they were samurai, but because many samurai were literate and well-educated scholars. Some of these exchange students started private schools for higher educations, while many samurai took pens instead of guns and became reporters and writers, setting up newspaper companies, and others entered governmental service.
Only the name Shizoku existed after that. After Japan lost World War II, the name Shizoku disappeared under the law on January 1, 1947.
Western samurai[link]
The English sailor and adventurer William Adams (1564–1620) seems to have been the first Caucasian to receive the dignity of samurai. The Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu presented him with two swords representing the authority of a samurai, and decreed that William Adams the sailor was dead and that Miura Anjin (三浦按針), a samurai, was born. Adams also received the title of hatamoto (bannerman), a high-prestige position as a direct retainer in the Shogun's court. He was provided with generous revenues: "For the services that I have done and do daily, being employed in the Emperor's service, the emperor has given me a living" (Letters). He was granted a fief in Hemi (逸見) within the boundaries of present-day Yokosuka City, "with eighty or ninety husbandmen, that be my slaves or servants" (Letters). His estate was valued at 250 koku (measure of the income of the land in rice equal to about five bushels). He finally wrote "God hath provided for me after my great misery," (Letters) by which he meant the disaster-ridden voyage that initially brought him to Japan.
Jan Joosten van Lodensteijn (1556?–1623?), a Dutch colleague of Adams' on their ill-fated voyage to Japan in the ship De Liefde, was also given similar privileges by Tokugawa Ieyasu. It appears Joosten became a samurai[citation needed] and was given a residence within Ieyasu's castle at Edo. Today, this area at the east exit of Tokyo Station is known as Yaesu (八重洲). Yaesu is a corruption of the Dutchman's Japanese name, Yayousu (耶楊子). Also in common with Adam's, Joostens was given a Red Seal Ship (朱印船) allowing him to trade between Japan and Indo-China. On a return journey from Batavia Joosten drowned after his ship ran aground.
Also, during the Boshin War (1868–1869), French soldiers joined the forces of the Shogun against the Southern Daimyos favorable to the restoration of the Meiji emperor. It is recorded that the French Navy officer Eugène Collache fought in samurai attire with his Japanese brothers-in-arms. At the same time, the Prussian Edward Schnell served the Aizu domain as a military instructor and procurer of weapons. He was granted the Japanese name Hiramatsu Buhei (平松武兵衛), which inverted the characters of the daimyo's name Matsudaira. Hiramatsu (Schnell) was given the right to wear swords, as well as a residence in the castle town of Wakamatsu, a Japanese wife, and retainers. In many contemporary references, he is portrayed as wearing a Japanese kimono, overcoat, and swords, with Western riding trousers and boots.
Culture[link]
As de facto aristocrats for centuries, samurai developed their own cultures that influenced Japanese culture as a whole. The culture associated with the samurai such as the tea ceremony, monochrome ink painting, rock gardens and poetry were adopted by warrior patrons throughout the centuries 1200–1600. These practices were adapted from the Chinese arts. Zen monks introduced them to Japan and they were allowed to flourish due to the interest of powerful warrior elites. Muso Soseki (1275–1351) was a Zen monk who was advisor to both Emperor Go-Daigo and General Ashikaga Takauji (1304–58). Muso as well as other monks acted as political and cultural diplomats between Japan and China. Muso was particularly well known for his garden design. Another Ashikaga patron of the arts was Yoshimasa. His cultural advisor, the Zen monk Zeami, introduced tea ceremony to him. Previously, tea had been used primarily for Buddhist monks to stay awake during meditation.[27]
Education[link]
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In general, samurai, aristocrats, and priests had a very high literacy rate in Kanji. Recent studies have shown that literacy in Kanji among other groups in society was somewhat higher than previously understood. For example, court documents, birth and death records and marriage records from the Kamakura period, submitted by farmers, were prepared in Kanji. Both the Kanji literacy rate and skills in math improved toward the end of Kamakura period.[22]
Literacy was generally high among the warriors and the common classes as well. The feudal lord Asakura Norikage (1474–1555 AD) noted the great loyalty given to his father, due to his polite letters, not just to fellow samurai, but also to the farmers and townspeople:
There were to Lord Eirin's character many high points difficult to measure, but according to the elders the foremost of these was the way he governed the province by his civility. It goes without saying that he acted this way toward those in the samurai class, but he was also polite in writing letters to the farmers and townspeople, and even in addressing these letters he was gracious beyond normal practice. In this way, all were willing to sacrifice their lives for him and become his allies.[28]
In a letter dated January 29, 1552, St Francis Xavier observed the ease of which the Japanese understood prayers due to the high level of literacy in Japan at that time:
There are two kinds of writing in Japan, one used by men and the other by women; and for the most part both men and women, especially of the nobility and the commercial class, have a literary education. The bonzes, or bonzesses, in their monasteries teach letters to the girls and boys, though rich and noble persons entrust the education of their children to private tutors.
Most of them can read, and this is a great help to them for the easy understanding of our usual prayers and the chief points of our holy religion.[29]
In a letter to Father Ignatius Loyola at Rome, Xavier further noted the education of the upper classes:
The Nobles send their sons to monasteries to be educated as soon as they are 8 years old, and they remain there until they are 19 or 20, learning reading, writing and religion; as soon as they come out, they marry and apply themselves to politics. They are discreet, magnanimous and lovers of virtue and letters, honouring learned men very much.
In a letter dated November 11, 1549, Xavier described a multi-tiered educational system in Japan consisting of "universities", "colleges", "academies" and hundreds of monasteries that served as a principle center for learning by the populace:
But now we must give you an account of our stay at Cagoxima. We put into that port because the wind was adverse to our sailing to Meaco, which is the largest city in Japan, and most famous as the residence of the King and the Princes. It is said that after four months are passed the favourable season for a voyage to Meaco will return, and then with the good help of God we shall sail thither. The distance from Cagoxima is three hundred leagues. We hear wonderful stories about the size of Meaco : they say that it consists of more than ninety thousand dwellings. There is a very famous University there, as well as five chief colleges of students, and more than two hundred monasteries of bonzes, and of others who are like coenobites, called Legioxi, as well as of women of the same kind, who are called Hamacutis. Besides this of Meaco, there are in Japan five other principal academies, at Coya, at Negu, at Fisso, and at Homia. These are situated round Meaco, with short distances between them, and each is frequented by about three thousand five hundred scholars. Besides these there is the Academy at Bandou, much the largest and most famous in all Japan, and at a great distance from Meaco. Bandou is a large territory, ruled by six minor princes, one of whom is more powerful than the others and is obeyed by them, being himself subject to the King of Japan, who is called the Great King of Meaco. The things that are given out as to the greatness and celebrity of these universities and cities are so wonderful as to make us think of seeing them first with our own eyes and ascertaining the truth, and then when we have discovered and know how things really are, of writing an account of them to you. 10[clarification needed] They say that there are several lesser academies besides those which we have mentioned.
Names[link]
A samurai was usually named by combining one kanji from his father or grandfather and one new kanji. Samurai normally used only a small part of their total name.
For example, the full name of Oda Nobunaga would be "Oda Kazusanosuke Saburo Nobunaga" (織田上総介三郎信長), in which "Oda" is a clan or family name, "Kazusanosuke" is a title of vice-governor of Kazusa province, "Saburo" is a name before genpuku, a coming of age ceremony, and "Nobunaga" is an adult name. Samurai were able to choose their own first names.
Marriage[link]
The marriage of samurai was done by having a marriage arranged by someone with the same or higher rank than those being married. While for those samurai in the upper ranks this was a necessity (as most had few opportunities to meet a female), this was a formality for lower ranked samurai. Most samurai married women from a samurai family, but for a lower ranked samurai, marriages with commoners were permitted. In these marriages a dowry was brought by the woman and was used to start their new lives.
A samurai could have a mistress but her background was strictly checked by higher ranked samurai. In many cases, this was treated like a marriage. "Kidnapping" a mistress, although common in fiction, would have been shameful, if not a crime. When she was a commoner, a messenger would be sent with betrothal money or a note for exemption of tax to ask for her parent's acceptance and many parents gladly accepted. If a samurai's wife gave birth to a son he could then one day become a samurai.
A samurai could divorce his wife for a variety of reasons with approval from a superior, but divorce was, while not entirely nonexistent, a rare event. A reason for divorce would be if she could not produce a son, but then adoption could be arranged as an alternative to divorce. A samurai could divorce for personal reasons, even if he simply did not like his wife, but this was generally avoided as it would embarrass the samurai who had arranged the marriage. A woman could also arrange a divorce, although it would generally take the form of the samurai divorcing her. After a divorce samurai had to return the betrothal money, which often prevented divorces. Some rich merchants had their daughters marry samurai to erase a samurai's debt and advance their positions.
A samurai's wife would be dishonored and allowed to commit jigai (a female's seppuku) if she were cast off.[citation needed]
Philosophy[link]
The philosophies of Buddhism and Zen, and to a lesser extent Confucianism and Shinto, influenced the samurai culture. Zen meditation became an important teaching due to it offering a process to calm one's mind. The Buddhist concept of reincarnation and rebirth led samurai to abandon torture and needless killing, while some samurai even gave up violence altogether and became Buddhist monks after realizing how fruitless their killings were. Some were killed as they came to terms with these realizations in the battlefield. The most defining role that Confucianism played in samurai philosophy was to stress the importance of the lord-retainer relationship; this is, the loyalty that a samurai was required to show his lord.
Bushidō ("way of the warrior") was a term that began to appear in intellectual and nationalist discourse after the Japanese defeat of China in 1885 and of Russia in 1905.[30] Hagakure or "Hidden in Leaves" by Yamamoto Tsunetomo and Gorin no Sho or "Book of the Five Rings" by Miyamoto Musashi both written in the Tokugawa period (1603–1868) are theories often associated with Bushido and Zen philosophy.
The philosophies of Buddhism and Zen, and to a lesser extent Confucianism and Shinto, are attributed to the development of the samurai culture. "The notion that Zen is somehow related to Japanese culture in general, and bushido in particular, is familiar to Western students of Zen through the writings of D. T. Suzuki, no doubt the single most important figure in the spread of Zen in the West." [31]
In an account of Japan sent to Father Ignatius Loyola at Rome, drawn from the statements of Anger (Han-Siro's western name), Xavier describes the importance of honor to the Japanese (Letter preserved at College of Coimbra.):
In the first place, the nation with which we have had to do here surpasses in goodness any of the nations lately discovered. I really think that among barbarous nations there can be none that has more natural goodness than the Japanese. They are of a kindly disposition, not at all given to cheating, wonderfully desirous of honour and rank. Honour with them is placed above everything else. There are a great many poor among them, but poverty is not a disgrace to any one. There is one thing among them of which I hardly know whether it is practised anywhere among Christians. The nobles, however poor they may be, receive the same honour from the rest as if they were rich.[32]
Women[link]
Main article: Onna bugeisha
Maintaining the household was the main duty of samurai women. This was especially crucial during early feudal Japan, when warrior husbands were often traveling abroad or engaged in clan battles. The wife, or okugatasama (meaning: one who remains in the home), was left to manage all household affairs, care for the children, and perhaps even defend the home forcibly. For this reason, many women of the samurai class were trained in wielding a polearm called a naginata or a special knife called the kaiken in an art called tantojutsu (lit. the skill of the knife), which they could use to protect their household, family, and honor if the need arose.
Traits valued in women of the samurai class were humility, obedience, self-control, strength, and loyalty. Ideally, a samurai wife would be skilled at managing property, keeping records, dealing with financial matters, educating the children (and perhaps servants, too), and caring for elderly parents or in-laws that may be living under her roof. Confucian law, which helped define personal relationships and the code of ethics of the warrior class required that a woman show subservience to her husband, filial piety to her parents, and care to the children. Too much love and affection was also said to indulge and spoil the youngsters. Thus, a woman was also to exercise discipline.
Though women of wealthier samurai families enjoyed perks of their elevated position in society, such as avoiding the physical labor that those of lower classes often engaged in, they were still viewed as far beneath men. Women were prohibited from engaging in any political affairs and were usually not the heads of their household.
This does not mean that samurai women were always powerless. Powerful women both wisely and unwisely wielded power at various occasions. After Ashikaga Yoshimasa, 8th shogun of the Muromachi shogunate lost interest in politics, his wife Hino Tomiko largely ruled in his place. Nene, wife of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, was known to overrule her husband's decisions at times and Yodo, his mistress, became the de facto master of Osaka castle and the Toyotomi clan after Hideyoshi's death. Chiyo, wife of Yamauchi Kazutoyo, has long been considered the ideal samurai wife. According to legend, she made her kimono out of a quilted patchwork of bits of old cloth and saved pennies to buy her husband a magnificent horse, on which he rode to many victories. The fact that Chiyo (though she is better known as "Wife of Yamauchi Kazutoyo") is held to such high esteem for her economic sense is illuminating in the light of the fact that she never produced an heir and the Yamauchi clan was succeeded by Kazutoyo's younger brother. The source of power for women may have been that samurai looked down upon matters concerning money and left their finances to their wives.
As the Tokugawa period progressed more value became placed on education, and the education of females beginning at a young age became important to families and society as a whole. Marriage criteria began to weigh intelligence and education as desirable attributes in a wife, right along with physical attractiveness. Though many of the texts written for women during the Tokugawa period only pertained to how a woman could become a successful wife and household manager, there were those that undertook the challenge of learning to read, and also tackled philosophical and literary classics. Nearly all women of the samurai class were literate by the end of the Tokugawa period.
Weapons[link]
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This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2010) |
- Japanese Swords are the weapons that have come to be synonymous with the samurai. Ancient Japanese swords from the Nara period (Chokutō) featured a straight blade, by the late 900s curved tachi appeared, followed by the uchigatana and ultimately the katana. Smaller commonly known companion swords are the wakizashi and the tanto.[33] Wearing a long sword (katana) or (tachi) together with a smaller sword such as a wakizashi or tantō became the symbol of the samurai, this combination of swords is referred to as a daishō (literally "big and small"). During the Edo period only samurai were allowed to wear a daisho.
- The yumi (longbow), reflected in the art of kyūjutsu (lit. the skill of the bow) was a major weapon of the Japanese military. Its usage declined with the introduction of the tanegashima (Japanese matchlock) during the Sengoku period, but the skill was still practiced at least for sport.[34] The yumi, an asymmetric composite bow made from bamboo, wood, rattan and leather, had an effective range of 50 meters (about 164 feet) or 100 meters (328 feet) if accuracy was not an issue. On foot, it was usually used behind a tate (手盾), a large, mobile wooden shield, but the yumi could also be used from horseback because of its asymmetric shape. The practice of shooting from horseback became a Shinto ceremony known as yabusame (流鏑馬).[35]
- Pole weapons including the yari and naginata were commonly used by the samurai. The yari (Japanese spear) displaced the naginata from the battlefield as personal bravery became less of a factor and battles became more organized around massed, inexpensive foot troops (ashigaru).[citation needed] A charge, mounted or dismounted, was also more effective when using a spear rather than a sword, as it offered better than even odds against a samurai using a sword. In the Battle of Shizugatake where Shibata Katsuie was defeated by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, then known as Hashiba Hideyoshi, seven samurai who came to be known as the "Seven Spears of Shizugatake" (賤ヶ岳七本槍) played a crucial role in the victory.[36]
- Tanegashima (Japanese matchlock) were introduced to Japan in the 1543 through Portuguese trade. Tanegashima were produced on a large scale by Japanese gunsmiths, enabling warlords to raise and train armies from masses of peasants. The new weapons were highly effective, their ease of use and deadly effectiveness led to the tanegashima becoming the weapon of choice over the yumi (bow). By the end of the 16th century, there were more firearms in Japan than in many European nations. Tanegashima, employed en masse, largely by ashigaru peasant foot troops were responsible for a change in military tactics which eventually led to the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate (Edo period) and an end to civil war. Production of tanegashima declined sharply as there was no need for massive amounts of firearms. During the Edo period tanegashima were stored in away and their use was mainly for hunting and target practice. Foreign intervention in the 1800s led to a renewed interest in firearms but the tanegashima was outdated and various samurai factions purchased more modern firearms from various European sources.
- Cannons became a common part of the samurai's armory in the 1570s. They often were mounted in castles or on ships, being used more as anti-personnel weapons than against castle walls or the like, though in the siege of Nagashino castle (1575) a cannon was used to good effect against an enemy siegetower. The first popular cannon in Japan were swivel-breech loaders nicknamed kunikuzushi or "province destroyers". Kunikuzushi weighed 264 lb (120 kg). and used 40 lb (18 kg). chambers, firing a small shot of 10 oz (280 g). The Arima clan of Kyushu used guns like this at the Battle of Okinawate against the Ryūzōji clan. By the time of the Osaka campaign (1614–1615), cannon technology had improved in Japan to the point where at Osaka, Ii Naotaka managed to fire an 18 lb (8.2 kg). shot into the castle's keep.[citation needed]
- Staff weapons of many shapes and sizes made from oak and other hard woods were also used by the samurai, commonly known ones include the bō, the jō, the hanbo, and the tanbo.
- Clubs and truncheons made of iron and/or wood, of all shapes and sizes were used by the samurai. Some like the jutte were one-handed weapons and others like the kanabo were large two-handed weapons.
- Chain weapons, various weapons using chains kusari were used during the samurai era, the kusarigama and Kusari-fundo are examples.
Armor[link]
Main article: Japanese armour
As far back as the seventh century Japanese warriors wore a form of lamellar armor, this armor eventually evolved into the armor worn by the samurai.[37] The first types of Japanese armors identified as samurai armor were known as yoroi. These early samurai armors were made from small individual scales known as kozane. The kozane were made from either iron or leather and were bound together into small strips, the strips were coated with lacquer to protect the kozane from water. A series of strips of kozane were then laced together with silk or leather lace and formed into a complete chest armor (dou or dō).[37]
In the 1500s a new type of armor started to become popular due to the advent of firearms, new fighting tactics and the need for additional protection. The kozane dou made from individual scales was replaced by plate armor. This new armor, which used iron plated dou (dō), was referred to as Tosei-gusoku, or modern armor.[38][39] Various other components of armor protected the samurai's body. The helmet kabuto was an important part of the samurai's armor. Samurai armor changed and developed as the methods of samurai warfare changed over the centuries.[40] The known last use of samurai armor occurring in 1877 during the satsuma rebellion.[41] As the last samurai rebellion was crushed, Japan modernized its defenses and turned to a national conscription army that used uniforms.[42]
Etymology of samurai and related words[link]
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This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2010) |
The Term samurai originally meant "those who serve in close attendance to nobility", and was written in the Chinese character (or kanji) that had the same meaning. In Japanese, it was originally pronounced in the pre-Heian period as saburau and later as saburai, then samurai in the Edo period. In Japanese literature, there is an early reference to samurai in the Kokinshū (古今集, early 10th century):[43]
Attendant to your nobility
Ask for your master's umbrella
Are thicker than rain
The dews 'neath the trees of Miyagino
The word bushi (武士, lit. "warrior or armsman") first appears in an early history of Japan called Shoku Nihongi (続日本記, AD 797). In a portion of the book covering the year AD 721, Shoku Nihongi states: "Literary men and Warriors are they whom the nation values". The term bushi is of Chinese origin and adds to the indigenous Japanese words for warrior: tsuwamono and mononofu.
Bushi was the name given to the ancient Japanese soldiers from traditional warrior families. The bushi class was developed mainly in the north of Japan. They formed powerful clans, which in the 12th Century were against the noble families who were grouping themselves to support the imperial family who lived in Kyoto. Samurai was a word used by the Kuge aristocratic class with warriors themselves preferring the word bushi. The term Bushidō, the "way of the warrior," is derived from this term and the mansion of a warrior was called bukeyashiki.
The terms bushi and samurai became synonymous near the end of the 12th century, according to William Scott Wilson in his book Ideals of the Samurai—Writings of Japanese Warriors. Wilson's book thoroughly explores the origins of the word warrior in Japanese history as well as the kanji used to represent the word.
"Breaking down the character bu (武) reveals the radical (止), meaning "to stop," and an abbreviation of the radical (戈 ) "spear." The Shuo Wen, an early Chinese dictionary, gives this definition: "Bu consists of subduing the weapon and therefore stopping the spear." The Tso Chuan, another early Chinese source, goes further:
Bu consists of bun (文), literature or letters (and generally the arts of peace), stopping the spear. Bu prohibits violence and subdues weapons ... it puts the people at peace, and harmonizes the masses.
The radical shi (士) on the other hand seems to have originally meant a person who performs some function or who has the ability in some field. Early in Chinese history it came to define the upper class of society, and in the Book of Han this definition is given :
The shi, the farmer, the craftsman, and the tradesman are the four professions of the people. He who occupies his rank by means of learning is called a shi.
Wilson states that the shi, as the highest of the four classes, brandished the weapons as well as the books. bushi therefore translates as "a man who has the ability to keep the peace, either by literary or military means, but predominantly by the latter".[44]
It was not until the early modern period, namely the Azuchi-Momoyama period and early Edo period of the late 16th and early 17th centuries that the word saburai was replaced with samurai. However, the meaning had changed long before that.
During the era of the rule of the samurai, the term yumitori (弓取, "bowman") was also used as an honorary title of an accomplished warrior even though swordsmanship had become more important. (Japanese archery (kyujutsu) is still strongly associated with the war god Hachiman.)
A samurai with no attachment to a clan or daimyo (大名) was called a ronin (浪人). In Japanese, the word ronin means "wave man", a person destined to wander aimlessly forever, like the waves in the sea. The word came to mean a samurai who was no longer in the service of a lord because his lord had died, because the samurai had been banished or simply because the samurai chose to become a ronin.
The pay of samurai was measured in koku of rice (180 liters; enough to feed a man for one year). Samurai in the service of the han are called hanshi.
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The following terms are related to samurai or the samurai tradition:
- Uruwashii
a cultured warrior symbolized by the kanji for "bun" (literary study) and "bu" (military study or arts) - Buke (武家)
A martial house or a member of such a house - Mononofu (もののふ)
An ancient term meaning a warrior. - Musha (武者)
A shortened form of bugeisha (武芸者), lit. martial art man. - Shi (士)
A word roughly meaning "gentleman," it is sometimes used for samurai, in particular in words such as bushi (武士, meaning warrior or samurai). - Tsuwamono (兵)
An old term for a soldier popularized by Matsuo Bashō in his famous haiku. Literally meaning a strong person.
Myth and reality[link]
Most samurai were bound by a code of honor and were expected to set an example for those below them. A notable part of their code is seppuku (切腹, seppuku?) or hara kiri, which allowed a disgraced samurai to regain his honor by passing into death, where samurai were still beholden to social rules. Whilst there are many romanticized characterizations of samurai behavior such as the writing of Bushido (武士道, Bushidō?) in 1905, studies of Kobudo and traditional Budō indicate that the samurai were as practical on the battlefield as were any other warrior.
Despite the rampant romanticism of the 20th century, samurai could be disloyal and treacherous (e.g., Akechi Mitsuhide), cowardly, brave, or overly loyal (e.g., Kusunoki Masashige). Samurai were usually loyal to their immediate superiors, who in turn allied themselves with higher lords. These loyalties to the higher lords often shifted; for example, the high lords allied under Toyotomi Hideyoshi (豊臣秀吉) were served by loyal samurai, but the feudal lords under them could shift their support to Tokugawa, taking their samurai with them. There were, however, also notable instances where samurai would be disloyal to their lord or daimyo, when loyalty to the emperor was seen to have supremacy.[45]
Popular culture[link]
Further information: Samurai cinema
Jidaigeki (lit. historical drama) has always been a staple program on Japanese movies and TV. The programs typically feature a samurai. Samurai films and westerns share a number of similarities and the two have influenced each other over the years. Kurosawa was inspired by the works of director John Ford and in turn Kurosawa's works have been remade into westerns such as The Seven Samurai into The Magnificent Seven and Yojimbo into A Fistful of Dollars. There is also a 26 episode anime adaptation (Samurai 7) of The Seven Samurai.
Eiji Yoshikawa is one of the most famous Japanese historical novelists. His retellings of popular works, including Taiko, Musashi and Heike Tale are popular among readers for their epic narratives and rich realism in depicting samurai and warrior culture.
The samurai have also appeared frequently in Japanese comics (manga) and animation (anime). Most common are historical works where the protagonist is either a samurai or former samurai (or another rank/position) who possesses considerable martial skill. Samurai-like characters are not just restricted to historical settings and a number of works set in the modern age, and even the future, include characters who live, train and fight like samurai. American comic books have adopted the character type for stories of their own.
A film released in 2003 titled The Last Samurai, starring Tom Cruise, is inspired by the Samurai way of life.
The television series Power Rangers Samurai (Samurai Sentai Shinkenger in Japan) is also inspired by the way of the Samurai.
Famous samurai[link]
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See also[link]
References[link]
- ^ Wilson, p. 17
- ^ "Samurai (Japanese warrior)". Encyclopædia Britannica.
- ^ a b William Wayne Farris, Heavenly Warriors — The Evolution of Japan's Military, 500–1300, Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-38704-X
- ^ A History of Japan, Vol. 3 and 4, George Samson, Tuttle Publishing, 2000.
- ^ Cleary, Thomas Training the Samurai Mind: A Bushido Sourcebook Shambhala (May, 2008) ISBN 1-59030-572-8
- ^ Wilson, p. 38
- ^ Carl Steenstrup, PhD Thesis, University of Copenhagen (1979)
- ^ Wilson, p. 47
- ^ Wilson, p. 62
- ^ Wilson, p. 103
- ^ Wilson, p. 95
- ^ Wilson, p. 67
- ^ Wilson, p, 131
- ^ Stacey B. Day; Kiyoshi Inokuchi; Hagakure Kenkyūkai (1994). The wisdom of Hagakure: way of the Samurai of Saga domain. Hagakure Society. p. 61. http://books.google.com/books?id=QYsQAQAAIAAJ. Retrieved 9 April 2011.
- ^ Brooke Noel Moore; Kenneth Bruder (6 August 2001). Philosophy: the power of ideas. McGraw-Hill. p. 494. ISBN 978-0-7674-2011-2. http://books.google.com/books?id=3kcIWXk8UhMC. Retrieved 9 April 2011.
- ^ Wilson, p. 122
- ^ Wilson, p. 91
- ^ Daisetz Teitarō Suzuki (1938). Zen and Japanese culture. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-01770-9. http://books.google.com/books?id=j8c9AAAAIAAJ. Retrieved 9 April 2011.
- ^ Daisetz Teitarō Suzuki (1938). Zen and Japanese culture. Princeton University Press. pp. 78–. ISBN 978-0-691-01770-9. http://books.google.com/books?id=j8c9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA78. Retrieved 9 April 2011.
- ^ H. Paul Varley (2000). Japanese culture. University of Hawaii Press. pp. 143–. ISBN 978-0-8248-2152-4. http://books.google.com/books?id=BvUEzBin61AC&pg=PA143. Retrieved 9 April 2011.
- ^ Coleridge, p. 100
- ^ a b Matsura, Yoshinori Fukuiken-shi 2 (Tokyo: Sanshusha, 1921)
- ^ Philip J. Adler; Randall L. Pouwels (27 November 2007). World Civilizations: Since 1500. Cengage Learning. pp. 369–. ISBN 978-0-495-50262-3. http://books.google.com/books?id=mPoqfoiIp4sC&pg=PA369. Retrieved 9 April 2011.
- ^ a b Wilson, p. 26
- ^ Wilson
- ^ Wilson , p. 15
- ^ R. H. P. Mason; John Godwin Caiger (15 November 1997). A history of Japan. Tuttle Publishing. pp. 152–. ISBN 978-0-8048-2097-4. http://books.google.com/books?id=m_XL2iELo-oC&pg=PA152. Retrieved 9 April 2011.
- ^ Wilson, p. 85
- ^ Coleridge, p. 345
- ^ Sharf, Robert H "The Zen of Japanese Nationalism" (University of Chicago Press, 1993)
- ^ Sharf, Robert H. "The Zen of Japanese Nationalism" (University of Chicago Press, 1993) p. 12
- ^ Coleridge, p. 237
- ^ Karl F. Friday (2004). Samurai, warfare and the state in early medieval Japan. Psychology Press. pp. 78–80. ISBN 978-0-415-32963-7. http://books.google.com/books?id=q5KBjpGSRgkC&pg=PA78. Retrieved 5 November 2011.
- ^ Kathleen Haywood; Catherine Lewis (2006). Archery: steps to success. Human Kinetics. pp. 10–. ISBN 978-0-7360-5542-0. http://books.google.com/books?id=-EFySHOgGmIC&pg=PR10. Retrieved 9 April 2011.
- ^ Thomas Louis; Tommy Ito (5 August 2008). Samurai: The Code of the Warrior. Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.. pp. 117–. ISBN 978-1-4027-6312-0. http://books.google.com/books?id=wExlaM1ov0sC&pg=PA117. Retrieved 9 April 2011.
- ^ Stephen Turnbull (11 April 2008). The Samurai Swordsman: Master of War. Tuttle Publishing. pp. 65–. ISBN 978-4-8053-0956-8. http://books.google.com/books?id=NR9j09T2hLkC&pg=PA65. Retrieved 9 April 2011.
- ^ a b Stephen R. Turnbull (1996). The Samurai: a military history. Psychology Press. pp. 20–. ISBN 978-1-873410-38-7. http://books.google.com/books?id=RMBdoimD2kIC&pg=PA20. Retrieved 9 April 2011.
- ^ Clive Sinclaire (1 November 2004). Samurai: The Weapons and Spirit of the Japanese Warrior. Globe Pequot. pp. 32–. ISBN 978-1-59228-720-8. http://books.google.com/books?id=IQ3FAZG94ZsC&pg=PA32. Retrieved 5 November 2011.
- ^ William E. Deal (12 September 2007). Handbook to life in medieval and early modern Japan. Oxford University Press. pp. 171–. ISBN 978-0-19-533126-4. http://books.google.com/books?id=i0ni1NmbYe0C&pg=PA171. Retrieved 5 November 2011.
- ^ Oscar Ratti; Adele Westbrook (1991). Secrets of the samurai: a survey of the martial arts of feudal Japan. Tuttle Publishing. pp. 186–. ISBN 978-0-8048-1684-7. http://books.google.com/books?id=ZFf9e0DmHZUC&pg=PA186. Retrieved 9 April 2011.
- ^ Clive Sinclaire (1 November 2004). Samurai: The Weapons and Spirit of the Japanese Warrior. Globe Pequot. pp. 58–. ISBN 978-1-59228-720-8. http://books.google.com/books?id=IQ3FAZG94ZsC&pg=PA58. Retrieved 5 November 2011.
- ^ The connoisseur's book of Japanese swords, Kōkan Nagayama, Kodansha International, 1998 p.43
- ^ Kokin wakashu (Japanese)
- ^ Wilson, p. 16
- ^ Mark Ravina, The Last Samurai — The Life and Battles of Saigō Takamori, John Wiley & Sons, 2004.
Bibliography[link]
- Coleridge, Henry James. the Life and Letters of St. Francis Xavier. Forgotten Books. ISBN 978-1-4510-0048-1. http://books.google.com/books?id=o6n9jLF4IwUC. Retrieved 9 April 2011.
- Wilson, William Scott (1982). Ideals of the Samurai: Writings of Japanese Warriors. Kodansha. ISBN 0-89750-081-4. http://books.google.com/books?id=zAl8YHtqXxgC&printsec=frontcover.
External links[link]
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| Michael Cretu | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Mihai Crețu |
| Also known as | Michael Crétu Curly MC Curly M.C. |
| Born | (1957-05-18) 18 May 1957 (age 55) Bucharest, Romania |
| Origin | Romania |
| Genres | New Age, electronic, trance |
| Occupations | Musician, producer |
| Instruments | MIDI keyboard, guitar |
| Years active | 1978–present |
| Labels | Virgin |
| Associated acts | Moti Special, Enigma, Sandra, Trance Atlantic Air Waves Project |
| Website | www.enigmaspace.com |
| Notable instruments | |
| Alchemist Merlin |
|
Michael Cretu (Romanian: Mihai Crețu pronounced [miˈhaj ˈkret͡su]; born 18 May 1957, Bucharest, Romania) is a Romanian musician. He is known also as Curly, MC or Curly M.C. because of his fair curled hair (creț means "curly" in Romanian). His peak musical activity was with the Enigma project, which was mainly based in Germany.
He worked with many musicians along his career. The first one to mention is his future wife Sandra Lauer (Sandra Cretu from marriage in 1988), musician Peter Cornelius, guitar player Manfred Thiers and Jens Gad, Frank Peterson, David Fairstein, D.J André Tanneberger (from the A.T.B. Music Poject), Peter Ries, Bernt Moehrle, singer Ruth-Ann Boyle & Andru Donalds, latter one produced the single Mishale in 1995.
In 2002, Crocodile-Music, Cretu's management company stated 100 million Cretu-produced records had been sold worldwide.[1] By the year 2008, Michael Cretu's Enigma project had sold over 50 million studio albums according to his official site.[citation needed]
He owns A.R.T. Studios, a recording studio facility located near the resort on the Balearic Islands, where he lived with his wife and their two teenagers, Nikita and Sebastian born in 1995. He and Sandra divorced in 2007. Cretu has been reported as living in Germany since that time.
Contents |
Studies[link]
Cretu studied music at the Dinu Lipatti (Musical High School) former #2 Highschool in Bucharest (in 1965) and later on he continued his studies at the Frankfurt Conservatory in West Germany from 1975 to 1978. He graduated and has a title in music.
Cretu met his future wife, Sandra Lauer, when he was playing keyboards on the band Arabesque’s live touring show. In collaboration with several Hubert Kah band members, he co-wrote and produced several successful albums and singles for her, beginning with the song "Maria Magdalena" which topped the charts in 21 countries. The band was simply called Sandra, although Sandra's full name is now often used for filing and identification purposes. Cretu married her on 7 January 1988. They have twins named Nikita and Sebastian, who were born in July 1995. Michael and Sandra divorced in November 2007, citing "personal and professional differences".[2]
Background[link]
Cretu was born to a Romanian father and an Austrian mother in Romania, Iasi. His uncle, Ion Voicu, a Romanian violin-player and former director of the Bucharest Philarmonic, told Michael's parents that he had talent in music and as such, he studied classical music at Liceul Nr. 2 in Bucharest in 1965 and in Paris, France, in 1968.[3] He later attended the Academy of Music in Frankfurt, Germany, from 1975 to 1978, attaining a degree in music. Cretu was taken on as a keyboard player and producer for Frank Farian.[citation needed]
In the 1980s, Cretu took over production for the pop quartet Hubert Kah and started writing songs with the band leader Hubert Kemmler, achieving a number of hits. Among his other work, Cretu was also one of the producers of Mike Oldfield's 1987 album Islands and the producer of Peter Schilling's 1989 The Different Story (World of Lust and Crime) album.
In 1992 Cretu worked with Peter Cornelius on the Return to Innocence (album), to provide the guitar riffs.
For the third album, Cretu teamed up with Jens Gad to work together on Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi! and launched in 1999 a new trance project Trance Atlantic Airwaves and the album The Energy of Sound.
Another band of Cretu's was called Moti Special ("Cold Days, Hot Nights"), which Cretu produced and performed with in the mid-1980s.
He owns the A.R.T. Studios in Ibiza before moving to a new mansion in the Ibiza hills. His new house, near Sant Antoni de Portmany on the western coast of Ibiza, is a Moroccan-style mansion that was designed and built by Bernd Steber and Gunter Wagner in more than nine years. It also features a brand new, state-of-the-art recording studio. The Spanish High Court deemed the house to have been built illegally and in infringement of Spanish environmental regulations which led to the €18 million villa being razed in May 2009.[4]
Cretu as a solo artist[link]
Cretu's first solo release was the single Wild River in 1978. His first solo album was released in 1979 and was a double titled album: Ausgewählte Goldstücke as German-language release, and Moon, Light & Flowers as English-language release.
Cretu's second solo album, titled Legionaire, was released in 1983, also in English and German versions. This album had German-language lyrics and was sung by Michael. It was co-produced and supervised by Harald Steinhauer and mastered by Armand Volker.
Cretu's third solo album was titled Die Chinesische Mauer and was released in 1985. The literal English translation is The Chinese Wall. Like his previous album, this had German-language lyrics, was sung by Michael, co-produced by Armand Volker and Michael Cretu. This album was also released as a separate album with English-language lyrics and a different track listing under the name The Invisible Man. Several of the tracks on The Invisible Man were edited slightly and, therefore, was different length than the German-language versions on Die Chinesische Mauer. This featured the song "Samurai," which became a minor hit.
Among his early successful works it is worth mentioning Mike Oldfield's 1987 album entitled Islands.
The Enigma project[link]
Main article: Enigma (musical project)
After Cretu's marriage to Sandra in 1988, he had an idea for a musical new-age dance project under the name of Enigma, presented by Fairstein. Cretu worked with Frank Peterson and David Fairstein to create their ground-breaking first single "Sadeness (Part I)", which became a surprise hit. MCMXC a.D., the album, which was released in 1990, was hugely successful.
MCMXC a.D. stayed on the charts for 282 weeks on European charts and dropped off two years after the second album, The Cross of Changes, was released in 1993. Prior to this, Frank Peterson had some disagreements with Cretu and he left the project in 1991. Cretu changed Enigma's direction from Gregorian chants to tribal chants for its second album, and this led to the single "Return to Innocence" with Peter Cornelius, which became a worldwide hit.
Cretu was approached by Paramount Pictures to write the soundtrack of the movie Sliver and he came up with another 1993 single "Carly's Song" after the main female character's name.
In 1996 Enigma's third album Le Roi est mort, vive le Roi! was released. Stylistically, it sounded like a combination of the first and second albums, but it failed to achieve the same level of success.
In 1999 Cretu steered the project in another direction by using samples of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana for the fourth album The Screen Behind the Mirror, released in 2000. Andru Donalds and Ruth-Ann Boyle first appeared as features on this Enigma project. Although Jens Gad had been working with Cretu on the earlier albums, this was the first time that he had been given actual credits.
Deciding that the first chapter for Enigma was closed under the Virgin Records label, Cretu releases a set of compilations: Love Sensuality Devotion: The Greatest Hits and Love Sensuality Devotion: The Remix Collection that include credits to ATB.
He had continued the Enigma project, and in 2003 he came up with Voyageur album. Familiar sounds of the Shakuhachi flute, tribal, or Gregorian chants were replaced with more commercially-friendly tunes and beat. In March 2006, a new single called "Hello and Welcome" was released in anticipation of another album.
A posteriori is the sixth Enigma studio album. It was released on 22 September 2006.
Seven Lives Many Faces became the seventh Enigma studio album. It was released on 19 September 2008 and has not received yet a critical or positive review from the musical scene or the printed media in Europe. This is because of the musical genre of Enigma that developed as many DJs tried to go beyond Enigma's influences.
Discography[link]
Solo albums[link]
- 1979 – Ausgewählte Goldstücke (English edition: Moon, Light & Flowers)
- 1983 – Legionäre (English edition: Legionnaires)
- 1985 – Die Chinesische Mauer (English edition: The Invisible Man)
Solo singles[link]
- 1978 - "Shadows Over My Head"
- 1978 - "Wild River"
- 1979 - "Moonlight Flower"
- 1983 - "Total Normal"
- 1983 - "Zeitlose Reise"
- 1983 - "Der Planet Der Verlorenen Zeit"
- 1983 - "Today, Today"
- 1984 - "Schwarzer Engel"
- 1985 - "Carte Blanche"
- 1985 - "Die Chinesische Mauer"
- 1985 - "Samurai" (German Version)"
- 1985 - "Samurai (Did You Ever Dream)" (English Version) [#3 Austria, #2 Switzerland, #4 Sweden, #1 Greece, #4 Italy, #12 Germany]
- 1985 - "Silver Water"
- 1986 - "Gambit"
- 1987 - "School's Out" (Cretu & Thiers)
- 1987 - "When Love Is The Missing Word" (Cretu & Thiers)
- 1988 - "Don't Say You Love Me (Let Me Feel It)" (Cretu & Thiers)
- 1992 - "Rettungsringe sterben aus" (Cretu & Peter Cornelius)
- 1992 - "Nur die Hoffnung nicht"(Cretu & Peter Cornelius)
- 1993 - "Captain Right" (Cretu & Thiers)
Collaborations / Productions[link]
- 1980 – Topaz: "Topaz"
- 1981 – Peter Kent "Happy Weekend"
- 1982 – Severine
- 1983 – Mireille Mathieu; "Ein Neuer Morgen"
- 1983 – Mary and Gordy
- 1983 – Peter Cornelius; "Fata Morgana"
- 1984 – Hubert Kah; "Goldene Zeiten"
- 1986 – Hubert Kah; "Tensongs"
- 1985 – Moti Special: Motivation
- 1987 – Mike Oldfield: Islands
- 1987 – Inker & Hamilton: Dancing Into Danger
- 1987 – Cretu And Thiers: School's Out
- 1988 – Cretu and Thiers: Belle Epoque
- 1989 – Hubert Kah; "Sound of My Heart"
- 1989 – Peter Schilling; The Different Story (World of Lust and Crime)
- 1992 – Peter Cornelius and Cretu: Peter Cornelius and Cretu
- 1993 – Maggie Reilly ; "Midnight Sun"
- 1998 – Trance Atlantic Air Waves Project The Energy of Sound
- 1999 – Andru Donalds; "Snowin' Under My Skin"
- 2001 – Andru Donalds; "Let's Talk About It"
- 2007 – Ruth-Ann Boyle; "What About Us"
Sandra[link]
Michael Cretu worked as writer, producer and background vocalist for Sandra's albums:
- 1985: The Long Play [#12 Germany, #8 Norway, #2 Sweden, #18 Austria, #4 Switzerland]
- 1986: Mirrors [#16 Germany, #14 Norway, #40 Sweden, #13 Switzerland]
- 1987: Ten On One [#19 Germany, #28 Austria, #14 Switzerland]
- 1988: Into a Secret Land [#14 Germany, #18 Norway, #22 Sweden, #13 Austria, #9 Switzerland]
- 1988: Everlasting Love
- 1990: Paintings in Yellow [#4 Germany #30 Sweden, #14 Austria, #8 Switzerland]
- 1992: Close to Seven [#7 Germany, #20 Norway, #27 Sweden, #26 Austria, #13 Switzerland]
- 1992: 18 Greatest Hits [#10 Germany, #7 France, #36 Sweden, #27 Switzerland #1 Finland]
- 1995: Fading Shades [#42 Germany, #37 Switzerland]
- 1999: My Favourites [#16 Germany, #15 Norway, #43 Switzerland]
- 2002: The Wheel of Time [#8 Germany, #63 Austria, #68 Switzerland]
- 2007: The Art of Love [#16 Germany, #26 Poland, #88 Switzerland, #159 France]
See also[link]
- Sandra, singer and wife (1988–2007).
- Enigma music project.
- Moti Special
- Trance Atlantic Air Waves New Age, or trance music project, in collaboration with German DJ ATB.
References[link]
- ^ "ENIGMA : Biographie - english Biography / Crocodile-Music Management & Publishing". Crocodile-music.de. 2008-09-19. http://www.crocodile-music.de/enigma/index.php?cat=bio&detail=2. Retrieved 2012-03-31.
- ^ Michael Cretu on Myspace
- ^ (Romanian)"Enigma Michael Creţu: întalnire cu omul invizibil" , Evenimentul Zilei, 14 October 2008
- ^ "Ibiza: Pop-Produzent Cretu muss seine Villa abreißen". Der Spiegel. 2009-05-10. http://www.spiegel.de/reise/europa/0,1518,623917,00.html. Retrieved 2009-05-11.
External links[link]
 |
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Michael Cretu |
- The Official Enigma website (in German)
- The Official Enigma website (international)
- Michael Cretu at the Internet Movie Database
- EnigmaMusic.com (fan site)
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Cretu, Michael |
| Alternative names | Curly M.C. |
| Short description | Musician |
| Date of birth | 18 May 1957 |
| Place of birth | Bucharest, Romania |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
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This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
