: Bushido_boy Thread :

[MorphRC]

[font="Times"][color=blue][b]Daimyo[/b][/color][/font]

[b]Daimyo[/b] (Japanese, “great holders of private land”), feudal lords who dominated Japan from the 12th to the 19th century. They arose as leaders of the samurai (warrior) class, who during the peaceful Heian period (790-1185) administered provincial estates for the civil nobility residing in the capital Kyoto. In 1192 a member of this class, Minamoto Yoritomo, established a military dictatorship as shogun. He and his successors, the Hojo and the Ashikaga shoguns, rewarded followers with lucrative administrative rights over noble estates, creating the daimyo families. All were potential rivals for power unless checked by central authority. When this collapsed in the 15th and 16th centuries, the great daimyo destroyed each other and were replaced by sengoku (Warring State) daimyo, who feuded constantly and actually owned their lands, which they ruled from castles. Unity was finally restored by the daimyo leader Oda Nobunaga and his successors Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu, who founded the Tokugawa shogunate in 1603. Under the Tokugawa there were between 200 and 300 daimyo families, all virtually autonomous within their own estates but subordinated to the shogun and obliged to leave their families as hostages in Edo (Tokyo) and to attend him regularly there. The daimyo were officially defined as lords whose lands yielded over 10,000 koku (1,800,000 litres) of rice annually. The daimyo class was abolished in 1871, after the fall of the shogunate, and its members absorbed into a new pensioned nobility.

Microsoft Encarta 2004 Standard - Daimyo CD-ROM
© 1993-2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

[MorphRC]

[font="Times"][color=green][b]Traditional Samurai Portrait Desktops[/b][/color][/font]

[url="http://bushido-boy.deviantart.com/"]Bushido-Boy Source[/url]

[url="http://www.deviantart.com/view/8879841/"]ANAYAMA BEISETSU - 16th Century CE[/url]

[url="http://www.deviantart.com/view/8879627/"]Amako Tsunehisa - 15th/16th Century CE[/url]

[MorphRC]

[color=green][font="Times"][b]Traditional Samurai Portrait Desktops II[/b][/color][/font]

[url="http://www.deviantart.com/view/8821942/"]Oda Nobunaga - 16th Century CE[/url]

[url="http://www.deviantart.com/view/8768083/"]Kuroda Yoshitaka - 16th / 17th Century CE[/url]

[MorphRC]

[color=blue][font="Times"][b]Satsuma Rebellion[/b][/color][/font]

[b]Satsuma Rebellion[/b], unsuccessful samurai uprising on the island of Kyushu in 1877 against the Japanese government, led by Saigo Takamori. The Meiji Restoration of 1868, which overthrew the Tokugowa shoguns and ended the Edo period, had brought to power a group of young radicals who disagreed among themselves about how far Japan should go in abandoning feudal traditions and adopting Western institutions. Saigo and other traditionalists left the government in 1873 when their colleagues, returning from the Iwakura Mission to the West, overruled their plans to invade Korea. Saigo retired to Kagoshima, the capital of his native province of Satsuma on the south-western island of Kyushu, where he opened a samurai training school. Other samurai traditionalist followers joined him and did likewise, creating centres of opposition to the reforming Meiji regime.

The Satsuma Rebellion—also known as the Seinan Senso (South-Western War)—was the last and biggest of several uprisings by conservative samurai opposed to the abolition of the feudal provinces (including Satsuma), and the loss of their privileges brought about by decree in 1876, including the loss of the right to bear swords, central to the samurai ethic of bushido. In January 1877 some of Saigo’s pupils attacked a government arsenal, without his knowledge, and he felt compelled to support them. Some 60,000 troops and 11 warships were sent to put down the 40,000 rebels, who fought along the western coast of Kyushu until September, when they retreated to Kagoshima. Saigo made little effort to topple the Meiji government or spread the rebellion beyond Kyushu, but his bitter denunciations of Meiji politicians (especially his former ally, Prime Minister Okubo Toshimichi) and his status as a Restoration hero presented a serious challenge to the new state’s authority. As the government forces attacked on September 24, Saigo killed himself (by hara-kiri) and the rebellion collapsed.

In 1878 Okubo Toshimichi was murdered by samurai avenging Saigo’s defeat, but the victory of the conscript army, using modern weapons, confirmed the government’s determination to continue modernizing Japan. Yet the authorities also used the events to promote traditional values through the schools, presenting Saigo as misguided but admirable. Saigo himself was further magnified by his death, which completed his enduring heroic legend. He was posthumously pardoned in 1891.

Microsoft Encarta 2004 Standard - Satsuma Rebellion [i]CD-ROM[/i]
© 1993-2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

[BeenaBobba]

Interesting. I enjoyed reading all of that. While I, as a Catholic, obviously do not agree with all of their beliefs and actions, I found your posts to be both interesting and informative.

God bless,

Jen

[MorphRC]

[quote name='BeenaBobba' date='Jul 17 2004, 11:04 PM'] Interesting. I enjoyed reading all of that. While I, as a Catholic, obviously do not agree with all of their beliefs and actions, I found your posts to be both interesting and informative.

God bless,

Jen [/quote]
Good. Glad you liked it

[MorphRC]

[color=red][font="Times"][b]The Samurai Creed[/b][/color][/font]

I have no parents; I make the Heavens and the Earth my parents.
I have no home; I make the Tan T'ien my home.
I have no divine power; I make honesty my Divine Power.
I have no means; I make Docility my means.
I have no magic power; I make personality my Magic Power.
I have neither life nor death; I make A Um my Life and Death.

I have no body; I make Stoicism my Body.
I have no eyes; I make The Flash of Lightning my eyes.
I have no ears; I make Sensibility my Ears.
I have no limbs; I make Promptitude my Limbs.
I have no laws; I make Self-Protection my Laws.

I have no strategy; I make the Right to Kill and the Right to Restore Life my Strategy.
I have no designs; I make Seizing the Opportunity by the Forelock my Designs.
I have no miracles; I make Righteous Laws my Miracle.
I have no principles; I make Adaptability to all circumstances my Principle.
I have no tactics; I make Emptiness and Fullness my Tactics.

I have no talent; I make Ready Wit my Talent.
I have no friends; I make my Mind my Friend.
I have no enemy; I make Incautiousness my Enemy.
I have no armour; I make Benevolence my Armour.
I have no castle; I make Immovable Mind my Castle.
I have no sword; I make No Mind my Sword.

[b]Source:[/b] [url="http://mcel.pacificu.edu/as/students/bushido/bcreed.html"]Pacificu.Edu - The Samurai Creed[/url]

[MorphRC]

[color=blue][font="Times"][b]BUSHIDO AFTER THE SAMURAI[/b][/color][/font]

[img]http://mcel.pacificu.edu/as/students/bushido/lone.gif[/img]

After the time of the samurai, Japan went through many changes. However, Bushido values could still be seen. During W.W.II, Japanese suicide pilots, known as kamikaze, looked to the samurai and Bushido for their inspiration. The word kamikaze means "divine winds." During the 11th century when the Mongols were trying to invade Japan a series of storms stopped their invasion. These were thought to be divine winds which were sent by the gods to save Japan. The Japanese again believed that these pilots were sent to save Japan. Kamikaze pilots had no fear of death. Their loyalty to their country made them willing to die.


After W.W.II, the Japanese army was disbanded. A new type of warrior evolved: those who wanted modernization and industrialization. Huge companies called zaibatsu formed. They were more like families rather than companies. Loyalty for one's company and company name was great. Even today within these companies workers have great respect for their bosses and for the heads of the companies. To be unjust or commit a misdeed would bring shame to their company and themselves. Today Japanese have a term, "Business is War."

[img]http://mcel.pacificu.edu/as/students/bushido/sam9.gif[/img]

Bushido values can still be seen today in Japan. The Japanese have the utmost respect and loyalty to their country, and they would not do anything to bring shame upon their family.

Today the two most popular religions in Japan are Buddhism and Shintoism. Both were great influences on Bushido. Zen Buddhism which was also an origin of Bushido, is a doctrine followed by many today.

[b]Source:[/b] [url="http://mcel.pacificu.edu/as/students/bushido/b2day.html"]Pacificu.Edu - Bushido After The Samurai[/url]

[MorphRC]

[font="Times"][color=blue][b]Knights and Samurai - Brothers in Arms? by [i]Stephen Turnbull[/i][/b][/color][/font]

In my book Men-at-Arms 105: The Mongols I made the comment that, because of the vast extent of the Mongol conquests, the Teutonic Knights of Germany and the samurai of Japan had in fact fought a common enemy, even though it was to be three more centuries before the two martial societies became aware of each other's existence.

This epic first meeting between the cultures that had produced knights and samurai happened in 1543, when a Portuguese ship ran aground off the Japanese island of Tanegashima. The crew were saved, along with a number of arquebuses, the first ever seen in Japan. The arrival of these weapons is commonly regarded as having sparked a military revolution in Japan, and it is interesting to note that by this time Europe was already going through a military revolution of its own, during which the introduction of firearms was an important factor in bringing about the demise of the mounted knight. On opposite sides of the world, and over several centuries, two distinctive military cultures therefore developed with no contact between them until both traditions were nearly over.

The two societies of samurai and knight naturally show many cultural differences, but there are also many fascinating similarities and parallels. Why should this be? Was there something about being an aristocratic warrior that transcended localised culture and led to something universal? Were the ideals of chivalry and bushido really the same, and when the two traditions faced similar challenges from developments in military technology, did the innovations have the same impact and elicit the same response?

[url="http://www.ospreysamurai.com/knights.html"]: Full Text :[/url]

[cmotherofpirl]

I just watched a program on this yesterday on the IH channel.

Very interesting

[MorphRC]

[color=blue][font="Times"][b]Samurai Military Communications by [i]Stephen Turnbull[/i][/b][/color][/font]

[b]S[/b]amurai military communications in Japan developed significantly in the 15th to 17th centuries and involved verbal, visual and audible signals, extending from one-to-one spoken messages through battlefield communications to province-wide beacon systems.

During Japan's Sengoku Jidai (Period of Warring States) between 1467 and 1615 armies increased greatly in size, and tactical organisation often involved liaison between substantial, separate contingents. With the introduction of disciplined formations, improved command structures and long-term service for the ashigaru (foot soldiers), armies also became better organised. A tremendous boost was given to this trend by the introduction of firearms from Europe in 1543. From about 1550 onwards most ashigaru began to be organised into specialised weapon units of the three arms of arquebus, bow and long spear, rather than the old amorphous mass of spearmen and archers. Good battlefield communications systems therefore became a vital necessity, and in this article I shall describe how personal communications delivered by mounted messengers and scouts, visual communications using beacons and flags, and audible devices such as drums and conch-shell trumpets all played their part.

[url="http://www.ospreysamurai.com/communications.html#communications"]: Full Text :[/url]

[MorphRC]

[quote name='cmotherofpirl' date='Jul 18 2004, 12:49 AM'] I just watched a program on this yesterday on the IH channel.

Very interesting [/quote]
Kool

[MorphRC]

[color=blue][font="Times"][b]The samurai way of death by [i]Stephen Turnbull[/i][/b][/color][/font]

[b]Suicide and the samurai[/b]

Seppuku is a more correct expression for an act of suicide performed by the process of cutting open the abdomen. Seppuku is better known in the West as hara kiri (belly-cutting), and is a concept so alien to the European tradition that it is one of the few words from the world of the samurai to have entered foreign languages without a need for translation. Seppuku was commonly performed using a dagger. It could take place with preparation and ritual in the privacy of one’s home, or speedily in a quiet corner of a battlefield while one’s comrades kept the enemy at bay.

In the world of the warrior, seppuku was a deed of bravery that was admirable in a samurai who knew he was defeated, disgraced, or mortally wounded. It meant that he could end his days with his transgressions wiped away and with his reputation not merely intact but actually enhanced. The cutting of the abdomen released the samurai’s spirit in the most dramatic fashion, but it was an extremely painful and unpleasant way to die, and sometimes the samurai who was performing the act asked a loyal comrade to cut off his head at the moment of agony.

The earliest reference to seppuku occurs in Hogen Monogatari, which deals with the conflicts in which the Taira and the Minamoto were involved in 1156. The mention of the fact that a samurai called Uno Chikaharu and his followers were captured so quickly that ‘they did not have time to draw their swords or cut their bellies’ is so matter-of-fact that it implies that the practice was already commonplace, at least among the warriors from eastern Japan.

The first named individual to commit seppuku in the war chronicles was the celebrated archer Minamoto Tametomo, who committed suicide in this way as boatloads of Taira samurai approached his island of exile. The first recorded account of seppuku after certain defeat in a battle that was still going on is that of Minamoto Yorimasa in the battle of Uji in 1180. His suicide was undertaken with such finesse that it was to provide a model for noble and heroic hara kiri for centuries to come. While his sons held off the enemy, Yorimasa retired to the seclusion of the beautiful Byodo-In temple. He then wrote a poem on the back of his war fan, which read:

[i]Like a fossil tree
From which we gather no flowers
Sad has been my life
Fated no fruit to produce.[/i]

Minamoto Yorimasa’s sequence of poem and suicide was followed many times in later history. After the battle of Yamazaki in 1582 Akechi Mitsutoshi performed the unprecedented act of committing seppuku and writing a poem on the door with the blood from his abdomen, using a brush. Minamoto Yorimasa’s classic act of seppuku was performed without the aid of a kaishaku, or second, to deliver a merciful blow on to his neck at the moment of agony. This was a practice that become more frequent, and much more acceptable, as the years went by, but it was never a popular duty, as Yamamoto Tsunetomo tells us:

[i]From ages past it has been considered ill-omened by samurai to be requested as kaishaku. The reason for this is that one gains no fame even if the job is well done. And if by chance one should blunder, it becomes a lifetime disgrace.[/i]

Yamamoto Tsunetomo even gives a helpful tip concerning the performance of this most unpleasant of duties:

[i]In the practice of past times, there were instances when the head flew off. It was said that it was best to cut leaving a little skin remaining so that it did not fly off in the direction of the verifying officials. However, at present it is best to cut clean through.[/i]

As the description earlier in this book of the mass suicide by drowning at Dan no Ura shows, seppuku was not the only way of ending a samurai’s life, and may have been a tradition espoused only by eastern Japan until after the time of the Gempei War. No member of the Taira family is recorded as having committed seppuku. In other cases of alternative suicide the choice of how to end one’s life was dictated by circumstances. When Imai Kanehira committed suicide at the battle of Awazu in 1184 he was surrounded by enemies, so he killed himself quickly by jumping head first from his horse with his sword in his mouth.

[url="http://www.ospreysamurai.com/samurai_death02.htm"]: Full Text :[/url]

[MorphRC]

[font="Times"][color=red][b]The Fall Of The Takeda Clan by Joseph Ryan [/b][/color][/font]

In the secluded, mountainous province of Kai, the Takeda clan ruled. They were well governed and powerful, and their cavalry charge was known throughout Japan. The ruler at the time was Takeda Shingen. In 1572 he invaded a nearby province called Mikawa, which was governed by Tokugawa Ieyasu. Ieyasu was thereby defeated at Mikata-ga-hara. Shingen continued his campaign but it was cut short by his death. His son, Takeda Katsuyori, inherited his father's throne (Turnbull 9-10). These two men, Shingen and Katsuyori, were the last rulers of their clan. What was the most influential reason for the fall of the Takeda clan?

In 1546, Takeda Katsuyori was born. His mother was the daughter of Suwa Yorishige, a man who Shingen had killed. Yorishige's daughter became one of Shingen's wives, even though she also happened to be his niece. Shingen loved her so much, that Katsuyori became his favorite son. Katsuyori became successor, only after his older brother's death. Katsuyori also had fought at Mikata-ga-hara and was a good leader. (Turnbull 12).

Katsuyori wanted to finish his father's workings in Mikawa against the Tokugawa, and follow what he had done (Turnbull 10, 28). This is where the spark of the fire that would burn the clan was wrought. He wanted to equal his father and his father's status and achievements prodded him to attempt it at all costs (10, 28). Katsuyori left Kai in 1575 and planned to attack the Tokugawa capital: Okazaki. Katsuyori had found a traitor within its walls who was willing to let them take the castle and help. Just as Katsuyori neared the outskirts of the province, he heard that Oga Yashiro, the traitor, was decapitated.

Without such help, Katsuyori would have been unable to take the castle. His army's size was not great enough. Katsuyori didn't want to leave the province without some sort of conquest. He was afraid that it would ruin the Takeda name and shame him (Turnbull 10, 28-29). This led him further down the road of the failure of his clan.

[color=gray][b]Continued...[/b][/color]

[MorphRC]

He attacked two minor castles, Ushikubo and Nirengi, and worked his way to Yoshida castle. Ieyasu himself was inside, and the castle held. Katsuyori was afraid for his clan's sake, and his own name's sake. He couldn't leave without taking castles and defeating the Tokugawa, as his father had done (Turnbull 10, 28-29, 30-31). This is where the clan actually starts to decline. It began with Katsuyori's over-ambitiousness. Nagashino castle wasn't far away. It would be of good use to the Takeda clan. Katsuyori decided on taking it (Turnbull 10, 30-31).

Katsuyori attacked Nagashino and the castle withheld. There were 500 men inside the castle, led by Okudaira Sadamasa, and 15,000 outside, led by the heir to the Takeda clan, himself. The castle secretly got word to Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu. Katsuyori held a meeting with his generals to decide what to do. The older ones from Shingen's day voted for retreating, while the younger generals wanted to stay and fight (Turnbull 35-52). Katsuyori's decision would seal their fate, whether to stay safe and retreat, or try to stay and crush their oncoming enemies. Katsuyori sided with the generals who wished to stay and fight (Turnbull 48-52). This was another step in the wrong direction. The odds of defeating Nagashino castle were in Katsuyori's, and his numerically greater army's, favor, 30-1, yet he hadn't done so. Katsuyori wanted to fight the Oda and Tokugawa armies, because they were, first off, enemies. Secondly, the Tokugawa had been defeated 3 years earlier by his father. He would rather have fought and lost than have run (Turnbull 9,11, 48-49). While this seems to be honorable and on the pretenses of not being dishonored, it was against the odds that were placed against him winning to this army, twice his size. The opposing army had 38,000 men, while Katsuyori attacked with 15,000.

The generals, who had carried over from Shingen to Katsuyori, also switched their loyalty from Shingen to Katsuyori. They would follow their leader into a battle in which the outcome looked grim, and now, in retrospect, a battle that seemed suicidal (Turnbull 12, 13, 48-52). Losing such great members of the Takeda clan would eventually throw administration and military affairs into confusion and disarray. Tokugawa Ieyasu and Oda Nobunaga quickly came to help. A couple miles from Nagashino, they set up at the Shidarahara plain. They created a long fence, in three segments, behind which they were to place 3,000 arquebusiers (Turnbull 53, 60-61).

[color=gray][b]Continued...[/b][/color]