Lissajous-Samurai

Samurai (sä´´mri´) , knights of feudal Japan, retainers of the daimyo. This aristocratic warrior class arose during the 12th-century wars between the Taira and Minamoto clans and was consolidated in the Tokugawa period. Samurai were privileged to wear two swords, and at one time had the right to cut down any commoner who offended them. They cultivated the martial virtues, indifference to pain or death, and unfailing loyalty to their overlords (see bushido). Samurai were the dominant group in Japan, and the masterless samurai, the ronin, were a serious social problem. Under the Tokugawa shogunate (1603—1867), the samurai were removed from direct control of the villages, moved into the domain castle towns, and given government stipends. They were encouraged to take up bureaucratic posts. As a result, they lost a measure of their earlier martial skill. Dissatisfied samurai from the Choshu and Satsuma domains of W Japan were largely responsible for overthrowing the shogun in 1867. When feudalism was abolished after the Meiji restoration, some former samurai also took part in the Satsuma revolt under Takamori Saigo in 1877. As statesmen, soldiers, and businessmen, former samurai took the lead in building modern Japan.

daimyo

Daimyo-(di´myô) [Jap.,=great name], the great feudal landholders of Japan, the territorial barons as distinguished from the kuge, or court nobles. Great tax-free estates were built up from the 8th cent. onward by the alienation of lands to members of the imperial family who could not be supported at court. These estates were administered by territorial barons, or the daimyo. By the 12th cent. certain daimyo had become more powerful than the emperor himself. One, Yoritomo, became the first shogun and forcefully revised this situation by setting up a centralized feudal system. The power of the shogun disintegrated during the fierce civil wars of the 14th, 15th, and 16th cent., but in the early 17th cent. Ieyasu completed the reunification of Japan. The daimyo who supported Ieyasu before the decisive battle of Sekigahara (1600) became the fudai, or hereditary vassals, and his opponents were known as tozama, or outside lords. The tozama, who controlled the rich western fiefs, were generally viewed with suspicion by the shogun and were excluded from office in the central government. Ieyasu's descendants, the Tokugawa shoguns, deployed the daimyo and shifted their fiefs to retain power in the central government. In the 18th and early 19th cent. the daimyo, with their tastes for luxury and need for show in long stays at the court, were hard pressed by the limits of their incomes (in general, tax revenue from peasants and merchants in their fief). They tended to sink deeper and deeper in debt, especially to the merchants of Tokyo and Osaka, while their social and economic usefulness approached the vanishing point. The daimyo were advised by a council of elders consisting of their highest-ranking vassals. The civil and military administration of the daimyo domains were staffed by the samurai. Pressured by their advisers, who argued that the Tokugawa regime was too weak to counter the Western threat, tozama barons of W Japan (notably Satsuma, Choshu, Tosa, and Hizen) joined the imperial court to overthrow the shogun in the Meiji restoration (1868). Convinced of the need to establish a centralized administration, these daimyo returned their fiefs to the emperor (1869). By 1871 all daimyo had lost their feudal privileges.

Bushido-(bsh´ido, b´shido) [Jap.,=way of the warrior], code of honor and conduct of the Japanese nobility. Of ancient origin, it grew out of the old feudal bond that required unwavering loyalty on the part of the vassal. It borrowed heavily from Zen Buddhism and Confucianism. In its fullest expression the code emphasized loyalty to one's superior, personal honor, and the virtues of austerity, self-sacrifice, and indifference to pain. For the warrior, commerce and the profit motive were to be scorned. The code was first formulated in the Kamakura period (1185—1333) and put into writing in the 16th cent.; the term itself, however, did not come into use until the 17th cent. It became the standard of conduct for the daimyo and samurai under the Tokugawa shoguns and was taught in state schools as a prerequisite for government service. After the Meiji restoration (1868), it was the basis for the cult of emperor worship taught until 1945.

Ronin-(ro´nin) , in Japanese history, masterless samurai. Ronin were retainers who were deprived of their place in the usual loyalty patterns of Japanese feudalism. The daimyo they had served might have died, been exiled, or become so poor that the samurai had to abandon his lord. Ronin became farmers, monks, soldiers of fortune, or even bandits. In demand in times of war, they were often a burden on society in times of peace. At their best, as in the story of the 47 Ronin depicted by Chikamatsu in his popular drama, they are a model of loyalty and self-sacrifice exemplifying bushido. In modern Japan, the term ronin is often given to high-school graduates who, having failed to pass college entrance exams, are preparing for another opportunity.

Tokugawa-(to´´kgä´wä) , family that held the shogunate (see shogun) and controlled Japan from 1603 to 1867. Founded by Ieyasu, the Tokugawa regime was a centralized feudalism. The Tokugawa themselves held approximately one fourth of the country in strategically located parcels, which they governed directly through a feudal bureaucracy. To control the daimyo [lords], who owed allegiance to the Tokugawa but were permitted to rule their own domains, the Tokugawa invented the Sankin Kotai system which required the daimyo to maintain residence at the shogun's capital in Edo (Tokyo) and to leave hostages there during their absence. Travel was closely regulated, and officials called metsuke [censors] acted as a sort of secret police. During the Tokugawa period important economic and social changes occurred: improved farming methods and the growing of cash crops stimulated agricultural productivity; Osaka and Edo became centers of expanded interregional trade; urban life became more sophisticated; and literacy spread to almost half of the male population. Failure to deal with the crises caused by threats from the West and by domestic discontent, the last Tokugawa shogun resigned in 1867. After the Meiji restoration, the Tokugawa family was allowed to hold some land in Suruga, and when the new nobility was created its head was granted the rank of prince.

See C. Totman, Politics in the Tokugawa Bakufu, 1600—1843 (1967); K. W. Nakai, Shogunal Politics: Arai Hakuseki and the Premises of Tokugawa Rule (1988); T. C. Smith, Native Sources of Japanese Industrialization, 1750—1920 (1988).

Shogun-(sho´gun´´) , title of the feudal military administrator who from the 12th cent. to the 19th cent. was, as the emperor's military deputy, the actual ruler of Japan. The title itself, Sei-i-tai Shogun [barbarian-subduing generalissimo], dates back to 794 and originally meant commander of the imperial armies who led the campaigns against the Ainu in N Japan. The shogunate as a military administrative system was established by Yoritomo after 1185 and was known as the Bakufu [literally, army headquarters]. The imperial court at Kyoto continued to exist, but effective power and actual administration were in the hands of the hereditary shoguns. The shogunate was held in turn by the Minamoto family and their successors, with their capital at Kamakura (1192—1333); the Ashikaga, with their capital at Kyoto (1338—1597); and the Tokugawa, with their capital at Yedo (Tokyo) after 1603. The overthrow of the shogun in 1867 brought the Meiji restoration and the beginning of modern Japan. See daimyo.

See J. P. Mass and W. B. Hauer, The Bakufu in Japanese History (1985).

The term refers to both the events of 1868 that led to the "restoration" of power to the emperor and the entire period of revolutionary changes that coincided with the Meiji emperor's reign (1868—1912). The power of the Tokugawa shogunate, weakened by debt and internal division, had declined, and much opposition had built up in the early 19th cent. The intrusion of Western powers, particularly the Americans under Admiral Matthew C. Perry, precipitated further discontent. Under pressure, the Tokugawa shogunate submitted (1854) to foreign demands and signed treaties that ended Japan's isolation. The powerful Choshu and Satsuma domains of W Japan tried to resist the foreigners on their own and were defeated (1863). These domains, excluded from the Tokugawa governing councils because of their status as tozama, or outside daimyo, then demanded creation of a new government loyal to the emperor to expel the foreigners. In Jan., 1868, samurai from these domains, with the support of anti-Tokugawa court nobles, succeeded in a palace coup that abolished the shogunate and "returned" power to the emperor. The court was moved from Kyoto to Tokyo, where a centralized administration was created. The new Meiji government moved quickly to discard the feudal system and launch a series of reforms that profoundly changed Japanese society. These reform programs–administrative, economic, social, legal, educational, and military–were carried out under the slogan "fukoku Kyohei" (enrich the country and strengthen the military). The government adopted many policies designed to create a modern economy and society. Students were sent to Europe and the United States to study modern science and technology, while foreign experts were hired to help establish factories and educational institutions. In 1889 the Meiji Constitution was adopted. In the late Meiji years, Japan won the Sino—Japanese war in 1895, defeated Russia in 1905, abolished the treaties with the West, and became a world power.

See K. B. Pyle, The New Generation in Meiji Japan (1969); W. G. Beasley, The Meiji Restoration (1972); C. Gluck, Japan's Modern Myths: Ideology in the Late Meiji Period (1985); M. Umegaki, After the Restoration: The Beginning of Japan's Modern State (1988).