![]() The unwritten and unspoken code emphasised frugality, loyalty, martial arts mastery, and honor unto death.īut the code also evolved to stress heroic bravery, fierce family pride, and selfless, at times senseless devotion of master and man. The Samurai followed a set of rules that came to be known as bushidō – literally ‘the way of the warrior’. ![]() Samurai were the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. The traditions of the Samurai have developed over more than a millennium and are deep routed in Japanese society. The samurai originated in the Heian period dating back to 710 and in particular campaigns to subdue the native Emirishi in the Tohuku region of the northern part of Honshu. The Edo period had seen the feudal military government the Tokugawa Shogunate rule Japan for more than 250 years, and the establishment of a rigid social caste system that would see the samurai placed at the top.īut Edo, or modern Tokyo, was about to fall and Emperor Meiji was to sweep to power, spelling the beginning of the end for the samurai, or bushi as they were also known. ![]() Thought to have been taken in the 1860s, the portraits were made at a time when of great change in terms of rule for Japan. Two of the images depict a group taking part in a ceremonial suicide known as harakiri, part of the warrior code which saw samurai disemboweled to fall with honor rather than be defeated by their enemy The samurai was the highest social caste until it was abolished as part of the Meiji reforms in the late 19th centuryīut almost all are clutching the samurai‘s most famous, and perhaps most deadly, weapon – the iconic samurai sword. Armed and deadly: These samurai are both seen clutching katana, or swords.
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