Samurai photo experience | Esperanto Kyoto

Samurai is a general term for the Bushi. In the past, a senior Bushi who escorted a nobleman.

They were responsible for clerical and miscellaneous work, personal guardianship of senior nobles, security of the court, capture of bandits, and suppression of civil wars, and had the role of secretaries, butlers, and police officers in the modern sense of the word, serving senior nobles.

In the Heian period, it was used exclusively in the sense of serving at the side of a nobleman. From the Kamakura period, a clear definition of samurai began to emerge, and over time, such as during the Muromachi and Azuchi-Momoyama periods, a clearer status and distinction began to emerge. During the Edo period, the distinction between Bushi and townspeople or farmers was further clarified, and the boundary between the definitions of “Samurai” and “Bushi” became blurred.

“Samurai” is a relatively new word form that appeared in the 16th century. The word “Samurai” was first identified in English in 1727.

Samurai are guided by the unwritten code of bushido (bushido is a code of conduct that is not in written form). ushido developed in the Kamakura period (late 12th century). During the Edo period (17th century to mid-19th century), it was a moral code of the warrior class, backed by Confucian, Buddhist, and Shinto ideas. They value justice, courage, humanity, compassion, courtesy, integrity, honor, loyalty, and self-discipline.

From an early age, warriors are taught to be loyal to their lord, to worship their ancestors, and to be filial to their parents. By training courage, which is an important element of Bushido,
Cultivate a spirit of perseverance that does not complain about any matter.
Accept inevitable destiny calmly.
When faced with danger or calamity, deal with it calmly.
They were taught to make the wise decision to live when they should live and to die when they should die.

During the 260 years of the Edo period (1603-1867), bushido was gradually refined into the spirit of bushido, and even among the common people, there were those who were influenced by the samurai way of life. Kindness and compassion for the weak and defeated were especially admired as virtues of the samurai, and the samurai became a beautiful ideal for the entire nation. The samurai set a moral example with their own bodies, and bushido, the code of conduct for the samurai class, was accepted by the common people and eventually became the code of conduct for the Japanese people as a whole.