Prologue

Bushido in the Edo period and the end of the samurai due to the Meiji Restoration

Edo Period Samurai and Bushido

From the Sengoku period to the bakufu-han system

The Sengoku period ended with the unification of the country by Tokugawa Ieyasu.
Ieyasu established a new shogunate in Edo (present-day Tokyo).
This is called the Edo shogunate.
The period when the Edo shogunate ruled is called the “Edo period” (1603 to 1868).

The Edo shogunate controlled the feudal lords (daimyo) who ruled over different regions.
The governing system of the Edo period is called the “Bakufu-Han system”.
The Bakufu-Han system was a centralized system with the shogun at the top, and the domains (regions ruled by daimyo) were ruled by daimyo.
In other words, the idea is that daimyo could rule their domains freely, but the politics of the whole country was done by the shogunate.
The Bakufu-Han system was established by policies such as the “Battle of Sekigahara”, and the “Land Assignment Letter” (a letter issued by the shogunate to officially define the boundaries of the domains for daimyo).

The fixation of status as a samurai and the emergence of “Bushido”

In the Edo period, there were also changes in the samurai.
One of them was the fixation of their position as a samurai.

In the Sengoku period, the status of the samurai was fluid and not fixed.
There were cases where people changed from samurai to merchants or peasants, or wealthy farmers became samurai.
However, in the Edo period, it was not possible to change one’s status.

Along with this solidification of status, the concept of “Bushido” spread.
Bushido is the unique ethical sense and ideology that the samurai class had.
They respected loyalty, bravery, sacrifice, faithfulness, integrity, courtesy, honor, and simplicity.
A typical way of thinking is “A samurai does not serve two lords”.
This means that one does not serve multiple lords, but swears loyalty to one lord.

Why did this way of thinking spread?
In fact, before the Edo period, there was no such thing as the so-called “Bushido” way of thinking.
Of course, even then there were people who valued righteousness or loyalty, but that was only their personal values.
At that time, it was normal to “decide who to side with depending on the situation” or “switch to someone who values oneself highly”.
For example, a person named “Todo Takatora” changed his lord seven times in his lifetime.

In the early Edo period, there were still remnants of the Sengoku period, and it was not uncommon for vassals to abandon their status and become ronin (samurai without a lord) if they became estranged from their lord.
And if a ronin was an excellent person, he might be invited by another feudal lord with “please come to our house”.
In that case, there might be trouble between the original lord’s household and the new lord’s household.

One example of this is a famous general named Goto Matabei.
He became a ronin after having a conflict with his lord Kuroda Nagamasa, but soon received an offer of employment from the neighboring Hosokawa clan.
However, his former lord Kuroda Nagamasa opposed this move.
The Kuroda and Hosokawa clans quarreled and were on the verge of war.
At that time, the shogunate intervened and resolved the situation.

In addition, some people who became ronin could not find a new job and became bandits.
The free movement of samurai caused social unrest, and the shogunate and feudal lords tried to do something about it.
The idea of “Bushido” was devised for this purpose.

“Bushido” started as an artificial concept created by the upper class to make it easier to control the samurai.

Meiji Restoration

The Fall of the Edo Shogunate and the Birth of the Meiji Government

The Edo shogunate was a powerful regime that lasted for 265 years, but it collapsed due to the pressure of the Western powers and the outdated governance system.

After events such as the Opium War (1840-1842) and Perry’s visit (1853-1854), the samurai who were dissatisfied with the shogunate began to plot to overthrow it.

They went through twists and turns and succeeded in creating a modern government based on powerful domains such as Satsuma, Choshu, Tosa, and Saga.
This series of revolutionary actions was called the “Meiji Restoration”, and the government that was established at this time was the Meiji government.

In many modernization processes such as the French Revolution (1789-1799), the masses often become the driving force.
However, the people who formed the core of Japan’s “Meiji Restoration” were samurai, a privileged class.
In fact, the general public was not very involved in the “Meiji Restoration”.
This is one of the characteristics of the “Meiji Restoration”.

The end of samurai due to the “Kaihou rei(Liberation Order)”

The Meiji government rapidly promoted Japan’s modernization.

Along with this process, an order called kaihou rei was issued,which abolished the class system.
The feudal lords and court nobles were given a class called kazoku, but everyone else became equal citizens.
At this time, the samurai became commoners like farmers and merchants.
The samurai, who had lasted for more than 1000 years since their emergence, disappeared in the course of modernization.

Epilogue