SAMURAI      ACADEMY

It's not unusual for Japanese to be described as 'samurai'.
But how did the poeple of Japan in general come to be associated with samurai warriors?
Let's try to unravel this mystery by taking a look at Japanese history.

The word 'samurai' is derived from the word 'saburau',which means 'to serve'.
It's believed that the forerunners of the samurai were men
who served the nobility as guards,roughly 1,000 years ago.

At the end of the 12th century,
Minamoto no Yoritomo established the Kamakura shogunate,
and the reign of the samurai began.

During the age of civil war in the 16th century,
samurai warriors fought and died in the battles for land expansion and power.
A series of superstar warlords emerged.
It was an era when military strength was the key to gaining political power.

The beginning of the 17th century opened a stunning new chapter in the history of the samurai.
The Edo shogunate was established in the city of ancient city of Edo (present day Tokyo),
and thereafter, would establish a peaceful period throughout Japan lasting 250 years.
Fighters by trade, the samurai had no choice but to embark on a completely different way of life.


During the Edo period,the shogunate promoted
the teachings of Chu Hsi Confucianism,a school of Chinese philosophy.
And the samurai incorporated these ideas into everyday life.
A strong spiritual backbone became the hallmark of samurai values.

The advent of the Meiji era in the late 19th century
brought an end to the age of the samurai,
but their spirit remained the basis of Japanese moral values.

Educator Inazo Nitobe,in his book,Bushido:The Soul of Japan,
described the spirit of the samurai, or in detail.
To quote just one sentence:
'Unformulated,Bushido was and still is the animating spirit,the motor force of our country.'」

Even in contemporary Japan,people with high aspirations
who adhere unwaveringly to their principles are sometimes referred to as samurai.
In that sence,the samurai values continue to be the soul of Japan.