The Samurai: Part 2 - Battles

If the previous entry was about who the samurai were, this is about who they fought, why they fought them and if they managed to live or die in the process. The samurai fought on their home turf amongst themselves or invaders, as well as on the Asian mainland, having somewhat mixed results along the way. While you might think of the samurai as some indomitable fighting force, you'll find that their win/loss record would plant them somewhere in the middle table in some sort of medieval fighting league.

In battles with Korea, after the Christians came and
shared some of their technology, Samurai had guns.
Samurai with guns! What the heck is that?!

The first battles for the samurai were against the Emishi, a civilization of people in northeastern Japan that were known for being hairier - the book I read on this really stressed that for whatever reason - than what we would normally perceive the Japanese to be. This occurred during the early years of the samurai, at a time where, as I mentioned in the previous blog, they were described as the uneducated, more brutish forces on the outskirts of Japan rather than the relative sophistication of the capital. Essentially, the samurai were the warriors sent out to do the dirty work; quell rebellions, stomp out the unruly, and all in all bring more power to the centralized Japan they weren't really that much a part of. The samurai were ultimately successful, as you may have guessed due to the tremendous lack of thick-furred Japanese men in modern day.

Having the island pretty much to themselves, the samurai were still very much alive and just as much in need of something to fight. This becomes somewhat of a common theme for the samurai, as they quickly learned that when there is no army left to conquer on their lands, they must turn on each other. Infighting over lineage, while certainly not unique to Japan, becomes an important aspect of samurai life. I mentioned before that much of Japan had a "might makes right" ideal, and because of this the samurai found their way to greater and greater importance. Having the military as such an integral piece in gaining power and control in the country, the samurai rose up the ranks to the point of being nobility in Japanese society. Bred as warriors from birth, being a samurai was a highly ranked and respected position, and also largely hereditary.

A picture of the crab/Samurai cross. If I got one of those
at Red Lobster I'd be pretty freaked out too.

A particularly important civil war was between two large clans vying for supremacy; the Minamoto and the Taira. The Taira, losing the war and pushed to the brink of extinction and living on ships off the coast of Japan, were completely eliminated by the Minamoto. Women threw themselves off the boats, dying rather than being captured, with the soldiers either falling in battle or committing seppuku. What happened afterwards was a rather strange occurrence of natural selection. The area in which the Taira were obliterated was a section of Japan fished frequently for crabs. The fisherman, terrified of being haunted by samurai dead (which, admittedly, does sound horrifying) found a species of crab that has a variable pattern on their back which on occasionally looks like a human face. Thinking one less crab in the pile was a fair trade for not living in perpetual fear, they would throw the face-crabs back in the waters. Naturally, those crabs grew with great abundance and their genes were passed on much more quickly than the faceless ones. Skip ahead to modern day, and we have an area of Japan where a clan of great historical significance was slaughtered populated with crabs bearing faces similar to people. Freaky. Also hardly significant to samurai battles, but hey, history is history.

The samurai were not only used to kill each other, however. They also made attempts to take over territory on the Asian mainland, attacking Korea and China. They actually made great headway into Korea, briefly succeeding in an occupation of the territory, but eventually losing out due to the combined efforts of two large and angry countries defending against one that is separated by water. A key part of the defense was Korea's naval might attacking Japanese ships between their travels to and from. The separation in land that proved the failure of the Japanese assault later saved them against invaders, as water in medieval times, and realistically pretty well up to modern day, was notoriously dangerous to cross - for example, the Carthaginians, the Titanic, and the happenings of Piranha 3D/Piranha 3DD. 

A wind so strong it just had to be divine.

The Japanese also on occasion had to consider defence, as well. The Mongols, a powerhouse due to the leadership of Genghis Khan, was lining up to take a swing at Japan. Coming at the Japanese with a massive number of ships, they thought the isolated island seemed to be a nice vacation spot post-raiding. Their first battles were a shock to the samurai; the Japanese warriors, coming out to meet the Mongols with their traditional style of announcing their name and challenging them to one on one combat found themselves littered with arrows. Suddenly the situation looked a little bleak; a massive invasion force that just didn't feel like playing by the rules. While it's impossible to say what the outcome may have been (although looking at the track record of the Mongols at the time, Japan's fate wasn't in the best of shape) the samurai were saved by an incredibly fortunate occurrence; the sudden onslaught on the Mongol ships from the Kamikaze. Now, as much as I would absolutely love to say that a massive fleet of suicidal aircraft descended upon them, the word Kamikaze (translated as "divine wind") was originally about a massive typhoon that obliterated the fleet and saved the island from the invaders. The Mongols rebuilt and attacked again, but a second typhoon delivered the same fate. The Japanese soon brought religious proportions to the storms, hence the name "divine wind".

So what happened to the samurai? They seemed to be in power for so long, how could they possibly fall apart as they did? Well, tune in for the next blog while I detail the fall of the samurai.

Famous Historical Figures Say the Darndest Things!

1. "The surface of the sea was thick with scarlet banners and scarlet pennants cast away, like scattered red leaves after an autumn storm on the Tatsuta river. The once-white waves that crashed upon the shore were dyed crimson. Masterless, abandoned ships drifted on the wind and tide, melancholy and directionless."  A description of the massacre of the Taira out at sea. It was described in newspapers as "kind of a downer."
2. "[The Mongol ships] were impaled on the rocks, dashed against the cliffs, or tossed on land like corks from the spray... they sank by the hundreds. The corpses were piled on the shore, or floated on the water so thickly that it seemed almost possible to walk thereon." Seriously, all of their literature must have been just unbearably depressing.