The Samurai: Part 3 - Fading Out

The end of the samurai came through two means: a long stretch of peacetime that rendered the warriors mostly obsolete due to a lack of purpose, and a sudden wave of modernization that left them officially obsolete due to a lack of technology.

The period of peace came after a religious extermination, and one that you would likely not expect. No, it wasn't Buddhism, Confucianism or some weird game-show based religion that I can only assume has sprung up recently, but Christianity that was once a growing part of Japan before being entirely stomped out. Christians came to Japan sometime in the 15th century, building churches and handing out bibles like shame-based candy. All the while a few of the converts were picking up very Western names in light of their recent religious transition and mixing it with their families, quite clearly of two differing cultures, resulting in names like Damien Kuroda for example. Suddenly, after strictly Japanese names since their foundation you'll find the occasional "Bartholomew" thrown in the history books. It's important to know they still only carry "Bort" licence plates. 

Christians being killed... somewhere. They're in there.
I promise.

Not everyone in Japan was all fine and dandy with the transition, however. The shogunate (essentially the military general) deemed it a slow colonial invasion and feared the eventual takeover of Japan by the Roman Catholic Church. Suddenly a threat, he ordered the abolishment of Christianity, killing some and forcing the rest to renounce their religion. As a means of assuring they weren't doing so in name only, the suspected Christians would have to walk over a picture of a saint in order to show a lack of devotion. The end result was an annihilation of the religion in Japan, completely forcing out the followers - although it can be assumed there may be a few closet Christians with particularly sinful feet here and there.

With the Christians gone, Japan entered into a state of peace - a really, really long state of peace. Further assuring it would stay that way, they also closed off their borders to the outside world, save for a few select ships coming from China and Korea and, oddly enough, the Netherlands - because really, who could hate the Dutch? The peace and isolation lasted around two hundred years, right up until about the 1850s when things started to go awry. Think about that for a moment; samurai were hanging around and Japan is in a period of isolation just prior to Canada becoming a country. So during this period of peace, we have to remember what this article is about in the first place - the samurai, the now highly ranked warrior class that has no notable wars left to fight. The civil wars are over, rebellions are few, and the borders are shut off. So what do they do? Well, they didn't really do all that much, at least in the way of traditional samurai training. They began to lose a taste of what a samurai was meant to be; martial arts training started to wane, and they began to look much closer to merchants and other citizens rather than the supreme warriors of old. They took up other skills as fighting war no longer in great demand. 

Either one of the shoguns during the final periods of
isolation, or a picture of one of the villains from
Samurai Jack. I can't remember which.

Traditionalists started to see this as a problem, much as tired old men (and myself) complain about the youth of today with their newfangled clothing and hairstyles. As more of a reaction to the changes and crazy social progressions of those wild early-1800s Japanese kids, Bushido started to develop as a concept. While it may seem like Bushido, the idea of the chivalry-esque warrior code of the samurai, should be something that dates back to ancient times, it's more of a push-back to the falling out of the samurai as they began to grow defunct. Bushido was a way of gently reminding the public that samurai aren't meant to learn to sing and dance, save for battle-cries and something akin to a "dance of death". As I understand it, Bushido is now used as some sort of modern business technique based on samurai culture, which seems like somewhat of a perversion of the ideals in and of itself unless meetings end in stunning one on one combat. 

Commodore Perry: his friends always said
he was "more of a Joey".

It's important to note that at this time samurai still very much existed, held the same degree of power and were still warriors even if only mostly in name. What truly ended the samurai was Matthew Perry. Well, Commodore Matthew Perry, although he may have viewed his shipmates as friends. Eventually, the world got pretty well fed up with Japan and their refusal to come for tea (in Britain), come for tea (in Canada, but early Canada, so it's still pretty much British) or eat a burger (in America). Staying consistent with American ideals that ring true even today, the U.S. stepped in and saved the Japanese from themselves, bringing their much, much, much larger ships to the shores of Japan and basically letting them know that they've grown bigger and stronger after they've broken apart - much the same as a high-schooler would describe how great their life has been to their ex after seeing him or her again sometime after a breakup. The only difference is American was about to step in and change the lives of the Japanese forever.

With the addition of new technology, western influences and really just vast, sweeping changes as a whole, samurai were slowly pushed out. What place on the battlefield does a sword-weilding man in armour play in modern (or at least relatively modern) warfare? Well, in a lot of movies they would fare quite well, but in real life people can aim.

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The information from "The Samurai" series came from the book A Brief History of the Samurai by Jonathan Clements.
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