Socio-political and socio-cultural aspects

Specific warrior ideals are discussed below in social and historical context.

VALUES EXPRESSED IN LIFE

Loyalty In the popular imagination and in various treatises on samurai behavior, warriors were por-trayed as paragons of loyalty. In behavior toward both superiors and inferiors, in word and deed, and even in death, samurai were expected to demon-strate unwavering fidelity. Japanese views of loyalty were strongly informed by Confucian behavioral ideals, which were transmitted to Japan perhaps as early as the fifth century C.E.

During feudal times, loyalty was essential to the relationship between samurai and daimyo in their roles as military retainer and lord. Beyond the bonds of allegiance owed to daimyo, feudal warriors also had commitments of fealty to immediate family members, clan or bushidan leaders, and other samu-rai retainers or landowners, depending upon alliances formed by their daimyo. Further, if a lord changed allies, samurai were obligated to follow.

The relative hierarchy of such loyalties varied at dif-ferent points in medieval and early modern Japan, although a samurai’s unconditional loyalty to his lord remained a constant. The most extreme form of loyalty expected of samurai was the act of junshi, described in detail below.

In some cases, standards of samurai loyalty could involve suppressing national laws in favor of the moral principles of Bushido. Since warriors were required to remain steadfast to their daimyo above all else, samurai were obligated to avenge the unjust

death of their lord in order to restore his (and by extension, their own) honor. Unfortunately, the moral obligations of the warrior code sometimes conflicted with government mandates and codes of civil conduct. Tension between moral law and shogunal mandates was a critical factor in what was known as the notorious 47 Ronin Incident (Ako Jiken; literally, the Ako Incident), which occurred in the early morning hours of January 31, 1703 (although the event is now commemorated annually in Japan on December 14). Former retainers of Asano Naganori (1665–1701), the deceased daimyo of the Ako domain, descended upon the well-guarded Edo residence of Kira Yoshinaka (1641–1703), whom they assassinated in retaliation for Asano’s death, which they considered unjust.

While in attendance at a reception for the shogun in Edo castle, Asano violated acceptable court behavior, reportedly due to neglect or inaccu-rate counsel by Kira. As chief of protocol to the Tokugawa shogunate at the time, Kira was responsi-ble for maintaining decorum among retainers in attendance at the castle. Apparently Kira provoked Asano through his condescending and supercilious manner, and in response, Asano drew his sword in anger and attacked Kira inside the shogun’s castle.

This criminal act incited a swift response from the shogun, who determined that as punishment Asano would be required to perform seppuku, ritual suicide by disembowelment, and that thereafter his domain, the province of Harima (now part of Hyogo Prefec-ture) would become property of the shogunate, and his retainers henceforth would be considered ronin (masterless samurai). Of these retainers, 47 took a pledge to exact revenge for their lord’s demise. After slaying Kira, these loyal ronin marched to Asano’s grave site and presented his decapitated head.

Determining the appropriate response to this vengeful act was problematic for the shogunate in several respects. The Tokugawa rulers had helped to promote the Bushido code, which stipulated that the cardinal duty of the samurai was absolute loyalty to their daimyo. Yet the 47 ronin had openly violated public law, as they had committed a violent act in a group. Further, by assassinating Kira, Asano’s for-mer retainers had attempted to rectify his purported wrongful punishment as determined by the shogun,

and they had mounted their revenge in the capital, thus brazenly challenging the authority of the shogu-nate in both respects. The shogushogu-nate determined that the retainers would be punished as a group and ordered to commit seppuku. Perhaps because they were disciplined for upholding longstanding samurai values, and since their demise could be viewed as an act of junshi, the 47 ronin quickly became popular heroes, to the chagrin of the Tokugawa rulers. A famed play entitled Kanadehon chushingura appeared in 1748 on the subject and was later used as a model for future accounts of the incident.

Honor In addition to fulfilling their duty, warriors had a responsibility to conduct themselves in a man-ner that would reflect well upon their lord, their ancestors, and their descendants. In principle, samu-rai behavior was deemed a reflection of individual character, but it also affected family reputation and could enhance or mar a lord’s social and political sta-tus. The notion that honor was inherent in one’s name, and thus was shared with other family mem-bers, past, present, and future, became prominent in Japanese society during the 12th century. For exam-ple, in warrior tales (gunki monogatari) written dur-ing the Kamakura and Muromachi eras, references to shame and honor, which are frequent in such con-texts, refer to both individuals and family members, as well as ancestors. Often this concept of collective prestige or disgrace is referred to as “face” in the English phrase “to lose face.” Thus, in Japanese, honor (meiyo; literally “glory of the name”) carries the additional implication for samurai that, beyond personal virtue, warriors must also uphold alle-giances to family, clan, and lord, who might not have the same name but certainly shared a collective rep-utation. Just as honor was inherited or shared through a name, household (meaning a lord and his vassals), or clan, shame would also be borne by all who were linked by family ties or bonds of service and protection.

Favor and Debt (On/Giri) Since warrior existence was predicated upon duty, in everyday life, warrior values were governed by the related concepts of on and giri. These principles affected warrior behavior in relation to land, protection, and service in battle.

On can be defined as the debt incurred by the re-cipient of benefits (material or otherwise), and is often equated in English with the concepts of favor or indebtedness. Giri refers to an obligation to re-pay on incurred in receiving favors, whether mater-ial or otherwise, and is often translated as “socmater-ial obligation.”

Obligation could arise in a variety of relation-ships such as between a warrior and master, individ-ual and family group, employee and employer, or subject and lord. For feudal samurai, this reciprocal dynamic meant that warriors incurred an enormous debt to their lords because of the benefit of receiving employment, land, and political protection, as well as associated items such as armor and weapons.

Since samurai subsistence depended on the lord, the debt incurred and the associated responsibility to make repayment was immense. Warriors bore this profound obligation in an unbreakable bond of duty—a debt so significant that the samurai were bound to follow their lords even in death. If such obligations were not obeyed, the responsible party could face social disdain and even complete ostra-cization, thus disgracing not only individual honor, but also an extended family or even an entire domain. The interrelated dynamic of on/giri was central to the structure of feudal warrior society, and remains important in Japan today.

Manners and Appearance Appearance first became a central concern in Japan amid the cultural renais-sance of the Heian period, when aristocrats were pre-occupied with aesthetic refinement and elegance.

From the rise of the warrior class in the late Heian period, certain characteristics distinguished samurai.

Manuals dictated the procedure for donning armor, and by the late medieval period, volumes were com-piled to instruct samurai on appropriate behavior and grooming both on and off the battlefield.

While roving mercenaries had little concern for their public image, members of the warrior elite rec-ognized that external appearance impacted all facets of samurai experience from personal dignity to rank and even earning power. On the battlefield, helmets and armor clearly distinguished warriors by rank, division, and even region of origin. (For more infor-mation on arms and armor, see below.) Civilian

samurai garments echoed the fashions that had long been favored by court nobles, and may reflect the fact that the military classes aspired to higher social status and cultural sophistication in a feudal society that prized the aristocracy despite the supremacy of its military rulers. For more information on warrior clothing, see chapter 12: Everyday Life.

Projecting a dignified and fashionable manner remained a high priority for members of the warrior classes during the Edo period, when samurai com-peted against each other with displays of wealth when traveling to the capital to attend upon the shogun. Samurai of the early modern era became more concerned with embellishment of warrior clothing and armor, and in peacetime, more time and resources could be devoted to such matters.

Amid the growing popularity of adornment and the dramatic appearance cultivated by actors and other denizens of the pleasure districts, warriors were per-mitted to wear makeup. The Tokugawa government issued other regulations about appropriate samurai dress for various occasions and ranks, and (theoreti-cally, at least) the warrior classes alone were granted the right to carry two swords, long and short, in public. As in earlier eras, manuals prescribed appro-priate behavior and customs for the samurai class.

Many aspects of samurai bearing and appearance were intended to ensure that the respect and honor due to members of the warrior classes were con-ferred in Edo culture.

Marriage Confucian ideals informed samurai mar-riage practices along with many other aspects of warrior life. Bushido, as a moral code, necessarily involved Confucian principles governing virtuous human relationships and social roles. The absolute subordination of a wife and children to the head of the family constitutes one powerful example of the influence of Confucian thought in feudal Japanese society. Wives who did not honor their husbands were seen as disruptive of domestic harmony and the wider social order as well.

Marital unions became a central concern of samurai from the 12th century onward, especially since political imbalances and power struggles often implicated family ties. Military alliances between families could be established or reinforced through

strategic unions, and such bonds were critical during eras of civil war, such as the Warring States period (1467–1568).

Samurai marriages discontinued the matrilocal, endogamous (marriage within a limited group of households), and polygamous practices of Heian-period aristocrats. This change may have been in-spired in part by practical considerations, for medieval Japanese marriages among the elite in-creasingly involved wives selected from distant households. Marrying within a close group had few advantages for ambitious samurai families eager to increase their landholdings or to broaden alliances across provincial territories. Further, matrilocal mar-riage traditions, in which, for example, couples often chose to reside with the bride’s family, were impracti-cal for warriors who had amassed land, military forces, and political connections in the region of their own family residences, and which required close supervision. The shift to more permanent mar-riage practices was isolated among members of the ruling military classes. Rural commoners, who often served as warriors in times of conflict, were bound to the land they worked and continued to engage in multiple liaisons and other established traditions.

Sexual Conduct Samurai often retained concu-bines during the medieval and early modern eras.

However, in their own households, military retain-ers rarely practiced polygamy, which had notori-ously complicated imperial succession and family structure in the Heian period. Like other social groups throughout Japanese history, warriors also engaged prostitutes of both sexes, though such prac-tices were not widely documented until the early modern era. Under the peaceful Tokugawa shogu-nate, many samurai spent leisure time in the notori-ous pleasure districts of the capital city, Edo.

Homosexuality was also a common practice among members of the warrior classes, particularly during the Edo period.

VALUES EXPRESSED THROUGH DEATH

Demonstrating honor and duty throughout life were central aspects of the samurai code, but in many respects, death was a defining moment for members

of the warrior class. Death was an occasion for establishing ultimate honor, physical and moral strength, and providing a model of Bushido for one’s descendants.

Ritual Suicide Seppuku (or hara-kiri) is the Japan-ese term for the practice of self-disembowelment, which originated as a way for samurai to achieve an honorable death when defeat or some other form of dishonor was imminent. Both seppuku and hara-kiri have the same meaning, although seppuku, which is the preferred term in Japan, has a more formal tone and involves the Chinese characters for hara-kiri arranged in a different order. While hara-hara-kiri is often translated simply as “abdominal cutting,”

seppuku must be rendered more formally, as in “cut-ting of the abdomen.” Many words in Japanese have both a Chinese-style reading and a native Japanese pronunciation, and seppuku is the Chinese pro-nunciation of the characters for cut and abdomen, while hara-kiri is the Japanese reading of the same characters.

In ancient Japan, the abdomen (hara) was regarded as the domain of the soul, and the source of tension arising from human actions. As the center of the human body, the stomach was also viewed as the point of origin for individual will, might, spirit, anger, and potential favor or generosity. Thus, a knife thrust into the abdomen was understood as an expedient means of destroying the physical core of one’s humanity.

A warrior was mandated to die by seppuku if he killed another retainer without justification or drew a weapon inside a castle without need for such an action in self-defense. Even warriors sentenced to perform disembowelment as punishment (rather than to avoid dishonor in battle) were allowed to dis-tinguish themselves in death through this exclusive samurai ritual by virtue of their social position.

Although seppuku could be ordered as punishment, death by this means warranted respect, thereby maintaining the honor of the deceased warrior and his family. Further, daimyo and other lords bore an obligation to support the heirs and spouse of samu-rai who died honorable deaths. One of the most famous examples of seppuku as punishment involved the suicide of the 47 ronin, described above in “Loy-alty.” Thus, for members of the warrior classes,

sep-puku represented a solemn procedure that nonethe-less upheld samurai heritage and integrity.

The process of suicide by disembowelment was prescribed in detail, and the time, location, assis-tance, and sequence of events were all predeter-mined. Ritual seppuku began as a warrior used his knife to make a shallow cut in his abdomen, consid-ered the individual’s symbolic spiritual center. After the samurai performed the initial incision, an assis-tant completed the event by beheading the warrior.

Junshi This tradition meant that samurai were committed to perform the ultimate sacrifice in duty to their lord, following him in death by ritual disem-bowelment, a method of suicide usually called sep-puku. To distinguish the devotion exhibited by following one’s lord in suicide, this particular prac-tice is termed oibara, meaning “disembowelment to follow” or tomobara, “disembowelment to accom-pany” in reference to junshi.

Originally junshi was not a suicide requirement, but a practice called junso, described in the Chinese Book of Rites (Li ji), one of the literary works collec-tively known as the Chinese classics. In ancient China, rituals included the sacrifice of human beings to guard the deceased, although it is not known whether this practice was followed in ancient Japan.

As the samurai class emerged, military retainers would sometimes perish in battle alongside their lord, or commit suicide upon learning of their lord’s death. Gradually, junshi became a central compo-nent of the warrior code, Bushido, as a means of demonstrating the unconditional devotion that bound samurai to their lord, even in death.

By the early Edo period, many samurai had begun to perform junshi as a way of providing for their descendants, since a daimyo’s heirs were oblig-ated to provide for a samurai’s family if he honored his lord through junshi. Subsequent or lower-rank-ing military retainers reasoned that they had no choice regarding suicide since superior samurai had preceded them in junshi to honor their lord. Criti-cism arose as prestige was accorded to daimyo who had the highest numbers of self-sacrificing retainers, and losses of able men increased as this practice became widespread through a need to salvage per-sonal fortunes and family reputations rather than out of true loyalty. The prohibition of junshi

fol-lowed, first voiced by shogun Tokugawa Ietsuna in 1663, and added to the Buke Shohatto, codes of con-duct issued under Tokugawa rule to increase control over daimyo, during the tenure of Tokugawa Tsunayoshi.