Japanese history researcher Yasutsune Owada joins WIRED to answer the internet's burning questions about samurai. What caused the ultimate downfall of the samurai? What was samurai warfare like? What was it like to train to become a samurai? Did women ever become samurai? What did Ronin stand for? And did samurai ever use firearms on horseback? Answers to these questions and many more await on Samurai Support.
Director: Nobuyuki Yamamoto
Director of Photography: Keita Kawahara
Editor: Philip Anderson; Louis Lalire
Creative Producer: Sho Yamada, Lisandro Perez-Rey
Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi
Associate Producer: Paul Gulyas
Production Manager: Peter Brunette
Sound Mixer: Ryoko Uesugi
Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin
Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant
Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen
Additional Editor: Paul Tael; Jason Malizia
Assistant Editor: Justin Symonds
Director: Nobuyuki Yamamoto
Director of Photography: Keita Kawahara
Editor: Philip Anderson; Louis Lalire
Creative Producer: Sho Yamada, Lisandro Perez-Rey
Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi
Associate Producer: Paul Gulyas
Production Manager: Peter Brunette
Sound Mixer: Ryoko Uesugi
Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin
Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant
Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen
Additional Editor: Paul Tael; Jason Malizia
Assistant Editor: Justin Symonds
Category
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TechTranscript
00:00Hello, my name is Yasutsune Owada, and I am studying Japanese history.
00:05Today, I would like to answer some questions about Samurai.
00:09This is Samurai Support.
00:16The first question is,
00:18what was Samurai training like?
00:21I think it was training.
00:23At the beginning, the most important thing was Kyujutsu, or bowing.
00:27It was about how to handle a bow,
00:30and how to handle a horse.
00:34At the end, it was about how to use a sword to defeat an enemy.
00:38In a situation where you can't even use a sword,
00:42Kyujutsu was developed as a technique to fight with bare hands.
00:48As these things developed,
00:50as time went by,
00:53Samurai learned how to use a spear and how to handle it.
01:01Japanese castles were surrounded by water,
01:06so when you were attacking, you had to cross the water.
01:09You didn't just have to fight on land,
01:11you had to fight in the water as well.
01:13So Samurai could basically swim.
01:18The next question is,
01:19how did you become a Samurai?
01:22In general, Samurai is thought of as a samurai,
01:28but originally, the original word for Samurai was Saburau.
01:33Saburau meant to be able to serve an important person.
01:38So Samurai were originally low-ranking nobles.
01:43When they became middle-class,
01:45they were able to become Samurai even if they weren't originally Samurai.
01:57In the near future,
01:59Japan will have no more wars.
02:03When there are no more wars,
02:05Samurai will become unprofitable and there will be no Umikomi,
02:09so there will be Samurai who will fall apart.
02:13The family of the Samurai who fell apart will sell their status,
02:18so the people who bought it,
02:19the people who have money now,
02:22the people who were not originally Samurai,
02:25were able to become Samurai by buying the status of Samurai.
02:29Basically, Samurai were fighting.
02:34Basically, they were drawing the bloodline of Samurai.
02:37In short, I think that the people who drew the bloodline of the nobles
02:42were able to become Samurai.
02:46The next question is,
02:47are there still Samurai today?
02:50The status of Samurai has disappeared in recent times in Japan.
02:55What is Samurai?
02:58In fact, it was understood as a Samurai by its appearance.
03:02One of them is that it has a bend in its head.
03:06The other one is that it is stabbing a sword.
03:08So, if there is a person who stabs a sword with a bend in his head,
03:11even if you look at it from the flag,
03:12it was seen as a Samurai.
03:15In recent years, in 1871,
03:18the government, the new government,
03:20issued a law called the Sampatsu Datto-Rei,
03:23and issued a law that it should not stab a sword with a bend in its head.
03:29As a result, the status system of Samurai completely collapsed,
03:34and Samurai no longer exists in modern Japanese society.
03:41Next question.
03:42In which era was Samurai used as a sword weapon?
03:47What kind of weapons were used before that?
03:51The Middle Ages started using swords.
03:55In that era, swords were mainly used.
03:58Before that, they used bows, as in the road of the saber.
04:03In ancient times, samurai fought on horseback.
04:08They wore armor like this.
04:12This armor is called Kusazuri in front, side, and back.
04:20It is an armor that is often thought of so that it can protect the thighs when riding a horse.
04:25By the way, this armor has a fairly large sleeve.
04:30The reason is that it is used as a shield when you are stabbed by an arrow.
04:34Japanese samurai did not have a shield.
04:37Because they fought on horseback,
04:40they had an armor on their left hand,
04:42and when they were stabbing, they had to let go of their hand.
04:47Therefore, they could not have a shield,
04:50so they had a large sleeve on their left and right shoulders,
04:53and if they were about to be stabbed by an enemy, they used it as a shield.
04:57That's how they fought.
04:59Basically, there aren't many scenes where they use a sword.
05:04They used to fight in a group and pull out a sword after dropping the opponent from the horse.
05:11However, the ancient fighting was not used as a main weapon.
05:15In the Sengoku period, the bow was used as a footwear.
05:20It is a footwear to use bows, swords, and flying tools.
05:24Samurai no longer use bows and swords.
05:28Samurai used spears to fight.
05:32The spear is about 2 meters long.
05:35When the distance from the enemy is open, they fight with spears.
05:40When the distance from the enemy is close, they fight with swords.
05:44This is the way of fighting in the Middle Ages.
05:47In the Edo period in Japan,
05:51Japan was already in a time when there was no war,
05:56so there was no need to pull out a sword on the battlefield.
05:59In such a case, they used it to fight one-on-one.
06:08Next question.
06:09Why did the samurai wear such bright and colorful clothes?
06:14It's an armor like this.
06:17Why is it so red?
06:19The gold on top is very conspicuous.
06:23Why did the samurai wear such an armor?
06:27This is to stand out.
06:30They wore bright and colorful clothes to hide.
06:34They had a sense of competition.
06:37Why are they dressed like this?
06:41This is to identify who they are.
06:45This red thread is made of leather.
06:52This thread is made of leather or silk.
06:58By changing the color of the leather or thread,
07:03you can change the color of the armor.
07:06So the color of the armor changed depending on the person.
07:09It doesn't change what you're aiming for.
07:12Today I have this.
07:16This is a gold armor.
07:20In Japan, it is called Toseigusoku.
07:23Unlike the ancient armor,
07:26it is made of iron plate to prevent attacks by guns.
07:31So they painted the iron plate with black lacquer.
07:36So it doesn't look too flashy.
07:41In order to distinguish this ancient armor,
07:45they could change the color.
07:47But they couldn't change the color.
07:50They couldn't differentiate by color.
07:52So they differentiated by the armor they wore on top.
07:55This is Nagamasa Kuroda.
07:58He is wearing a strange armor on his head.
08:02The samurai distinguished themselves by making the armor
08:07a very unique shape.
08:10The reason is that the samurai's achievements
08:14depend on how they defeat the enemy.
08:19In some cases, they may be killed.
08:21In that case, it was never a problem.
08:27Even if they risked their lives and lost,
08:30if they fought bravely, they were strengthened.
08:34Even if the person who fought died,
08:36their children and grandchildren were raised.
08:39In that case, they have to prove how bravely they fought,
08:44whether they are alive or dead.
08:47If they are alive, they can prove it.
08:49But if they are dead, no one can prove it.
08:52So there must be someone around to prove it.
08:56At that time, the samurai fought one-on-one,
09:02but if there was no one around, they couldn't fight.
09:06If they fought and lost,
09:07if there was no one to prove it, they would become a dog.
09:11They were very afraid of that.
09:13So, in order to let someone see how they played an active role on the battlefield,
09:19they wore colorful clothes and aimed for it.
09:25The next question is,
09:26when did the existence of samurai come about?
09:30Originally, Japan had an army.
09:36However, as the country was gradually weakening,
09:39the high-ranking aristocrats, who were in power,
09:43needed to protect their land and property.
09:46At that time, the samurai relied on them.
09:50This is the middle of the Heian period in Japan.
09:55In the Heian period, it was the middle of the Heian period.
10:00In the central area, the high-ranking aristocrats had a wide range of power,
10:04so the lower-ranking aristocrats went down to the countryside because they had no work in the central area.
10:09What happened when they arrived?
10:11The samurai, who relied on the high-ranking aristocrats to build up their military power,
10:17were the lower-ranking aristocrats.
10:22By having military power,
10:25they gradually surpassed the high-ranking aristocrats.
10:29This is the Kamakura period in the middle of the Heian period in Japan.
10:32The high-ranking aristocrats, such as the samurai,
10:36seized the opportunity for political experiments.
10:43The next question is,
10:44In reality, who was Yasuke?
10:48What do you know about him from the records of that time?
10:53There are some people who know Yasuke.
10:56I think there are quite a few Japanese people who don't know Yasuke.
11:01What is Yasuke?
11:02Yasuke was born out of the blue.
11:04There is a man named Nobunaga Oda, who is said to have established the foundation of modern Japanese history.
11:15At the end of the 16th century, he became famous for unifying Japan.
11:21He was the most powerful samurai in Japan at that time.
11:26Yasuke was the governor of Iezuskai.
11:33There was an Italian scholar named Alessandro Barignani.
11:39He was an African guard who was brought here.
11:44He was originally from Mozambique.
11:47When Nobunaga saw him, he wanted to make Barignani his vassal.
11:56In 1582, Nobunaga Oda was shot by Akechi Mitsuhide, the vassal, and died.
12:03He was seen to have fled in confusion at that time.
12:08Yasuke is not well aware of his subsequent disappearance.
12:13He is not sure if he was a good match for Yasuke.
12:21We don't know where Yasuke was.
12:25We don't know if he was a samurai or not.
12:28But there is no document that defines Yasuke as a samurai.
12:34What was the actual battle of the samurai?
12:39In ancient times, the way the samurai fought in the beginning was called the way of the old horse.
12:47They fought by riding on a horse with a bow.
12:50They fought with a bow, so they went to the battlefield with a bow and defeated the opponent.
12:54If they couldn't fall, the horsemen would collide and shoot each other to drop the opponent off the horse.
13:02In ancient times, they pulled out a sword or killed the opponent with a heavy technique.
13:10In the Middle Ages, a large number of soldiers were mobilized.
13:16A large number of farmers, who were at the end of the samurai era, came to the battlefield.
13:26In such a way, the samurai rode on a horse to the place where the opponent's camp collapsed and attacked.
13:38In other words, they fought to the place where the enemy's camp collapsed.
13:47Next question.
13:47Did the samurai have tattoos?
13:51The tattoo is not something that was accepted by the Japanese at that time.
13:59People who have committed crimes such as theft can get a tattoo.
14:07They can get a tattoo on their hand several times.
14:12If they get a tattoo repeatedly, they will be executed because they have accumulated three tattoos.
14:19In the first place, tattoos are not something that can be accepted widely because it is a material that can be put in.
14:29It may have actually been put in, but I think it's hard to think about.
14:38Next question.
14:41What was the life of a samurai like?
14:44How much did you earn?
14:47In my daily life, I was involved in politics, but when the war broke out, I was in charge of my family and I was a monk.
14:59It's a difficult question to say how much I earned.
15:05As you can see now, it was based on rice, not on the unit of Japanese yen.
15:10The unit of Japanese yen is called Koku, which means stone in Kanji.
15:16The weight of one Koku is 150 kg.
15:21One person can live for a year.
15:26It's hard to say how much it would have been if this was the current value.
15:32I can't say for sure, but if this was 300,000 yen per Koku,
15:38It is thought that there was an income of tens of millions of yen when it came to ordinary samurais.
15:45Samurai also have status.
15:48There was a general at the top.
15:49There is a general under the general.
15:51The general is a samurai who has more than 10,000 Koku.
16:00If you have 10,000 Koku, you can earn about 300 million yen.
16:06You can't live alone, but you can also earn money to support your family.
16:14At least, if you are a general of 10,000 Koku, you can earn 250 million yen.
16:17Even if you had 300 million yen, I don't think there was much left in your hand.
16:24It is thought that there was an income of tens of millions of yen when it came to the general.
16:31In the case of the general, it is said that there are about 80,000 Koku.
16:35The higher the status, the higher the Koku value.
16:40The higher the Koku value, the higher the income.
16:43That's how many people you have to feed.
16:46Next question.
16:48In the movie Seven Samurai, you eat just white rice as a luxury meal.
16:55Didn't the Japanese at the time think that the meal was tasteless?
17:00At that time, the Japanese meal was basically called Ichijuissai.
17:07Ichiju is one soup and one vegetable.
17:11In addition to rice, there is only miso soup and side dishes.
17:16This was the normal meal of the Japanese at the time.
17:20And the rice was very luxurious because the rice was ground only in the delicious part of the center.
17:36At that time, people thought it was a luxury, so general samurai ate it as brown rice.
17:45However, when the status became low, it was difficult to eat only brown rice.
17:51So they mixed wheat, chickpeas, and bubbles to eat.
17:56Then, the white rice that appears here is a kind of feast.
18:03I think it was a very grateful thing.
18:06Next question.
18:09Did the samurai really protect the seven virtues in everyday life?
18:15The seven virtues mentioned here are the virtues written in the Bushido written by Nitobe Inazo.
18:27It is a moral standard that samurai should aim for.
18:31Of course, not all samurai protected it.
18:36But it was considered as a moral standard to aim for.
18:41In the first place, the Bushido of Nitobe Inazo was written in the era when there were no samurai.
18:47Nitobe Inazo himself was a family of samurai, but it was written in the era when samurai disappeared.
18:56So I think it's an ideal thing.
19:00One of the seven virtues is righteousness.
19:04It is the way to think righteously as a person.
19:09The next virtue is courage.
19:12This is the courage to actually do what you think is right.
19:19There is also compassion, and it is to support the social position.
19:29Japanese people use honorifics to those in high positions.
19:32It is to live while judging whether you have a social position or not.
19:37I say that as an example.
19:39The other one is sincerity.
19:44This means not to lie, but there is also a saying that there is no doubt in samurai.
19:52The other one is honor.
19:56This means that you have to protect your honor.
19:59Finally, it is loyalty.
20:01Loyalty to the lord.
20:04These are the seven virtues.
20:07The next question is, from a historical point of view, is it possible to say that the samurai perished because of the seven virtues of the Bushido?
20:15For example, was it the cause that they had to fight the enemy from the front without being able to act secretly like assassinations?
20:23In the end, what the samurai were most concerned about was honor.
20:28Honor is a shame as a game, and it is the most painful thing for the samurai to be ashamed of.
20:37It means not to fight in a way that is shameful.
20:43I think it's true that they didn't want to do such a shameful thing on the outside.
20:48However, that doesn't mean that the samurai had to imitate the samurai.
20:54The samurai who were called Ashigaru, Ninja, Shinobi, and Rappa-Suppa at that time.
21:00The samurai who were called Ninja and Rappa-Suppa had to do such dirty work.
21:07To sum up, the samurai was fighting fair and square, so he was fighting the enemy from the front, but I think he was ordering his subordinates to do something a little sloppy.
21:22So I think it doesn't matter that the samurai perished because they were protecting the seven virtues.
21:29Next question.
21:30Were there any female samurais?
21:33There were some people who fought with weapons, but if you define it as a samurai, it's not a samurai.
21:43In that sense, there were no female samurais.
21:50However, there are some women who fought with swords, so in that case, we call them female swordsmen.
21:58In fact, during the battle of Sekigahara, when it was an important battle in Japan,
22:04a husband came out of the castle and was about to be killed when he was fighting, so he went out and saved him.
22:11There is also a record that there was a wife, so there were actually women who fought with weapons.
22:19In the Edo period, in Japan's modern history, there are still women's katchus left.
22:29This is also a rare case, so I don't think it was considered as a general understanding.
22:38In that sense, I think there were actually women who had the heart of a samurai, even if I can't say a samurai.
22:45The next question is, please tell me how to enjoy the yoka of a samurai.
22:51At that time, especially in the Middle Ages, it was called Nougaku and Renga.
22:58The Japanese used to read a song called Waka, which was divided into 5, 7 and 5, 7, 7, but this was called Renga, which was read by several people in multiples.
23:11They had a meeting like this, and what they liked was Igo, Shogi, and Sugoroku as a game.
23:22Even now, it is said that the tea hot water that Japanese people drink is called Sado, and Rikka is also called Kado, but it seems that they enjoyed such things well.
23:35The next question is, please tell me a place where you can feel the culture and history of samurai.
23:42This model is Himeji Castle.
23:45This is a model of a castle that was built 400 years ago.
23:52This is where the lord of the samurai lived, and it was built to fight in this castle if necessary.
24:01In addition to Himeji Castle, there are many other castles such as Matsumoto Castle, Hikone Castle, Inuyama Castle, and Matsue Castle in Japan.
24:11In the Joka town, there is a samurai mansion where the samurai lived.
24:18The current Himeji Castle is only this part left, so it is common to think that this is the only Himeji Castle, but in fact, the Himeji Castle was several times larger than this.
24:28Only a part of it is left now, so what happened to the part that was lost was that there was a Joka town where the samurai lived, and only the lord lived in the castle.
24:40The high-ranking samurai who served their lord still have a mansion around the castle, and there are still many such things left.
24:49The next question is, I would like to know if there were ceremonies or ceremonies that were held when you became a samurai, but did you simply declare that you could serve the lord, or was there a special ceremony?
25:05Even if you become a samurai, if the lord does not approve it, you will not become a samurai, so what happens is that in ancient times, you submit the paper with your name on it to the lord you want to use, and if the lord accepts it, you will be recognized as a lord.
25:26The reason why I give my name is that at that time, Japanese people still have the word kotodama, but there was a consciousness that the word had a sacred soul, so there was a thought that if a person knew my name and was abused, he would be killed, so if I gave my name, I would devote everything to the other person, and in some cases, I would devote my life to the other person.
25:55I decided to show my will.
25:57If you accept this, you will be recognized as a lord.
26:04The next question is, have you ever developed the skill of using a kaki while riding a horse?
26:11Kaki is a Japanese gun called Hinawa-jyu, and it is lined up here, but the longer one is usually the one with a foot guard, and when a samurai uses it on the ground, it is said that he actually used such a short Hinawa-jyu while riding a horse.
26:39However, this Hinawa-jyu takes 30 seconds to shoot a bullet, so it is doubtful that he was able to actually use it while riding a horse, so I think it was not common to fight while riding a horse.
27:03The next question is, what did you mean by an old man?
27:09I don't think this person has a very good image of an old man, but an old man is a samurai who is not used by the lord.
27:21It's not just a samurai, but an old man is a samurai who is not used by the lord.
27:29The reason why this person is such an old man is that there are cases where the person himself saw the lord and left the lord, and there are cases where he was abandoned by the lord and was exiled, and there are cases where he lost the war and lost the house he could use.
27:51So there were people who were old men, but this old man is not used by the lord, and his status is a samurai.
28:01It's not that they're all bad people, but there are some people who don't get paid by the lord, but there are some people who live on temporary jobs.
28:18I'm sure most of the old people were living like that, but there were some old people who ate and pushed people's houses to work as robbers, rape, and threaten money.
28:44There was a murderer, but I'm sure some of the people who ate the old man were people who received murder for money.
28:58Why did the Empire of Japan adhere to samurai values and methods despite the fact that the samurai were abolished and their rights were taken away about a century later?
29:10The Empire of Japan was a modern country, but until the Edo period, the only thing that went to war was samurai.
29:22At that time, samurai had a loyalty to the lord, but that had nothing to do with the common people, and they didn't fight for their lives.
29:50When the samurai were still alive, they fought for the lord with their lives, but when non-samurai joined the army, they had a loyalty to the lord.
30:10As I showed you in the video, the new soldiers of the Empire of Japan were loyal to the country.
30:25What impact did samurai have on Japanese culture and society?
30:30The status of samurai has disappeared in recent years.
30:36However, the samurai became the center of the country, such as politicians, officials, teachers, soldiers, and police officers.
30:51Samurai are martial arts and literature, and they have to be involved in both.
31:06The most important thing in Japanese samurai culture is that the samurai were proud of their honor, and they were afraid to be ashamed of themselves.
31:25So, if you want to be ashamed of yourself, you have to choose death.
31:39The culture that the samurai were proud of was also inherited by the Japanese.
31:48The tea ceremony that the samurai were proud of was established as an art, and the flowering of flowers was also recognized as a form of art.
32:00This culture is also inherited by the Japanese, and through this culture, the samurai's ideology has continued to live in Japan for a long time.
32:16I think this is also a sign of Japanese behavior.