328 Part IV: East Asian Civilization
This was the system of government until 1867: under the title shogun, con-
trol was exercised by a military government from Kamakura and later Edo
(Tokyo), while the emperors carried on with their refined court culture, their
Shinto state rituals, and their Buddhist retirements in Kyoto. From Kamakura,
warrior clans dominated the next 400 years. Then when the Tokugawas (a
branch of Minamotos) came to power in 1600, there were another 250 years of
a warrior regime until the Meiji Restoration.The Samurai Class
The samurai class came into existence, flowered, and disappeared in 600
years, marking the imagination and character of modern Japanese and, it must
also be said, of the world. The code of honor of the samurai warrior, which
came to be known as bushido—a blend of Confucian, Zen Buddhist, and mar-
tial values—dignified militarism in the first half of the twentieth century, leav-
ing traces in modern popular culture (Karate Kid, Ninja Turtles) and, it is
sometimes speculated, in the psyches of the salarymen and executives of corpo-
rate Japan.
If there is a “key scenario” of samurai culture, it is captured in a true event
of 1701, which was preserved and reenacted (and embellished) in play and
story and film, The Tale of the 47 Loyal Ronin. In 1701 Lord Asano, daimyo of
the Ako domain, was assigned to perform ceremonial duties at the shogun’s
court in Edo. Because he was unfamiliar with court practices, he offended an
official named Kira who insulted him in return. Lord Asano was a rough and
ready daimyo from the provinces and drew his sword to avenge his honor
against Kira. But this was a violation of a strict law at the shogun’s court for-
bidding the drawing of weapons, and as punishment he was ordered to commit
suicide. He promptly complied. When word of his death reached his domain at
Ako, 47 of his vassals, who were rendered masterless by the death of their mas-
ter and confiscation of his lands, formed a secret covenant to avenge him.
Knowing that Kira would be expecting such an attack, they plotted to behave
like lawless and dissolute ronin, wandering, drinking, and gambling until the
moment of revenge. On a snowy morning in 1703, they attacked and killed
Kira at his residence in Edo and carried his head to the temple where their lord
had been buried. But they had broken Tokugawa law against vengeance killings
and were condemned to die. They did so by committing suicide in the honor-
able manner.
By the time of the 47 ronin, the samurai class had been transformed into a
cultivated, bureaucratic elite, who still carried the best swords ever made at
their waists but hardly ever drew them, being put to work instead by the
Tokugawa shogunate running a unified and—at last—peaceful Japan.
Tokugawa Ieyasu moved to Edo in 1590 as the daimyo of the eight Kanto prov-
inces. He unified the country and was appointed shogun, and from this time,
Edo has been the capital of Japan. (Its name was changed to Tokyo, the “Kyoto
of the East,” during the Meiji era.)