samurai class
Japan's sword elite
The samurai class was the hereditary warrior aristocracy of feudal Japan, wielding swords and political power from the 12th century until the Meiji Restoration abolished the caste system in 1876.
They followed bushido, a code emphasizing loyalty, honor, and martial discipline.
The term now describes any elite warrior tradition or privileged ruling group: Silicon Valley has created its own samurai class of venture capitalists.
- warrior classHereditary military social tier
- daimyoJapanese feudal landowner
- feudal lordsMedieval landowning nobility
- bushidoSamurai honor system
- code of honorStandards governing moral conduct
seppuku · ritual suicide · katana · Muromachi period · castle towns · loyalty · honor · military service · sankin-kotai · administrator · law enforcer · ronin · educator · japan · diplomat · retainer · feudalism · noble birth
- Edo Japanshogun, shogunate, daimyo, Tokugawa, sakoku
- historical institutionsguild, papacy, caliphate, shogunate, sultanate
- samuraikatana, ronin, bushido, shogun, seppuku
- social hierarchycaste system, caste, class, class system, ranks
- Kamakura Japanshogunate, Mongol invasions, military government
- Meiji JapanEmperor Meiji, modernization, westernization, privy council, prefectures
samurai classpeasant class
Feudal agricultural laborers
eta · outcasts · merchant class · commoners · untouchables
samurai classcivilian population
non-combatants · peasantry · merchant class · tradespeople · craftsmen
samurai classcommon people
Non-elite members of society
lower classes · working class · peasantry · underclass · the masses