by Ikaros Marks

Created on: June 14, 2009

The Samurai have influenced Japanese culture for many years. The word "Samurai" is denoted by a special character () which is a verb for waiting or accompanying a person from the upper ranks of society.

Land in the islands east of the Asian continent fell solely to the use of agriculture, rice farming being the major use of this agricultural land. Land boundaries began to be disputed as land became as precious as gold. In order to secure their land against neighbouring tribes, the people devised a system of land ownership by noble families whose sole purpose would be to protect the farmers and citizens of the land from its enemies.

By 200AD, the Han dynasty of China had received many envoys from courts located on the Japanese Isles. The Japanese looked to the west mainly because of the availability of new technology and raw materials to advance their growing society. Shortly after the Han Dynasty fell in 220AD, opportunistic clans from Kyushu waged war on the broken Chinese rulers.

The wars on the mainland continued for many centuries until the year 663AD when the Tang Dynasty united with the Silla of North Korea to deal a devastating blow to the warring Yamato and Pacheke clans of Japan. In haste the clans retreated to Japan to prepare for what seemed to be an imminent invasion by outsiders.

The Yamato started organizing a defence but the clan was thrown into turmoil by the death of their Great Lord, and the resulting civil war decimated both the Pacheke and Yamato clans severely. The ruler that emerged from this conflict, Lord Temmu, who was given the title "Heavenly Warrior Emperor" of Japan, set about controlling military strength and influence throughout Japan.

Democratic ties with the Tang Dynasty were forged and the Chinese started referring to them as the "sun Source" or "Jih-pen, the name which Marco Polo brought back to Europe many years later. The Japanese pronounced the same character "Nippon", and called themselves as such.

The military reforms put in place by Temmu set about training the clans in the art of horseback warfare using the stirrup acquired from their military defeats to the Chinese armies early in the campaign for Asia. The Kanto Plain in central Honshu was the place best suited for the raising of horses and horse-warriors and some of the earliest writing about men in the service of their country came from that region of Japan.

In the eighth century AD, the Japanese were no longer concerned with the threat of external invasion, but internal affairs caused them to direct their energies inwards. The Emishi were a tribe of warrior-like horse riders who terrorised the local populace, raiding settlements and villages as they saw fit. Their guerrilla-type warfare was not something the Japanese were used to and that, combined with the devastation of the local population due to smallpox and the expenses of conscripting an army almost destroyed the Japanese ruling class.

The saviours of the Japanese nobility were the warriors from Kanto. These "samurai" (as they became known) made up the majority of the fighting force in the northern extents of Honshu. They fought on horseback with bows and arrows as their primary weapon, as well as a newly designed sword with a curved blade, meant to inflict greater damage on an enemy whilst being ridden down.

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