The Rise of Samurai Rule, 1185–1336

Abstract

The transition from court to samurai rule permanently reconfigured Japan’s political and cultural landscape. Samurai notions of honour gave rise to a society that balanced notions of competition with collaboration, one that has detectable sociological resonances to this day. Early samurai, such as those who fought against the thirteenth-century invading Mongols, sought honour and reward through acts of heroism, while later samurai, domesticated through years of vassalage, had to discipline their pursuit of honour to concrete public needs. As with the Mongol invasions, samurai fought valiantly in order to better their personal reputations, and this established a culture of entrepreneurialism. But, countering this trend, vassalage encouraged the organizational conformity that evolved into Japan’s famous tendency towards corporatism. Throughout their centuries of rule, samurai balanced the pursuit of honour with their collective obligations, making them enduring heroic figures for many around the world. Samurai sought documentation of their success in battle through witness reports, just as Meiji entrepreneurs sought visible financial successes. The samurai Takezaki Suenaga, before engaging Mongol ‘pirates’, reportedly exclaimed, ‘The way of the bow and arrow is to do what is worthy of reward.’ Samurai found ways of building individual reputations within a constricting vassalage system, just as contemporary Japanese have found means of individual creative expression within Japan’s stifling corporate culture. In some respects, this is one of the most enduring legacies of samurai rule in Japanese society.