Shoguns and Samurai and Ronin and Ninja.... oh my...
It has come to my attention that some people are not aware what a shogun actually is. In short, he is a military general of feudal Japan. This has actually reminded me of several things I'd like to discuss on that topic, being feudal Japan. For those of you interested in samurais/ninjas, this might be a very interesting post. For those other than that... try another blog. I've always wanted to write an article on this topic, so here's my chance, let's hope I don't screw it up.
Okay, in feudal Japan there was a rigid class system, one of those classes being samurai. These were professional warriors, who trained night and day in the warrior arts. They served one lord, a daimyo, basically a feudal lord. The daimyos had their little share of land (sometimes pretty big), and the samurais protected that land and enforced that daimyo's laws. The samurai were paid in rice, to live off of, and were granted residence on that daimyo's land.
Well, eventually a guy named Tokugawa Ieyasu came along (I'm writing the names in Japanese format, family name first, personal name last), and he did a bunch of important stuff (too much that I'd care to write), and he became shogun, the big military ruler, in control of all samurai and daimyo's. Yes, there were still daimyos, but they had to check in with the shogun for whatever reason. There was still an emperor, and some of you are probably wondering why I don't call myself emperor in my little online domain. Well, there are two reasons, the first being shoguns are cool samurai people, and the second being the emperor at that time was more of a symbolic person. The shogun, being in control of all the samurai, essentialy had all the real power.
Okay, that basically covers and shogun and samurai portion of this post, but there are two more: ronin and ninja.
Ronin (I believe) literally means "wave man". And that's what they were, wandering warriors, without a lord to serve. Now, ronins were not samurai (though they carried swords more than likely), though they might have been at one time. Sometimes they were shamed samurai, and didn't want to commit seppuku (ritual suicied, without going into it), so they just left. Now, seppuku, even if done under criminal charges or something along those lines, still proved that you had your honor. So by deciding not to perform seppuku, the other samurai viewed you as dishonorable scum. Thus, you wandered, probably having to face off against a samurai in several duels.
Now, still on the topic of ronins, and for all those Rurouni Kenshin fans, he's a ronin, not a samurai. If you have not noticed, he wanders around, with no lord to serve. Thus, a ronin.
Probably one of the greatest warriors, and also ronin, was Miyamoto Musashi, author of The Book of Five Rings, a book on strategy. This book has also been adopted for business strategy, and I've seen it in both martial arts and the business section of the book store... somewhat confusing when you're trying to find a particular translation.
Okay, now, for the grand finale, the ninja! Probably the most controversial topic around. Now, to clear this up for all of the ninja fans. If you want to know the real secrets of the ninja... WATCH NARUTO OR READ THE MANGA NARUTO FOUND IN SHONEN JUMP MAGAZINE!
..... HAHA, I was just joking. But it is a good anime/manga. I myself have not seen the anime, but read the manga, and it's great. Okay, so about the real secrets of the ninja... I don't really know. In fact, most don't. There was a Stephen K. Hayes who went to Japan to study the art of the ninja, first westerner to be allowed in I heard. Well, yes, some probably were assasins, who wore dark colors, and knew every trick of the trade to not only avoiding capture, but to also make themselves invincible in battle (or almost invincible) should they ever get caught on some spy mission. Okay, well, what about the others? Like I said, some probably were assasins, but I have seen several paintings of Hattori Hanzo, and he was wearing samurai armor. In fact, I have heard (don't remember where though) that some even achieved the rank of samurai. They did have their own province, so why not be able to defend it like the samurai.
In fact, Oda Nobunaga did attack the Iga province (place where ninja clan was) and his army was repelled (eventually beat them though). Now, when I say repelled, I don't mean they all dropped dead because they were killed by 500 ninja assasins. No, there was a battle. Because I believe one of Hanzo's sons, I believe it was Hanzo Masanari was nicknamed "Oni Hanzo" or "demon hanzo" because he was a great lancer, and I don't believe lances are necessarily the best thing to use in assasination mission when you're probably going to want to be stealthy. So yes, the "ninja" clans did have to fight on the battle field, probably in armor similar to the samurai, with similar weapons, however they probably used more gorilla tactics than the samurai did. But there probably were ninjas similar to how we see them, who did specialize in assasinations and the art of stealth, just probably a lesser amount than we are lead to believe (such as everyone in the clan was a ninja and they could kill an entire army with one strike without being seen, as in the example above).
Time to wrap this thing up. And yes, for those intelligent people who noticed the difference between my signature name, Musashi, and the title of this blog, they don't go together. Musashi wasn't ever shogun, but I liked the name Musashi and I liked the name Shogun's Fortress, so I decided to use them. This information is not perfect, and I'm always open to learning, blah blah blah, in short, have any other information, I would like very much to see it. I hope that those people who did read this particular post found it interesting, especially those who are into these kinda things.
Okay, in feudal Japan there was a rigid class system, one of those classes being samurai. These were professional warriors, who trained night and day in the warrior arts. They served one lord, a daimyo, basically a feudal lord. The daimyos had their little share of land (sometimes pretty big), and the samurais protected that land and enforced that daimyo's laws. The samurai were paid in rice, to live off of, and were granted residence on that daimyo's land.
Well, eventually a guy named Tokugawa Ieyasu came along (I'm writing the names in Japanese format, family name first, personal name last), and he did a bunch of important stuff (too much that I'd care to write), and he became shogun, the big military ruler, in control of all samurai and daimyo's. Yes, there were still daimyos, but they had to check in with the shogun for whatever reason. There was still an emperor, and some of you are probably wondering why I don't call myself emperor in my little online domain. Well, there are two reasons, the first being shoguns are cool samurai people, and the second being the emperor at that time was more of a symbolic person. The shogun, being in control of all the samurai, essentialy had all the real power.
Okay, that basically covers and shogun and samurai portion of this post, but there are two more: ronin and ninja.
Ronin (I believe) literally means "wave man". And that's what they were, wandering warriors, without a lord to serve. Now, ronins were not samurai (though they carried swords more than likely), though they might have been at one time. Sometimes they were shamed samurai, and didn't want to commit seppuku (ritual suicied, without going into it), so they just left. Now, seppuku, even if done under criminal charges or something along those lines, still proved that you had your honor. So by deciding not to perform seppuku, the other samurai viewed you as dishonorable scum. Thus, you wandered, probably having to face off against a samurai in several duels.
Now, still on the topic of ronins, and for all those Rurouni Kenshin fans, he's a ronin, not a samurai. If you have not noticed, he wanders around, with no lord to serve. Thus, a ronin.
Probably one of the greatest warriors, and also ronin, was Miyamoto Musashi, author of The Book of Five Rings, a book on strategy. This book has also been adopted for business strategy, and I've seen it in both martial arts and the business section of the book store... somewhat confusing when you're trying to find a particular translation.
Okay, now, for the grand finale, the ninja! Probably the most controversial topic around. Now, to clear this up for all of the ninja fans. If you want to know the real secrets of the ninja... WATCH NARUTO OR READ THE MANGA NARUTO FOUND IN SHONEN JUMP MAGAZINE!
..... HAHA, I was just joking. But it is a good anime/manga. I myself have not seen the anime, but read the manga, and it's great. Okay, so about the real secrets of the ninja... I don't really know. In fact, most don't. There was a Stephen K. Hayes who went to Japan to study the art of the ninja, first westerner to be allowed in I heard. Well, yes, some probably were assasins, who wore dark colors, and knew every trick of the trade to not only avoiding capture, but to also make themselves invincible in battle (or almost invincible) should they ever get caught on some spy mission. Okay, well, what about the others? Like I said, some probably were assasins, but I have seen several paintings of Hattori Hanzo, and he was wearing samurai armor. In fact, I have heard (don't remember where though) that some even achieved the rank of samurai. They did have their own province, so why not be able to defend it like the samurai.
In fact, Oda Nobunaga did attack the Iga province (place where ninja clan was) and his army was repelled (eventually beat them though). Now, when I say repelled, I don't mean they all dropped dead because they were killed by 500 ninja assasins. No, there was a battle. Because I believe one of Hanzo's sons, I believe it was Hanzo Masanari was nicknamed "Oni Hanzo" or "demon hanzo" because he was a great lancer, and I don't believe lances are necessarily the best thing to use in assasination mission when you're probably going to want to be stealthy. So yes, the "ninja" clans did have to fight on the battle field, probably in armor similar to the samurai, with similar weapons, however they probably used more gorilla tactics than the samurai did. But there probably were ninjas similar to how we see them, who did specialize in assasinations and the art of stealth, just probably a lesser amount than we are lead to believe (such as everyone in the clan was a ninja and they could kill an entire army with one strike without being seen, as in the example above).
Time to wrap this thing up. And yes, for those intelligent people who noticed the difference between my signature name, Musashi, and the title of this blog, they don't go together. Musashi wasn't ever shogun, but I liked the name Musashi and I liked the name Shogun's Fortress, so I decided to use them. This information is not perfect, and I'm always open to learning, blah blah blah, in short, have any other information, I would like very much to see it. I hope that those people who did read this particular post found it interesting, especially those who are into these kinda things.
posted by JustAGuy @ 8:50 AM
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