Who are The Famous Samurai?

10 Fascinating Samurais

“The Top 10 Fascinating Samurais” was featured on the overseas website, Listverse. The ranking is as follows: 

1. Oda Nobunaga
2. Toyotomi Hideyoshi
3. Shingen Takeda
4. Tokugawa Ieyasu
5. Date Masamune
6. Honda Tadakatsu
7. Miyamoto Musashi
8. Kusunoki Masashige
9. Minamoto no Tametomo
10. Tomoe Gozen

All figures who ranked higher than Honda Tadakatsu ranked 6th, are from the Sengoku Period. Furthermore, from a Japanese point of view, figures who ranked higher than the 5th place with Date Masamune are considered more of a daimyo or perhaps a tenkabito rather than a samurai. We get the impression that the interpretation of the word, “samurai” differs slightly between Japan and overseas. 

10. Tomoe Gozen

Tomoe Gozen represents the female warrior of the late Heian Period. She appears in various works and performances in later years as Kiso Yoshinaka’s close adviser. It has been said that she was a raven-haired beauty, but she is more known for her skills in the use of arms.
She took the the head of enemy general Onda no Hachirou Moroshige acclaimed for his bravery, when he and Yoshinaka became engaged in a single combat. This is considered her most famous anecdote. 

Active Period

Tomoe Gozen was active in the late Heian Period which is during the same time Minamoto no Yoritomo and Yoshitsune fought to defeat the Taira Clan.

9. Minamoto no Tametomo

Also a figure from the late Heian Period like Tomoe Gozen who came in 10th, Minamoto no Tametomo is the uncle of Minamoto no Yoritomo and Yoshitsune brothers. Tametomo was an expert in archery, and stories say that he sank a Taira ship with a single arrow. He also terrified the enemy army by deliberately avoiding the assassination of the general. Additionally, he is known for being the first samurai who performed “harakiri”, which is a term just as famous overseas as the term “samurai”.

Active Period

Also the late Heian Period, the same time Minamoto no Yoritomo and Yoshitsune fought to defeat the Taira clan.

8. Kusunoki Masashige

After the fall of the Kamakura Shogunate, Kusunoki Masashige became the leading figure of the “Kenmu Restoration” formed by Emperor Godaigo during the Nanboku-chō Period. He was known as a strategic genius in warfare, incorporating guerrilla tactics which went beyond common sense. Masashige is also famous for his loyalty as he served Emperor Godaigo until the end, knowing that he was literally fighting a losing battle. 

Active Period

It can be said that Kusunoki Masashige represents the Nanboku-chō Period.

7. Miyamoto Musashi

It seems even our greatest swordsman, Miyamoto Musashi is also referred to as a samurai. A swordsman from the early Edo Period, Miyamoto Musashi is notable for being the founder of “Niten Ichiryu” swordsmanship and as the author of “The Book of Five Rings”. It is also said that he won all of the 60 or so duels he experienced in his lifetime. Furthermore, Musashi was repeatedly involved in a number of important battles in the late Sengoku Period, including the “Battle of Sekigahara” and “Summer Seige of Osaka” as well as having a role in pacifying the “Shimabara War”,  all in the 1600’s. 

Active Period

Miyamoto Musashi was active between the late Sengoku Period and the early Edo Period, surviving a time of what is undoubtedly considered a time of turmoil.

6. Honda Tadakatsu

Honda Tadakatsu, who is always the first name to be brought up in “The Debate of the Most Powerful Sengoku Lord” also made it into the best 10. Tadakatsu was a general who was active as one of Tokugawa’s Big Four. His unbelievable episode that he never lost a battle or was wounded during his lifetime, as well as his erratic but vigorous actions on the battlefield must have made quite an impression on oversea fans.

Tadakatsu is introduced as “The Warrior who surpassed Death”.

Active Period

Honda Tadakatsu served Tokugawa Ieyasu and was active during the late Sengoku Period to the early Edo Period.

5. Date Masamune 

Known as the one-eyed Sengoku general, “the One-eyed Dragon” Date Masamune was born with an ambition to become a ruler and was believed to have had what it takes to become one. However, many say that “he was born 10 years too late,” referring to the fact that he was not exactly blessed with timing.

In this sense, Masamune making it in 5th place is a perfect result as he can almost be considered equals but falls just short of the figures who ranked above him.  

Active Period

Masamune was active from the late Sengoku period to the Edo Period.

4. Tokugawa Ieyasu

As the ruler of the country and founder of a shogunate which lasted for more than 300 years, Tokugawa Ieyasu is evaluated as a cunning strategist. Although he is popular for being the conqueror of the Sengoku Period, he is ridiculed by his nickname “Tanuki Oyaji” which refers to him being a cunning oldman, and this appears to be the case in both Japan and overseas. 

Active Period

eyasu was active from the late Sengoku Period to the Edo Period and can be referred to as the conqueror who began the Edo Shogunate. 

3. Takeda Shingen

Despite having great power, enough to unify the country and to conquer, Shigen put a priority on solving problems his own land was facing.  Although he did not become a conqueror, he is appraised for being the epitome of a Sengoku daimyo who solidified his vassals and built a firm bond with his team.

Active Period

Shingen is one of the daimyos who represents the Sengoku Period. 

2. Toyotomi Hideyoshi

Coming from a peasant background, Hideyoshi rose to the top of the samurai hierarchy and became the conqueror by his power alone at a time when bloodline was everything. It seems universal that people love success stories, and this happens to be the reason behind Hideyoshi’s popularity. 

Active Period

Hideyoshi was active from the Late Sengoku Period to the Edo Period. 

1. Oda Nobunaga

Nobunaga failed to unify the country and become conqueror; however he is highly recognized for not choosing his subordinates according to their blood or birth. His political achievements such as free markets and open guilds, as well as foreign trade, are also very much worth mentioning. 

Active Period

Nobunaga was active between the late Sengoku Period to the Edo Period. 

 Famous Foreign Samurais

The most famous foreign samurai in Japan is probably Yasuke, a man of African origin who served Oda Nobunaga.

It is said that Yasuke was brought to Japan from India by a Jesuit missionary. He was over 5 feet 10 inches (180cm) which would have been a towering height for Japanese back then when the average height barely reached 5 feet 3 inches (160cm). On top of that, records show that his black skin was described as “dark as ink”. Both these attributes would have shocked the people of a practically monoethnic country. 

Within a year of his arrival, Yasuke achieved the status of a samurai and accompanied Nobunaga on the battlefield. He was also present with Nobunaga at Honnōji during the “Honnō-ji Incident” in 1582, and from this we can see how much Nobunaga trusted him. 

Yasuke is not the only samurai who gained the trust of power figures despite being a foreigner.

We will be introducing 3 other famous foreign samurais

Jan Joosten (in the Netherlands)

Also referred to by his Japanese name “Yayōusu”, Jan Joosten was a Dutch sailor aboard the Dutch ship “De Liefde,” which was stranded in Bungo (what is now Usuki City, Oōita prefecture) in April of the year 1600. 

As Tokugawa Ieyasu’s diplomatic and trade adviser, he provided him with knowledge on world affairs. However, since Toyotomi Hideyoshi held the power of trade with the Portuguese, Ieyasu was in need to find a new trade route which could not be intervened by the Jesuits. 

For this reason, another sailor named William Adams who was also aboard “De Liefde” was appointed to support Ieyasu with his knowledge of ships and navigation. It can be said that just as much as Joosten, Adams played an important role in the foundation of the Tokugawa Shogunate which lasted for 300 years. 

Joosten was provided a home in Edo later on, married a Japanese woman and had children. The place name of present day “Yaesu” is derived from the alteration of his Japanese name “Yayōusu” and the location of his home.

He made a significant contribution to the vermilion-seal certificate trade with Southeast Asia and also the trade between Japan and the Netherlands. His life came to an end when on his way back from an intergovernmental negotiation with then-East India, he drowned from shipwreck. 

Active Period

Joosten was active from the Late Sengoku Period to the Edo Period, serving Tokugawa Ieyasu. 

William Adams（in England）

WIlliam Adams (Japanese name: Miura Anjin), who was also on “De Liefde” and was stranded in Bungo, served as a diplomatic advisor to Tokugawa Ieyasu, and he taught the basics of mathematics and geometry. 

He engaged in the vermilion-seal certificate trade with Southeast Asia alongside Jan Joosten. In Izu, he constructed an English-style ship making him an important figure in Japan’s shipbuilding industry. 

Just like “Yaesu” was named after Joosten, The Edo residential area near Nihonbashi which included his home was called, “Anjincho” after Adams’ Japanese name. 

He was committed to begin commerce with England, but died from illness at the age of 55. 

Active Period

Adams was active from the Late Sengoku Period to the Edo Period, serving Tokugawa Ieyasu. 

Kim Yeo-cheol（in Korea）

Kim Yeo-cheol, also known as Wakita Naokata, was a clansman of the Kaga Domain in the early Edo Period. He was originally from Korea, became an orphan in 1592 due to the Bunroku War, and came to Japan as Ukita Hideie’s captive. 

Hideie’s lawful wife Go’s biological elder brother was Maeda Toshinaga, and Yeo-cheol was appointed to serve Toshinaga’s lawful wife, Gyokusenin. Eventually, he was adopted into the Wakita family (hereditary stipend was approximately 450 koku), which was one of Maeda Toshinaga’s vassals and gave himself the name, Wakita Naokata. 

Wakita Naokata was promoted to 1000 koku for his achievements in the “Summer Seige of Osaka”. He is also remembered for his talent in the field of literature and arts, including linked poems and landscape gardening. In the end, his hereditary stipend reached 1500 koku, so Naokata can probably be considered the most successful of the “foreign samurais”. 

Active Period

Yeo-cheol was active from the late Sengoku Period to the Edo Period as a clansman serving the Kaga clan.       

What kind of people were the Samurais?

Samurais (bushi warriors) originally served and guarded people of higher class. The origin of the word, “samurai” is “saburau” which means “to serve people”. 

Among the category of bushi warriors who were associated with warfare, the ones who served wealthy landowners were referred to as “samurai” and were clearly distinguished from other bushi warriors who did not have a specific master.

Eventually, bushi warriors instead of wealthy landowners gained control over the society. If one fought in battle, they were called “samurai”, allowing people from any background to become a “samurai” from their contributions on the battlefield. Therefore, the samurai position seemed to become an embodiment of success.

In the Edo Period, bushi warriors (samurai) were acknowledged by their status by the class system consisting of warriors, farmers, artisans and tradesmen, and warriors were considered the highest rank. This made the status of samurai capable of governing Japan both in name and reality. 

Additionally, the distinctive idea known as “bushidou” describing the ways of a samurai became established from the Edo Period. They protected famous ideologies such as:  

“Risking one’s life to serve the master” = Absolute loyalty 

“Taking responsibility of one’s words, and having determination to commit suicide in case of failure” = Seppuku

This bushido is similar to “chivalry” of the west, but the ideology of taking one’s own life in order to pay the price does not exist in western culture. This makes bushido an extremely unique culture to the rest of the world. 

Periods in which Famous Samurais Lived in

Samurai families serving the wealthy landlords gradually gained power from the Heian Period to the Edo Period, but this all came to an end in 1686 when Tokugawa Yoshinobu enacted the restoration of imperial rule, and the samurais returned their rights to the Meiji Emperor. 

Let’s trace the history of samurais during each of the periods they lived in.  

Kamakura Period

After defeating the wealthy and powerful Taira Clan to end their regime, Minamoto no Yoritomo opens the Kamakura Shogunate based on military government. 

Samurai status was very high back then and the name “samurai” became a term that stood for an immediate vassal who served the Shogun. Back in the Heian Period, samurais served the Royal family and the higher class. The fact that they began to serve Shoguns who also came from samurai families like themselves meant the rise of samurai status.  

Bushi warrior was also separated into “samurai” and “rōjū and rōto”. “Rōjū” and “rōto” were not in the position to serve a samurai.

Furthermore, samurais were also distinguished between “immediate vassal” and “non-samurai retainers”, more precisely immediate vassals who owned property and served the shogunate, and non-samurai retainers who did not have any relationship or contract with the shogunate and were independent samurais.

Since samurai families gained power in the Kamakura Period, the definition of samurai did not remain the same as it did in the Heian Period. It was a period of transition with non-samurai retainers present all over the country, meaning not all bushi warriors were under the control of the shogunate.  

Muromachi Period

The system of Muromachi Period did not differ greatly from that of Kamakura Bakufu; however, “samurai dokoro” assuming functions of the military and police were set up in the central government. 

Ones who came from a prestigious family were appointed as the director referred to as “shoshi”. 

Just like in the Kamakura Period, bushi warriors who directly served shogun families were called “samurai”. Even if one’s master was a shugo daimyo with quite some power, serving a shugo daimyo meant becoming the servant of a shogun’s servant, therefore these bushi warriors were not considered samurais.  

Compared to the system of government of the Kamakura Shogunate, the Muromachi Shogunate was not as powerful. The internal feuds of shogun families and the conflicts between shugo daimyos were to cause the “Ōnin War” which marked the beginning of the Sengoku Period. 

Sengoku Period

The definition of samurai changed completely in the chaotic Sengoku Period when the term no longer referred to just the warriors who served the emperor, landlords or shogun but to anybody who fought in the battlefield. 

In this turbulent period of war, if one was able to distinguish themselves in battle, they were a samurai whether they were a soldier with great confidence and skill, or a person of low class. 

Among the many samurais is the famous “Saitō Dōsan” who rose to a feudal lord from an oil-seller, and “Toyotomi Hideyoshi “ who became a military commander and accomplished placing the country under one rule despite his peasant upbringing. They made a change to history on their own and completely made a difference to the definition of samurai. 

Edo Period

With Tokugawa Ieyasu opening the Edo shogunate, the country remained stable for a long time during the early Edo period. At this time, if one with a bushi rank owned less than a fief of 10,000 koku and the rank of the household was above a certain “hatamoto” rank or more, he was considered a samurai. 

However, during the same Edo Period came a time when the class system was established to clearly distinguish between bushi warriors and townspeople or farmers. It was from then that all bushi warriors began to be classified as “samurai”. 

Samurai’s Spirit　 What is “Bushido”?

Bushido is what we call the special moral and ethical values and ideas of the Japanese bushi warrior class. 

There are a number of values and ideas in bushido. Surprisingly, many of these values and ideas that formed “the way to a samurai” were structured in the Edo Period following the time samurais fought on the front line, and their active engagement in battle was at the height of its prosperity. 

Therefore, it can be said that bushido was a sort of moral code and a preparation for becoming the ideal samurai.

Words of Bushido 1 “Makoto”

The highest virtue in bushido is said to be “makoto” meaning sincerity and truth. 

When one says that a task will be performed, it’s as good as done. The phrase, “A samurai never goes back on his word” embodies the virtue of “sincerity and truth”. 

A bushi or samurai warrior will always perform what they promised and if they failed to keep their word, they were criticized for being a coward. Dishonor from criticism was considered the greatest shame to a bushi warrior or samurai, and they did their utmost to avoid it. This way of thinking made a strong influence on the unique values of bushido.  

Words of Bushido 2 “Yu”

“Yu” stands for doing what is right with heroic courage. 

However, doing what is right with blind courage is not considered “Yu”.  

To practice “Yu”, there must also be “Gi” which is integrity and sense of duty. The right path does not contain calculation or any selfish motives, but should represent justice. 

Additionally, “Yu” must not be displayed unless it is for something worthy. For example, one can take their own life for something worth dying for but if they lose their life for something unworthy, it would only be considered “recklessness” and be looked down upon. 

Famous Samurai Films

Bushi and samurai sacrifice their lives in battle for their lord in a jidaigeki, which seems to have contributed to the image of Japanese = Samurai. Now where exactly did this impression come from? 

Many samurais appear in various forms of media such as films, television series, novels, manga, anime and games, and it seems most foreigners discovered samurais in films. 

The Last Samurai

“The Last Samurai”, a Hollywood movie from the year 2003 starring Tom Cruise is quite possibly the best historical drama film made overseas.  

Tom Cruise plays an American military officer who is hired to modernize the Japanese government military force in the wake of the Meiji Restoration. Japanese actors, Ken Watanabe and Hiroyoyuki Sanada play key roles in the movie, and it can be said without exaggeration that their talented acting as samurais shaped the image of samurais overseas.  

The sword fight scenes are especially worth watching. Not only the two Japanese actors, but Tom Cruise also performs excellent sword fight scenes.

Seven Samurai

“Seven Samurai” is a film masterpiece by Akira Kurosama, who up to this day remains the symbol of the Japanese film industry as “world-renowned Kurosawa”.  

The story is set in a poor farming village of the Sengoku Period. Fearing the attack of “nobushi” or wandering samurais, the villagers hire 7 samurais to have them protect the village as well as the rice ready for harvest, and they team up to face the “nobushi”. The impact this film made on the world was tremendous. Many films created onwards such as “The Magnificent Seven” and “Battle Beyond the Stars” were inspired by “Seven Samurai”. 

An interesting theme of the film is the contrast between the villagers who are poor yet cunningly clever and the samurais who risked their lives for a small reward.

13 Assassins

The film “13 Assassins” made in 1963 is a masterpiece of the so-called “group conflict jidaigeki” based on events of the time Tokugawa Ieyoshi was the 12th Tokugawa shogun in 1844.  

The rōjū of the time, Doi Ooinokami gets his subordinate, Shimada Shinzaemon to assemble 12 men and 1 man from the assassination team to murder Matsudaira Naritsugu, the tyrannical lord of the Akashi domain and half-brother of the shogun. 

This film was remade in 2010 by director Miike Takashi with upgraded battle scenes than the original. In a system where both enemy and ally are samurai, the one most aware of this absurdity is none other than the enemy and seemingly madman Matsudaira Naritsugu played by Goro Inagaki, a very ironic take on the original.

Rurouni Kenshin series

The original was an extremely popular serial cartoon on Weekly Shonen Jump. “Rurouni Kenshin” is the story of Himura Kenshin, the former “legendary assassin” who made efforts to establish the Meiji government during the Meiji Period. 

The live-action film adaptation was expanded into 5 films in total. Popular episodes were featured in each film instead of squeezing a collection of highlights into a single film, which won the satisfaction of original cartoon fans. 

The action scenes are certainly a must-see, as they are very realistic and full of speed and unlike any action scenes we’ve seen before in Japanese films.

Furthermore, Sato Takeru who portrayed the lead role was perfectly cast because of his “small frame, youthful looks but awesome action moves” which completely fit the characteristics of “Himura Kenshin”. The rest of the actors were perfect in their roles as well, making the live-action “Rurouni Kenshin” possibly the only live-action film that succeeded in bringing cartoon characters to life on screen.

Zatoichi

The 1962 film “Zatoichi” is based on “The Tale of Zatoichi” by Shimozawa Kan. Katsu Shintaro plays the lead role Zatoichi or Ichi, a blind wandering gambler who travels all around the country and confronts evil with his drawing blade technique. Different versions of “Zatoichi” have been made since this production. 

Beat Takeshi played his version of Zatoichi in the 2003 film “Zatoichi”. The film received mixed reviews with Takeshi’s bleached blonde hair and the tap dancing scene in the end performed by a huge crowd which seemed to completely ignore the jidaigeki image up until then. Nonetheless, the film was a big hit.

In 2008, Ayase Haruka starred as “Ichi” with the lead role being a female character, and in 2010 Katori Shingo starred in “Zatoichi THE LAST” in which Ichi reaches for his sword again after an attempt to live a normal life. 

Remakes and reboots of “Zatoichi” have been made over the course of time. It shows us how much the work is open to interpretation and has timeless universality.

In Summary

What did you think? Samurais are always receiving attention in Japan of course, but also from all over the world. They have changed with the times and it can be concluded that they made a significant impact on Japanese values.