Samurai and Ninja: The Real Story Behind the Japanese Warrior Myth That Shatters the Bushido Mystique (5 page)

1. The
Eta
—These were people who took on menial tasks such as cleaning and labor and also dealt with animal corpses and the dead.

2. The
Hinin
—These people also dealt with base tasks, but also were wandering entertainers and the like.

The Eta and Hinin classes were still in existence in the twentieth century. It is only now that Japan has almost, if not completely, shaken off the stigma of the Eta-Hinin background.

Ainu—The indigenous race of Japan were also not considered to be part of the four-tier system.

Prostitutes, courtesans and geisha—Pleasure girls and women in entertainment are also external to the system.

Slavery—The lowest of all were slaves. While the term “slave” is correct, it is better understood as a forced servant. The main difference being that a “standard servant” could leave and serve other people. Many masters could hire them during their lifetime. Slaves were taken during battle, and in raids where an enemy was defeated. The defeated warriors were taken captive, as were whole families. Their new owners used them in any way that they wished. Some were even sold abroad in the slave trade. It was in the late 1500s that people like Lord Hideyoshi put an end to slavery.

The Samurai and His Servants

A samurai will undoubtedly have servants to aid him; sandal holders, grooms, helm and spear bearers. The number depended on their social ranking. The following is the main structure of command:

1. Samurai—He acts as the master of the house.

2. Ashigaru—Foot soldiers, ashigaru can either be temporary or permanent and may be retained in large groups by wealthy lords.

3. Chugen—Direct servants to the samurai, these will place the shoes of the samurai ready for him to step into, help him with tasks and serve him in his daily activity.

4. Komono—Servants who do tasks around a samurai’s house and deal with menial issues.

In a samurai household, the master is the head. His chugen will aid him and the komono will make the fires, cut wood, etc.

A point of interest: shinobi often infiltrated by moving into a house compound when the servants are performing their daily tasks. This was around dusk when it is difficult to see everyone’s faces. The movement of the servants covered the shinobi’s infiltration. They sometimes even acted as a servant in these twilight hours, such as carrying wood into the house, so that they could infiltrate without being noticed.

The Samurai and the Land

The samurai—and by default the shinobi—were heavily connected to the land and to farming in the first half of their thousand year history. The meaning of “feudal” is that overlords control farmland and men work it. The subclasses below an aristocratic or military rule would accept protection in exchange for working plots of land. This is not indigenous to Japan and is a worldwide phenomenon; however, this concept needs to be reapplied to the popular image of samurai life—the samurai were the knights and lords of their allotted land.

Japan was not always ruled by a central government. Throughout all of samurai history we see the land unified, then fall into collapse, only to be unified again. This cycle repeated itself. Therefore, depending on which point in history you are dealing with, the land and its produce may come under control of regional warlords. If we put the periods of unification aside for the moment, historical Japan can be seen as a “patchwork” of land. This is where each “patch” was a state (or province) owned by the leading warlord of that area. He was a baron of sorts. Below him were his commanders. Spread across his land were his knights (samurai)—who in this situation are his captains. They were full-time militarily capable warriors—the rest of the peasant population can be drawn upon as foot soldiers in times of need.

Focusing in on a single “patch,” we move to a solitary samurai house, nestled in a landscape of green rice paddies. Peasant dwellings were relatively nearby the house (or house complex). The samurai was the master, his horse looked after in the stables by his groom. His squire (of sorts) looks after his armor. Servants make his food and look after his domestic tasks. Depending on the scope of his wealth he may have had many farms under his control, each of which produces stock for the area. This governing of the farmlands is what gave the samurai his wealth and income, as did the occasional levying of taxes on the people of the area. This was done to support his lifestyle and military equipment. In return for this control, he (as a samurai) had to be war-ready for the local warlord. In truth, the local warlord held power over all of his samurai and their land. He could take away the samurai’s land and power if he wished. This is the very basis of a feudal system—that is until a stronger samurai came along and changed the balance.

With an understanding of the above, a divide between
samurai
and
jizamurai
can be explained. There is a basic rule of thumb—which is not true for every case, but which is a simplified overview. It is that in the first half of the epoch of the samurai, most samurai were landed gentry. Landed gentry were those men of good birth or standing—normally with a military background or a family history of military service. They were men who owned land and farms. They were considered a part of elite society. For a Westerner, consider the upper-class gentleman in his family manor house. With generations of antiques and family heirlooms, he looks out over his tracts of land. This was the primary situation for many, if not most, samurai in the first half of their age. However as history marched on, warlords controlled larger and larger areas of land. Their central powerbases became small cities. Samurai were encouraged to move from the land they oversaw, into towns and cities developed near their lords. This influx of samurai to towns and wards generated a new term, the
jizamurai
. The word jizamurai is made up of two ideograms, “ji”
地
(land/ground) and “samurai”
侍
and is translated as “samurai of the land” or “landed gentry.” This term referred to those of the military class who owned land, lived on it, and controlled the farmers below them. As with all cultures, the town samurai perceived themselves as more cultured. They saw themselves as more refined than their samurai counterparts who are “up in them there hills.” However, they are seen as equal in class and are without doubt samurai. When war beckoned, the town samurai rode out of the samurai district with banners in the sun. Drums and horns sounded in the countryside as the jizamurai rode out to war.

However, the story of the jizamurai takes on a sour twist. The land of the samurai was once a collection of fortified manor houses, mountain castles, and fortifications. These were spread across all the independent states. However, as the Sengoku Period progressed, more and more sections of this land came under a new ruler. The new conquering warlords changed the map of Japan to a land being predominantly ruled by a few powerful samurai. This had only one result. The jizamurai of each area were either defeated, their homes and lands taken from them, or they were absorbed into the armies. A new breed of war, on a national scale, spilled over the land. At the end of the Sengoku Period, when the Tokugawa family took control, almost all samurai were forced to leave their homes. They had to move to estates in the towns and cities nearer their lords. The mountain forts and castles were destroyed. The flatland castle was made a major center of all cities under the control of the defeated warlords—with the Tokugawa family sitting firmly at the top. This means that samurai left their natural habitat of independent lands and farming estates, and were now paid directly by the lord. They lived in luxury mansions in samurai districts next to flatland castles—the age of the country samurai manor came to an end.

The result of this depends on each individual case, but all of which fall into two main categories. Either the jizamurai became normal town samurai, or they were defeated. Their land was taken from them—dropping them outside of the samurai class system. However, as they are ex-samurai, their social position cannot be denied. They couldn’t fit directly into the new samurai class. Therefore the term jizamurai took on a
new
meaning, it became “half-samurai.” These ex-samurai became local leaders or took up other positions, with one foot in samurai life and the other foot in peasant life. It must be reinforced that
most
documentation from Japan is from the “age of peace.” Therefore, the term jizamurai is sometimes used with derogatory overtones, meaning those who are no longer samurai—below the social status that their families once held. Most readers of Japanese history now consider the jizamurai to be the poor half-peasant with a sunburnt face; digging in the sunshine with the other toothless peasants. The image of the jizamurai being outside of the samurai class has set in. This is most problematic when we move to shinobi history.

The warriors of Iga and Koka can be described as jizamurai. This means that the above problem affects the story of the shinobi. The families of Iga and Koka (lands famous for shinobi) were considered jizamurai—landed gentry—before the invasions, and takeover, of Lord Nobunaga in the 1580s. These jizamurai families of Iga and Koka actually had no overlord and were independent. After the fall of Iga in the 1580s, with the surrender of Koka, these landed samurai fell from true jizamurai. They then came under the new definition of jizamurai—“half peasant half samurai;” or even straight peasants. However, this idea of the peasant in the field is simply not accurate. For example, the Yamanaka family of Koka were ex-samurai who were shinobi-trained. As a family, they owned land that was approximately one hundred meters square and had what we would consider a mansion complex and servants—not quite the financially struggling hovel-dweller that you would expect. However, there is without a doubt a financial shortfall. This is an inability to fund a military family or run a military clan, which train and retain full time warriors—who also practice the arts of the shinobi. This type of funding was not within the scope of the new jizamurai. Many attempts were made by the people of Koka to regain status and official employment. They wished to continue their military ways.

A simple way to remember this is that—from a broad perspective—the number of independent land-owning clans is
greater
at the start of samurai history and becomes
fewer
as time goes by. At the same time, the number of town samurai is
lower
at the start of samurai history but greatly
increases
as Japan is unified. The tipping of the balance resulted in jizamurai being displaced and pushed just outside of the samurai class. Remember, in early times most samurai were from small collections of families who owned areas of land. Later on most of these families moved to towns and cities to serve the new super-lords—like the Tokugawa family.

The Daimyo Warlords

Moving away from the general population of the samurai class, we will focus on the lords and warlords. All samurai were not created equal. Some samurai could have more interaction with the peasants that he ruled than with the lord he served. Therefore the samurai class should be seen as an existing on a spectrum. The lowest are the poorer members of the samurai, barely affording to hold onto their military status. All the way to the shogun, who ruled the nation and was in essence an extremely rich king.

The Japanese term given to the lord of a province is
daimyo
which literally means “big name”
大名
. The daimyo was comparable to a European baron, the lord-commander of the knights, the ruler of a domain. He was the final word in law and decision-making. While the country was at war the power of the daimyo amplified. He originally was second to no man, a lord in his own province, and wielder of total power. Many daimyo would enter into agreements and treaties, and marry into each other’s families. They set up a system of hostages and loyalty. During Japan’s history, the country has been unified a number of times under the emperor or the shogun. Which means that, at these times, the daimyo became second in command. His land was subject to the law of the shogun. However, when the country moved to war again, they generally formed independent coalitions—a country divided, where no one ruled above them.

The daimyo families can be
loosely
divided into three types according to the period.

1.
Shugo
(created pre-Sengoku Period by imperial decree)

2.
Non-
shugo
(mainly rose to power in the Sengoku Period—known as Sengoku diamyo)

3.
Kinsei
(early modern, i.e., Edo Period).

A shugo family is a daimyo family that has been given official power—normally by imperial decree—and has authority to rule over the population. While the non-shugo families served in support, in the turmoil of war some non-shugo families formed uprisings against the higher clans and overthrew some of them. They became the most powerful families; especially in the Sengoku Period. The land became a mixture of ruling shugo and non-shugo families. The implications of this are that there was an undercurrent of thought on who had “the right to rule” and those who claimed “a right to rule through force.” One reason for this reversal of power came from the way that non-shugo families were powerful families who usually resided in an area that was directly engaged in farm management. These clans were actually controlling and producing crops and food—the lifeblood of medieval Japan. The shugo families tended to be detached from direct interaction with these jizamurai families and used the non-shugo families as middlemen. When the wars came, the non-shugo families seized elements of power and the structure of Japan changed. The term used for this is
gekokujo
and means “those from below who take control and power.” The term is still used in modern Japan.