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SAMURAI
侍
samurai
The Decline of the Samurai
In the early 1600s, Tokugawa Ieyasu unified the country, pacified the rebellious daimyo warlords, and put an end to Japan’s era of civil war. The Tokugawa shogunate kept the peace for the next 250 years. This was good news for the general populace, but bad news for the samurai.
With the end of constant warfare, the main source of samurai employment was swept away. The samurai were forced to become administrators in peacetime. Many were employed in this capacity by the regional daimyos, who now reported to the shogun in Edo. The samurai might also find employment in the bakufu / 幕府—the central government set up by the shogun.
Ultimately, however, there weren’t enough of these jobs to go around. The samurai were far more numerous than the aristocrats of Medieval Europe; they comprised about five percent of the Japanese population. The result of this imbalance was mass unemployment among the samurai. Those samurai who could not find work might become itinerant, masterless ronin. These ronin often organized themselves into gangs, and roamed the countryside as bandits.
Moreover, a conflict was growing between the samurai and the rising merchant class. The samurai had long regarded the merchant class as little more than an evil necessity. Now, however, the merchants were gaining more power. As the overall financial situation within the samurai class deteriorated, many warriors became heavily indebted to merchants. Unable or unwilling to pay, these samurai often used their connections in the bakufu government, which sometimes acted on the indebted samurai’s behalf, and pressured merchants to settle debts at reduced rates.
The final blow to the samurai came in 1853, when U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry sailed into Tokyo harbor and demanded that the bakufu open up Japan to foreign commerce. The bakufu was indecisive in the face of American demands, and popular sentiment turned against it. The bakufu signed a treaty with the United States that effectively opened Japan to the outside world. Soon foreigners (first the Americans—then the Europeans) began to set up trading settlements; and Western influences abruptly began pouring into the country.
Within the samurai class there was widespread anger over the new foreign presence. Foreigners had been banished from Japanese soil since the early 1600s, when the shogun expelled Europeans upon pain of death. Now they were forcing their way back in, and the bakufu seemed powerless to stop them. The situation was made worse by the fact that the Emperor had refused to endorse the American treaty.
Next: The Samurai Backlash to the Opening of Japan