Why did the samurai stop being warriors?

During the Heian period, which lasted from 794 to 1185, the samurai began to develop as regional clans gained power while the imperial government in Kyoto lost real control of the provinces.

On estates owned by wealthy shoen owners, armed retainers defended property and enforced authority.

These retainers became known as samurai, a word that developed from saburau, meaning "to serve," and which originally referred to attendants.

Over the 10th and 11th centuries, the Minamoto and Taira clans built broad military followings made up of such warriors. 

As events unfolded in the Genpei War of 1180 to 1185, the samurai class also rose to political power after the Minamoto clan defeated their rivals at the Battle of Dan-no-ura in 1185 and established the Kamakura shogunate under Minamoto no Yoritomo, who was appointed shogun in 1192.

Under the new military government, samurai maintained order and fought rebellions and invasions, including the Mongol invasions of 1274 and 1281.

During this period, their culture changed with a strong focus on martial skill and on horsemanship, their training included archery, and their role as armed enforcers of the shogunate became firmly established in Japanese society.

Zen Buddhism influenced their ethical outlook, and weapons such as the katana became more common for close combat. 

Over the centuries from the 12th to the 16th, samurai power continued to grow as successive shogunates, including the Kamakura and Ashikaga governments, depended on them to maintain rule.

During the Muromachi period from 1336 to 1573, regional warlords called daimyō commanded their own armies of samurai, which led to frequent armed conflicts.

In the Sengoku period, which lasted from the late 15th century to the early 17th century, rival daimyō fought for territory and power in near-constant warfare.

After the Portuguese introduced the arquebus in 1543, firearms altered battlefield tactics, and Oda Nobunaga demonstrated their effectiveness at the Battle of Nagashino in 1575. 

Eventually, under the leadership of Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu, Japan experienced gradual unification after decades of civil war.

During this time, samurai culture developed a strong ethical code later known as Bushidō.

Ideals of loyalty to one’s lord and personal honour became central to samurai identity, coupled with acceptance of dying in battle.

In 1603, Tokugawa Ieyasu established the Tokugawa shogunate, which began more than 250 years of peace in Japan under a strict social order with the samurai at the top. 

During the Tokugawa period from 1603 to 1868, Japan entered a long era of peace known as the Edo period, which gradually removed the samurai from active military life.

With no major wars to fight, they became administrators, bureaucrats, and scholars who lived in castle towns under strict social rules imposed by the shogunate.

In many domains, samurai relied entirely on stipends paid in rice by their daimyō, which left them financially at risk as rice prices went up and down, and domains suffered from financial strain. 

Eventually, the cost of maintaining large numbers of paid samurai placed heavy burdens on daimyō domains, and lower-ranking samurai often became impoverished as their stipends lost value.

In some cases, they took up teaching or minor trades to survive, even though the law forbade them from commerce.

As their military purpose disappeared and economic hardship grew, the traditional samurai class weakened long before foreign intervention destabilised the shogunate. 

During the 19th century, foreign contact returned to Japan after more than two centuries of isolation under the sakoku policy, and the shock of Western technology exposed Japan’s vulnerability.

On 8 July 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry of the United States arrived with his “Black Ships” and demanded that Japan open its ports to foreign trade, which forced the shogunate to sign the Treaty of Kanagawa in 1854.

As a result, political unrest increased as the country struggled to respond to the threat posed by Western imperialism. 

Among many samurai, especially those from Satsuma and Chōshū domains, support grew for the overthrow of the shogunate to restore imperial rule and modernise Japan’s military.

During the following Boshin War of 1868 to 1869, samurai fought on both sides of the conflict, yet modern firearms and artillery proved far superior to traditional swordsmanship and archery. 

After the victory of imperial forces in 1869, the Meiji government launched a programme of rapid modernisation that ended the feudal order.

In 1871, the government abolished the domain system and replaced it with prefectures under central control and removed the daimyō.

Samurai stipends continued temporarily but were ended by 1873, when the Conscription Ordinance created a national army that no longer relied on hereditary warriors.

Then, the Haitorei Edict of 28 March 1876 finally banned the public wearing of swords and ended the samurai’s exclusive right to be armed. 

As resentment spread among many former samurai, Saigō Takamori led the Satsuma Rebellion in 1877 to resist the reforms that had stripped them of status and privilege.

Imperial conscript forces armed with modern weapons crushed the rebels at the Battle of Shiroyama in late September 1877.

Saigō was killed during the final stages of the battle. After their defeat, samurai privileges disappeared as Japan adopted Western-style military and political institutions. 

In the decades that followed, former samurai families found new opportunities in a society that valued education and modern professions.

Many entered careers in politics, law, business, and academia. They used their literacy and connections to maintain influence in new ways.

Some figures of samurai background, such as Itō Hirobumi, who became Japan’s first prime minister, and Yamagata Aritomo, who became a field marshal, gained importance in the new government and military.

In some cases, former samurai became officers in the new army, where their military traditions and education still held value for leadership roles. 

In Japanese culture, samurai ideals continued to influence loyalty and discipline long after the class ceased to exist, and they gave public life a strong emphasis on honour.

Eventually, Bushidō ethics were promoted as part of national ideology in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, especially within the Imperial Japanese Army.

Works such as Nitobe Inazō’s Bushido: The Soul of Japan, published in 1899, spread the concept internationally.

Among many families of samurai descent, pride in ancestry remained strong, and they preserved histories, heirlooms, and traditions that connected them to Japan’s feudal past.