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Who were the samurai?

The samurai were a warrior class in feudal Japan. (Feudalism was social and political system with strict class divisions between nobility and peasants.) Beginning around the 800s in Japan. As in the feudal system in Europe during the Middle Ages (A.D. c. 450–c. 1500), the samurai ruled over local peasants and defended their manor houses, which were often surrounded by a moat. There was much fighting between rival clans. In 1192, when Minamoto Yoritomo led one of the most powerful groups of samurai to power, his regime was called the Kamakura shogunate. Military dictators called shoguns ruled Japan from that time until 1867. (shogunis the Japanese word for "barbarian-subduing generalissimo"). An emperor, not a military leader, has ruled Japan since 1867.

Further Information: Bryant, Anthony. Early Samurai, 200–500 A.D.London: Osprey, 1991; Hooker, Richard. World Civilizations: Ancient Japan....

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