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A samurai in his armour in the 1860s. Hand-colored photograph by Felice Beato. Samurai or bushi (武士, [bɯ.ɕi]) were members of the warrior class in Japan.Originally provincial warriors who served the Kuge and imperial court in the late 12th century, they eventually came to play a major political role until their abolition in the late 1870s during the Meiji era.
The Sengoku period, also known as Sengoku Jidai (Japanese: 戦国時代, Hepburn: Sengoku Jidai, lit. 'Warring States period'), is the period in Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or Meiō incident (1493) is ...
Oda Nobunaga, late 16th-century depiction. In 1579, Yasuke arrived in Japan in the service of the Italian Jesuit missionary Alessandro Valignano. [4] [15] Valignano had been appointed the Visitor (inspector) of the Jesuit missions in the Indies (which at that time meant East Africa, South, Southeast, and East Asia).
Miyamoto Musashi (宮本 武蔵), born Shinmen Takezō (新免 武蔵, c. 1584 – 13 June 1645), [1] also known as Miyamoto Bennosuke and by his Buddhist name, Niten Dōraku, [2] was a Japanese swordsman, strategist, artist, and writer who became renowned through stories of his unique double-bladed swordsmanship and undefeated record in his 62 ...
Hasekura Tsunenaga was born in year 2 of the Genki era (1571) in Ushū, Okitama-no-kōri, Nagai-sō, Tateishi-mura (now part of modern day Yonezawa in Yamagata Prefecture. [1] He was the son of Yamaguchi Tsuneshige [ja] (山口常成), who had ancestral ties with Emperor Kanmu. [2][1] He was a mid-level noble samurai in the Sendai Domain in ...
William Adams (samurai) William Adams (Japanese: ウィリアム・アダムス, Hepburn: Uwiriamu Adamusu, historical kana orthography: ウヰリアム・アダムス; 24 September 1564 – 16 May 1620), better known in Japan as Miura Anjin (三浦按針, 'the pilot of Miura '), was an English navigator who, in 1600, became the first ...
In the 16th century, Japan began trading with Europe, during what would become known as the Nanban trade. This was the first time matchlock muskets were imported, and as they became mass-produced domestically, samurai needed lighter and more protective armour.
Up until the mid-16th century and Shingen's rise to power, mounted samurai were primarily archers. There was already a trend at this time towards larger infantry-based armies, including a large number of foot archers. In order to defeat these missile troops, Shingen transformed his samurai from archers to lancers.