The Many Forms of Samurai Loyalty

[Music] [Music] hey [Music] when today we think about the qualities and characteristics held by the samurai throughout the centuries they existed one of the most key elements we popularly have come to associate with them is a sense of tremendous loyalty loyalty they held not only to their own lord but also of course their own family however as many of you may already be well aware this idea of samurai loyalty is one that is much more complicated beneath the surface as the deeper you look the iconic image of the dutiful honor bound loyal samurai gets torn down to reveal the face of the reality of this warrior class obviously it is true that the samurai held loyalty as a virtuous aspect to their lifestyle and role in society yet to say that each had the same outlook interpretation or specifically ways they adhered to their own loyalties varied from one samurai to the next especially during bitter times of war when loyalties were the most tested so this is what i want to talk about here today the interesting truth behind what really was the concept of loyalty to the samurai and how it often differed not only between themselves but to how we often view it now in retrospect now the primary way i'm going to go about discussing this topic is by taking you through the chapter examining samurai loyalty in anthony cummin's new release the book of bushido the complete guide to real samurai chivalry but don't be fooled here anthony is not saying that the concept we today call bushido was similar or the same as the european concept of chivalry in fact quite the opposite in this book he examines many different aspects of samurai philosophy and a lifestyle using stories writings and events from real samurai history to help us try to better understand the samurai themselves and this is largely done under the frame of the concept of bushido now as many of you may already know a while back i made a video about the myth that was bushido i will leave a link to it down below but in that video i went through how the idea we have of bushido today never really existed in a single form during the age of the samurai as bushido itself is more of a modern concept one that arose during the edo period and was later widely popularized by nitobe inazo's famous book bushido the soul of japan it was really here that we start to see it get incorrectly heavily compared to that of chivalry bushido was never a formalized code or any official single philosophy the samurai followed that is all a modern pop culture myth the samurai were known to adhere to a wide range of philosophical beliefs which today we like to all place under the term bushido and one of these aspects we so often associate with bushido is that of loyalty now in anthony's book of bushido what he first does is try to compare and contrast aspects we associate with that of bushido to that of chivalry things like loyalty courage respect and much more something done to really help us know that these two concepts although they are comparable to a degree are definitely not one and the same and should not be viewed as such now i myself was lucky enough to be able to proofread an early draft of the book as well as receive an advanced copy and i can tell you firsthand this is a great read for helping you understand the realities of the modern concept we have of bushido of course many of you may be jumping to your keyboards to comment that anthony is not the only person to have written about this subject however what anthony's version does do is tie into the series of books he has been releasing about samurai warfare and a lifestyle both through his book of samurai series and book of ninja works using historical documents and interpretation to help paint an image of feudal japan now to add on to the set anthony chose to cover bushido which is really great to see because anthony's latest release on top of other books and works from other authors about this subject are really all helping to change the idea we have about bushido shifting it away from the false depiction of that pop culture has ingrained into many people's minds so below i'm going to put a link to where you can get yourself a copy of the book of bushido i highly recommend it but with that said let's get on to actually talking about samurai loyalty as i previously mentioned loyalty is something we often associate with bushido today for obvious reasons being that so much about the samurai mindset has been lumped into the concept of bushido one of its most defining characteristics is that of unwavering loyalty not only to one's lord but importantly to one's own family and one's beliefs as stated before loyalty is often regarded to as a virtuous concept it is one every warrior and soldier has adhered to throughout history be it loyalty to a family loyalty to a lord loyalty to a state and each of these shades of loyalty bring with them a multitude of other colors so let's go through them in the book of bushido anthony cummins lays out the many different forms of loyalty there are in chapter six the section all about the samurai's view on loyalty we have true loyalty freely choosing to support a superior without coercion or indoctrination and with no care for financial gain this contrasts with paid loyalty loyalty made of a monetary arrangement in exchange for service loyalty which only lasts as long as the contract or payment does we have loyalty of cause when two parties share similar goals and thus a bond of loyalty is established in aims to achieve such goals holding loyalty to what one is trying to achieve and not necessarily to any single person but then we also have indoctrinated loyalty loyalty that in a sense is coerced through either persuasion or intimidation this is similar but not entirely the same as pure loyalty by force where loyalty is a matter of survival where often one's own life is under threat should they not be loyal yet interestingly enough there is also what we can consider as generational loyalty this is a set standard of loyalty that throughout the generations of one's family have remained true it is here loyalty to a lord or cause becomes more about prestige honor and tradition which then brings us to the concept of loyalty to the people where one's loyalty boils down to those they are in charge of and especially sympathizing or having a feeling of obligation to those beneath them now through these different forms of loyalty we can really dissect what samurai loyalty was using each of these definitions because each of them fits with shades of samurai and it is important to remember that different forms of loyalty and idealizations of loyalty can be seen throughout different eras of the samurai the idea of samurai loyalty during times of war is different from that seen during times of peace specifically these two different lenses of loyalty can be best viewed during the sengoku jidai japan's age of warring states and then through the idol period when japan came into a long era of peace under samurai rule personally i believe the most pure examination of what loyalty meant to the samurai comes in during times of war it is here we get the most thorough image of what loyalty meant to a wide range of samurai and there are many examples it is easy to see a wide majority of famous samurai who had genuine true loyalty figures such as honda tarakatsu okabe motonobu shimizu muneharu nawee and so many more these are just a few examples of samurai who understood their position in the world and did not question it they fully believed in their lord and the clan they served and were unwavering in their commitment but true loyalty is also a complex subject often whittled down to who you are really showing that true loyalty to take for example azai nagamasa who decided to support his longtime ally the asakura rather than his own brother-in-law orano naga nagamasa was more loyal to the long relationship he held with asakuda yoshikage than he was with nobunaga who had just seized the capital and was appearing more and more power-hungry in this case he chose not to be loyal to the oda but rather to be loyal to his long-standing ally another example is easily sanada masayuki now masayuki is someone who went through a lot he had seen his brothers killed at the battle of nagashino and had witnessed the sad slow decline of the once great takeda clan he served once the takeda were defeated he and his sanada family were really out for themselves yet he was determined to keep his family name alive through the period this resulted in him several times over swearing his loyalty to different lords only to shortly after abandon them for a stronger one we can see in the end masayuki held no true loyalty to any overlord after the takeda but now only held true loyalty to his family and no one else but what then of those who were paid for their loyalty those who held no true loyalty but gave their service in exchange for compensation during the warring eras in japan it was common for complete families and larger clans to be snuffed out by one another in many cases leaving scores of samurai unemployed as the daimyo they served had been disposed of these ronin masterless samurai would in turn then look to seek out new employment in some cases they would join up with a new clan who they would end up forging a new sense of true loyalty for but in many instances service was essentially a job and it mattered not who they served as long as they were paid for doing so however payment is also a factor that maintains loyalty as well and that lords often saw as a means to keep their subjects in line in the book of bushido anthony uses the example of tokugawa ieyasu to show how he used payment to ensure loyalty it is here he states loyalty does not always pay tokugawa ieyasu gave some of his most loyal men the lowest salaries but he also rewarded them with the most important strategic positions less trustworthy men were kept at a distance but with a higher income on the surface it seems unfair to have given more money to less loyal retainers but ieyasu evened up the score by making sure that life cost them a lot more yet for some loyalty was not about who you were in service to or how much you were compensated for your service in some cases loyalty was held because of belief in a cause whatever that cause may be now it is easy to confuse this with true loyalty as they can be very similar and oftentimes matters of true loyalty can be argued that they were just loyalty of cause one of the most prime examples i feel is that of sanada nobushike known today as yukimura for many years after the battle of sekigehara yukimura had been living in exile after the defeat of the western army whom he had supported yet when news came of a new conflict brewing between his old enemy tokugawa ieyasu and that of toyotomi hideyori at osaka yukimura returned from his exile to support the toyotomi heir now like i said the case could be made that this was yukimura showing true loyalty towards the toyotomi whom he had supported in the past but another path perhaps along with what true loyalty he held for the toyotomi was that he was also taking yet another opportunity to make a stand against the tokugawa the matter is open for debate another interesting example one could make is that of hirate masahide who was loyal to his clan but not necessarily to his own lord masahide for example took it upon himself to commit a protest act of sipuku and aims to force his lord the young ora bunaga into acting less like a fool all this for the sake of the betterment of the oda clan itself yet loyalty was not always something that was freely given but something given under pressure such was the case of indoctrinated loyalty and loyalty by force this is where once again we are going to talk about tokugawa ieyasu who for many years supported the powerful first unifier naga although we can often ask was ieyasu really loyal to nobunaga because he believed in him or was his loyalty a matter of self-preservation in reality it was more of a mutually beneficial relationship one that was somewhat symbiotic there were times when the oda needed the aid of the tokugawa for example at the battle of anegawa a battle in which the tokugawa greatly aided in nobunaga's victory but there were also other times when the tokugawa needed the oda such as the times when the takeda launched campaigns westward ieyasu knew he needed the oda in order to survive thus when rumors began to spread of his wife being involved in treasonous conversations with the takeda ieyasu had no other choice than to order her death but it didn't stop there under pressure from nobunaga ieyasu was also forced to order the death of his son as well believing that his son may eventually try to act rashly to avenge his mother's death in fear of losing everything by displeasing the powerful nobunaga eyasu had ordered the deaths of both his wife and son in the long run this grim decision would pay off the tokugawa clan would survive and ieyasu would remarry and have more children with which to carry on his name but either way the loyalty he showed to nobunaga by making the hard decision to order the deaths of his wife and son were obviously decisions made under immense pressure but while some were grappling with these strains of loyalty others found it to be an honorable privilege one passed down through generations in the book of bushido anthony describes the interesting tale of kanazawa tube whose family for 11 generations served the soma clan to them it was a privilege and there was indeed a certain desirable prestige in the longer a family held true to one clan in the case of chubay as his forefathers had all died in battle while in service to the clan he would continue this storied tradition by committing sipuku to follow his lord into death an act known as junshi and while generational loyalty like this was indeed a great obligation there were other times when loyalty was also an obligation to those under a samurai times when a samurai held loyalty to his people there are some fine examples of samurai lords who felt this obligation with one once again being that of tokugawa ieyasu who anthony reminds us was said to have eaten the same type of wheat porridge that the lower class did as to share in their suffering during times of war of course during the sengokujidai territory was at times exchanged quite frequently yet once a stable power established themselves over a domain it was important they form a bond with the people under them lest they suffer a revolt now so far we have talked about all the ways that samurai were loyal but now let us address how many of them were also not but before i get into figures who are usually considered a bit more devious i need to also point out that disloyalty was not always reflected negatively upon a samurai as disloyalty could also be seen as a matter of belief or disagreement the primary example i want to use for this is that of the many samurai who once served toyotomi hideyoshi but then would later fight against the toyotomi in the build up to end at the battle of sekigahara samurai such as kato kyomasa fukushima masanori hosokawa taraoki and toro takatora many of which chose not to support the toyotomi because the toyotomi faction was being championed by a figure they all distrusted ishida mitsunari so in turn they pledged themselves to a figure they saw as a more stable and logical leader tokugawa ieyasu their disloyalty to the toyotomi was not directly aimed at the toyotomi family itself but was instead aimed at the man who was leading its faction however many other samurite were disloyal largely because they had become ambitious opportunists not necessarily holding loyalty to anyone other than themselves such was the case for many lords who committed acts of gekko kujo the lower toppling the higher samurai who either broke away from their overlord or usurped them in aims to establish their own regime with three fine examples being hojo son sue harukata and akechi mitsuhide hojo son was one of the first of the singoku daimyo a figure who built up tremendous influence under the imagawa clan then broke away to form his own clan sui harukata was a samurai who became displeased with his lord ochi yoshitaka and thus assassinated him installing a puppet ochi daimyo so that he could embark on new military conquests he was unable to do before and then of course there is the most infamous tale of all that of akechi mitsuhide who betrayed oranobunaga in 1582 at the temple of onoji ending the reign of japan's first great unifier however to this day mitsuhide's own motives remain obscure for many samurai loyalty was actually something that needed to be earned and not willingly given hence why during the sengokuchi die we often see many prominent samurai switching sides abandoning one lord for another never really holding any actual sense of true loyalty or loyalty to any cause many of japan's famous samurai lords suffered the defection of prominent samurai beneath them it was a common thing during the sengoku period and one that always had to be looked out for and thus it was not uncommon for samurai lords to often put the loyalty of those beneath them to the test sometimes by even lying to them to see that their service had been terminated only to see how they would react however the most important defection of all no doubt occurred during the great battle of sahikahara when a large portion of the western army under kobayakawa hideyaki under fear of the tokugawa turned coat to attack the forces of ishida mitsunari but moving forward past the battle of sekigahara loyalty would be a major concern for ieyasu as he established his new tokugawa shogunate it was here as japan entered into the edo period the new shogunate really tried hard to force an idealization of loyalty propping up figures who were known to show great loyalty and shunning those who were seen to have not this in turn led to a championing of figures like minamoto no yoritomo who established the first shogunate in kamakura downplaying his lust for power and instead painting him in a positive light for bringing order to japan while figures like ashikaga takauji founder of japan's second shogunate were seen more negatively specifically in his case for abandoning his loyalties first to the kamakura shogunate and then later to the restored emperor in actuality there was little difference between figures like yoritomo and takawuji but they made for convenient propaganda however this was only one action the shogunate took to ensure new loyalty others included continuing policies that placed heavy restrictions on the owning of castles along with forcing daimyo to spend portions of their time in idol on top of all that by 1611 the shogunate would even introduce a new oath of allegiance which daimyo were to adhere to in the book of bushido anthony lists the many new rules of this oath that samurai lords had to abide by throughout the edo period these include promote the study of letters arms archery and horsemanship reduce the number of drinking parties and social events refrain from hiring lawbreakers rebels and murderers do not associate with people from other provinces report any social changes or new factions follow new marriage restrictions for the samurai class limit the number of retainers you bring with you to edo obey restrictions on types of clothes that can be worn and on the use of palanquins be thrifty and appoint people who are suitably qualified and although none of these rules outright enforce loyalty on their own altogether they create a set standard that samurai lords were to live by which in turn created a new sense of enforced security and stability there was much to be done to ensure that all the daimyo remained in check and of course this was not always enjoyed by the daimyo themselves and by the end of the tokugawa shogunate in 1868 many samurai clans had become eager to rebel for one reason or another in all honesty the question of samurai loyalty is a very murky subject although the samurai were a people that idealized loyalty the loyalties they held often differed coming in many different forms while plenty during times of war were often known to discard any semblance of loyalty whatsoever loyalty was something that samurai valued but in many ways the reason behind the value was different depending on the samurai while some held true to their clan family or cause others took pride in the honor of serving a clan for generations however many were also simply out to make their way in the world only giving their services to those who paid them while in other cases only serving who they believed to be the strongest and most legitimate with the worst offenders simply just shown to be out for themselves and although all these shades of loyalty were common during times of war it would be later during the reign of the tokugawa shogunate when the idea of loyalty and what it really meant to be loyal came into a new light especially when you factor in the views on loyalty that were written down by figures like yamamoto tsunatomo and even of course the actions of the 47 ronin as i mentioned earlier today samurai loyalty is continually wrapped up into the overall concept of bushido and it is not hard to see why the virtues of loyalty were ones that became championed during the idol period which then in turn would become ingrained into the growing concept of the way of the warrior bushido it is easy to see how idealizations of samurai society would make their way over into the growing philosophy of bushido that became more and more held in high regard and would later explode in itobe inazo's book by that point loyalty had become a core aspect of not just the samurai anymore but japan as a whole an ideal that had been ingrained into the population by the tokugawa shogunate a powerful military government that ensured peace in japan for over two centuries once again if you want to learn more about the concept of bushido or maybe just more about samurai loyalty i highly recommend that you go check out anthony cummins new release the book of bushido you can find a link to where you can get yourself a copy down below and with that said thank you for watching and don't forget to like subscribe and ring that notification bell if you enjoyed this video and found it to be most informative

Channel: The Shogunate

Views: 63,424

Keywords: Samurai, History, Japan, Antony Cummins, Bushido, Honor, Katana, Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Family, Lord, Daimyo, Shogun, Asia, Culture, Education, Military, Society, Social, Bond, Service, Ronin, Ninja

Id: B7PrTuXbUs4

Length: 24min 15sec (1455 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 11 2022