Editing Samurai (section)

====Oda, Toyotomi, and Tokugawa====
[[File:The Three Unifiers of Japan.jpg|thumb|The three unifiers of Japan: from left to right: Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu]]

[[Oda Nobunaga]] was the well-known lord of the [[Nagoya]] area (once called [[Owari Province]]) and an exceptional example of a samurai of the Sengoku period.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://sitereports.nabunken.go.jp/8395 |title=たたかう人びと |author=Nagano Prefectural Museum of History |date=2005-03-01 |website=Comprehensive Database of Archaeological Site Reports in Japan |access-date=2016-09-02}}</ref> He came within a few years of, and laid down the path for his successors to follow, the reunification of Japan under a new ''bakufu'' (shogunate).

Oda Nobunaga made innovations in the fields of organization and war tactics, made heavy use of arquebuses, developed commerce and industry, and treasured innovation. Consecutive victories enabled him to end the Ashikaga Bakufu and disarm of the military powers of the Buddhist monks, which had inflamed futile struggles among the populace for centuries. Attacking from the "sanctuary" of Buddhist temples, they were constant headaches to any warlord and even the emperor, who tried to control their actions. He died in 1582 when one of his generals, [[Akechi Mitsuhide]], turned upon him with his army.

[[File:Battle-of-Nagashino-Map-Folding-Screen-1575.png|thumb|The [[Battle of Nagashino]] (1575)]]

[[Toyotomi Hideyoshi]] and [[Tokugawa Ieyasu]], who founded the Tokugawa shogunate, were loyal followers of Nobunaga. Hideyoshi began as a peasant and became one of Nobunaga's top generals, and Ieyasu had shared his childhood with Nobunaga. Hideyoshi defeated Mitsuhide within a month and was regarded as the rightful successor of Nobunaga by avenging the treachery of Mitsuhide. These two were able to use Nobunaga's previous achievements on which build a unified Japan and there was a saying: "The reunification is a rice cake; Oda made it. Hashiba shaped it. In the end, only Ieyasu tastes it."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Varshavskaya |first1=Elena |title=Heroes of the Grand Pacification: Kuniyoshi's Taiheiki eiyū den |date=2021 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-48918-9 |page=26 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=22tPEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA26 |language=en}}</ref> (Hashiba is the family name that Toyotomi Hideyoshi used while he was a follower of Nobunaga.)

Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who became a grand minister in 1586, created a law that non-samurai were not allowed to carry weapons, which the samurai caste codified as permanent and hereditary, thereby ending the social mobility of Japan, which lasted until the dissolution of the Edo shogunate by the Meiji revolutionaries.

The distinction between samurai and non-samurai was so obscure that during the 16th century, most male adults in any social class (even small farmers) belonged to at least one military organization of their own and served in wars before and during Hideyoshi's rule. It can be said that an "all against all" situation continued for a century. The authorized samurai families after the 17th century were those that chose to follow Nobunaga, Hideyoshi and Ieyasu. Large battles occurred during the change between regimes, and a number of defeated samurai were destroyed, went ''[[rōnin]]'' or were absorbed into the general populace.

During the [[Azuchi–Momoyama period]] (late Sengoku period), "samurai" often referred to {{nihongo3||若党|wakatō}}, the lowest-ranking ''bushi'', as exemplified by the provisions of the temporary law [[Separation Edict]] enacted by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1591. This law regulated the transfer of status classes:samurai (''wakatō''), {{nihongo3||中間|chūgen}}, {{nihongo3||小者|komono}}, and {{nihongo3||[[:ja:荒子 (武士)|荒子]]|arashiko}}. These four classes and the ''ashigaru'' were {{nihongo3|townspeople|町人|[[chōnin]]}} and peasants employed by the ''bushi'' and fell under the category of {{nihongo3|servants of the ''buke''|[[:ja:武家奉公人|武家奉公人]]|buke hōkōnin}}.<ref name="asukak">{{cite web|url=https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/aichikenshikenkyu/5/0/5_123/_pdf/-char/ja|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240719201334/https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/aichikenshikenkyu/5/0/5_123/_pdf/-char/ja|script-title=ja:天正拾九年六月廿三日付 豊臣秀次条目について|page=126|language=ja|publisher=[[Japan Science and Technology Agency|J-STAGE]]/[[Aichi Prefecture]]|date=|archive-date=19 July 2024|access-date=19 July 2024}}</ref> In times of war, samurai (''wakatō'') and ''ashigaru'' were fighters, while the rest were porters. Generally, samurai (''wakatō'') could take family names, while some ''ashigaru'' could, and only samurai (''wakatō'') were considered samurai class. ''Wakatō'', like samurai, had different definitions in different periods, meaning a young ''bushi'' in the Muromachi period and a rank below {{nihongo3||[[:ja:徒士|徒士]]|kachi}} and above ''ashigaru'' in the Edo period.