Editing Samurai (section)

===Tokugawa shogunate===
{{See also|Edo period}}
After the Battle of Sekigahara, Tokugawa Ieyasu consolidated power and was declared shogun in 1603. After the [[siege of Osaka]] in 1615, there was a period of peace for 250 years. During the Tokugawa shogunate, samurai underwent many changes, and first became a truly hereditary class. Although this process was begun by Hideyoshi with the combination of the Sword Hunt of 1588 and the Separation Edict of 1591.<ref name="Schirokauer">{{cite book |last1=Schirokauer |first1=Conrad |title=A brief history of Chinese and Japanese civilizations |date=2012 |publisher=Wadsworth}}</ref> Most samurai moved from the land to the castle towns, with one town in each domain.<ref name="Modern Japan">{{cite book |last1=Tipton |first1=Elise |title=Modern Japan A Social and Political History |date=2002 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9780415185370}}</ref> With no warfare since the early 17th century, samurai gradually lost their military function during the Tokugawa era. Neo-Confucianism became very influential and the division of society into four classes was officially adopted by the shogunate.<ref name="Modern Japan"/> Landed samurai had to choose to either give up their lands to become stipend samurai, or to keep their lands and become peasants.<ref name="Kwon">{{cite book |last1=Kwon |first1=Grace |title=State Formation, Property Relations, & the Development of the Tokugawa Economy (1600-1868) |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=9781317794530}}</ref>

Following the passing of a law in 1629, samurai on official duty were required to wear [[Daishō|two swords]]. However, by the end of the Tokugawa era, samurai were aristocratic bureaucrats for their ''daishō'', becoming more of a symbolic emblem of power than a weapon used in daily life. They still had the legal right to cut down any commoner who did not show proper respect {{nihongo|''[[kiri-sute gomen]]''|斬り捨て御免}}, but to what extent this right was used is unknown.<ref name=":32">{{Cite book |last=Wert |first=Michael |title=Samurai: A Very Short Introduction |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-068510-2 |location=New York |publication-date=2021-02-01 |pages=35, 84 |language= |oclc=1202732830}}</ref> When the central government forced ''daimyōs'' to cut the size of their armies, unemployed rōnin became a social problem.

Theoretical obligations between a samurai and his lord (usually a ''daimyō'') increased from the Genpei era to the Edo era, strongly emphasized by the teachings of [[Confucius]] and [[Mencius]], required reading for the educated samurai class. The leading figures who introduced Confucianism in Japan in the early Tokugawa period were Fujiwara Seika (1561–1619), Hayashi Razan (1583–1657), and Matsunaga Sekigo (1592–1657).

[[Pederasty]] permeated the culture of samurai in the early seventeenth century.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Murphy |first1=Taggart |title=Japan and the Shackles of the Past|date=2014 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York|isbn=978-0190619589 |pages=46 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9byvBAAAQBAJ}}</ref> The relentless condemnation of pederasty by [[Jesuit]] missionaries also hindered attempts to convert Japan's governing elite to Christianity.<ref name="Japan and the Shackles of the Past">{{cite book |last1=Murphy |first1=Taggart |title=Japan and the Shackles of the Past|date=2014 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York|isbn=978-0190619589 |pages=37 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9byvBAAAQBAJ}}</ref> Pederasty had become deeply institutionalized among the daimyo and samurai, prompting comparisons to ancient [[Pederasty in ancient Greece|Athens and Sparta]].<ref name="Japan and the Shackles of the Past"/> The Jesuits' strong condemnation of the practice alienated many of Japan's ruling class, creating further barriers to their acceptance of Christianity.<ref name="Japan and the Shackles of the Past"/> [[Tokugawa Iemitsu]], the third shogun, was known for his interest in pederasty.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Murphy |first1=Taggart |title=Japan and the Shackles of the Past|date=2014 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York|isbn=978-0190619589 |pages=46 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9byvBAAAQBAJ }}</ref>

From the mid-Edo period, wealthy {{nihongo3|townsman||[[chōnin]]}} and farmers could join the samurai class by giving a large sum of money to an impoverished {{nihongo3|||[[gokenin]]}} to be adopted into a samurai family and inherit the samurai's position and stipend. The amount of money given to a ''gokenin'' varied according to his position: 1,000 ''ryo'' for a {{nihongo3|||[[yoriki]]}} and 500 ''ryo'' for an {{nihongo3||[[:ja:徒士|徒士]]|kachi}} Some of their descendants were promoted to {{nihongo3||旗本|[[hatamoto]]}} and held important positions in the shogunate. Some of the peasants' children were promoted to the samurai class by serving in the {{nihongo3||代官|[[daikan]]}} office.<ref name="yamamoto">{{cite web|url=https://imidas.jp/jidaigeki/detail/L-57-110-08-04-G252.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240719202919/https://imidas.jp/jidaigeki/detail/L-57-110-08-04-G252.html|script-title=ja:武士（ぶし）／侍（さむらい）|language=ja|publisher=[[Shūeisha]]|date=|archive-date=19 July 2024|access-date=19 July 2024}}</ref> ''Kachi'' could change jobs and move into the lower classes, such as ''chōnin''. For example, [[Takizawa Bakin]] became a ''chōnin'' by working for [[Tsutaya Jūzaburō]].<ref name="ocha">{{cite web|url=https://www.cf.ocha.ac.jp/ccjs/j/menu/consortia/d007975_d/fil/121003.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240716005713/https://www.cf.ocha.ac.jp/ccjs/j/menu/consortia/d007975_d/fil/121003.pdf|script-title=ja:近世後期の江戸における武家の養子と身分 滝沢馬琴を事例に|language=ja|publisher=[[Ochanomizu University]]|date=|archive-date=16 July 2024|access-date=16 July 2024}}</ref>

====Samurai in Southeast Asia====
[[File:Yamada-Nagamasa-Portrait-Shizuoka-Sengen-Shrine.png|thumb|Portrait of [[Yamada Nagamasa]], circa 1630]]

In the late 1500s, trade between Japan and Southeast Asia accelerated and increased exponentially when the Tokugawa shogunate was established in the early 1600s. The destinations of the trading ships, the [[red seal ships]], were Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, etc. Many Japanese moved to Southeast Asia and established Japanese towns there. Many samurai, or [[rōnin]], who had lost their masters after the Battle of Sekigahara, lived in the Japanese towns. The Spaniards in the Philippines, the Dutch of the [[Dutch East India Company]], and the Thais of the [[Ayutthaya Kingdom]] saw the value of these samurai as mercenaries and recruited them. The most famous of these mercenaries was [[Yamada Nagamasa]]. He was originally a palanquin bearer who belonged to the lowest end of the samurai class, but he rose to prominence in the Ayutthaya Kingdom, now in southern Thailand, and became governor of the [[Nakhon Si Thammarat Kingdom]]. When the policy of national isolation (''[[sakoku]]'') was established in 1639, trade between Japan and Southeast Asia ceased, and records of Japanese activities in Southeast Asia were lost for many years after 1688.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://worldhistorycommons.org/japanese-mercenaries-and-dutch-east-india-company|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208072323/https://worldhistorycommons.org/japanese-mercenaries-and-dutch-east-india-company|title=Japanese Mercenaries and the Dutch East India Company|publisher=World History Commons|archive-date=8 February 2023|access-date=14 February 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jafame/11/0/11_61/_pdf/-char/ja|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240214233332/https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jafame/11/0/11_61/_pdf/-char/ja|script-title=ja:Relationship of Japan and the Netherlands in Asia Market in 17th Century and Today|language=ja|publisher=[[Wako University]]/J Stage|pages=61–67|archive-date=14 February 2024|access-date=14 February 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hirogin.co.jp/lib/kaigai/bangkok/report/b2107/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220824133456/https://www.hirogin.co.jp/lib/kaigai/bangkok/report/b2107/|script-title=ja:「異国で王になった男」山田長政|language=ja|website=The Hiroshima Bank |archive-date=24 August 2022|access-date=14 February 2024}}</ref>

====Samurai as diplomatic ambassadors====
[[File:Hasekura in Rome.JPG|thumb|[[Hasekura Tsunenaga]] portrayed during his mission in Rome by [[Archita Ricci]], 1615]]

In 1582, three ''[[Kirishitan]]'' ''daimyō'', [[Ōtomo Sōrin]], [[Ōmura Sumitada]], and [[Arima Harunobu]], sent a group of boys, their own blood relatives and retainers, to Europe as [[Tenshō embassy|Japan's first diplomatic mission to Europe]]. They had audiences with King [[Philip II of Spain]], [[Pope Gregory XIII]], and [[Pope Sixtus V]]. The mission returned to Japan in 1590, but its members were forced to renounce, be exiled, or be executed, due to the Tokugawa shogunate's suppression of Christianity.

In 1612, [[Hasekura Tsunenaga]], a vassal of the ''daimyo'' [[Date Masamune]], led a diplomatic mission and had an audience with King [[Philip III of Spain]], presenting him with a letter requesting trade, and he also had an audience with [[Pope Paul V]] in Rome. He returned to Japan in 1620, but news of the Tokugawa shogunate's suppression of Christianity had already reached Europe, and trade did not take place due to the Tokugawa shogunate's policy of ''sakoku''. In the town of Coria del Rio in Spain, where the diplomatic mission stopped, there were 600 people with the surnames Japon or Xapon as of 2021, and they have passed on the folk tale that they are the descendants of the samurai who remained in the town.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/society/general-news/20210316-81043/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231128162019/https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/society/general-news/20210316-81043/|title=Faithful legacy of the 'samurai ambassador'|publisher=|date=16 March 2021|archive-date=28 November 2023|access-date=15 February 2024}}</ref>

At the end of the Edo period ([[Bakumatsu era]]), when [[Matthew C. Perry]] came to Japan in 1853 and the ''sakoku'' policy was abolished, six diplomatic missions were sent to the United States and European countries for diplomatic negotiations. The most famous were the [[Japanese Embassy to the United States|US mission in 1860]] and the [[First Japanese Embassy to Europe (1862)|European missions in 1862]] and [[Second Japanese Embassy to Europe (1864)|1864]]. [[Fukuzawa Yukichi]], who participated in these missions, is most famous as a leading figure in the modernization of Japan, and his portrait was selected for the [[10,000 yen note]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ndl.go.jp/portrait/pickup/016/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230223100039/https://www.ndl.go.jp/portrait/pickup/016/|script-title=ja:世界を見たサムライ達|language=ja|publisher=[[National Diet Library]]|archive-date=23 February 2023|access-date=15 February 2024}}</ref>