Samurai Ideals in Chûshingura

Even before the Kamakura period the Japanese warrior had begun his ascent to a higher social status. During the Heian period collateral branches of the imperial line, the Minamoto and Taira clans, represented two of the greatest warrior associations. Wars and battles that broke out during the eleventh century in the Kanto area presented the local warriors and the powerful clans with the chance to continue to build up their power (Schirokauer 181). During Kamakura period the provincial warrior class had managed to consolidate political power at the expense of the nobility. Under the Minamoto clan leader, Yorimoto, the Taira clan was defeated in the Gempei War, a bakufu or "tent government" was established – which demonstrated the military origins of his power - and the emperor named him shogun. The shogun had delegated power under the control of the emperor – which by this time was merely theoretical – and would represent an institution in Japanese politics that would last until the nineteenth century (Schirokauer 289). The shogun maintained his power through the loyalty of vassals - warriors who vowed service to a lord in exchange for military protection and land rights. This loyalty would become the characteristic ideal of the samurai warrior.
The warrior class would rule society and politics in Japan until the Tokugawa Shogunate in the nineteenth century. A samurai was a member of the Japanese elite and his lifestyle was dictated by a series of strict moral codes and ideals. True loyalty to his lord was expected, if not always followed through in its ideal form. In 1703 a vendetta carried out by forty-six former vassals avenging their lord 's death would come to be viewed as the embodiment of samurai ideals. Playwrights and storytellers have used the story of the valiant and devoted retainers many times since, due to the tale 's immense popularity in Japan. What would go on to be called "the most famous and popular work in the entire Japanese

Bibliography: Keene, Donald. Chushingura (The Treasury of Loyal Retainers): A Puppet Play. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997. Schirokauer, Conrad, et al. A Brief History of Chinese and Japanese Civilizations. New York: Wadsworth Publishing, 2005.