Historic Samurai

Samurai were very important and historic warriors in Japan a long time ago.  Now samurai don’t live in Japan. But almost all Japanese people’s ancestors are Samurai. At first, their origins were during about 1000 to 1900. Their first fighting was the Genpei war, between Genji and Taira were fighting. In 1192 Samurai, Genji reigned over Japan. Nest, their lifestyles were interesting. . When they were fighting they wore Yoroi, like armor. Their hair was Chonmage, the traditional hairstyle for samurai and a hairstyle which is shaved on top with a ponytail in back. I thought it was funny hair. They were always farmers, growing many kinds of vegetables, practicing riding horses or shooting many arrows, and eating rice. Many other people like farmer couldn't eat it. Third, all Japanese people know about 3 famous people, Nobunaga Oda, Hideyoshi Toyotomi and Ieyasu Tokugawa. When I was an elementary school student, I studied about them. Nobunaga Oda was very passionate and many Japanese people liked him. Nobunaga Oda wanted to reign over Japan but he was killed by a follower. After that, his follower, Hideyoshi Toyotomi continued it, but when he almost finished, he died. Next, Ieyasu Tokugawa won the Sekigahara war. I like this war, because this war became many TV program. And he made the shogunate in 1603. Moreover, his family had reigned for about 300 years. Japanese history was longer than American history. Samurai made Japanese history, so I liked Japanese history and samurai.

Research Notes

Arlan Dean, Samurai, Scholastic.