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Rōnin
A ''rōnin'' ( ; ja, 浪人, , meaning 'drifter' or 'wanderer') was a samurai without a lord or master during the feudal period of Japan (1185–1868). A samurai became masterless upon the death of his master or after the loss of his master's favor or privilege.Stephane Lun (2021). ''A Guide on Shinsengumi: the background and management.'' In modern Japanese usage, usually the term is used to describe a salaryman who is unemployed or a secondary school graduate who has not yet been admitted to university. Etymology The word ''rōnin'' literally means 'wanderer'. It is an idiomatic expression for 'vagrant' or 'wandering man', someone who finds the way without belonging to one place. The term originated in the Nara and Heian periods, when it referred to a serf who had fled or deserted his master's land. In medieval times, the Ronin were depicted as the shadows of samurai, master-less and less honorable. It then came to be used for a samurai who had no master (hence the te ...
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Rōnin (student)
In Japan, a is a student who has graduated from middle school or high school but has failed to enter a school at the next level, and consequently is studying outside of the school system for entrance in a future year.浪人 at Japanese-English dictionariesプログレッシブ和英中辞典 oニューセンチュリー和英辞典 ''Rōnin'' may study at a ''yobikō''. Etymology The term ''rōnin'' is colloquial; the word is more formal. The term derives from their having no school to attend, as a ''rōnin'', a masterless samurai, had no leader to serve. Sometimes, the term 二浪 (short form) or 二年浪人 (full form, 二年 - second year) is used for student who failed exams twice. In popular culture ''Rōnin'' appear frequently in fiction and Japanese popular culture. As an example, the manga and anime series '' Love Hina'' features three main characters, Keitaro Urashima, Naru Narusegawa, and Mutsumi Otohime, who are described as ''rōnin'' throughout most of the se ...
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Bushido
is a moral code concerning samurai attitudes, behavior and lifestyle. There are multiple bushido types which evolved significantly through history. Contemporary forms of bushido are still used in the social and economic organization of Japan. ''Bushido'' is also used as an overarching term for all the codes, practices, philosophies and principles of samurai culture. It is loosely analogous to the European concept of chivalry, but there are major differences. Origin Bushido formalized earlier samurai moral values and ethical code, most commonly stressing a combination of sincerity, frugality, loyalty, martial arts mastery and honour until death. Born from Neo-Confucianism during times of peace in the Edo period (1603–1868) and following Confucian texts, while also being influenced by Shinto and Zen Buddhism, it allowed the violent existence of the samurai to be tempered by wisdom, patience and serenity. Bushido developed between the 16th and 20th centuries, debated by pundi ...
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Seppuku
, sometimes referred to as hara-kiri (, , a native Japanese kun reading), is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. It was originally reserved for samurai in their code of honour but was also practised by other Japanese people during the Shōwa period (particularly officers near the end of World War II) to restore honour for themselves or for their families. As a samurai practice, ''seppuku'' was used voluntarily by samurai to die with honour rather than fall into the hands of their enemies (and likely be tortured), as a form of capital punishment for samurai who had committed serious offences, or performed because they had brought shame to themselves. The ceremonial disembowelment, which is usually part of a more elaborate ritual and performed in front of spectators, consists of plunging a short blade, traditionally a '' tantō'', into the belly and drawing the blade from left to right, slicing the belly open. If the cut is deep enough, it can sever the abdomin ...
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Samurai
were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They had high prestige and special privileges such as wearing two swords and '' Kiri-sute gomen'' (right to kill anyone of a lower class in certain situations). They cultivated the '' bushido'' codes of martial virtues, indifference to pain, and unflinching loyalty, engaging in many local battles. Though they had predecessors in earlier military and administrative officers, the samurai truly emerged during the Kamakura shogunate, ruling from 1185 to 1333. They became the ruling political class, with significant power but also significant responsibility. During the 13th century, the samurai proved themselves as adept warriors against the invading Mongols. During the peaceful Edo period (1603 to 1868), they became the stewards and chamberlains ...
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Battle Of Sekigahara
The Battle of Sekigahara (Shinjitai: ; Kyūjitai: , Hepburn romanization: ''Sekigahara no Tatakai'') was a decisive battle on October 21, 1600 ( Keichō 5, 15th day of the 9th month) in what is now Gifu prefecture, Japan, at the end of the Sengoku period. This battle was fought by the forces of Tokugawa Ieyasu against a coalition of Toyotomi loyalist clans under Ishida Mitsunari, several of which defected before or during the battle, leading to a Tokugawa victory. The Battle of Sekigahara was the largest battle of Japanese feudal history and is often regarded as the most important. Toyotomi's defeat led to the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate. Tokugawa Ieyasu took three more years to consolidate his position of power over the Toyotomi clan and the various ''daimyō'', but the Battle of Sekigahara is widely considered to be the unofficial beginning of the Tokugawa shogunate, which ruled Japan for another two and a half centuries until 1868. Background Toyotom ...
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Sengakuji Ronin Graves
is a Buddhist temple belonging to the Sōtō school of Japanese Zen located in the Takanawa neighborhood of Minato-ku, near Sengakuji Station and Shinagawa Station, Tokyo, Japan. It was one of the three major Sōtō temples in Edo during the Tokugawa shogunate, and became famous through its connection with the Akō incident of the forty-seven Rōnin in the 18th century. History Sengaku-ji was founded as a small chapel by Tokugawa Ieyasu in 1612 and was initially located in Sotosakura, near modern Kasumigaseki. After it was destroyed in the ''Kan'ei'' Fire of 1641, Shōgun Tokugawa Iemitsu ordered the five ''daimyō'' clans of Mori, Asano, Kutsuki, Niwa and Mizutani to rebuild the temple at its present location in Takanawa, but on a much larger scale. As this temple became the Edo ''bodaiji'' for the Asano clan, after the ''seppuku'' Asano Takumi-no-Kami Naganori for having broken protocol and drawing a sword in the Edo Castle, his funeral and tomb were located here. In ...
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Daimyō
were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and nominally to the emperor and the '' kuge''. In the term, means 'large', and stands for , meaning 'private land'. From the ''shugo'' of the Muromachi period through the Sengoku to the ''daimyo'' of the Edo period, the rank had a long and varied history. The backgrounds of ''daimyo'' also varied considerably; while some ''daimyo'' clans, notably the Mōri, Shimazu and Hosokawa, were cadet branches of the Imperial family or were descended from the ''kuge'', other ''daimyo'' were promoted from the ranks of the samurai, notably during the Edo period. ''Daimyo'' often hired samurai to guard their land, and they paid the samurai in land or food as relatively few could afford to pay samurai in money. The ''daimyo'' era ended soon after the Meiji ...
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Privilege (legal Ethics)
A privilege is a certain entitlement to immunity granted by the state or another authority to a restricted group, either by birth or on a conditional basis. Land-titles and taxi medallions are examples of transferable privilege – they can be revoked in certain circumstances. In modern democratic states, a ''privilege'' is conditional and granted only after birth. By contrast, a ''right'' is an inherent, irrevocable entitlement held by all citizens or all human beings from the moment of birth. Various Examples of old common law privilege still exist – to title deeds, for example. Etymologically, a privilege (''privilegium'') means a "private law", or rule relating to a specific individual or institution. The principles of conduct that members of the legal profession observe in their practice are called legal ethics. Boniface's abbey of Fulda, to cite an early and prominent example, was granted '' privilegium'', setting the abbot in direct contact with the pope, bypassing t ...
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Edo Period
The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characterized by economic growth, strict social order, isolationist foreign policies, a stable population, perpetual peace, and popular enjoyment of arts and culture. The period derives its name from Edo (now Tokyo), where on March 24, 1603, the shogunate was officially established by Tokugawa Ieyasu. The period came to an end with the Meiji Restoration and the Boshin War, which restored imperial rule to Japan. Consolidation of the shogunate The Edo period or Tokugawa period is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's regional '' daimyo''. A revolution took place from the time of the Kamakura shogunate, which existed with the Tennō's court, to ...
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Toyotomi Hideyoshi
, otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: Military Innovations that Changed the Course of History, Viking Press 1988. p. 68. Hideyoshi rose from a peasant background as a retainer of the prominent lord Oda Nobunaga to become one of the most powerful men in Japan. Hideyoshi succeeded Nobunaga after the Honnō-ji Incident in 1582 and continued Nobunaga's campaign to unite Japan that led to the closing of the Sengoku period. Hideyoshi became the ''de facto'' leader of Japan and acquired the prestigious positions of Chancellor of the Realm and Imperial Regent by the mid-1580s. Hideyoshi launched the Japanese invasions of Korea in 1592 to initial success, but eventual military stalemate damaged his prestige before his death in 1598. Hideyoshi's young son and successor Toyotomi Hideyori was displaced by Tokugawa Ieyasu at the ...
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Saitō Dōsan
, also known as Saitō Toshimasa (斎藤 利政), was a Japanese samurai during the Sengoku period. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"Saitō Dōsan"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 809. He was also known as the for his ruthless tactics. His honorific title from the Imperial Court was ''Yamashirō-no-kami'' (山城守). After entering monkhood in his later years, he was also called ''Saitō Yamashirō-nyudō-no-kami'' (斎藤山城入道守). Biography Originally a monk, he was a seller of oil. He became a ''daimyō'' through '' gekokujō'' of Toki Yorinari at Mino Province In 1542. Yorinari was forced out of Mino by Saitō Dōsan. The Saito fortress was located at Inabayama castle.Sengoku Bushō Retsuden 12: Saitō Dōsan
. Accessed September 20, 2007.

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Tōdō Takatora
was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of Tōdō clan from the Azuchi–Momoyama to Edo periods. He rose from relatively humble origins as an ashigaru (a light foot soldier) to become a ''daimyō''. Biography During his lifetime he changed his feudal master seven times and worked for ten people, but in the end he rendered loyalty to Tokugawa Ieyasu, who became his last master. Takatora started working for Azai Nagamasa at the age of 15. In 1576, he served Hashiba Hidenaga, the younger brother of Hashiba Hideyoshi, a senior vassal of Nobunaga, and was granted a smallholding of land. Tōdō Takatora was promoted rapidly under Hashiba Hidenaga. In 1581, Takatora defeat a local clan in Tajima Province, his holding was increased and he was made commander of a unit of musketeers. He fought in the Chugoku region and fought at the Battle of Shizugatake in 1583. In 1585, he served in the conquest of Kishū and defeated Yukawa Naoharu. He was given more land in Kii Province, an ...
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