ABSTRACT
SAMURAI was the name given to the military class among the Japanese, - a class intermediate between the Emperor and his nobles and the great mass of the common people who were engaged in agriculture, mechanical arts, or trade. Upon the samurai rested the defense of the country from enemies at home or abroad, as well as the preservation of literature and learning, and the conduct of all official business. At the time of the fall of feudalism, there were, among the thirty-four millions of Japanese, about two million samurai; and in this class, in the broadest sense of the word, must be included the daimios, as ,veIl as their two-sworded retainers; but as the greater among the samurai were distinguished by special class nalnes, the word as commonly used, and as used throughout this work, applies to the military class, who served the Shogun and the daimios, and who were supported by yearly allowances from the treasuries of their lords. These form a distinct class, actuated by motives quite different from those of the lower classes, and filling a great place in the history of the country. As the nobility, through long inheritance of power and wealth, became weak in body and mind, the samurai grew to be, more and more, not only the sword, but the brain
of Japan; and to-day the great work of bringing the country out of the Middle Ages into the nineteenth century is being performed by the samurai more than by any other class.
