[18] The samurai class, as the word was used during the Kamakura period, was the warrior subclass below the gokenin. Some samurai were sub-vassals to a gokenin and therefore served the shogun indirectly. Like the gokenin, the samurai were mounted warriors and had surnames. Below the samurai class was the chūgen, footsoldiers who had no surname ...
Samurai, member of the Japanese warrior caste. The term samurai was originally used to denote the aristocratic warriors, but it came to apply to all the members of the warrior class that rose to power in the 12th century and dominated the Japanese government until the Meiji Restoration in 1868.
The samurai (also bushi) were a class of warriors that arose in the 10th century in Japan and which performed military service until the 19th century. Elite and highly-trained soldiers adept at using...
From medieval beginnings, the samurai have inspired art, fiction and films, from Shōgun to Star Wars. But their true story is more complex and surprising than we might realise.
'Fabled knights of old': The true story of Japan's mysterious samurai - BBC
The samurai, who abided by a code of honor and discipline known as bushido, were provincial warriors in feudal Japan ...
The samurai warrior caste dominated Japan from the Kamakura to the Edo period. Over those centuries, they developed in ways that shaped Japanese history.
The Evolution of the Samurai (From the Kamakura to the Edo Period)