Gun Samurai

The samurai are dead.

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That’s not a morbid or melancholic statement - just a fact. Every samurai who ever lived has long since passed, and only the memory of their way of life remains.

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By the mid 1800s, the old ways - the way of the samurai - were fading. For centuries, Japanese society had followed a Confucian hierarchy that placed the samurai at the top. Beneath them were the peasants, who provided food and the essentials to sustain life. Below the peasants came the artisans and craftsmen, skilled in everything from building castles to forging swords and teacups. At the bottom were the merchants - those who merely traded in what others had made through labour or skill.

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Still, at least the merchants were part of the system. Outcasts like the burakumin, the hinin and senmin or the great filth; deemed impure or undesirable, lived entirely outside of it.

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Everything changed when Japan opened to the West. After more than 200 years of self-imposed isolation, Commodore Perry’s Black Ships arrived on 8 July 1853, forcing Japan to begin trading with America and Europe. Almost overnight, those with a mind for business - the merchants - began to rise in wealth, influence, and social standing.

 

Meanwhile, the samurai, bound by custom and status from engaging in trade or manual labour, began to lose both their economic power and their place in society.

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New weapons, technologies, medicines, and ideas flooded into the country. Power shifted away from the shogunate and toward the imperial court, culminating in the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868, when authority was formally returned to The Emperor. Within a decade, the samurai stipends were abolished, the military was modernised, and the last major samurai uprising - the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877 - was crushed.

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Some samurai, recognising that change was inevitable, adapted. They sought roles within the new military and government or transitioned into business. Iwasaki Yatarō of the Tosa Domain founded Mitsubishi for example and Torakusu Yamaha of course, founded Yamaha. Ōmura Masujirō, a samurai by birth, became the first defence minister in the new military. Others though were less fortunate, left with no option but to accept their new status among the common people.

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And so ended the age of the samurai, a class that had shaped Japanese life since the Kamakura shogunate was established in 1192.

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But the story did not end there.

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Over the next seventy years, Japan retained more than a passing reverence for the old ways. Ideals of loyalty, discipline, sacrifice, and honour continued to echo through the military, government policy, and national education. It wasn’t until the Treaty of San Francisco came into effect on 28 April 1952 - formally ending the Allied occupation of Japan after the Second World War - that country, now a peaceful and democratic nation, truly began to move beyond the way of the warrior.

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Today, the castles and strongholds once built with only conflict in mind stand as museums and cultural landmarks. Japan’s armed forces are now a Self-Defense Force, not an army of expansion. And the way of the samurai survives as a cultural relic - preserved and reimagined in film, television, anime, and literature, recognised across the globe.

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Yet beneath the surface, the legacy endures in quieter ways.

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Across Japan, individuals and small groups continue to study, preserve, and protect the remnants of that heritage. Much of this work is quiet, patient, and often unnoticed. After all, it’s far more captivating to watch a stylised swordfight in high definition than to painstakingly translate a weathered scroll written by a long-dead warrior. It’s easier to enjoy the choreographed flow of martial arts than to study the brutal techniques honed for the battlefield.

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It’s important to remember that the samurai were never just warriors. In peace, they became custodians of culture - overseeing festivals, ceremonies, and seasonal rituals that kept their communities alive. A retainer might spend one day drilling with a matchlock and the next organising a procession or hosting a tea gathering.

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My own role in the Gun Corps often felt the same. It wasn’t only about armour and gunpowder - it was parades, shrine visits, school events, and local festivals. TV. Newspapers. These moments may seem far from the battlefield, but they’re forming part of the same tradition. To understand the samurai, you have to understand the culture. One that values martial prowess. One that values art. One cannot exist without the other. And this is how the way of the warrior still endures.

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