Cody Mosblech

Samurai Culture

Since the formation of the samurai class religion had a strong presence in every aspect of a

samurai's lifestyle. Although ultimately many religions were introduced to the samurai, the two that had

the biggest effects were Zen Buddhism and Shintoism. The samurai drew many ideas from these two

religions, and the resulting lifestyle can be formalized in the code the samurai followed.

Shintoism is a pseudo-religion based around nature and its influence in a persons daily life

indigenous to Japan. In Shintoism, spirits called Kami take on the form of everything in the natural

world. If these spirits are treated kindly, the spirits will treat the individual kindly in return. This

connection between people and nature can be disrupted by various things classified as 'pollution', such

as disease and death(BBC). These early beliefs ironically allowed the samurai to quickly establish a

niche for their violent lifestyles in society. Shintoists wanted nothing to do with pollution, samurai

provided a way to take care of problems indirectly.

Zen Buddhism was introduced to the samurai hundreds of years after shinto, and ended up

being able to coexist with shintoism. Buddhism is centered around the belief that one can achieve

enlightenment through discipline and meditation. Where Shintoism was more concerned with life,

Buddhism was more concerned with the afterlife(Skwirk). The samurai easily adopted this into their

current belief system, because they were already so centered on discipline as warriors. From Zen the

samurai adopted the tea ceremony and zen gardening. Zen Buddhism had an important impact on the

samurai because it helped develop the samurai's attitude towards death. A samurai had a reason to no

longer be afraid of death, because according to Buddhism they would be reincarnated (Rowan).

The main ideas of these religions had a clear impact on the samurai way of life as a whole, since

many samurai were religious before they were samurai. Shinto was around before the samurai, and

allowed the samurai to get a hold in society. In the popular image of the samurai, religion itself is not

expressed as much as the effects it had and rituals that developed from it such as the tea ceremony. This

is probably because tries to avoid the topic of religion in order to avoid appearing biased or touching on

sensitive social issues. By researching how religion ties into the samurai, I was able to understand the

reasoning for many of their customs and their lifestyle. For example, why they were so comfortable

with the idea of being killed or killing themselves.

Works Cited

"BBC - Religion: Shinto." BBC - Religions. BBC, n.d. Web. 1 Oct. 2013.

<http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/shinto/>.

"Japanese religion, Medieval Japanese societal structure, Medieval and early modern

societies." Skwirk. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Oct. 2013. <http://www.skwirk.com.au/p-c_s-

14_u-177_t-515_c-1913/>.

Rowan, Justin. "The Rise of Buddhism in Politics and War." The Samurai Archives Japanese

History Page. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Oct. 2013. <http://www.samurai-

archives.com/bdij.html>.