ations and the persuasion their peers were all that could impose a limit to the [Knights] violence and greed.” However, when the Church attempted to harness the knight and his military prowess in the 11th to 13th centuries the knight was raised to a very high level of Nobility (Gies, 45). Similarly by the twelfth century the power of Japan’s Central government declined and provinces banned together for protection. Many of these groups came to be led by branch members of the Imperial family because of the prestige of imperial descent. These Imperial family members had moved to provinces away from Kyoto to make their own fortunes. Similar to the early knights these provincial clans often resembled little more than vigilante bands protecting their own interests. Thus, The samurai rose out of the continuing battles for land among three main clans: the Minamoto, Taira, and the Fujiwara family. The Samurai eventually became a class unto themselves between the 9th and 12th centuries A.D. They were called by two names: Samurai (servitors) and Bushi (warriors). Some of them were related to the ruling class. Others were hired men. They gave complete loyalty to their Daimyo (feudal landowners) and received land and position in return. Each Daimyo used his samurai to protect his land and to expand his power and rights to more land. By providing complete loyalty to their Daimyo (feudal landowners) they received land and position in return. This loyalty often included seppuku, honorable suicide. Training of samurai often began at a very early age as Musashi Miyamoto, Japan’s most famous Samurai, wrote in 1605 AD. “From youth my heart has been inclined toward the Way of strategy. My first duel was when I was thirteen, I struck down a strategist of the Shinto school, one Arima Kihei. When I was sixteen I struck down an able strategist Tadashima Akiyama. When I was twenty-one I went up to the capital and met all manner o...
