Samurai Life, Culture and the Mongol Invasions (1274–1281)
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Flip to reveal answersWhat was the samurai ethos centred on during the Kamakura period?
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Question
What was the samurai ethos centred on during the Kamakura period?
Answer
Loyalty to one's lord, group discipline, courage in battle, and avoiding shame — reinforced by Zen Buddhism and Confucian ideas of duty.
Question
Bushido
Answer
"The way of the warrior" — the formally codified samurai code, written down much later in the Edo period (from the 1600s), not during 1180–1333.
Question
Why did Zen Buddhism appeal particularly to samurai?
Answer
It taught calm mental focus and acceptance of death, useful qualities for warriors, and fitted better with combat life than older, more ritual-heavy Buddhist sects.
Question
What was the main samurai weapon and fighting style in the early Kamakura period?
Answer
Mounted archery using the yumi (long asymmetric bow), fired from horseback; the tachi sword was used for secondary close combat.
Question
What role could samurai women play?
Answer
They could inherit and manage land, and were expected to defend the household with weapons such as the naginata; inheritance rights for women gradually declined over the period.
Question
Goseibai Shikimoku (1232)
Answer
A legal code issued by regent Hojo Yasutoki setting out samurai-focused rules on land disputes and inheritance — established samurai law as separate from older court law.
Question
Jito and shugo
Answer
Samurai appointed by the shogunate as local land stewards (jito) and provincial constables (shugo), giving them real control over land and tax collection.
Question
What happened during the first Mongol invasion of Japan in 1274?
Answer
A Mongol-Korean fleet landed at Hakata Bay, Kyushu, using unfamiliar group tactics and gunpowder bombs; a storm damaged the fleet and they withdrew.
Question
Kamikaze
Answer
"Divine wind" — the storms (1274) and typhoon (1281) that destroyed Mongol invasion fleets, seen by the Japanese as divine protection of Japan.
Question
What happened during the second Mongol invasion in 1281?
Answer
A much larger fleet attacked but was blocked from easy landing by the Hakata Bay wall; after weeks of fighting, a major typhoon destroyed much of the fleet.
Question
Why did the Mongol invasions cause a political problem for the Kamakura Shogunate afterward?
Answer
Samurai expected land rewards for loyal service, but there was no captured enemy territory to distribute, causing a reward crisis that weakened loyalty to the Hojo regents.
Question
Compare: causes of Japan's survival in 1274 vs 1281
Answer
1274 — resistance plus an early storm ended a smaller, less prepared invasion. 1281 — samurai resistance, the newly built Hakata wall, and a major typhoon combined to defeat a much larger, better-organised invasion.
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Topic 20.2 hub
Japan in the Age of the Samurai (1180–1333)
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