But, meanwhile, the top-heavy Japanese nobility also began to fear this newly armed peasantry and within a generation had removed guns from the common people. The “Sword Hunt” of 1588 took away not only the farmer’s swords, but their matchlocks as well. This was, perhaps, the earliest gun control of world history. It was followed by the “Separation Edict” of 1591, which made the farmers hereditary serfs. Previously, the great bulk of Japanese fighting men were citizen-soldiers, farmers most of the time, who answered the call when local noblemen needed infantry support. But after the new edicts, only the Samurai could carry swords or shoot matchlocks. The farmers now had only one job: to pay for everything. And pay they did, up to 80 percent of all they grew now went to support the nobility and the Samurai. The Samurai myth has taken on exaggerated elements of chivalry. Popularly represented as brave swordsmen, defenders of the innocent, the truth was often the opposite, for many Samurai were cold-blooded killers who murdered unarmed commoners for perceived insults as slight as simply making eye contact with them. All were merciless, blue-blooded parasites, living off the toil of people they considered vastly inferior. Once the farmers had been disarmed, it was easy to eradicate their few remaining freedoms. So, by the dawn of the Tokugawa Shogunate (military dictatorship), around 1603, Japan had near-total gun control. This notwithstanding, the Japanese myth of “giving up the gun,” and reverting to the sword, often couched as “putting the evil genie back in the bottle,” is more wishful thinking than historical fact. Matchlocks were not gone, they were now only reserved for a favored few. The Samurai still used them for war and hunting, and practiced constantly: marksmanship competitions were not uncommon.
(From “The Village Tiger Gun”, in The Blue Press, April 2016, p. 80.)
Excellent example. Those who do not learn from history…
“the truth was often the opposite, for many Samurai were cold-blooded killers”
Often this was the case, but it was because the dictatorship caused such tumult in the Samurai as well.
The Separation Edict didn’t just seize guns from farmers, but it severed the link between the Samurai and the land, creating a civil-military divide. The roots of the Samurai were with those farmer “citizen-soldiers”. Samurai often farmed when not at war. They weren’t all blue-bloods. There was much decentralization, blurred lines, and overlap before, but the edict created distinct castes that prohibited any mixing.
During the Tokugawa Shogunate, small Lords lost their power in the upheaval. The Shogunate then created a standing army of peasants under their control who were armed and may have been called Samurai in some instances even though they were actually just foot soldiers.
Meanwhile, there may have been hundreds of thousands of the real Samurai that were previously in service to all those other small Lords. The Tokugowa hegemony caused much of this citizen-warrior class to be set adrift. Within a few generations their martial skills deteriorated, and many turned to crime or became mercenaries.
However, not all of them became thugs or parasites. Some defended the persecuted Christians in the South. A select few were masters that bucked the restrictions and taught common folk to fight, such as Miyamoto Musashi.
So the lesson is the same- unlimited, uncontested centralized control easily strips away our freedoms. The other lesson is that it first destroys the cultural and social fabric that provides societal cohesion.
“The “Sword Hunt” of 1588 took away not only the farmer’s swords, but their matchlocks as well. This was, perhaps, the earliest gun control of world history. It was followed by the “Separation Edict” of 1591, which made the farmers hereditary serfs. Previously, the great bulk of Japanese fighting men were citizen-soldiers, farmers most of the time, who answered the call when local noblemen needed infantry support. But after the new edicts, only the Samurai could carry swords or shoot matchlocks. The farmers now had only one job: to pay for everything. And pay they did, up to 80 percent of all they grew now went to support the nobility and the Samurai.”
So help me god, I can picture our current Ruling Classes licking their chops and wishing they could do the same…
This, of course, ended with the fascist government that led Japan to disaster. I am now reading “Rising Sun” by John Toland.
You really think your guns will protect you from your government? You think that’s how it works?
Most of us are at least as free as any American. I can’t legally say crazy things about people, I can’t think of anything else that constrains me, in any way you are not constrained.
I have no guns, I don’t like em’ around although there are lots in my area, long guns that is. We don’t have guns to fight our government, we elected, we have guns to shoot animals with. Most of the first world countries operate like mine does. We do appreciate the entertainment, but you appear to be crazy.