Samurai and Knights: Were the Similarities Greater than the Differences?
The warriors of Japan and Europe were men who who had much loyalty and honor to
their community. The Roman Empire fell in the 400s which caused t
...
Samurai and Knights: Were the Similarities Greater than the Differences?
The warriors of Japan and Europe were men who who had much loyalty and honor to
their community. The Roman Empire fell in the 400s which caused the rise of the European
empire. The Japanese emperors and imperial court was challenged by rise of clans. The question
is were Japanese warriors and European warriors are more alike or different. The similarities
between samurai and knights were greater than the differences. This can be shown by looking at
three areas: social position, armor and training, and honor.
The first area of important similarities was social position because both knights and
samurai both protected their feudal lord and the social position of both of them. In documents A,
it shows a chart of ranking from highest to lowest in the feudal order in both Japan and Europe
showing that both samurai and knights had someone whom were higher in ranking than them.
This shows the similarities of knights and samurai because they are both placed lower than other
positions and their job was to protect those who were above them. Although they weren’t the
highest in the social order they both also weren’t the lowest which shows that they were still
above some citizens in the feudal Japan and Europe. Also, in document B it states, “The life of a
samurai was not his own but belonged entirely to his lord” (Blomberg) and also, “an English or
French noblemen knelt before his lord and pledged loyalty and military support” (Blomberg). In
both of these quotes they both show the importance of both warriors in Japan and Europe having
the responsibility to serve their country and protect their feudal lord as their job. Overall, these
similarities are significant because it shows how their feudal system is the same and they both
have the same social classes.
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