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Samurai And Knights Essay

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Samurai and Knights: Were the Similarities Greater Than the Differences?

Japan and Europe had unique lifestyles, one part being its military. It consisted of archers, who wielded bows and skilled swordsmen, called samurai. In Europe however, their military consisted of archers and swordsmen called knights. These two military figures share many similarities between each other, outweighing the differences. The three similarities between samurai and knights are moral codes, training, and their ranking in feudalism.

Moral codes are the first way that the two military figures are similar to each other. In Yamaga Soko’s “The Way of the Samurai,” and Thomas Malroy’s “Le Morte d’ Arthur,” it states that both knights and samurai cannot disobey his or her master (Doc. E) This is important because it shows one similarity between Japan’s swordsmen and Europe’s knights. Also stated in “The Way of the Samurai,” and “Le Morte d’ Arthur,” the codes that a samurai follows is Bushido and Chivalry, the moral code that a knight follows (Doc. E). In Bushido, a samurai keeps a state of peace between other people, but uses his weapons only when necessary. One will be respectful between father and child, older sibling to younger sibling, and husband to wife. In Chivalry, knights are to be helpful to …show more content…

According to charts from various sources, samurai and knights are around the same rankings in a social pyramid (Doc. A). Both the samurai and knight are lower in the social pyramids at the time. They were both paid for their service with land from the lord he was working for. Another similarity is said in “The Heart of a Warrior: Origins and Religious Background of the Samurai System in Feudal Japan,” by Catharina Blomberg. The samurai follows his feudal lord’s orders and never disobeys him, along with knights. However, the samurai shared a greater bond between his feudal lord than a knight

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