YDS READING PASSAGES / TEST 4 10. Soru

-4. THE PERIOD OF SHOGUNATE

In April 1986 in Nikko, Japan, the Edo Mura Village was opened to the public. The village commemorates the period in Japan's history from 1603 to 1867, called the Tokugawa shogunate, when warlords called shoguns ruled the country. The warriors of the shoguns were called samurai. By the 12th century, the ability of the emperor and his court to govern effectively had diminished. It was then that the samurai emerged as a distinct social class. They were held together by personal loyalty to powerful chiefs — the shoguns - who brought more territory under their control. Local wars among the chieftains continued for generations until finally, under the Tokugawa shogunate, the whole nation was united under one warlord. From the end of the 12th century until the Meiji Restoration, or resumption of the emperor's authority, in 1868, government was exclusively in the hands of the samurai class. The behaviour of the samurai was strictly regulated by a code of conduct called Bushido, which is translated as "way of the warrior." The idea of the code developed in about the 13th century, and it encompassed the ideals of loyalty and sacrifice. By the 19th century, it had become the basis of ethical training for the whole of Japanese society, and it contributed significantly to the tough Japanese nationalism and morale exhibited during World War II.

We learn from the passage that the samurai came into existence as a separate class ------ .