Samurai

The samurai were Japan's professional warrior class, retainers who served regional lords and trained from youth in mounted archery, swordsmanship and horsemanship, distinguishing them from the conscripted peasant levies they gradually displaced. Their emergence is usually traced to the decline of Japan's national conscript army system from around the eighth century CE, when wealthy provincial families began maintaining private armed retainers, and their status as Japan's dominant military force is conventionally dated to their role in the Genpei War of 1180 to 1185. Samurai remained Japan's ruling military class through the Tokugawa period from 1603 to 1868, though many became administrators rather than active soldiers during that long peace, and the class was formally dissolved through a series of Meiji-era reforms starting in 1869, including the 1871 abolition of the domains and the 1873 introduction of national conscription that ended hereditary military service.