From the mid-15th century to the close of the 1600s, Japan was consumed in a succession of civil wars as various factions sought to establish themselves as rulers of the country. With the success of Tokugawa Ieyasu and the establishment of his shogunate, Japan entered the Edo period, a time called the Great Peace that lasted for 250 years.

In this new environment, the samurai found themselves out of sorts, at once mythologized as fabled warriors while at the same time switching to bureaucratic roles in service to the shogun. To maintain the new class divisions of the period, the samurai observed strict rules that covered all aspects of life from the formalization of the Bushido, to the length of their swords, and even how they dressed.

This specimen is a piece of fabric from a samurai's kataginu, part of a formal kamishimo outfit. This was the standard dress of a samurai, consisting of the sleeveless but wide-shouldered jacket called a kataginu, a kimono, and hakama trousers. It dates to the Late Edo period, a time of 250 years of peace during which the samurai transitioned from fierce warriors to bureaucrats and administrators.

The specimen comes affixed to a 4x3" display card which contains photos and information about the Edo period. The Mini Museum Seal of Authenticity is also included.

The Edo period brought a massive upheaval to Japanese society: a time of peace after the seemingly endless civil wars of the preceding Sengoku or "Warring States" period. Previously, war, famine, and political intrigue among hundreds of local rulers and warlords kept the entire country on edge but by the beginning of the seventeenth century, power began to consolidate.

The daimyo Tokugawa Ieyasu and his Eastern army triumphed over his rival Ishida Mitsunari’s Western army during the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, and with the defeat of the Toyotomi clan during the Summer Battle of Osaka in 1615, none were left to oppose the new Tokugawa shogunate. In the wake of their success, Ieyasu and his son and successor Hidetada defined the regime as the Great Public Authority, disarming rival groups and enforcing a new period of peace.

In this new environment, the samurai found their roles as part of a warrior class unneeded. Instead, they gained new administrative functions as bureaucrats in service to their local daimyos or directly under the shogun. New policies from the Tokugawa rulers solidified social classes into a distinct hierarchy based on hereditary lines, with the government employing their interpretation of Neo-Confucianism to justify the new class divisions. The samurai benefited greatly from this, living comfortably on large land holdings and in castles. With these new roles came a formalization of the samurai Bushido honor code and standardization in social customs, enforced by the shogunate.

The samurai during this period were organized into two groups by the shogunate: the bannermen and the housemen. The latter were mostly direct descendants of the samurai who had fought alongside Ieyasu as he established the shogunate. This upper crust of warriors enjoyed greater stipends and land allotments and mostly lived in the city of Edo, working for the shogun. The housemen were denied these privileges and could not request a direct audience with the shogun but still enjoyed many of the perks of the warrior class.

In the Great Peace of the Edo period, arts and culture flourished, and the samurai were celebrated in woodcuts, kabuki performances, and popular literature. Though the samurai mostly lived in comfort as simple administrators, the Edo period solidified the mythos around them as fierce and honorable warriors. The vengeance of the 47 ronin in 1700 sparked its own genre that spanned literature, theater, and paintings: Chūshingura. This veneration surrounding the samurai further entrenched them in the upper class that ruled over the rest of Japan.

With this new social position came new obligations, too. The strict set of laws that governed the military rule of the Tokugawa shogunate reached into nearly every aspect of public and private life. Among the other cultural overhauls during this period of the Great Peace was an organization of dress and fashion. The formal dress of samurai and courtiers at this time was the kamishimo, an outfit of a kimono, hakama trousers, and a sleeveless but wide-shouldered jacket called a kataginu. A samurai would often have his family’s crest embroidered on his kataginu as a status symbol and to assert the samurai’s place in the upper class of Edo-period Japanese society. Armor was rarely worn during this period; instead, samurai would display their armor as a form of decoration, especially around the New Year. Samurai even maintained their hair in a topknot, theorized to have originated as a way to keep the head cool under a heavy helmet. Samurai also still carried swords, often a pair of a wakizashi and a tantō, though mainly as a symbol of strength rather than for actual combat use.

In these standardizations of dress and clothing, the samurai maintained the symbols that established them as a distinct warrior class, even if their fighting days were over.