The Formation of Bushido

Following the Heian period where the Imperial court reigned, in the Kamakura period, the now-landed samurai grew in power.  Their leader had been conferred by the Imperial Court with the authority to seize the undeveloped northern territory, and as such a commander was granted the title of Shogun.  But, with that power, there was little inclination to give it back. The great Shōgun, Minamoto no Yoritomo, built a parallel power structure over the lands, a power structure controlled by Samurai in an interlocking web of fealty relationships.  

At this point, there were not three, but four primary competing groups with different philosophies in Japan: The native Shinto religion,  still practiced across the lower classes and from which the Emperor drew what power he had; the Chinese philosophies still dominating the the Imperial Court, who held both ancestral power and wealth, as well as having warriors of their own; the Buddhist monks growing ever increasing in power; and, now, the philosophy of the Samurai, or Bushido.

There was no great scholar or work upon which Bushido was founded.  (The Hagakure, by Yamamoto Tsunetomo, was written centuries later,  and is a nostalgic view of Bushido 'from the old days').  Instead,  Bushido is, in many ways, a philosophy of pragmatism.  If you were a warrior, you made your living by the blade and you held your land by the strength of your weapons.  You wanted to pass your land down to your children and wanted them to be able to hold it also. But how?  First, you had to show weaker opponents that they could not steal your territory or displace you from it. They had to know you would defend it with force when necessary, and they weren't going to be able to wiggle it out of you by political or martial means.  That meant demonstrating your courage and valuing your reputation as a serious warrior, and making sure your child learned the same ways.  You had to show the farmers on your lands,  from whom you were collecting taxes and financial support, that you were fair, compassionate, and just, so they would not rebel or betray you to your enemies.  You had to prove to your peers that you were a man of your word and you would not break your promises, so that you could meet and negotiate and come to terms that would be kept without requiring too many hostages or onerous conditions.  And you had to prove to those more powerful than you that you were loyal and brave and respectful of them, and would be a good soldier, so it was worth it to them to keep you in your land rather than strip it from you or your children.  Requiring these virtues form the core of Bushido.

At the same time, as a samurai, even though you gained your power with your skill at weapons and tactics, you still did not want to appear foolish or ignorant, to your peers, or to the Imperial Court. You at least needed to be able to read and write, keep books and calculate taxes. And an education meant you were being taught, and teaching your children, the teachings of Confucius and the tactics of Mozi, and the laws of the land derived from Legalism.  And, religiously, the Buddhist Monks asserted the correct ways to honor your ancestors and prepare the dead, and taught what would happen after death.  So the philosophies of the other non-Samurai groups seep into the Way of the Warrior, regardless. Even if you do not care for these topics the way a courtier or a monk or a priest would, you could not escape them.  

I think no clan in Rokugan better captures the essence of this Way of the Warrior than the Lion Clan.

In AD 1274 and again in AD 1281, during the Kamakura period, invasions of the Mongols brought at least a hint of one more, much more foreign, faction to Rokugan, the Unicorn.

Japan evolved much after the Kamakura period of course. The Imperial Court and the Shōgunate fought many times, though the Shōgun never completely wiped it out for many reasons (reasons you can find here.) The samurai and sects of monks such as the Ikkō-ikki fought many bitter wars, and the Samurai clans fought amongst themselves. That ended with the Edo period in 1603.  When you watch samurai dramas, or see samurai depicted, they are almost always from the end of the civil wars that marked the Azuchi–Momoyama period, the wars dominated by Oda Nobunaga and Toyatomi Hideyoshi, or from the Edo period that followed.  That is the period we are most familiar with.

But that period had an extremely powerful Shōgun and an insignificant Imperial Court.  Firearms from Portugal and open trade prior to the Edo lockdown brought in many Western Influences.  The power of the monks had been violently crushed.  None of these things are like Rokugan.

Rokugan is Fantasy...it is not Japan.  But if you did want to compare Rokugan to an Asian country of the real world, it would be Japan....but it would be a Japan much closer to the very end of the Heian or the  beginning of the Kamakura period, where the court still had sway, and the wilds were still wild, and four great philosophies vied for dominance.  Just in Rokugan, these philosophies come with clans attached, and all of the elite are called Samurai.