Samurai Timeline of Events

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Samurai

is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...

Timeline of Events

1869

8.2.1869

Japan's samurai, farmer, artisan, merchant class system (Shinōkōshō) is abolished as part of the Meiji Restoration reforms. (Traditional Japanese date: June 25, 1869).

1877

3.31.1877

The family with samurai antecedents that responded to the Saigo army in Ōita Nakatsu, rebels.

1885

12.22.1885

Ito Hirobumi, a samurai, became the first Prime Minister of Japan.