When many people think of the samurai they think of bushidō – the Way of the Warrior. This moral code that governed the actions of samurai was never actually a single philosophy because different clans followed different rules. By examining Japanese culture, however, we can see how the samurai grew from simple soldiers to become the warrior poets and philosophers we know them as today.
HIGASHIYAMA CULTURE
Much of what we consider as distinctively samurai is derived from Higashiyama Culture as developed in the Ashikaga shogunate in the 15th century. Under Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa there was a harmonisation of the cultures enjoyed at court and those of the warrior samurai. It was no longer sufficient to be a bold fighter. Samurai were now expected to cultivate the arts and act in accordance with philosophical principles.
Yoshimasa planned his own retirement in the Temple of the Silver Pavilion in the Higashiyama hills outside of Kyoto, from which
