Warrior-Monks in Japanese History

Abstract

Japan's early medieval age, roughly the late eleventh through the late fourteenth centuries, is usually described as an age when power shifted from noble elites to the warrior class, most commonly embodied in the cultic samurai. However, scholars subscribing to the notion of a clearly defined military class with a common ethos from this period will find few figures in the premodern age that correspond to those idealized images. Those who fought came from all facets of society, indicating that the separation of the samurai from other warriors was a much later invention. This distinction of different fighters have affected monastic warriors more than any other group, for they have been seen as a negative influence on society, often referred to by the later term sōhei (monk-warriors). This essay explores the social origins of monastic warriors, their relationship to those we now call samurai (or bushi) during the early medieval age, and the later creation of stereotypical images of evil naginata (glaive)-wielding monks that have dominated both popular culture and academe until the present.