Samurai and Ninjas

One of the side activities we did in Kyoto was a visit to the Samurai and Ninja museum. We were given the history of both types of warriors. I am so glad we just watched the Shogun series before our trip! I knew the history and had context for the info our guide was telling us.

Samurai outfit:

Ninja replica. These guys were farmers during the day. Ninjas by night!

This is a graph of the hierarchy of people during the feudal system in Japan.

This weapon is what the female Samurai uses, as it was light.

We tried our hand at throwing Ninja stars. Rik was much better at it than I. But I got a great kick out of it.

Me being all smug because I hit the target.

This artwork depicts the last, and most important battle to determine the one Shogun of Japan in 1600. The Tokugawa side won and started a period of about 250 years of the Tokugawa shogunate.

Since the mid-1500s, the Portuguese had been creating Catholic Churches run by Jesuits. But they weren’t acting very Christlike so the Shogun killed them all off and banned any outsiders to enter Japan. This lasted until 1868, which allowed the Japanese culture to flourish without outside influence for over 200 years. Eventually, they had to start letting foreigners in so they could catch up with new technology.

Rik, in Samurai gear, ready for battle.