What was the development of samurai culture in Japan during the Muromachi period?

In the Muromachi period (1333-1573), Japan's culture was changing rapidly, and the samurai, who were the dominant force in society, played an important role in the cultural field. As a result, the samurai class played an important role in the cultural field, and the distinctive feature of the Muromachi period culture was the full development of samurai culture. How did the samurai culture develop in the Muromachi period?

First, the initial formation of the idea of Bushido

Bushido is the ethical and moral concepts unique to the samurai that came into being with the emergence of the samurai. In the great river of Japanese history, the Japanese martial arts and the idea of Bushido have had an undeniable influence on the spirit and culture of the Japanese nation. The behavior of the samurai and the spirit of Bushido have been internalized in the minds of the Japanese people, guiding their lives, and have been called the "Soul of Yamato" by Inazo Shindo, a famous educator and thinker in modern Japan. The Muromachi period was an important period in the formation of the Bushido ideology, and due to the deep influence of the Japanese public and common people's culture at that time, especially the Buddhist Zen ideology, the samurai class gradually followed a general moral code and principles of conduct, which began to appear in a number of books and writings.

Two, the samurai culture in borrowing. The culture of the samurai was further developed on the basis of other cultures and artifacts

The culture of Kitayama, represented by Kitayama, where Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu built the Golden Pavilion in the pre-Muromachi period, was the product of the fusion of the traditional public culture and samurai culture, with the first floor of the Golden Pavilion in the style of the palaces of Heian-era nobility, the second floor in the style of the samurai's houses in the Kamakura period, and the third floor in the style of a typical Zen Buddhist temple. The golden pavilion was covered with gold leaf and the interior was decorated in a magnificent way, which fully demonstrated that the samurai class was trying to get rid of the rough and vulgar image of the past and started to pursue the elegant lifestyle of the public culture.

Three, the samurai culture tie up the mainstream culture of the Dukai and as a bridge between the public culture and the common people's culture

Unlike the Kamakura period when the public culture and the martial culture coexisted and the public culture was dominant, the samurai culture in the Muromachi period began to become the mainstream culture of the society. In the early Muromachi period, Japan's predominance of public education began to change significantly, and the terakoya (temple school) system, which taught basic knowledge to middle and lower-ranking samurai and commoners, was established and became the prototype of Japanese schools. The main focus was on basic life skills and humane principles, among which samurai morality became more important. In the middle of the Muromachi period. The Ashikaga School was established as a general school to replace the old school, Terakoya, and the educational ideas and contents of the old Confucianism, which was centered on the public culture, were replaced by the Neo-Confucianism, which was promoted by the samurai culture and was mainly based on the Sungaku school, so that the ideas of Neo-Confucianism were widely spread to the social strata, and the idea of analyzing the righteousness and principles of justice, especially the idea of "righteousness, fame, and distinction," had a great influence on the later generations of Japan.

The common people's culture absorbed the elegant elements of the public culture due to the influence of the martial culture, and even the songs were y influenced by the waka in terms of form and content, while the nogaku and the kyogen could be seen as shadows of the classical culture of Japan in terms of their composition, staging, and performance methods.

Summary, with the samurai culture as a bridge, various cultures in the Muromachi period complemented and touched each other, resulting in the formation of a unique Muromachi culture with a strong mixture of characteristics, and the so-called traditional culture of Japan began to take shape. The development of samurai culture in the Muromachi period laid the foundation for the prosperity of Budo in the Tokugawa period, and has been influencing the course of Japanese history ever since.