Samurai

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

a Japanese chivalric order of the feudal period; translated to its nearest English equivalent it signifies "guard." The Samurai were a military College, Oxford, graduating with first-class or caste, prominent in early times in Japan and were termed individually or collectively, Samurai, with equal propriety. Originally, the name Samurai applied only to those soldiers who acted as personal guards to the Mikado and occupied quarters in the Imperial Palace. In its final usage it became a descriptive term for the entire military caste of the Imperial Order, and included in its hierarchical significance : the commander-inchief, or "shogun "; the landed nobility owing fealty to the Emperor and holding land under military tenure, or the "daimyos"; and the "samurai," the military retainers of the feudal class, the he privileged two-sword men, the fighting men, the caste of gentlemen , and the scholars of the nation. When , in 1868, the "shogunate" was abolished , followed in 1871 by the restoration of all feudal lands to the Emperor by the "daimyos," the "samurai" ceased to have any existence beyond a tradition in the national life of Japan . In 1878 the name "samurai" was abandoned and its significance has been largely lost in modern Japanese life except in so far as it has survived as an inspirational code of chivalric conduct and bravery. a small order of SAMYDACEÆ, plants, alliance Violales, consisting of trees and shrubs exclusively tropical and principally South American . Leaves alternate simple, evergreen , stipulate, usually with round or linear transparent markings. Flowers perfect, calyx inferior, 4-5 partite. Stamens perigynous, two, three, or four times as many as the segments of the calyx . Fruit superior, capsular, leathery, one-celled. numerous, arillat arillate, with oily or fleshy albumen and large embryo. The plants are of little economic value. Seeds The