Paid for and posted by Neo One Kumamoto. The samurai would also … What would be a typical stipend for a samurai of a low enough rank that he wasn't given any land to have peasants farm on his behalf? How much were samurais' stipends? The samurai have been long remembered as great warriors and the epitome of Japanese culture. October 28, 2019 / 3:25 AM / 5 months ago. Masterless samurai were called ronin and caused minor troubles during the 1600s. During this time, the samurai were forced to live in castle towns, were the only ones allowed to own and carry swords and were paid in rice by their daimyo or feudal lords. That makes sense, since most farmers (most of the Japanese population) paid their taxes in rice, so samurai were paid directly in rice. Samurai were many of the early exchange students, not directly because they were samurai, but because many samurai were literate and well-educated scholars. Paid content. Kumamoto: A Rich Samurai History. Older samurai tended towards shades of gray or brown, in keeping with their dignified age. The samurai was a part of the warrior class. Samurai children, however, were dressed rather flamboyantly, and a more subdued appearance was one of the results of the coming-of-age ceremony. The samurai would also fight battles for their Daimyo. The samurai class, consisting of no more than 7 to 10 percent of the population during the Tokugawa Shogunate [1], were mere puppets of their overlords, the daimyo and the shogun. Samurai were restricted to the castle towns, so as to prevent them from organizing rebellions or building armies in the countryside, and marriages between daimyô clans, which could represent the beginnings of alliances, were similarly forbidden without shogunate approval. 7 Min Read. The samurai swore an oath to their Daimyo. These battles were mostly against other nobles. Hagakure was written after the samurai class had been in decline for some time. The samurai were paid by Daimyo to protect their land. Most samurai would sell their salary rice on the grain exchange, and that would be the money they actually used. In Hagakure, a stipend of only 4 koku (enough rice to sustain four people for a year) is described as shamefully low. In that regard, the lesser Samurai were paid a little less than a koku (in addition to the food supplied by his lord), while the castle commanders enjoyed benefits of hundreds of koku (from their immediate daimyo governors) that were used for not only paying their garrison Samurai but also the numerous servants and other non-military retainers.