Samurai And Knights Dbq

Samurai and Knights: Were the Similarities Greater Than the Differences Imagine a knight and shining armor and a merciless samurai fighting till the death. Other than these these short descriptions, samurais and knights have many clear differences. Knights were the professional warriors in feudal Europe and the samurais were the warriors of feudal Japan. Both of these fighters had a master or lord that they had to stay loyal to in order to receive land. These two groups lived during medieval times or the middle ages, around 500-1450 AD. They played an important part in medieval society. Samurais and knights were more different because they had differing levels of loyalty to the lord or master, they had clashing thoughts about death, and their armor was very different. To begin, samurais and knights had different obligations to their master or lord. Samurai's loyalty to a lord in feudal Japan was hereditary (document B). If a samurai had obligations to a lord and was no longer able to be a samurai, the obligations would be placed on the samurai’s son’s shoulders therefore, the system is hereditary. In Japan there was no …show more content…
A samurai death poem states that one day you're born the next you die and life goes on (document F). Samurais only had one true meaning to their life, serving their lord. So as long as they had done their duty, they were not scared of death. Their religion also plays a part in this. Samurais were Zen Buddhists, a form of Buddhism, so they believed in reincarnation. If they were going to be reincarnated after they die, then dying as a samurai isn't the end for them. The KNights were much different. They believed in god therefore, on their deathbed they would pray for god to give them forgiveness for their sins so that they would ascend into heaven (document F). Knights cherished their pureness and their relationship with god, unlike the