European Feudalism v. Samurai Japan Feudalism was a common way of ruling back between the ninth and fifth centuries. Many countries created their own individual feudal systems. Europe and Japan were a few that adopted the feudal system as their own form of government. Even though Europe and Japan did not have direct contact during the times of feudalism their take on it was very much similar.
The Feudal system began with the peasants. They were people who worked in return for protection, food, and land, instead of for money (Text, 389). Then there were knights or lords who answered to their nobles. The knights were people who fought for the lord to protect his interests. Knights also defended nobles lands form attack or they would even attack others for land. The Nobles main role was to govern and judge his peasants. He also helped the king protect the kingdom. The king was usually weak about his main job was to try and acquire more land and to protect the kingdom. The feudal system as a whole was a weak form of government (Text, 390). It lacked structure and a clear set of rules or laws. In the feudal system it was difficult to move out of a specific class system. Peasants were born peasants and nobles were born nobles. There was no moving of class systems (Text, 390). This was the same for both Europe and Japan. Land meant power in both of these feudal systems so there was usually constant warfare. Knights in Europe were the equivalent of Samurai in Japan. Their style of fighting was a lot alike even though they used different forms of armor and weaponry. The Knights and Samurai were the protectors of their lands. They had to be the toughest people in the feudal system. Feudal Kings and Lords set up castles in Europe to protect them from attacks. Instead of castles, the Japanese had a similar idea for protect but used wood to make their castles (Text, 396).
Japanese feudalism was based on the ideas of the Confucius (551-479 BCE). In Japan, the moral duty of daimyo and samurai is to protect the peasants and villagers in their region, and the duty of the peasants and villagers is to honor the warriors
