The ancient samurai and shogun are Japan’s elite soldiers and rulers. They play a very important role in Japan’s history. I will be talking about one of the many shoguns there were. The shogun I picked to do research on is Sakanoue no Tamuramaro. He ruled as a shogun from 797-808. Sakanoue no Tamuramaro was a shogun for the early Heian Period in Japan. Serving Emperor Kammu, he was appointed shogun and given the task of conquering the Emishi people native to the north of Honshū. Tamuramaro's military successes are commemorated today in autumn matsuri which feature a number of huge, special made, illuminated paper floats. These huge festival structures are colorfully painted with mythical figures, and teams of men carry them through the streets as crowds shouting encouraging words. Aomori's great nebuta lanterns are…show more content… His bow, arrows, quiver and sword were placed in his coffin by order of the Emperor. According to the Shoku Nihongi, an official historical record, The Sakanoue clan is descended from Emperor Ling of Han China, and Sakaue clan's family tree shows that Tamuramaro is a 14th-generation descendent of Ling. Other research traces the origins of the Sakanoue clan from the Asian mainland, possibly through Baekje. An alternative claim, widely popular among Afrocentrists, comes from an April 1911 issue of Journal of Race Development, in an essay entitled "The Contribution of the Negro to Human Civilization", in which anthropologist Alexander Francis Chamberlain makes a statement that "And we can cross the whole of Asia and find the Negro again, for when, in far-off Japan, the ancestors of the modern Japanese were making their way northward against the Ainu, the aborigines of that country, the leader of their armies was Sakanouye Tamuramaro, a famous general and a
