European Knight Comparison Essay

Both the european knight and japanese samurai are very interesting historical figures with both differences and similarities. Samurais and knights were around from the late 400’s to 1600 C.E. These warriors were made because both japan and europe were in turmoil.

The first area of important similarities was social order. In a social ranking system from various sources shows that both knight and samurai were above the peasants but below the daimyos and lords. Each warrior received payment from their superior which was a lord of the land that the warrior protected. In catharina blomberg 's book heart of a warrior it states that the loyalty systems were similar and each warrior served their lord wholeheartedly. These similarities are significant because each warrior was a highly respected figure and were on the same social level.

A second area of important similarities was training and armor. In a pbs series Japan:

In poems written by samurai circa in the 1400s they provide the information that samurai did not in any way shape or form fear death, they almost embraced death and saw it as another path. One of the poems says “one day you are born you die the next today, at twilight, autumn breezes blow.” This expresses the emotion of calmness and not worrying about their next life. A knight 's death was very different from a samurai 's. A knight feared death and worried about where they would go for their afterlife. Christianity influenced a knights thinking, every faithful knight wanted to go to heaven and one song called the song of roland written by circa in the 1100’s says “god, I acknowledge my guilt and I beg for Thy mercy for all my sins.” This clearly expresses that the knight was worried about the sins he had committed and if god would accept him into heaven. This was a major difference because life faith and death played a major role in a warrior 's