when were samurai around

Samurai were active as a distinct warrior class in Japan from roughly the late 700s–800s CE, rose to real national power from the 1100s, and officially lost their status in 1876.

Quick Scoop

• Early roots: Proto-samurai appear in the Heian period, when mounted warriors were used to fight the Emishi in northern Japan (late 8th–9th centuries).

• Classic samurai era: They became Japan’s dominant military and political class from the Kamakura shogunate onward, starting in 1192, and continued through the shogunates that followed.

• Peak and everyday image: The “armored katana-wielding” samurai most people picture fit best in the Sengoku (warring states, 1400s–1500s) and early Edo periods (1603–1868).

• End of the samurai: The Meiji Restoration (starting 1868) modernized Japan; samurai stipends were phased out and wearing swords in public was banned in 1876, legally ending the class.

Simple timeline

• Heian period beginnings: c. 800s–1100s
• Kamakura shogunate (first warrior government): 1192–1333

• Muromachi & Sengoku (lots of war, famous battles and warlords): 1300s–late 1500s

• Edo/Tokugawa (peace; samurai become more bureaucrats than battlefield warriors): 1603–1868

• Meiji era: samurai as a legal class abolished by the 1870s.

So, if you are wondering “when were samurai around,” a good short answer is: from about the 9th century until their class was abolished in the late 19th century, with their political dominance between the 12th and 19th centuries.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.