Samurai under the Tokugawa Shogunate
War was changing when Tokugawa Ieyasu rose above the warring Daimyo to establish the Tokugawa Shogunate. The sudden interest in European-model guns and tactics had begun the process of obsoleting the extensive ritual training which Samurai proudly went through beginning in their childhood and the same contact with the west which had brought firearms also brought trade and political implications. Japan was now a player in the world political and economic landscape, and had to deal with christian missionaries, advanced weaponry, and other hurdles in the oncoming tsunami of threats to the Japanese way of life. The Tokugawa isolationist policy, which closed off Japan's ports to the outside world was not enough to stop it, and soon the Samurai's role as the sole armed force of Japan was petering out. before this time, in a fight between to soldiers it was always the better trained, or the smarter or stronger soldier who would win. The Samurai could call themselves the sole protectors of Japan because they alone had access to the lifetime of practice needed to become strong, smart, and well trained. With the introduction of weapons which could kill someone with literally the push of a button, it became a matter of who had a gun and who could push the button faster. Now the Samurai was thrust out onto a level playing field in which he with his years of practice and his blade honed amid the spirits of his ancestors, forged with the most spiritually purified steel, could be killed instantly by a mass-market Portuguese blunderbuss wielded by an angry peasant with no military training whatsoever. War was changing under the Tokugawa Shogunate at a speed too close for comfort for the centuries-privileged Samurai.
The Shogunate passed a series of laws in Japan during this period which were designed to shift the role of the Samurai towards something less obsolete as honor-bound warriors. The laws were called the Ordinances for the Military Houses and they required that Samurai be trained in polite, diplomatic skills and warrior skills equally. This allowed for the Samurai to expand into a caste of aristocrats and businessmen, founding many companies, banks, and guilds some of which, like Mitsubishi, remain today. the size of the Samurai class dwindled after this extinction event, because not every Samurai was as quick-thinking as founder of Mitsubishi Iwasaki Yataro and many lost their fortunes or bloodlines. This was the beginning of swords and spears and bows being seen as ceremonial or traditional weapons like they had begun to become in Europe, and the beginning of a new era for the Samurai, who reinvented themselves when their entire lifestyle became obsolete