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Trevor Stephens
17th April 2004, 21:07
After the Meiji Restoration, there was no real need for samurai. Does anyone know what became of samurai? What did they do? where did they go? If anyone knows any books that contain information on this stuff i would appreciate if you could mention. Thank you


Humbly

Joseph Svinth
18th April 2004, 23:13
As Meik Skoss says, it's a case-by-case situation.

A few went to work for the zaibatsu. Mitsubishi is an example, with its founder being a former Tosa clan samurai. (Mitsui and Sumitomo, on the other hand, were long-standing merchant families.)

Some became policemen or yakuza. For instance, the organizer and first chief of the Tokyo Metro Police was a former Satsuma samurai named Kawaji Toshiyoshi. (About two-thirds of early Tokyo police officers were former Satsuma samurai.)

Others became farmers, small businessmen, military or naval officers, politicians, or academics.

A handful moved to Hawaii, the Americas, or Europe.

And some just drank themselves into a stupor, and stayed that way.