The Top Three samurai on our list are the Three Great Unifiers of Japan, who were responsible for bringing the nation back under centralized rule following the fractious Warring States Period (1467-1590). This continued defiance of the Mongol emperor set the stage for one of the most famous engagements in Japanese history. Though he eventually stopped moving, he did not fall, and when at last the soldiers worked up the courage to cross the bridge, they found that Benkei had died standing on his feet. Though they had predecessors in earlier military and administrative officers, the samurai truly emerged during the Kamakura shogunate, ruling from c. This treaty led to various internal conflicts in Japan that ultimately ended the iron grip of the Tokugawa shōgunate.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu, who founded the Tokugawa shogunate, were loyal followers of Nobunaga.Until the Mongol invasion in the late Kamakura period, the main battle was fought by small groups of warriors using yumi (bows) from horseback, and close combat was a secondary battle. The Sengoku Period was marked by the loosening of samurai culture, with people born into other social strata sometimes making a name for themselves as warriors and thus becoming de facto samurai. Emperor Kanmu introduced the title of sei'i-taishōgun ( 征夷大将軍), or shōgun, and began to rely on the powerful regional clans to conquer the Emishi.

In battle they protected themselves with intricate iron or leather body armour’s plates and a helmet (kabuto) lavishly decorated; to keep the head cool a circle of hair above the forehead was shaved, but the habit of wearing the remaining hair in a top-knot continued until it became legally prohibited in 1871. Typical examples are the tachi (long sword) and naginata (halberd) used in close combat, and the ō-yoroi and dō-maru styles of armor.He eventually seized control of the central government, establishing the first samurai-dominated government and relegating the emperor to figurehead status. As a result, the southern court, descended from Emperor Godaigo, and the northern court, descended from Emperor Kogon, were established side by side. This plunged the country into the Sengoku Period ("warring states period"), in which daimyo (feudal lords) from different regions fought each other.