the end of the samurai
the samurai culture was lost in a similar manner as the knights disappeared from Europe. once the Portuguese traders brought there style of weaponry ashore to japan (flintlock gun) the swordsmanship of samurai and their style of attack got thrown out of the window, as the Japanese copied them. guns were so much easier to use and kill someone, so the samurai quickly became interested. a negative to this, was all that training, the swordsmanship, the horse riding and unarmed combat was not needed anymore and proved to be nowhere near as effective. there was a lot of peace for a couple of hundred years after, so the samurai were not needed as much.
Daimyo
during the shogunate period in japan, the emperor found it difficult to control the whole country. even though the Daimyo swore allegiance to the emperor, most Daimyo were more powerful than the emperor. they had their won bases in the provinces and owned a number of vassals. they collected vassals by forcing people, not only from family members. A daimyo was a powerful warlord of feudal japan, they were similar to the feudal lords of Europe.