rajpurkar/squad huggingface dataset:
Title: Samurai

Oda Nobunaga made innovations in the fields of organization and war tactics, heavily used arquebuses, developed commerce and industry and treasured innovation. Consecutive victories enabled him to realize the termination of the Ashikaga Bakufu and the disarmament of the military powers of the Buddhist monks, which had inflamed futile struggles among the populace for centuries. Attacking from the "sanctuary" of Buddhist temples, they were constant headaches to any warlord and even the Emperor who tried to control their actions. He died in 1582 when one of his generals, Akechi Mitsuhide, turned upon him with his army.

Question: Who used arquebuses a lot?
Answer: Oda Nobunaga

Question: What did Oda Nobunaga value?
Answer: innovation

Question: Who disarmed Japan's Buddhist monks?
Answer: Oda Nobunaga

Question: When did Oda Nobunaga die?
Answer: 1582

Question: Who caused Oda Nobunaga's death?
Answer: Akechi Mitsuhide
Title: Samurai

During the Tokugawa shogunate, samurai increasingly became courtiers, bureaucrats, and administrators rather than warriors. With no warfare since the early 17th century, samurai gradually lost their military function during the Tokugawa era (also called the Edo period). By the end of the Tokugawa era, samurai were aristocratic bureaucrats for the daimyo, with their daisho, the paired long and short swords of the samurai (cf. katana and wakizashi) becoming more of a symbolic emblem of power rather than a weapon used in daily life. They still had the legal right to cut down any commoner who did not show proper respect kiri-sute gomen (斬り捨て御免?), but to what extent this right was used is unknown. When the central government forced daimyos to cut the size of their armies, unemployed rōnin became a social problem.

Question: When were samurai becoming less warrior-like?
Answer: During the Tokugawa shogunate

Question: When had samurai last been used in battle?
Answer: the early 17th century

Question: What was another name for the Tokugawa era?
Answer: the Edo period

Question: What was the samurai's long sword called?
Answer: katana

Question: What was the samurai's short sword called?
Answer: wakizashi
Title: Samurai

Theoretical obligations between a samurai and his lord (usually a daimyo) increased from the Genpei era to the Edo era. They were strongly emphasized by the teachings of Confucius and Mencius (ca 550 BC), which were required reading for the educated samurai class. Bushido was formalized by several influential leaders and families before the Edo Period. Bushido was an ideal, and it remained fairly uniform from the 13th century to the 19th century — the ideals of Bushido transcended social class, time and geographic location of the warrior class.

Question: Who were most samurais' lords?
Answer: daimyo

Question: Whose teachings did all samurai read?
Answer: Confucius and Mencius

Question: What did Bushido transcend?
Answer: social class, time and geographic location

Question: When was Bushido formalized?
Answer: before the Edo Period

Question: Who formalized Bushido?
Answer: several influential leaders and families
Title: Samurai

The relative peace of the Tokugawa era was shattered with the arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry's massive U.S. Navy steamships in 1853. Perry used his superior firepower to force Japan to open its borders to trade. Prior to that only a few harbor towns, under strict control from the Shogunate, were allowed to participate in Western trade, and even then, it was based largely on the idea of playing the Franciscans and Dominicans off against one another (in exchange for the crucial arquebus technology, which in turn was a major contributor to the downfall of the classical samurai).

Question: Which force invaded Japan in 1853?
Answer: U.S. Navy

Question: Who lead the US Navy's invasion of Japan?
Answer: Commodore Matthew Perry

Question: What was Perry's goal in Japan?
Answer: force Japan to open its borders to trade

Question: What technology helped the downfall of samurai?
Answer: arquebus
Title: Samurai

From 1854, the samurai army and the navy were modernized. A Naval training school was established in Nagasaki in 1855. Naval students were sent to study in Western naval schools for several years, starting a tradition of foreign-educated future leaders, such as Admiral Enomoto. French naval engineers were hired to build naval arsenals, such as Yokosuka and Nagasaki. By the end of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1867, the Japanese navy of the shogun already possessed eight western-style steam warships around the flagship Kaiyō Maru, which were used against pro-imperial forces during the Boshin war, under the command of Admiral Enomoto. A French Military Mission to Japan (1867) was established to help modernize the armies of the Bakufu.

Question: When was the samurai military modernized?
Answer: 1854

Question: Where did Japan open a military school in 1855?
Answer: Nagasaki

Question: What kind of military school did Japan open in 1855?
Answer: Naval

Question: What nationality of engineers did Japan hire to build naval arsenals?
Answer: tradition

Question: How many steam warships did Japan have in 1867?
Answer: eight
Title: Samurai

Emperor Meiji abolished the samurai's right to be the only armed force in favor of a more modern, western-style, conscripted army in 1873. Samurai became Shizoku (士族) who retained some of their salaries, but the right to wear a katana in public was eventually abolished along with the right to execute commoners who paid them disrespect. The samurai finally came to an end after hundreds of years of enjoyment of their status, their powers, and their ability to shape the government of Japan. However, the rule of the state by the military class was not yet over. In defining how a modern Japan should be, members of the Meiji government decided to follow the footsteps of the United Kingdom and Germany, basing the country on the concept of noblesse oblige. Samurai were not a political force under the new order. With the Meiji reforms in the late 19th century, the samurai class was abolished, and a western-style national army was established. The Imperial Japanese Armies were conscripted, but many samurai volunteered as soldiers, and many advanced to be trained as officers. Much of the Imperial Army officer class was of samurai origin, and were highly motivated, disciplined, and exceptionally trained.

Question: Who established a western-style army in Japan?
Answer: Emperor Meiji

Question: When was a western-style army established in Japan?
Answer: 1873

Question: What did samurai become in 1873?
Answer: Shizoku

Question: Who had samurai been allowed to kill?
Answer: commoners who paid them disrespect

Question: In what century were the Meiji reforms?
Answer: 19th
Title: Samurai

Samurai were many of the early exchange students, not directly because they were samurai, but because many samurai were literate and well-educated scholars. Some of these exchange students started private schools for higher educations, while many samurai took pens instead of guns and became reporters and writers, setting up newspaper companies, and others entered governmental service. Some samurai became businessmen. For example, Iwasaki Yatarō, who was the great-grandson of a samurai, established Mitsubishi.

Question: What group made up most of Japan's first exchange students?
Answer: Samurai

Question: Who started Mitsubishi?
Answer: Iwasaki Yatarō

Question: What was Iwasaki's relationship to samurai?
Answer: great-grandson of a samurai

Question: What kind of schools did samurai start?
Answer: private schools for higher educations

Question: Who did samurai write for?
Answer: newspaper companies
Title: Samurai

The philosophies of Buddhism and Zen, and to a lesser extent Confucianism and Shinto, influenced the samurai culture. Zen meditation became an important teaching due to it offering a process to calm one's mind. The Buddhist concept of reincarnation and rebirth led samurai to abandon torture and needless killing, while some samurai even gave up violence altogether and became Buddhist monks after realizing how fruitless their killings were. Some were killed as they came to terms with these realizations in the battlefield. The most defining role that Confucianism played in samurai philosophy was to stress the importance of the lord-retainer relationship—the loyalty that a samurai was required to show his lord.

Question: What philosophies were the samurai influenced by?
Answer: Buddhism and Zen, and to a lesser extent Confucianism and Shinto

Question: What type of meditation did samurai do?
Answer: Zen

Question: What caused some samurai to stop fighting?
Answer: The Buddhist concept of reincarnation and rebirth

Question: What was the contribution of Confucianism to samurai?
Answer: to stress the importance of the lord-retainer relationship
Title: Samurai

In the 13th century, Hōjō Shigetoki (1198–1261 AD) wrote: "When one is serving officially or in the master's court, he should not think of a hundred or a thousand people, but should consider only the importance of the master." Carl Steenstrup noted that 13th and 14th century warrior writings (gunki) "portrayed the bushi in their natural element, war, eulogizing such virtues as reckless bravery, fierce family pride, and selfless, at times senseless devotion of master and man". Feudal lords such as Shiba Yoshimasa (1350–1410 AD) stated that a warrior looked forward to a glorious death in the service of a military leader or the Emperor: "It is a matter of regret to let the moment when one should die pass by....First, a man whose profession is the use of arms should think and then act upon not only his own fame, but also that of his descendants. He should not scandalize his name forever by holding his one and only life too dear....One's main purpose in throwing away his life is to do so either for the sake of the Emperor or in some great undertaking of a military general. It is that exactly that will be the great fame of one's descendants."

Question: When was Hojo Shigetoki born?
Answer: 1198

Question: When did Hojo Shigetoki die?
Answer: 1261

Question: What were gunki?
Answer: 13th and 14th century warrior writings

Question: When was Shiba Yoshimasa born?
Answer: 1350

Question: When did Shiba Yoshimasa die?
Answer: 1410
Title: Samurai

"First of all, a samurai who dislikes battle and has not put his heart in the right place even though he has been born in the house of the warrior, should not be reckoned among one's retainers....It is forbidden to forget the great debt of kindness one owes to his master and ancestors and thereby make light of the virtues of loyalty and filial piety....It is forbidden that one should...attach little importance to his duties to his master...There is a primary need to distinguish loyalty from disloyalty and to establish rewards and punishments."

Question: What does a samurai has his heart in the wrong place dislike?
Answer: battle

Question: What debt should samurai not forget?
Answer: the great debt of kindness one owes to his master and ancestors

Question: What virtues should samurai not be dismissive of?
Answer: loyalty and filial piety
Title: Samurai

Katō Kiyomasa was one of the most powerful and well-known lords of the Sengoku Era. He commanded most of Japan's major clans during the invasion of Korea (1592–1598). In a handbook he addressed to "all samurai, regardless of rank" he told his followers that a warrior's only duty in life was to "...grasp the long and the short swords and to die". He also ordered his followers to put forth great effort in studying the military classics, especially those related to loyalty and filial piety. He is best known for his quote: "If a man does not investigate into the matter of Bushido daily, it will be difficult for him to die a brave and manly death. Thus it is essential to engrave this business of the warrior into one's mind well."

Question: When was Kato Kiyomasa in power?
Answer: the Sengoku Era

Question: When did Japan begin invading Korea?
Answer: 1592

Question: When did Japan finish invading Korea?
Answer: 1598

Question: What did Kato Kiyomasa think samurais' duty was?
Answer: to "...grasp the long and the short swords and to die"

Question: What concept did Kato Kiyomasa think should be studied every day?
Answer: Bushido
Title: Samurai

Torii Mototada (1539–1600) was a feudal lord in the service of Tokugawa Ieyasu. On the eve of the battle of Sekigahara, he volunteered to remain behind in the doomed Fushimi Castle while his lord advanced to the east. Torii and Tokugawa both agreed that the castle was indefensible. In an act of loyalty to his lord, Torii chose to remain behind, pledging that he and his men would fight to the finish. As was custom, Torii vowed that he would not be taken alive. In a dramatic last stand, the garrison of 2,000 men held out against overwhelming odds for ten days against the massive army of Ishida Mitsunari's 40,000 warriors. In a moving last statement to his son Tadamasa, he wrote:

Question: Who did Torii Mototada serve?
Answer: Tokugawa Ieyasu

Question: When was Torii Mototada born?
Answer: 1539

Question: When did Torii Mototada die?
Answer: 1600

Question: How many people were in Ishida Mitsunari's army?
Answer: 40,000

Question: How many soldiers defended Torii's last stand?
Answer: 2,000
Title: Samurai

The rival of Takeda Shingen (1521–1573) was Uesugi Kenshin (1530–1578), a legendary Sengoku warlord well-versed in the Chinese military classics and who advocated the "way of the warrior as death". Japanese historian Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki describes Uesugi's beliefs as: "Those who are reluctant to give up their lives and embrace death are not true warriors.... Go to the battlefield firmly confident of victory, and you will come home with no wounds whatever. Engage in combat fully determined to die and you will be alive; wish to survive in the battle and you will surely meet death. When you leave the house determined not to see it again you will come home safely; when you have any thought of returning you will not return. You may not be in the wrong to think that the world is always subject to change, but the warrior must not entertain this way of thinking, for his fate is always determined."

Question: Who was Takeda's rival?
Answer: Uesugi Kenshin

Question: What did Uesugi encourage?
Answer: the "way of the warrior as death"

Question: What was Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki's occupation?
Answer: Japanese historian

Question: When was Takeda born?
Answer: 1521

Question: When was Uesugi born?
Answer: 1530
Title: Samurai

Historian H. Paul Varley notes the description of Japan given by Jesuit leader St. Francis Xavier (1506–1552): "There is no nation in the world which fears death less." Xavier further describes the honour and manners of the people: "I fancy that there are no people in the world more punctilious about their honour than the Japanese, for they will not put up with a single insult or even a word spoken in anger." Xavier spent the years 1549–1551 converting Japanese to Christianity. He also observed: "The Japanese are much braver and more warlike than the people of China, Korea, Ternate and all of the other nations around the Philippines."

Question: What religious order was St. Francis Xavier in?
Answer: Jesuit

Question: When was St. Francis Xavier born?
Answer: 1506

Question: When did St. Francis Xavier die?
Answer: 1552

Question: When did Xavier try to convert Japan to Christianity?
Answer: 1549–1551

Question: Who were the Japanese regarded as braver than?
Answer: the people of China, Korea, Ternate and all of the other nations around the Philippines
Title: Samurai

In December 1547, Francis was in Malacca (Malaysia) waiting to return to Goa (India) when he met a low-ranked samurai named Anjiro (possibly spelled "Yajiro"). Anjiro was not an intellectual, but he impressed Xavier because he took careful notes of everything he said in church. Xavier made the decision to go to Japan in part because this low-ranking samurai convinced him in Portuguese that the Japanese people were highly educated and eager to learn. They were hard workers and respectful of authority. In their laws and customs they were led by reason, and, should the Christian faith convince them of its truth, they would accept it en masse.

Question: Where was Malacca?
Answer: Malaysia

Question: Where was Goa?
Answer: India

Question: Who impressed Xavier by taking notes in church?
Answer: Anjiro

Question: In what language did Anjiro speak to Xavier?
Answer: Portuguese

Question: How did Anjiro think the Japanese would accept Christianity?
Answer: en masse
Title: Samurai

In his book "Ideals of the Samurai" translator William Scott Wilson states: "The warriors in the Heike Monogatari served as models for the educated warriors of later generations, and the ideals depicted by them were not assumed to be beyond reach. Rather, these ideals were vigorously pursued in the upper echelons of warrior society and recommended as the proper form of the Japanese man of arms. With the Heike Monogatari, the image of the Japanese warrior in literature came to its full maturity." Wilson then translates the writings of several warriors who mention the Heike Monogatari as an example for their men to follow.

Question: Who wrote 'Ideals of the Samurai'?
Answer: William Scott Wilson

Question: Who were the models for future generations of samurai?
Answer: The warriors in the Heike Monogatari

Question: Where did Japanese warriors come to literary maturity?
Answer: the Heike Monogatari
Title: Samurai

As aristocrats for centuries, samurai developed their own cultures that influenced Japanese culture as a whole. The culture associated with the samurai such as the tea ceremony, monochrome ink painting, rock gardens and poetry were adopted by warrior patrons throughout the centuries 1200–1600. These practices were adapted from the Chinese arts. Zen monks introduced them to Japan and they were allowed to flourish due to the interest of powerful warrior elites. Musō Soseki (1275–1351) was a Zen monk who was advisor to both Emperor Go-Daigo and General Ashikaga Takauji (1304–58). Musō, as well as other monks, acted as political and cultural diplomat between Japan and China. Musō was particularly well known for his garden design. Another Ashikaga patron of the arts was Yoshimasa. His cultural advisor, the Zen monk Zeami, introduced tea ceremony to him. Previously, tea had been used primarily for Buddhist monks to stay awake during meditation.

Question: Whose culture included tea ceremonies?
Answer: samurai

Question: What kind of painting did samurai do?
Answer: monochrome ink

Question: What was Japanese culture influenced by?
Answer: Chinese arts

Question: Who brought Chinese arts to Japan?
Answer: Zen monks

Question: When was Muso Soseki born?
Answer: 1275
Title: Samurai

For example, the full name of Oda Nobunaga would be "Oda Kazusanosuke Saburo Nobunaga" (織田上総介三郎信長), in which "Oda" is a clan or family name, "Kazusanosuke" is a title of vice-governor of Kazusa province, "Saburo" is a formal nickname (yobina), and "Nobunaga" is an adult name (nanori) given at genpuku, the coming of age ceremony. A man was addressed by his family name and his title, or by his yobina if he did not have a title. However, the nanori was a private name that could be used by only a very few, including the Emperor.

Question: What did Nobunaga mean?
Answer: an adult name (nanori) given at genpuku, the coming of age ceremony

Question: What did Kazusanosuke mean?
Answer: a title of vice-governor of Kazusa province

Question: What did Saburo mean?
Answer: a formal nickname (yobina)

Question: What did Oda mean?
Answer: a clan or family name

Question: What was Oda Nobunaga's full name?
Answer: Oda Kazusanosuke Saburo Nobunaga
Title: Samurai

A samurai could take concubines but their backgrounds were checked by higher-ranked samurai. In many cases, taking a concubine was akin to a marriage. Kidnapping a concubine, although common in fiction, would have been shameful, if not criminal. If the concubine was a commoner, a messenger was sent with betrothal money or a note for exemption of tax to ask for her parents' acceptance. Even though the woman would not be a legal wife, a situation normally considered a demotion, many wealthy merchants believed that being the concubine of a samurai was superior to being the legal wife of a commoner. When a merchant's daughter married a samurai, her family's money erased the samurai's debts, and the samurai's social status improved the standing of the merchant family. If a samurai's commoner concubine gave birth to a son, the son could inherit his father's social status.

Question: How did the samurai treat concubines?
Answer: akin to a marriage

Question: How did the samurai view kidnapping concubines?
Answer: shameful, if not criminal

Question: Who thought being a concubine was better than being a wife?
Answer: many wealthy merchants

Question: Why did merchants prefer that their daughters not marry samurai?
Answer: her family's money erased the samurai's debts

Question: What happened if a commoner concubine had a son?
Answer: the son could inherit his father's social status
Title: Samurai

A samurai could divorce his wife for a variety of reasons with approval from a superior, but divorce was, while not entirely nonexistent, a rare event. A wife's failure to produce a son was cause for divorce, but adoption of a male heir was considered an acceptable alternative to divorce. A samurai could divorce for personal reasons, even if he simply did not like his wife, but this was generally avoided as it would embarrass the person who had arranged the marriage. A woman could also arrange a divorce, although it would generally take the form of the samurai divorcing her. After a divorce samurai had to return the betrothal money, which often prevented divorces.

Question: How common was divorce for samurai?
Answer: rare

Question: What could samurai do instead of divorce if their wife couldn't produce a son?
Answer: adoption of a male heir

Question: Why did samurai avoid divorcing for reasons of dislike?
Answer: it would embarrass the person who had arranged the marriage

Question: What financial concern prevented divorce?
Answer: After a divorce samurai had to return the betrothal money
Title: Samurai

Maintaining the household was the main duty of samurai women. This was especially crucial during early feudal Japan, when warrior husbands were often traveling abroad or engaged in clan battles. The wife, or okugatasama (meaning: one who remains in the home), was left to manage all household affairs, care for the children, and perhaps even defend the home forcibly. For this reason, many women of the samurai class were trained in wielding a polearm called a naginata or a special knife called the kaiken in an art called tantojutsu (lit. the skill of the knife), which they could use to protect their household, family, and honor if the need arose.

Question: What did samurai wives spend most of their time on?
Answer: Maintaining the household

Question: What did okugatasama mean?
Answer: one who remains in the home

Question: What did samurai wives' duties include when their husbands were away?
Answer: manage all household affairs, care for the children, and perhaps even defend the home forcibly

Question: What was a naginata?
Answer: a polearm

Question: What was tantojutsu?
Answer: the skill of the knife