The Evaluation
How did the Samurai’s lifestyle affect their personal lives?
The Summary
My research was about the Samurai lifestyle and how it affected their personal lives. Japanese history has always intrigued me, I have always loved learning about their civilization and culture, and I especially loved learning about the Samurai. The reason I chose this topic is that wanted to find out more about these noble warriors and their customs, they held an important part in Japan's history. It intrigued me when I learned more about the Samurai training and how it intertwined with the young Samurai’s childhood and how it affected the people around them. The key findings were the Bushido (Code of the Warrior) and the daily tasks of a Samurai, these were important sections of my research. My outcome was written in a report form building on my research from my folio.
E1. Evaluation of the Research Processes used, Specific to the Research Question
Website Research
The website research was vital because it was my main source of information during my research. Especially my source on the Bushido (code of the warrior) it provided detail on the characteristics of a Samurai, it was deemed quite useful when finding other sources. The Bushido affected everything a Samurai did; the process of finding information on it was simple once I knew what I was looking for. (The Bushido Code: The Eight Virtues of a Samurai) However, other websites provided little to no importance regarding my research, like the website regarding Seppuku, which is a ritual Samurai would perform to take their life. Other than the fact it was interesting to read about Seppuku, it held little importance to any of my guiding questions and therefore held little importance towards my research (Seppuku). While researching the Samurai's Personal lives, the website Britannica provided relevant information for many of my sources and guiding questions, it was a website that I used frequently it provided significant detail in its articles, and overall was a trustworthy source (Britannica).
Book Research
The book research was partially relevant; It was written by Stephen Turnbull, it provided detailed information about how and when Samurai started to train, which was at a very young age, it answered a part of my guiding question on What did the Samurai have to Sacrifice? Unfortunately, the useful information was very limited, which drastically affected the overall value of the source, there was more research conducted into similar books but came up as nothing (Real Samurai pg. 24-25).
E2. Evaluation of Decisions made in response to challenges and or Opportunities, Specific to Research Processes used.
The first challenge was in my qualitative research where I found it difficult during my research processes to be able to find a relevant source to interview. It was extremely difficult as I emailed many people about a possible interview in person or using email and did not receive a single reply. I tried rewording my emails but it was futile, over the ten weeks of research I sent many emails out and received no reply. In the end, I did not conduct an interview, I felt it drastically affected my primary research.
A decision was made to email my history teacher about any information he might have about the topic or if he knew anyone who did. The result of the decision was futile; my history teacher did not have any answers for my questions or have any contact of possible interviewees. It impacted by research in a negative way I did not receive any new relevant information for my folio.
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Another challenge I faced was finding websites that were credible. There were many websites I visited that did not have an author listed or were not trustworthy. This made it difficult answering my guiding questions. Thus, I had to reword the questions a couple of times to fit my research. However, rewording the questions improved the quality of my research.
The important decision of rewording my questions was made. It drastically improved the effectiveness of my research by increasing the amount of relevant information. It impacted my research in a positive way increasing the effectiveness of my research and overall simplifying the process of finding relevant information.
A challenge I experienced was surveyed, because of my topic, it was difficult to create a survey that would benefit my research. I judged the way I was wording the questions and thus I had to change them a couple of times to make a survey worth conducting to try and collect relevant information to my topic but was sadly in vain.
A decision was made to not include a survey in my research. The impact on my research was neutral, it had no significant effect. I believe that if I had reworded my questions a couple more times I could have found relevant information to include in my folio.
My topic gave me many opportunities to learn about the Samurai and deepen my knowledge of their culture and history. Doing a question based on history it gave me an opportunity to get in touch with historians and broaden my understanding of the Samurai.
E3: Evaluation of the Quality of the Outcome
The outcome was not thoroughly researched, on reflection. The purpose of the outcome was partially achieved by the research conducted into the Bushido code of conduct. The outcome was somewhat reliable and credible since I had used several credible sources like Stephen Turnbull a historian, within my research. The findings were not original, most of the information was already known. The most significant key finding was the Bushido code of conduct because it was the virtues that defined the Samurai holding information about the characteristics a Samurai should have. However, the most insignificant key finding is the female version of the seppuku, holding very little relevance to my question. A question that is still lacking is the Samurais family, I have not found much credible information regarding family-related topics for the Samurai. A significant limitation I had was not having an interview to analyze because I had not previously conducted an interview. The outcome could be improved by having more primary data within my research. The research could be further improved with an interview with a historian. No expert sources other than Stephen Turnbull’s ‘Real Samurai’ book were used. The format of the outcome suits the targeted audience of teens/adults, being written in a formal format. Within my findings, there are not contradictory sources, most relevant information being gradually the same within different sources. The outcome somewhat provides confidence within the readers, having credible sources included within my outcome.
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