Legendary samurai spirit: dispelling common myths and stereotypes
“Each myth is another version of truth” ― Margaret Atwood
Perhaps, Japanese samurai are famous all over the world. It is difficult to find a person who has never heard a single story about them.
Sometimes they are compared with European knights, but this comparison is not entirely accurate. From Japanese, the word “samurai” is translated as “a person who serves.” Most medieval samurai were noble and fearless fighters, fighting against enemies with the help of katana and other weapons. However, when they appeared, how did they live in different periods of the history of Japan and what rules they followed?
Is everything that we know from school textbooks true? Do not believe all the stereotypes that have grown up in our heads. The image of the samurai was shrouded in too many myths to say something about them, plainly not understanding their past customs and history.
1. Samurai were not afraid of death
If the words “Bushido” and “Hagakure” are first encountered by you and are associated only with the land of the rising sun, a short historical summary will be left down below to dispel myths.
“The Way of the Warrior” is probably a more common and familiar name to the reader than “Bushido”. One of its main ideas is that a warrior should be ready for death at any moment. When choosing between a loss, but a chance to survive, and an absolute probability of dying in a battle, a “real samurai” must choose the latter. Probably, many people have already heard about this.
But only few people know that this code has not been written down for a long time, and it was not a code at all. In fact, it represented extremely vague and controversial concepts in the public mind, such as “a samurai owe to do…” What samurai should do in general is clear. Still, it is worth to know what exactly they owe and to whom?
What we now know under the name Bushido is a late moral and ethical system built on the basis of the book “Hagakure”, which was written in 1716 by the warrior Yamamoto Tsunetomo. By this time, the samurai had finally turned into officials. All their martial art came down almost exclusively to rare duels. The reason for the late appearance of the “code of the real samurai” is ridiculously simple. It was not needed until the period of the gradual fall of the samurai as a military class. The warriors barely had time to rest at night and wash off the blood from the armor before a new battle, which was waiting for them already at sunrise. It was the peaceful period of Edo that gave the samurai the opportunity and time to write such a philosophical work about the ascension and edification of their ancestors in the memory of the living.
But nevertheless, one of the golden threads, passed through the entire military history of the samurai, is clearly shown already on the first page of “Hagakure”:
The Way of the Samurai is found in death.
When it comes to either/or, there is only the quick choice of death. It is not particularly difficult. Be determined and advance. To say that dying without reaching one’s aim is to die a dog’s death is the frivolous way of sophisticates. When pressed with the choice of life or death, it is not necessary to gain one’s aim.
We all want to live. And in large part we make our logic according to what we like. But not having attained our aim and continuing to live is cowardice. This is a thin dangerous line. To die without gaming one’s aim is a dog’s death and fanaticism. But there is no shame in this. This is the substance of the Way of the Samurai. If by setting one’s heart right every morning and evening, one is able to live as though his body were already dead, he pains freedom in the Way. His whole life will be without blame, and he will succeed in his calling.
Samurai wanted to live no less than everyone else. But they were shackled by questions of “public opinion.” For them, the “law of honor” dictated the terms, sometimes actually sentencing to a duel or suicide. However, following the history, it is difficult not to notice how often morality and selflessness prevailed over the doubts of the samurai.
2. Harakiri and seppuku
There is no need to talk about the courage of samurai. Their courage and contempt for death are admirable. Such outstanding courage always impressed both friends of the samurai and their enemies. Examples of true cowardice are extremely rare. It seems that the samurai tradition of committing suicide for the sake of salvation of honor cost Japan many good military leaders who could otherwise survive to the next battle and take revenge.
However, time has passed and the great majority of people start to confuse two important concepts that affect the reputation of eastern warriors: “seppuku” and “harakiri”.
Samurai made a seppuku if they were dishonored, let their lord (daimyō) die or they themselves were sentenced to death. Making seppuku, the samurai showed his neglect of death, courage and loyalty. Harakiri is a word that Japanese use in colloquial speech. “Seppuku” and “harakiri” are written with the same two hieroglyphs, only in different order. While seppuku implied strict adherence to the rules, harakiri means simple suicide without a ritual and ripping open the abdomen.
Authentic harakiri as we know it from eastern legends and paintings did not exist very long since its acquisition of popularity. Veritable harakiri was extremely painful. Over time, a noble ritual of tearing up the abdomen, which required considerable courage, was facilitated by rapid chopping off the head immediately after painful bloodshed.
3. Katana is the only weapon of a genuine samurai
There was a perception among majority that the katana was the only weapon of the samurai in battle. Equally unfounded legends have enveloped the belief that Japanese swords are the best in the world.
Most genuine of Japanese blades are average quality when being compared with the blades from Europe and continental Asia. From a purely technological point of view, the Japanese sword is made of layered Damascus steel, which is a standard technology for gunsmiths in almost the whole world. Although, of course, there are handicrafts of special quality and special prices.
The peculiarity of Japanese swords is due to the properties of tamahagan (the layered steel from which they are made), they show a tendency to break, rather than bend. Simply put, if you put an excessive load on a real samurai sword, it will rather break than bend.
Yet, Japan’s oldest weapon is the bow (yumi), which always remained with the warrior on the battlefield. Asymmetric Japanese bow, the upper part of which is approximately twice as long as the lower. The length of the bow began from 2 meters. Often arrowheads were made empty so that in flight they emitted a whistle that, according to beliefs, drove away evil demons.
In the 16th century, muskets were brought to the Japanese state from Portugal. They almost completely replaced the bows. At the same time, the importance of spears (yari) increased. Mostly spears were used to knock down riders from a horse. The yari’s spear was 5 meters long, and the one had to have great strength and endurance to use it.
The whole past of ancient and feudal Japan is an endless battle. The main difference from the battles on the continent is that wars broke out among the Japanese, in other words, within the same nationality and culture. The warring parties used one weapon and similar strategies and tricks of warfare. Therefore, they could never have limited themselves to the use one single type of weapon.
4. Exceptionally beautiful armor
Another evidence of the decline of the samurai during Edo period was the degradation of Japanese armor. The protracted sixteenth-century wars brought defensive armaments to such perfection that the armor could withstand a shot from an arquebus (“hook gun”) and at the same time allowed the greatest possible freedom of movement.
The great commander Tokugawa Ieyasu ordered to manufacture a new helmet, which was made of iron so that soldiers could cook rice in it, exceptionally for practicality.
Pants popular among Japanese youth today are called hakama and by design are a tad cumbersome and thick. At first it would seem a tad impractical to wear such pants when trying to cut someone in half, but popular myth dictates that the hakama were utilized to hide a swordsman’s footwork, thus giving him a tactical edge. Unfortunately, it looks better on paper than it does on the battlefield. Realistically someone could just as easily cut you down while you’re pulling the invisible soft shoe bit.
5. The purest nobility in the blood of every samurai
Loyalty to the overlord was an valuable ideal in a feudal society. It was so valuable that more and more people started converting it into something more tangible. Status. Territory. Gold. And the safety of his own neck.
Japanese people are exactly the same people as everyone else in this regard. However, one can speak of a slightly higher level of samurai fidelity compared to warriors in other countries. This is the “guilty” of feature of Japanese Confucianism.
Compared to many feudal warriors, samurai often remained faithful to their master until the last, even when they foresaw a fatal outcome.
The famous battle of Takeda Katsuyori and Oda Nobunaga can be a proper example of this. The latter is the illustrious commander, the leader of Japan of the Sengoku period, while the young Katsuyori, who took the place of the equally famous to Nobunaga father, Takeda Shingen, was very inexperienced in military tactics. We are talking about the battle of Nagashino, when Nobunaga kept an incredible calm in planning the battle.While Katsuyori, full of zeal and rage in his blood, threw all his military power against his opponent without much thought. The great commanders, whose experience had the same influence as Oda Nobunaga and Takeda Shingen: Baba, Naito, and Yamagata, still remained under the young Katsuyori. They all understood how the zeal of the young master would end, but nevertheless bravely entered the battle, confirming the glorious prowess of the samurai.
At the same time, if you go 10 years in advance, you can see one of the most striking betrayals of the nobility of the samurai.
Nobunaga led a complex military company and suffered losses when one of his commanders, Hideyoshi, needed reinforcements. Oda ordered Mitsuhide to assemble an army and support Hideyoshi, while he himself stayed in Kyoto with several hundred warriors. Akechi Mitsuhide gathered a ten-thousand-strong army of people loyal to him, but did not lead them to help needy, but entered the capital and attacked Nobunaga. Oda Nobunaga, in order not to be captured by the traitor, committed seppuku.
To this day, this betrayal is considered to be the most famous and insidious in the history of samurai.
6. Aesthetics and tea ceremony
The whole history of medieval Japan is an ongoing struggle for power. Powerful daimyo were eager for power, creating alliances and betraying each other, killing everyone who could even theoretically prevent them from doing this.
The Japanese tea ceremony is hard to describe in a few sentences. It is a cult of elegant simplicity, courtesy and an aesthetic approach, ideally centered on tea drinking. Toyotomi Hideyoshi understood better than many other strategists, the tea ceremony is a way to influence people and make friends. We are obligated to him that the tea ceremony has turned from a fashionable pastime into a true cult and into a means to tame the spirit of those who could infringe on its authority.
From the very beginning, tea was closely associated with Zen teachings. Both tea drinking and Zen assumed a calm reflection on simple things, and Zen teachers discovered earlier that tea helps with meditation, being a weak stimulant. Hideyoshi was especially enthusiastic about tea. He used every occasion to surrender to his passion for this cult.
Some warriors continued to be suspicious of the tea ceremony. Kuroda Yoshitaka once remarked Hideyoshi that enjoying tea is not a thing for a samurai. It is risky, he said, when the landlord and the guests are sitting so close to each other together without weapons. He was invited at the next tea ceremony. Hideyoshi sat next to Kuroda and began to discuss military issues in a quiet voice. Then Kuroda trully appreciated one of the advantages of the peaceful atmosphere of the tea room. Of course, that time Hideyoshi perverted the very essence of the tea ceremony, which is based on things not of this world, but such was the custom of Hideyoshi.
At that time, the tea ceremony was a good tool for finding new useful connections and an instrument in the political struggle.
7. All samurai were Zen Buddhists
Zen had a great influence on the samurai class. It seemed comfortable and practically useful for samurai. In general, Zen practice was a necessary thing for a warrior. They fostered self-discipline, patience, attentiveness, and the ability to be “here and now” that are useful in war and in battle, which contribute to a quick and accurate reaction. Samurai generally leaned toward Zen, but there were plenty of followers and other teachings among them.
Moreover, at the peak of feudal wars, a huge number of Christian samurai appeared, mostly Catholics. After all, Japan met Europeans at the peak of the power of Spain — and the first Christian preacher on the islands was Francis Xavier, one of the founders of the Jesuit Order. The new teaching spread rapidly — thanks to the patronage of the southern daimyo, who were interested in trade with the Spaniards and Portuguese, and the effort of the great commander Oda Nobunaga, who was passionate about European weapons and technology.
The desire to close the country, to eradicate the opposition and fears of colonialism led to the most severe persecution of Christians under the rule of Tokugawa. Catholicism was literally etched with fire and sword from the samurai. It brought undoubted success, despite rebellion and desperate resistance. However, the era of Christian samurai in the history of Japan existed and should not be forgotten at all.
8. From commoner to samurai: was it possible?
At different times — in very different ways.
The first samurai surnames were essentially a continuation of the court aristocracy of kuge (not a samurai court aristocracy), often with some of the emperors as an ancestor. They were those who did not intrigue and aesthetize in the capital, but fought with barbarians or crushed rebellion. On the other hand, any fairly bold, successful and resolute commoner could get into the samurai class from the bottom.
The times were ancient, morals were simple, despite all the metropolitan sophistication. The farther, the more the old battle formats of the few equestrian squads of hereditary samurai were replaced by massive field battles with crowds of simple infantry. Just like in Europe. Otherwise, the stock of samurai ended too quickly.
Massive battles, human losses that are even more massive. Everyone needed warriors, but the barefoot asigaru (light infantry in medieval Japan), who did not dream of becoming a daimyo, was mediocre. The samurai title began to hand out to the right and the left. As long as they fought famously and courageously.
9. Women in the samurai’s ranks
The word “samurai” is traditionally applied only to men. The Japanese bushi class made it possible to teach martial arts women also — such women called themselves onna-bugeisha and participated in wars along with men. The most popular weapon-of-choice of onna-bugeisha is the naginata, which is a versatile, conventional polearm with a curved blade at the tip. The weapon is mainly favored for its length, which can compensate for the strength and body size advantage of male opponents. This weapon was relatively light and quite effective compared to the rest.
Historical texts suggest that there were few female warriors among all the women of Japan of noble origin — traditionally Japanese noble women were content with the role of housewives. However, recent studies prove that women participated in battles much more often than is written in history textbooks. For example, DNA analysis of the remains of participants in one major battle was carried out, and it turned out that 35 out of 105 belonged to women.
Seppuku was also common among women of the samurai class, but they, unlike men, stuck a dagger into their hearts or cut their throats.
10. Homosexuality
In modern Japanese society, sodomy is a cruel taboo. Nevertheless, most of its history, Japanese society was as tolerant as possible of any kind of sexual intercourse.
Samurai were not notorious people, without hang-ups, when it came to sexual relations. Like many other warrior cultures, such as the Spartans, the samurai not only considered same-sex relationships normal, but also actively encouraged them.
Sexual relations arose, generally, between young students and the teacher who trained them — this practice was known as wakasudo (the “path of youth”) and was practiced by almost all members of the bushi class. Although wakasudo was considered one of the fundamental aspects of the samurai’s path, history has kept little information about it — for example, this fact is almost never advertised in popular pop culture.
Legendary historical figures most often become shrouded in myths. In the case of samurai, we find this even more often than dry facts. But do not let myths and stereotypes overshadow your mind. The great point is to be guided by the plain facts.
