Samurai

What’s samurai mean?

History of the Samurai• In the 8th century, the Japanese looked to the East and saw how

China was doing shit better then anyone else. An organized military sounded like a good idea to steal, especially when your neighbors to the East had a very nice one. So they drafted something like one out of every four males and started training them to be warriors. However, the Japanese have always done things a bit different from the rest of the world (this is not a recent phenomenon) so they also put pressure on them to learn poetry and art. Basically anything that takes a lot of time, effort, and practice was required of these poor bastards But for centuries that whole dedication and training thing paid off.

• Because there were unemployed writers around Japan, someone decided to collect the code of the Samurai into what we call the Bushido code. Basically, it took away a lot of the fun with a sword in town by limiting the hell out of what you were allowed to do. It also required more poetry and art.

• By the Fifteenth Century the Samurai were stressing the importance of serving one's master.A dedication to their masters, a strict ethical code, and a complete lack of fear about death meant that the Japanese were going to be formidable enemies indeed. It was completely out of character when the Japanese under the leadership of Admiral Togo had a sneak attack on the biggest Russian Pacific port in 1904. Who would have ever expected a nation built on warrior honor to do a sneak attack on a bunch of boats across the water from them? Luckily the world discovered the truth about the sneaky Japanese military and Admiral Togo.

Samurai Feudal pyramid

Samurai way of life

The samurai warriors were extremely disciplined and rated honor over everything else if he would lose a battle he would ask the enemy to behead him.

Famous samuraiNobunagaHe one of the most famous samurai fought

for unification of Japan. He lived from 1534 till 1582 . He made many changes in policies and lived a good life. He won many battles for the Oda clan.

Samurai Armor

• Armor: Made with small scales or lacquered iron plates together with silk cords. Weighs about 11 kg, which enabled the warrior to move with agility.Hull: composed of a metal mask with a fierce face, iron rivets and special protection for the neck.

Samurai swordsThe Samurai were privileged to wear two swords ( daisho) , and at one time had the right to cut down any commoner who offended them.

Katana 12 inches to 24

Wakizashi +24 inches

Saigo Takamori was instrumental Meiji Restoration, which hadaimed at modernizing Japan.He fights with the other leaders because believes that change is very fast and returned to his hometown of Kagoshima.There is an army of samurai and 1876 makes a revolution against the government. They were easily defeated by firearms, Saigo committed seppuku seriously injured (method of suicide) because he could not bear the shame of not being able to defend their country. For this reason he is considered the last samurai. In 1889 the Meiji restoration leaders recognized their courage and put a statue of him in one of the parks in Tokyo.

Saigo Takamori: "The last samurai"

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Sources:

• www.cracked.com/ funny-2124-samurai • http://dictionary.reference.com/ • www.wikipedia.com• www.japanese-armor.com• www.google.com