Samurai Smarts?

[Addison]

Hi all!

I'm writing a story with samurais and need some input. All the books have samurai history but not the details I really need.

I know that samurai go through a rigorous, intense training. Thanks to my brother I know how it looks. I know samurai are honorable and have a fierce loyalty to their master. If they do anything to betray their master's loyalty or honor they take their own life.

What I need to know is more about the samurai culture. My protagonist is in present day and is the reincarnation of a young japanese lord. (Or the lord's son, still debating) During a battle, in the past, he died. The samuria who his father assigned as his guards failed so they did some magic, or just by the case of their failure leading to their death, they come back to life to protect the MC from the evil (also) and train him so he can defeat the evil once and for all.

The guards aren't zombies. They're corporeal spirits.

What I don't know if any of that holds true to honest samurai history and culture.

Any and all help, from your own knowledge or a site or source, will be much appreciated.

Thank you!

 

[Snowpoint]

From my understanding, samurai were a aristocratic warrior class. After Japan was united, there were no major conflicts for the samurai to fight. They still had massive incomes despite being completely unnecessary in that period. The became writers, poets, and such. They felt that Ritual Suicide as a punishment was because they were paid so much money, they should be held to a higher standard.

Hari-Kiri - the samurai cuts his own belly and suffers a slow, painful death.

Sepuku - "Ritual Suicide" - The samurai cuts this belly, then a second person chops off his head for a quicker death.

Ninjas are poor farmers that hate samurai because they are paid so much money to so nothing. Ninja vs Samurai is class warfare. Ninjas fight with farming equipment because they are farmers, they can't afford specialized weapons. Ninjas might steal the identity of a rich person and be train as a samurai, only to use that training to kill as many samurai as he can before his is killed himself.

I can't site any reliable sources, most of this probably came from me reading Wikipedia.

 

[writeshiek33]

The Samurai Archives Japanese History Page hope this helps

 

[A. E. Lowan]

Geisha are one of my research areas, so I have some familiarity with samurai in passing. There are some good books (read: primary sources because I am just that kind of nerd) out there that will give you an excellent taste.

There is Nitobe Inazo's Bushido. Take this one with a grain of salt. Nitobe was not himself a samurai, and was writing for a Western audience, but it's still a fun read.

Hagakure, written by Yamamoto Tsumetomo, who was a samurai during the 17th century. Good stuff here.

Hogen monogatari: Tale of the Disorder in Hogen: this is a record of a civil war between two very powerful rival families during the 12th century. The story pre-dates the samurai by a bit, but it gives a good cultural basis for their emergence.

Seppuku is spelled with 2 "p's" in English because it's pronounced se'puku, with a full stop. Whenever you see a double consonant in an English spelling of a Japanese word, it is indicative of a stop.

One thing I find fascinating about the samurai was the battlefield rituals. It was considered proper for a warrior to ride out to the front, pick out an enemy warrior of equal reputation to his own, and challenge him to battle by composing a poem. His would-be adversary had to then compose his own poem of equal or greater skill or risk losing honor. Only then would they fight. Curiously, I think this goes a long way to explaining Dragonball Z!

 

[Kahle]

There were two types of samurai, those sworn to a lord, and those who were unaffiliated, called ronin. Ronin didn't always have lands, but could enter another's service to receive lands in payment. Ritual suicide was more for failure and defeat than betrayal. If the samurai was defeated in battle or captured, they could kill themselves first, or demand/ask for the courtesy of performing sepuku. Your ethereal honor guard fits right in with the Japanese history of ancestor worship and reverence, and that sort of dedication despite death fits right in with the samurai sense of honor. If they had failed their lord, then they might have been driven to magic to ensure they could continue to protect the fallen. For a lord's son, maybe they remained to protect the son's body, then using the magic before committing hari-kari to end their shame. Their code was known as bushido.

 

[wordwalker]

Or, in their own words: The Book of Five Rings, by Miyamoto Mushasi. The book is considered the other "Art of War," a key guidebook to the warrior's viewpoint, and Musashi was probably (though not at the time!) the most respected swordmaster in history.