samurai

Samurai (侍) were the military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan.
In Japanese, they are usually referred to as bushi (武士, [bu.ɕi]) or buke (武家). According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning "to wait upon" or "accompany persons" in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau. In both countries the terms were nominalized to mean "those who serve in close attendance to the nobility", the pronunciation in Japanese changing to saburai. According to Wilson, an early reference to the word "samurai" appears in the Kokin Wakashū (905–914), the first imperial anthology of poems, completed in the first part of the 10th century.
By the end of the 12th century, samurai became almost entirely synonymous with bushi, and the word was closely associated with the middle and upper echelons of the warrior class. The samurai were usually associated with a clan and their lord, were trained as officers in military tactics and grand strategy, and they followed a set of rules that later came to be known as the bushidō. While the samurai numbered less than 10% of then Japan's population, their teachings can still be found today in both everyday life and in modern Japanese martial arts.

View More On Wikipedia.org
  1. Casimir Harlow

    Onimusha (Netflix) TV Show Review & Comments

    Takeshi Miike directs this samurai demon-slaying show based on the Capcom videogame universe, bringing the greatest samurai actor who ever lived back to life for one last epic battle. Read the review. Write your own review for Onimusha
  2. millerlfc

    Samurai Jack

    It's been over 12 years since the last episode of Samurai Jack, but tonight sees the UK premiere of the fifth (and final) series. Series 5, episode 1 at midnight Thursday 16th March 2017 on Fox UK (episodes are a week after the US airing). Only a few hours to go!
  3. highconcept

    Bargain Expired Kurosawa: The Samurai Collection (Blu Ray) 5 Films £22 on Amazon

    I'm embarrassed to say that i haven't seem any of these, but this looks like the perfect box set to fix that, and a bargain too. I'm particularly interested in the Seven Samurai and Hidden Fortress given their influence on so many filmmakers. Kurosawa: The Samurai Collection (Blu Ray) 5 Films...
  4. Garioch

    Mifune: The Last Samurai (2015) - Toshiro Mifune Documentary

    ‘Mifune: The Last Samurai’ Trailer: Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg Sing the Legendary Actor’s Praises
Back
Top Bottom