Samurai 侍 introduction

I recently wrote something about ninjas 忍者, so now it’s time to explain a little more about the most feared opponents they had: the samurai. A worrier trained in face-to-face combat and governed by the bushido.

The word samurai stems from saburai which means ‘servant’ and originates from the Chinese word saborau 侍, meaning ‘the person that accompanies those of higher rank’.

Even though the word samurai stems from these humble origins, it finally turned out to be a synonym for Bushido, which means: the path of the warrior

The samurai first started out as a low ranked guard for the imperial palace, and gradually moved up in rank, until finally becoming an extremely disciplined warrior with great arching and horse riding skills.

A samurai was part of the four most important warrior classes in Japan in their heyday, and the only one allowed carrying weapons. The samurai became so important on a social level that they started performing administrative tasks and giving shelter to samurai without any remarkable weaponry skills.