Warrior's Code Of the various warrior cultures around the world, the samurai are amongst the most famous. And it's not just because they're awesome. The samurai are known for their quality steel swords, their mastery of fighting, and their devotion to the Bushido code. Bushido code literally means 'the samurai's way' and refers to the warriors' philosophic code of behavior. A samurai was an educated warrior of the nobility class in medieval Japan who served military lords, sort of like the knights who served the English royalty during about the same time period.

Bushido is roughly the Japanese equivalent of the chivalry of medieval knights. The basic tenets of Bushido include mastery of martial arts, loyalty, honor, and frugality. Bushi = Samurai In 721, Japan's oldest book, the Kojiki, described warrior heroes who were greatly skilled with the sword and reflected an early view of Japanese virtues. An early history of Japan, written in 797, built upon this by idealizing a warrior who was also an educated poet, called by the Chinese term Bushi, also known as a samurai. By the 13th century, the Bushi figure appeared throughout Japanese literature as an educated, brave, and reckless warrior, capable of selfless sacrifice and devotion to his master. This character was portrayed as an ideal in these eras of warlords and violence. The samurai became more than warriors and were political advisors, leaders, bureaucrats, and philosophers in Japanese society.

Bushido Philosophy. Bushido is a diverse body of philosophy, and it is strongly linked to the Japanese religion of. Righteousness (義 gi) This is about making sure that students, instructors and all representatives of Bushido Ryu have the right way of thinking when they make a.

Samurai in Peacetime From 1600 to the mid-1800s, Japan entered an era of peace under the Tokugawa shogunate, also called the Edo period. A shogun was a military leader who controlled Japanese politics, despite the presence of a ruling emperor. Samurai were central parts of the administration and had to find new uses for their training and education in this time of peace. The Bushido code was formalized under the Tokugawa and it added Confucian values that honored tradition and the unique, divine nature of Japan. The result was a code of wisdom, serenity, devotion, honor, and skill.

The 47 Ronin In the early 1700s, a group of samurai without masters, called Ronin, lost their lord when he committed ritual suicide for assaulting a court official and besmirching his honor. The Ronin planned for a year and assassinated the court official to restore their lord's honor, and then killed themselves because they had committed the crime of murder.