Samurai

[Joe Wordsworth]

I ran into someone who referred to themselves as "a samurai", earlier tonite. I was... well, taken aback, that's for sure.

On the one hand, I accept it is a possible thing. On the other, I had considerable urges to slap him down like a bitch.

 

[shereads]

I ran into someone who referred to themselves as "a samurai", earlier tonite. I was... well, taken aback, that's for sure.

On the one hand, I accept it is a possible thing. On the other, I had considerable urges to slap him down like a bitch.

Context?

(Hoping to eliminate the possibiity that he actually is a samurai, in favor of some really crazy stuff, like he's a librarian dressed as a samurai.)

 

[Joe Wordsworth]

A brief run-down... not that I'm terribly married to the idea that nationality, ethnicity, or the like is a determining factor, but he's close on his late twenties, a computer geek, pasty white, long hair, and says he follows the Code and is, therefore, a samurai.

I was and am just bewildered.

 

[snooper]

... a computer geek, pasty white, long hair, and says he follows the Code ...

Perhaps he just means that he writes code and thinks that qualifies him?

 

[Guest]

Hacker Elite Wannabe.

 

[Guest]

Maybe because its early and i have yet to finish my first cup of java.. the first thing that popped into my head was...
well i just have to show you:

http://pics.xs.to/pics/04081/sumo.bmp

yes i know the difference between sumo and samurai.. but damn it didnt kick in until a few min. passed...

 

[Joe Wordsworth]

I won't sleep for a week.

 

[rgraham666]

Snickers.

The problem with bushido is that it is just as open to misuse as any other philosophical system.

People often don't really spend much time thinking about it. And too often, they use it as a method to avoid thought and responsibility.

 

[R. Richard]

A Samurai is a rank within the old Japanese feudal system. A Samurai was a warrior attached to a Daimyo (feudal lord).

If the person clains to be a Samurai, he must be attached to a Daimyo. Ask him which Daimyo.

If he has been a Samurai, but is no longer attached to a Daimyo, he is a Ronin. If he has never been a Samurai, he is neither a Samurai nor a Ronin. 'Rules is rules!'

 

[Guest]

Anything is possible but I think the odds of your "in need of bitch-slapping friend" having truly studied and trained are pretty low. We study Buddhism in our Shotokan karate and as a part of Bushido it is a humbling form of enlightenment.

A true Samurai wouldn't boast.

LOL! OK - my husband just said you can offer to help him commit suicide if he won't shut up.

http://mcel.pacificu.edu/as/students/bushido/bindex.html

Bushido, literally translated "Way of the Warrior," developed in Japan between the Heian and Tokugawa Ages (9th-12th century). It was a code and way of life for Samurai, a class of warriors similar to the medieval knights of Europe. It was influenced by Zen and Confucianism, two different schools of thought of those periods. Bushido is not unlike the chivalry and codes of the European knights. "It puts emphasis on loyalty, self sacrifice, justice, sense of shame, refined manners, purity, modesty, frugality, martial spirit, honor and affection" (Nippon Steel Human Resources Development Co., Ltd. 329).

ORIGINS AND INFLUENCES

Bushido comes out of Buddhism, Zen, Confucianism, and Shintoism. The combination of these schools of thought and religions has formed the code of warrior values known as Bushido.

From Buddhism, Bushido gets its relationship to danger and death. The samurai do not fear death because they believe as Buddhism teaches, after death one will be reincarnated and may live another life here on earth. The samurai are warriors from the time they become samurai until their death; they have no fear of danger. Through Zen, a school of Buddhism one can reach the ultimate "Absolute." Zen meditation teaches one to focus and reach a level of thought words cannot describe. Zen teaches one to "know thyself" and do not to limit yourself. Samurai used this as a tool to drive out fear, unsteadiness and ultimately mistakes. These things could get him killed.

Shintoism, another Japanese doctrine, gives Bushido its loyalty and patriotism. Shintoism includes ancestor-worship which makes the Imperial family the fountain-head of the whole nation. It awards the emperor a god-like reverence. He is the embodiment of Heaven on earth. With such loyalty, the samurai pledge themselves to the emperor and their daimyo or feudal landlords, higher ranking samurai. Shintoism also provides the backbone for patriotism to their country, Japan. They believe the land is not merely there for their needs, "it is the sacred abode to the gods, the spirits of their forefathers . . ." (Nitobe, 14). The land is cared for, protected and nurtured through an intense patriotism.

Confucianism gives Bushido its beliefs in relationships with the human world, their environment and family. Confucianism's stress on the five moral relations between master and servant, father and son, husband and wife, older and younger brother, and friend and friend, are what the samurai follow. However, the samurai disagreed strongly with many of the writings of Confucius. They believed that man should not sit and read books all day, nor shall he write poems all day, for an intellectual specialist was considered to be a machine. Instead, Bushido believes man and the universe were made to be alike in both the spirit and ethics.

Along with these virtues, Bushido also holds justice, benevolence, love, sincerity, honesty, and self-control in utmost respect. Justice is one of the main factors in the code of the samurai. Crooked ways and unjust actions are thought to be lowly and inhumane. Love and benevolence were supreme virtues and princely acts. Samurai followed a specific etiquette in every day life as well as in war. Sincerity and honesty were as valued as their lives. Bushi no ichi-gon, or "the word of a samurai," transcends a pact of complete faithfulness and trust. With such pacts there was no need for a written pledge; it was thought beneath one's dignity. The samurai also needed self-control and stoicism to be fully honored. He showed no sign of pain or joy. He endured all within--no groans, no crying. He held a calmness of behavior and composure of the mind neither of which should be bothered by passion of any kind. He was a true and complete warrior.

These factors which make up Bushido were few and simple. Though simple, Bushido created a way of life that was to nourish a nation through its most troubling times, through civil wars, despair and uncertainty. "The wholesome unsophisticated nature of our warrior ancestors derived ample food for their spirit from a sheaf of commonplace and fragmentary teachings, gleaned as it were on the highways and byways of ancient thought, and, stimulated by the demands of the age formed from these gleanings a new and unique way of life" (Nitobe, 20).

(The samurai became the ruling class during the 1400s and the 1500s. In the 1600s there was a time of unification; warring in Japan had ceased. Then toward the end of the Tokugawa Era (the late 1700s), Japan began to move towards a more modernized and Western way of life. There was no need for fighting men, for warriors, for samurai. The samurai and their way of life was officially abolished in the early 1870s, but it was not forgotten.)

 

[shereads]

Snickers.

The problem with bushido is that it is just as open to misuse as any other philosophical system.

People often don't really spend much time thinking about it. And too often, they use it as a method to avoid thought and responsibility.

Is there a crash course? I'd love to avoid responsibility. Thought is okay, except when it leads to more responsibilities.

Do I need the sword and the outfit? Or just the title?

 

[Clare Quilty]

A brief run-down... not that I'm terribly married to the idea that nationality, ethnicity, or the like is a determining factor, but he's close on his late twenties, a computer geek, pasty white, long hair, and says he follows the Code and is, therefore, a samurai.

I was and am just bewildered.

This is utterly ridiculous. In feudal Japan that would have been cause to unceremoniously have your head removed--the very second the utterance left his mouth. Samurai weren't simply guys running around with a katana and a wakizashi. The samurai were nobility. I can put on a doublet, waistcoat and tights but it won't make me Sir Francis Walsingham.

 

[shereads]

I can put on a doublet, waistcoat and tights but it won't make me Sir Francis Walsingham.

You'd better not be, missy. Because I am Sir Francis Walsingham!

 

[Clare Quilty]

You'd better not be, missy. Because I am Sir Francis Walsingham!

Rest assured that I am not Sir Francis Walsingham. The bulge beneath my codpiece suggests that neither am I a missy. Although, the idea of poncing about with a lace hanky and a snuff-box, in tights with lovely black velvet slippers replete with embroidered gold stitching and big gilded buckles does have a certain appeal.

 

[Guest]

Rest assured that I am not Sir Francis Walsingham. The bulge beneath my codpiece suggests that neither am I a missy. Although, the idea of poncing about with a lace hanky and a snuff-box, in tights with lovely black velvet slippers replete with embroidered gold stitching and big gilded buckles does have a certain appeal.

Oh!

Kind sir, please attire yourself so at your earliest convenience. The ladies of Lit would be simply agog!

 

[Guest]

Oh!

Kind sir, please attire yourself so at your earliest convenience. The ladies of Lit would be simply agog!

And the men would be stricken with envy.

 

[rgraham666]

Sarah, good post on Bushido.

As I understand, samurai means 'one who serves'. Unfortunately many samurai thought that meant serving those above you in the hierarchy.

They forgot that also meant serving those below you as well. Samurai held positions of authourity and many forgot that this meant responsibility to those you ruled as well as those who ruled you.

One of the lesser known facts of Bushido is that there is a form of seppuku (ritual suicide) that was done to both avoid an order you couldn't carry out and/or to castigate your lord for asking you to do it. You were saying, "My honour forbids me to do such a thing, and you have less honour than me for ordering it."

To me this shows that Bushido is a much deeper and more subtle philosophy than most of it's 'adherents' realize.

Shereads? You don't need to worry about Bushido. Any philosophy will do. You just have to twist it so it gives you excuses rather than reasons.

As far as the guy claiming to be a smaurai goes, I put him in the same category as those who pretend to be in StarFleet, or Klingons, or Jedi.

They're looking for something to hold their egos up and that's what they stumbled upon.

 

[Guest]

This thread is bullshit.

 

[rgraham666]

You would know.

 

[Guest]

Thanks, rg -

From the same link I posted earlier -

These warriors were men who lived by Bushido; it was their way of life. The samurai's loyalty to the emperor and his overlord, or daimyo, was unsurpassed. They were trustworthy and honest. They lived frugal lives with no interest in riches and material things, but rather they were interested in honor and pride. They were men of true valor. Samurai had no fear of death. They would enter any battle no matter the odds. To die in battle would only bring honor to one's family and one's lord.

When Japan became more modernized and the samurai truly became part of the ruling class their purpose of service changed.

At any rate, rg, I love what you said about this guy being a Klingon. Do you remember that crazy woman who wore a Star Trek uniform when she was on jury duty? Maybe this guy wears hakama pants to work every day!

Oh! And I found another terrific link! It's an actual questionaire and the number is 1-800-SAMURAI.

Who wants to be a Samurai?

 

[Guest]

This thread is bullshit.

CV, no worries.

This thread is just a figment of your imagination.

(Go back to sleep.)

 

[gauchecritic]

I can put on a doublet, waistcoat and tights but it won't make me Sir Francis Walsingham.

Yes it will.

originally posted by Joe
says he follows the Code and is, therefore, a samurai.

Maybe he read the same thing I did a few years ago:

A guy asked a Buddhist monk where he signed/who did he see to become a Buddhist. The Monk answered "No one, just be Buddhist".

Gauche

 

[Guest]

Re: Thanks, rg -

Maybe this guy wears hakama pants to work every day!

Ummmm.... Not to give credit to this poor schmuck, but I've been known to wear mine around the house. They are quite comfortable for lounging in.

 

[Joe Wordsworth]

I want to be a crime fighter. I think that'd be groovier than being a Samurai.

 

[McKenna]

Re: Re: Samurai

(Hoping to eliminate the possibiity that he actually is a samurai, in favor of some really crazy stuff, like he's a librarian dressed as a samurai.)

Congratulations Sher, for the first time ever since reading Lit, someone has made me spew my beverage all over my keyboard!

There's personal significance there, (I can't explain,) but suffice it to say you hit the nail right on the head!