Remember kids: Bushido is Chivalry with a cool name, and it held the samurai back just about as much as it held back the knights 
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Yeah, it’s funny how chivalry and bushido completely share that, although for somewhat different reasons. The romantic fiction of chivalry involved Victorians projecting their moral sensibilities back on the Middle Ages, but I’m not sure whether that was used to justify anything, or at least to the same degree.
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It does sound kind of like an urban legend, doesn’t it? And one that many samurai might not have felt a need to supress, if they enjoyed the fear/respect/space that they’d get from anyone who believed it was a thing. I know I’d give wide berth…
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There’s a bit less of a specific tie to a socio-economic class saying “this is totally what we’re about and why we deserve to be where we are”. Especially in the earlier developments the whole thing was based on. But a lot of early romanticized fiction, and the roots of a lot of it. Its still there. A lot of pseudo legendary history providing justification for the position and primacy of Kings or Dynasties. Wrapped up in ideas about Courtly love and heavy religious allegory.But most of your chivalry King Arthur stuff is straight up medieval in origin. The Robin Hood stuff a bit later, but still late medieval early modern. Just to take two common examples. And they’re deeply tied to early history texts that attempted to draw direct ties between the English Crown and Rome or earlier Anglo-Saxon kings.
It all get’s bought into, rigidly defined, regurgitated, reworkd and assumed as true/the defaults of the noble social structure by Victorian Times. So its basically the same exact pathway on a really similar time line. Early pseudo-history and religious philosophy molded to the purpose of nation building. There was another rather large up-tick in nationalistic ideas right around when the modern Romantic period kicked off. And all your fetishistizing Scotts in their kilts, and re-popularizing old myths and legends played rather directly into that.
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That’s also the cure for presidential conflicts of interest!
Then the term evolved as the practice devolved, and by the Warring States Period (1467-1600), tsujigiri became a dishonorable act.
And then it further devolved into the present day dishonorable act of Kancho.
If you’re unfamiliar with this “fun” childrens’ game, it’s pretty simple: put your hands together with your index fingers out and try to ram them up your best friend’s butt
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I tried that but had to give it up. I’d started chasing cars and was almost run over a couple of times.
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In other words, samurai are like knights. You don’t want to run into them if you’re a peasant. Because they might lop your head off and there are no consequences.
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Yep. The Japanese do it - or don’t do it, depending on who you believe - but they have a special word for it, and people say ‘ooh, how alien, how mysterious, how inscrutable’. We need an equal term for some redneck with a new gun taking his pickup into town, and cruising for random strangers but with a bias for high melanin.
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SPOILER ALERT FOR WALKING DEAD SEASON SEVEN
I like that Negan is simply a perfectly normal feudal lord; like the ancestors of all those snooty people who like to say they can trace their family tree back to the 11th Century.
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A bit like most of “Ancient Scottish Culture” being made up by Walter Scott and the 19th Century weaving industry.
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The simple fact that it is a named thing, makes me think that it influenced this.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contest_to_kill_100_people_using_a_sword
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I’ve seen people argue that, if they acted dishonorably, they wouldn’t be a samurai anymore–to which I replied, “And does the sword and armor and martial training vanish with that mantle?”
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IIRC, they made an arcade game of this. Here it is:
Though between a finger and a sword, I’ll take the finger.
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Does it have to be 999 different dogs?
How do you make sure that each sample is from a unique donor?
Aka: inspiration of the Pokemon move, Night Slash.
OH yes, Feudalism is the natural order of things. Anarchy will never reign, as Feudalism will eventually take over.
From what I understand, as long as they had a lord to serve, they were still samurai. Ronin were those with out a lord, but allegiances may change over time. And there is nearly a 1000 year history, so what was true for one period may not be true for another.
IIRC Chivalry and Bushido were both attempts to keep the privileged warrior class from just running amuck. You needed their skills to defend your kingdom and make it grow, to the point you would literally let them get away with murder. But you also needed some control over them. Making them a special class with perks was balanced out with behavior they were supposed to promote.
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…duh, by beheading them after taking the sample.
(Full circle, I have you)
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They could hang out in that suicide forest. Two birds, one sword.
