Samurai Help

You can call yourself what ever you want and act owever you want. It doesnt' mean you will ever be a samurai. A little more research into the true samurai will shed a little light on bushido. The early samurai wasn't as honorable as people think. The code of bushido didn't apear till peace time as a means of giving the samurai a reason to still exist. Even though the samurai wasn't what everyone thinks they were doesn't mean it's not a good goal to work toward. The arts they studied and the way of the bushido is a good way to go, but going around calling yourself a samurai will only have people think your nuts or still pretty imature. The title of samurai wasn't something that could be given to anyone that wasn't born into it, it's not like being knighted. As for them regaining there honor and becoming samurai again? Thats not an issue since it wasn't a case of them loosing there honor to begin with. It was a matter of choice to not call them self samurai since there was no need.

There are no samurai, just a long misunderstood history.

hmmmmmmmmmm..... i wonder if they're proud of their heritage?

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that all samurai were bad. It's like trying to group any type of people, you can't. There were good and bad, it's just the popular idea of the samurai isn't what it was really like. Toshishiro Obata (sp) is said to descend from samurai, but he doesn't go around calling himself one. Even though he was in the ninja turtle movie he is a very talented martial artist and swordsman.

Hello,

If you are still interested in seeking a place where you can learn Samurai fighting arts, it is in Colorado. The website address is: www.warriorquest.com

From martial artist to martial artist, I hope this should help you.

RE the above weblink....Oh come on...this may be good for helping action movie wannabes. Are you people actually serious?!?!?

No different than XMA.

Ugh. I usually say don't judge a book by it's cover, but in this case I learned pretty much all I needed to know about these guys in less than 5 seconds of purusing the page.

Take a little more time. It gets worse.

Ugh... watched some of the videos. You weren't kidding.

go to kyoto, japan

I recomend reasearching western chivalry and fenching arts. The formalities where very similar to the Samuri, and they came from a similar roots. Just as the Samuri use not involve honor that much, the knight started off nothing more then a battle crazed thug, If you doubt me read Beowulf. If your looking for a destructive sword art, I still recomend western fencing. Even though theres the sterotype that samuri where the greatest swordsmen ever and the katana was the finest blade you could wield, these a more myth then anything. Knights empasized used of swords way more then the samuries ever did. After all Bushido means "way of the horse and bow", not "way of the sword." Western Fencing also has been practiced many hundreds of years befor the Eastern style. By logical deduction western fencing techniques should be more advanced, because they are more practiced. Hopefully this will do much to quwell some myths of the samuri.

That warrior quest thing is a joke.

You are totally right! That warrior quest site is just wrong! Although, it was very entertaining.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Hunter:
I recomend reasearching western chivalry and fenching arts. The formalities where very similar to the Samuri, and they came from a similar roots.[/QUOTE]

First off, it's samurai, not "samuri".

But yeah, both the bushi of Japan and the knights of Europe had "similar roots"--they were the warrior castes of their respective cultures.

[QUOTE]Just as the Samuri use not involve honor that much, the knight started off nothing more then a battle crazed thug, If you doubt me read Beowulf.[/QUOTE]

Knights had their origins as chevaliers, which simply means "horse-soldiers". As author David Howarth noted, chivalry was originally just a "cult of horsemanship and war".

[QUOTE]If your looking for a destructive sword art, I still recomend western fencing. Even though theres the sterotype that samuri where the greatest swordsmen ever and the katana was the finest blade you could wield, these a more myth then anything.[/QUOTE]

The katana is a fine weapon, though it is admittedly over-hyped.

[QUOTE]Knights empasized used of swords way more then the samuries ever did.[/QUOTE]

And what is your source for this claim?

[QUOTE]After all Bushido means "way of the horse and bow", not "way of the sword."[/QUOTE]

Actually, it means "way of the warrior".

[QUOTE]Western Fencing also has been practiced many hundreds of years befor the Eastern style.[/QUOTE]

Where are you coming up with this nonsense?

So give us some examples.

And some dates.

[QUOTE]By logical deduction western fencing techniques should be more advanced, because they are more practiced. Hopefully this will do much to quwell some myths of the samuri.[/QUOTE]

BS.

[QUOTE]That warrior quest thing is a joke. [/QUOTE]

That's the most accurate part of your post. [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/wink.gif[/IMG]

Peace,

A_M_P



[This message has been edited by Armed_Man_Piker (edited 10-23-2004).]

www.daimyo-shi.com/hiten.htm

In earlier statements on this thread two seperate people said that Bushido means

"way of the horse and bow" not "way of the sword." and "Actually, it means way of the warrior".

The literal translation of Bushido is as follows:
Bu = Military.
Shi = Knight/fighter/warrior (depending on your preferance).
Do = Way.
just as Budo = Military Way.
Bushido = Military Knight Way.

Hope that this helps [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif[/IMG]

~Glenn

If I'm not mistaken the "way of the horse and bow" thing comes from the kanji used. I'm not familiar with the idea in any detail but I believe it stems from radicals used to make up the kanji, which are in fact the radicals which represent a horse and a bow. It's not altogether inaccurate, but it isn't really correct either.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by dj_nocte:
In earlier statements on this thread two seperate people said that Bushido means

"way of the horse and bow" not "way of the sword." and "Actually, it means way of the warrior".

The literal translation of Bushido is as follows:
Bu = Military.
Shi = Knight/fighter/warrior (depending on your preferance).
Do = Way.
just as Budo = Military Way.
Bushido = Military Knight Way.

Hope that this helps [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif[/IMG]

~Glenn

[/QUOTE]

The literal translation is appreciated, but I believe that it only confirms the definition I offered.

samurai means to serve so it is in theory possible to become one without being born in to the tradition. however the likely hood of the emperor of japan asking anyone to become his bodyguard are very debatable.

I'm sure the Emperor has plenty of personal bodyguards, as do many public officials, but they are not Samurai. Just security staff. The Samurai class was officially abolished in the 1800s.

Boy are you in luck!!! How very fortunate that I happened to be reading this thread! You may find this hard to believe but I am the last official inheritor of the very little known Japanese art of Samurai!!

Though I now live in the US at one time I was abandoned on the steps of a temple not far from quiet monastery high in the mountains and not too far from the sea. I made my Black Belt in Samurai, the secret art taught only to the emperors of Manchuria and would be more than willing to teach you. Of course you will have to be willing to come to my home and be my live-in student as this is a very traditional art. Our tradition requires that the student assumes the support of the teacher for the length of the students' training which is usually not more than 20 years or so. When you are finished you will have certificate, suitable for framing, a patch of our association, a secret decoder ring and a lifetime membership to our on-going series of seminars.

BTW: Do you happen to know anyone who might be interested in an actual copy of the original map to the hiding place of the Holy Grail? I was lucky enough to have.....

Best Wishes,

Bruce

I have a picture of the equator i can sell you.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Infernoallen:
samurai means to serve so it is in theory possible to become one without being born in to the tradition.[/QUOTE]

Yes, samurai means "to serve" but it specifically referred to a whole class of people in Japan. The samurai were the top class, controlling everything. Then the farmers, feeding everyone. Third highest were merchants who sold goods. Fourth (lowest) were the hide-tanners and handlers of corpses, a sort of "untouchable" class.

These four "classes" of people were abolished in 1868. So there have been NO samurai for 137 years.

It's like saying "Anyone could become a Civil War general, so I am one."

You can never become a samurai any more than you can become a Civil War general or an American Revolutionary War Minuteman.

You can put on the costumes if you must, but that won't change the truth.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by glad2bhere:
Boy are you in luck!!! How very fortunate that I happened to be reading this thread! You may find this hard to believe but I am the last official inheritor of the very little known Japanese art of Samurai!![/QUOTE]

I find this story highly unlikely since you don't use the term "soke" once!

Thats because bathing is a very, very private part of our training. In the art of Samurai we're are all expected to soke in the same tub at the end of training. Sometimes we scrub each other down and then just soke for an hour or so and let all the pain from the training drift away. In fact there are times when I soke so much my fingers get all prune-like. We usually don't put a lot of emphasis on soke-ing but we can arrange for a certificate which is usually awarded to the person who sokes the longest. This is a relatively new activity as we had to stop awarding this certificate after an unfortunate event not to long ago. It seem two guys became very competitive trying to see which could soke the longest in a tub of hot water. Both wound-up disloving in the tub and we have had to give them both certificates posthumously. FWIW.

Best Wishes,

Bruce

Be sure to put the washcloth on top of your head while you soke.

Actually the word samurai has its own meaning. But it comes from the word saburai, the substantive form of the verb saburau which means "to serve" or "to remain at the side of someone important". it wasn't until the Heian period that samurai designated warriors who were in the service of nobles. Then little by little it came to be known to identify the class.

But everyone learned that in Japanese 101, right?

lol

ill pay u a hundred bucks to teach me how to be a samurai.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by aikikiai:
These four "classes" of people were abolished in 1868. So there have been NO samurai for 137 years.
[/QUOTE]

So much for my chances of becoming Eta.

First off there are more than one samurai family still existing and no samurai has the name Bruce, they don't soak together, the art isn't called samurai, there isn't one art but many, emperors aren't samurai, and no one gives certificates for soaking the longest and you are not the last decendent of samurai so learn what you are talking about before you lie.

Lighten up. Bruce is pretty clearly joking. He's playing on the similarity of the spelling of the Japanese word Soke and the english word soak.

Hiten you will never learn Bushido and Bruce your jokes are insulting to people who are actually samurai.

You need to check your facts. There are no samurai. The class was abolished during the Meiji Restoration. There are still families which descend from Samurai families, but they are not Samurai.

No you need to check your facts. Laws were created in the Meji Era outlawing the practices of samurai but not abolishing them forever. They still exist because they kept alive in secret. Don't lecture a samurai on whether or not samurai exist.