Not to mention all the romanticizing of katana..
but then you look at all the bullshit people believe about pirates, the medieval times, heck I'm convinced there are tons of misconceptions about Romans, Greeks, Vikings, Anglo-Saxons, Germans (the old ones). Just take a look at chivalry, which is mostly a military code and has bugger all to do with holding doors open. Lots of that shit is chock full of myths and misrepresentations.
I always thought that the romanticism of the Samurai came from the story of the 47-Ronin. From this single event stemmed all the myth and legend we now see today.
I like to think there's some level of truth to it, but not as much as history romanticized.
I mean, a culture so heavily built on honor that you'd commit suicide in an excruciatingly painful way is going to have some level of fact behind the honorable warrior notion. My guess the truth is somewhere in the "samurai were honorable so long as they were being watched" territory. And as others have noted, that honorable action was largely towards those in equal or higher positions, not those below the samurai.
But then again, look at modern times and the differences in culture.
Natural disaster in the US = looting guaranteed.
Natural disaster in Japan = People organize and stand in line and wait (im)patiently for their turn to get supplies or gasoline. Their organized crime groups are usually the first to respond with disaster relief before the government can mobilize. Reporters are always somewhat awed by how organized and civil things are after those sort of events over there.
Just very large difference in culture. Where we grow up with "the squeaky wheel gets the grease" they grow up with "the nail that stands up gets hammered down."
Last edited by Faroth; 2016-06-28 at 08:13 PM.
Sumo wrestlers were hella honorable. Everyone else were back stabbers and cheats.
"I'm not stuck in the trench, I'm maintaining my rating."
The honourable Samurai is a myth. But no more than the honourable Knight is one.
The thing is that we have a tendency to project our biases and standards on people of ages past.
The chivalrous knight never existed in the sense we understand it. But it existed within the moral framework of its time.
Disembowling a peasant for shits and giggles and raping and mutilating his daughter wouldn't have been considered unchivalrous but being rude at the king's table by letting a fart go or executing a nobleman who murdered 500 peasants for fun would have been considered dishonorable to no end.
We need to stop projecting our values on ages past and fetishizing something that never was.
But you needn't go so far back in history to see this phenomenon. It is enough to look at how some people fawn over the American Confederacy, or the pre Segregation 1950's or the pre EU "Golden Age".
Times that never were. At least not as we imagine them.
- - - Updated - - -
Such codes of conduct are created and nominally enforced because if you ever happen to be on the losing side you don't want to find yourself completely at the victor's mercy.
I always thought Samurai and Ninja were dishonorable sell swords. Traditionalist, but not honorable.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Koran
Both spellings work.