Death Before Dishonor

You fight for honor.

You fight for justice.

You fight fair.

You fight with utmost loyalty for your master.

You fight with courage.

This is what it meant to be a Samurai.

If any of these rules were broken, or somehow you were captured in battle — you performed hara-kiri, or ritual suicide by disembowelment.

You use a smaller blade (a tantō) and slice your abdomen open, then you would extend your neck and an assistant would behead you.

Death was to come before dishonor.

It’s some of the most metal shit I’ve ever read about.

Bushido — or translated as “the way of the warrior” — was a rulebook for which all samurai were to live by.

You did not stray from these rules.

Ever.

Samurai were the Feudal-era Japan version of a medieval knight — born to nobility, but an upper echelon of warriors with access to more training, supplies and education.

A Japanese peasant or farmer couldn’t work his way to becoming one, much like peasants and farmers in medieval Europe weren’t eligible for knighthood.

As a Samurai, you were expected to carry your sword (katana) on you at all times in public, with the requirement for a second and shorter sword (wakizashi) being added during the Edo period (1603-1868).

Katanas are world famous.

Wakizashis are less famous.

The process of making them is the least famous YET most interesting part:

Crafting the Sword

Everyone wants a katana, and if you say you don’t I know you’re lying.

Who HASN’T pretended to be a Samurai at one point? (Without all the seppuku at least)

The best katanas in history were made with a special Japanese steel called tamahagane.

Tamahagane was created by combining two types of iron sands — akome satetsu, a lower quality sand, and masa satetsu, the higher quality sand.

These two iron sands would be mixed together with varying ratios then put in a clay furnace at around 1800 °F, adding charcoal to the equation to produce the steel’s carbon content.

They would then be mixed for roughly 3 days before the furnace was broken to remove this new creation.

Time to forge!

A swordsmith shapes the steel into the letter “U”, hammers it relentlessly between the high carbon parts and the tougher metal, coats it in clay and charcoal powder on it’s dull sides to keep the edge of the blade, and thrown back into the fire at around 1500 °F.

Time to take it out of the fire and into a barrel of water — “quenching”

This is the delicate part, where the katana might break if the steel isn’t good enough quality, or if heated at the wrong temperature, or quenched improperly.

If it makes it through without snapping in half, it’s time to polish the new blade and add all the fun stuff to it like a hilt and hilt collar.

A new sword is born.

Name it something fun — like “Bubbles” or “Mascarpone Cheese”

So you now know how a Japanese sword is made, but do you know the most famous samurais to wield it?

You only need to know one:

Miyamoto Musashi

I read The Book of Five Rings by Musashi a few years ago.

I found the final copy in-stock at a Barnes and Noble just hiding on a shelf in between two other books that nobody else really gave a shit about.

It’s a very small book, around 140 pages in length, but it has a lot of interesting lessons in it.

If you’re unfamiliar with Miyamoto Musashi, he was a wandering samurai (ronin) who was recorded to have fought 61 duels and won them all.

You read that right.

He went 61-0 against other swordsmen of his era.

The next best guy in recorded Japanese history went 33-0.

Miyamoto was known for living ascetic, being fully honest and dedicated to his craft, and his philosophy for life.

The Book of Five Rings explains some of that philosophy. The rest is explained in a an even shorter work that was published right before his death titled “Dokkodo”.

Some of his writing on swordsmanship is outdated since the world has machine guns and airplanes, although I commend anyone who charges a battlefield in 2024 with a katana.

His philosophy seemed to be a Japanese version of Stoicism:

• “Resentment and complaint are appropriate neither for oneself nor others”

• “Develop an intuitive judgement and understanding for everything”

• “Do not hold on to possessions you no longer need”

For someone who was so famous during his life, he displayed incredible amounts of humility and discipline.

He’d later retire to a cave as a hermit and write the lessons and teachings before he died, giving his all of his possessions to his closest disciple.

The GOAT.

Conclusion

I don’t think we’ll ever see a hybrid class of social elites/warriors like that again in history.

Humans have evolved past feudalism (for the time being at least).

Japan still exists by codes of honor though, they take dishonoring one’s family and ancestors just as serious now as they did in 1650.

It’s something we should consider bringing back or placing value in.

I don’t think great-great grandma and grandpa would be too happy to see entire generations waste their time on TikTok or Netflix.

Thanks for reading,

Evan.

(P.S. — Their armor was fucking awesome too)