5 Incredible Facts About Japanese Samurai: There Was a Samurai Colony in California

History Facts ^ | 03/31/2024

[Red Badger]

Samurai Ping!..........

[chrisinoc]

My samurai ancestor Takezaki Suenaga:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takezaki_Suenaga

[nickcarraway]

Colonizers!

[Rummyfan]

Hai.

[ConservativeMind]

Totally cool!

[Rummyfan]

This latter group included William Adams from England and Jan Joosten van Lodensteijn of the Netherlands, two navigators who were stranded in Japan together in 1600. When neither man was allowed to leave the country, they ended up serving the shogunate and rising to the rank of samurai.

These two form a real-life basis for the Blackthorne character in Shogun?

[Gunslingr3]

The samurai were officially abolished as a caste in Japanese society during the Meiji Restoration in 1867.

The first ever fax machine, the ‘printing telegraph,’ was invented in 1843.

Abraham Lincoln was famously assassinated at Ford’s Theatre in 1865.

Which means there was a 22-year window in which a samurai could have sent a fax to Abraham Lincoln.

[Candor7]

One of the few remaining Samurai, a Kyudo Master, and my teacher for 30 years:

Kanjuro Shibata XX, bowmaker to the Imperial Family of Japan ( Onyumishi), Sensei.

He was captured by the Russians during the closing days of WWII, and was held by the Russians far after the end of WWII, and was not repatriated until later because Russia wanted the northern Islands of Japan's archipelago.

After returning home, he discovered that the old style of kyudo he had taught was no longer recommended and a new order was established which diminished the comprehensive approach of his lineage, Heki Ryu Biu Shyu Chikurin Ha.
He refused to conform to the modernized post WWII kyudo movement and insisted on teaching in the old way.Kyudo was taught as a meditative discipline, a polishing of the mind,< and awareness, along with the form of using the bow properly as a weapon. He emphasized the mannerly way of the nobility in the practice of kyudo in its martial and ceremonial forms.

Sensei established many dojos in America and in Europe, many of which are still operational today.He passed away in 2013 , his son has taken his place to travel and teach.

Sensei was a true samurai,as were all of his predecessors.
He was an arrow that arrived from ancient times.

I miss him.

[SunkenCiv]

[No name given]

And they dare to give Americans a hard time for the past. Hypocrisy at its finest.

[TigersEye]

I was about to ping you but you have already arrived here. :)

[RoosterRedux]

Bfl

[griswold3]

That is cool!😎

[Rastus]

There was also a half-Chinese man who wandered the west righting wrongs with his kung fu. They just don’t teach this stuff any more.

[DesertRhino]

Samurai? Meh, they never met the Comanche nor Texas Rangers back in the day, and then one day they did get introduced to US Marine riflemen.

[Candor7]

The samurai werfe not the vilent bullies most assume from reading their martial history.

They were mostly very gentle, and knew that theor lives could end in an instant , either by demand or by circumstance. Tyis caused them to live a gentle, mannerly life, infused with the richness of appreciation that impermanence can bring.

Yes there were rogues and rotten samurai who were bullies, but for the most part they were extremely dignified, and not gratuitously violent. They put there egos way at the back of the bus in order to serve their clan or daimyo, making it hard to offend any of them.

As a fighting class of warriors, they organized themselves by famuly, clan and daimyo.Their frst discipline of training was horsemanship, second the bow and third , the sword.All of these disciplines were intertwined and cross supported each other right down to tyhe physical aspect, If you shot ten arrows a day for many years as a youth, by the time manhood dawned, your right arm and back was much more muscled than the left. This was very useful in training with the sword, the third discipline. Their education included meditation, calligraphy and poetry.Many became craftsmen of weapons such as the sword and bow.

When people here speak only of the aspect of killing as warrioship, they do a diservce to history.The Samurai were perhaps the most brilliant institutionalized warriors in history.Reading the biogtaphy of Yamaoka Tessu will reveal this.

[ansel12]

Is this it?

The Truth of the Ancient Ways: A Critical Biography of the Swordsman Yamaoka Tesshu
https://terebess.hu/zen/mesterek/anc.pdf

[Candor7]

This is the best reading on Tessu IMHO, because it incorporates Tessus Zen practice and how it impacted his path in life.

Tessu was not only a samurai warrior but also a bodhisattva warrior.His life exemplifies the highest tradition and teachings of Samurai warriorship and service.If I had one word to describe him, I would say it is “Reiho Chusetsu,” unshakable egoless devotion and loyalty, walking fearlessly through life with a completely uncovered mind/heart
( kokoro).He was so powerful with the sword that if he countered a low strike with a boken, it would actually cause his opponent to flip in a somersault.

https://www.amazon.com/Sword-No-Sword-Master-Warrior-Tesshu/dp/1570620504/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=rJ0Wi&content-id=amzn1.sym.cf86ec3a-68a6-43e9-8115-04171136930a&pf_rd_p=cf86ec3a-68a6-43e9-8115-04171136930a&pf_rd_r=136-9192158-8680561&pd_rd_wg=Cps7F&pd_rd_r=831b64bc-91c3-42d2-9c2c-941ed5c040a0&ref_=aufs_ap_sc_dsk

[SeekAndFind]

RE: There was also a half-Chinese man who wandered the west righting wrongs with his kung fu.

Well said, grasshopper 😃