WEBVTT - How Samurai Work 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:02.880 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:07.520 It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff you should know 0:00:08.119 --> 0:00:16.520 from house Stuff Works dot com? Hey, and welcome to 0:00:16.640 --> 0:00:22.720 actually canichi Wa and welcome to the podcast. Yeah. I 0:00:22.760 --> 0:00:26.680 had no idea what samurai we're all about. Um. Yeah, 0:00:26.720 --> 0:00:30.680 I knew that they were excellent swordsman. I vaguely had 0:00:30.720 --> 0:00:34.960 some sort of conception from Kill Bill Volumes one and two. Um, 0:00:34.960 --> 0:00:36.800 And of course there was like the whole Wu Tang 0:00:36.800 --> 0:00:39.199 clan phase that I went through for a while. But 0:00:39.320 --> 0:00:43.280 that's really about the the limits of my understanding of 0:00:43.320 --> 0:00:46.280 samurai until now. Because we've been meaning to do this 0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:51.519 for about seventeen nineteen months now, and uh, we've researched 0:00:51.560 --> 0:00:53.920 it just about every week. So if we fail on 0:00:53.960 --> 0:00:58.320 this one, it's it's sappuko for us, exactly. Nice one, 0:00:58.400 --> 0:01:04.160 Thank you, Chuck. Let's talk about the history of the samurai. Okay, Josh, 0:01:04.280 --> 0:01:06.280 I have a prepared joke, should I say it? Yeah? 0:01:06.440 --> 0:01:09.080 No one is quite sure who the first samurai was, Josh, 0:01:09.400 --> 0:01:13.000 but we all know who the last one was. That's 0:01:13.000 --> 0:01:15.639 pretty good. And he was short, Yeah, he was real short. 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:18.640 And still I didn't like that movie Uh. In the fifth, 0:01:18.680 --> 0:01:22.160 six and seven centuries, Josh, there were a bunch of 0:01:22.280 --> 0:01:26.200 rivalries going in UH in Japan and a bunch of wars. 0:01:26.880 --> 0:01:28.600 It's not a very good place to be in a 0:01:28.640 --> 0:01:30.200 lot of these wars, most of them, in fact, were 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:34.199 against the islands, the people who inhabited the islands of Japan, 0:01:34.720 --> 0:01:39.000 which the Imperial Japanese called Imishi, which means barbarians. And yeah, 0:01:39.040 --> 0:01:42.319 they were tough dudes, apparently, yes they were. And they 0:01:42.360 --> 0:01:45.720 were pretty good at riding horses, right, Yeah, were they 0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:49.400 the ones that were the riding archers? They were, and 0:01:49.560 --> 0:01:53.200 so were another group um from the plans called the 0:01:53.280 --> 0:01:58.200 Canto people and the Canto tribe. Um. Actually, we're kind 0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:01.800 of in charge of fighting the Amishi and the Canto 0:02:02.000 --> 0:02:04.720 and the Amishi were really good at riding a horse 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:07.640 shooting a bow and arrow at the same time. No, 0:02:07.840 --> 0:02:13.359 it's nineties and actually, um, the earliest samurai did this. 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:15.320 This is what they were modeled on. They were horse 0:02:15.720 --> 0:02:19.760 back archers. Uh. And that whole school of discipline that 0:02:19.800 --> 0:02:23.600 you identify with with samurai grew out of the kind 0:02:23.600 --> 0:02:26.320 of training it takes to be able to ride a 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:30.639 horse and accurately shoot someone in the throat with an arrow, right, 0:02:31.560 --> 0:02:34.760 And if to practice shooting someone in the throat with 0:02:34.800 --> 0:02:37.360 an arrow while you're galloping past them, what did they 0:02:37.400 --> 0:02:40.400 used to use, chuck? This is a bad and good 0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:46.680 They bad was they used dogs running dogs, which was awful. 0:02:47.000 --> 0:02:50.239 The good news is even way back then, the showgun 0:02:50.280 --> 0:02:54.679 came along and said, no more dogs. Right he said, 0:02:54.720 --> 0:02:58.919 he's cruel thing? And oh did he really? And yeah, 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:02.760 they didn't used to target practice anymore animal rights way 0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:08.520 back then. Um. And so originally the samurai was, like 0:03:08.560 --> 0:03:11.440 we said, based out of these horse horseback archers, but 0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:16.440 horses played a big role in the lives of the samurai. Um. 0:03:16.480 --> 0:03:19.360 And this this code that will get two more in depth, 0:03:19.360 --> 0:03:24.320 it's called bushito. Um was grown out of another kind 0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:29.920 of code or a way of living called Cuba Cuba 0:03:30.440 --> 0:03:34.560 Cuba no michi. Man. Do you know how many times 0:03:34.600 --> 0:03:36.560 I've said that in my head and I say it 0:03:36.600 --> 0:03:41.320 out loud. It's Cuba no michi, right, which means the 0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:43.800 way of the horse in the bow, which basically, if 0:03:43.840 --> 0:03:48.640 you were dedicating yourself to being a horseback archer, um, 0:03:48.720 --> 0:03:50.880 that was your life. That's all you did. You lived 0:03:51.000 --> 0:03:54.280 eight and breathed it. Right. So that kind of disciplined 0:03:55.360 --> 0:04:00.600 formed the foundation of the samurai outlook, samurai way of life, 0:04:00.640 --> 0:04:06.600 the samurai super toughness. Yeah, nice work. They're also an 0:04:06.600 --> 0:04:09.720 elite warrior and that sprung. That status sprung from the 0:04:09.760 --> 0:04:13.640 fact that they were powerful families that lived way out 0:04:13.720 --> 0:04:16.280 a far far away from the capital and they would 0:04:16.279 --> 0:04:19.320 like pass their land down, uh in their prestige from 0:04:19.320 --> 0:04:22.000 one generation to the next over hundreds of years. So 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:24.840 they were these warrior houses and they attamed noble status. 0:04:25.040 --> 0:04:29.120 You combine that with the Amishi barbarian and the code 0:04:29.240 --> 0:04:33.240 the what was it, uh, the Cuba nomici right, the 0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:36.360 warrior code, and basically that was the formation for the 0:04:36.400 --> 0:04:39.320 early samurai. Right. And um, the reason that you had 0:04:39.320 --> 0:04:43.360 all these warrior clans was because, like you said, the 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:47.720 UM I guess, the early millennia, the first half of 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:52.080 the first millennia, UM was a really dangerous place. Lots 0:04:52.080 --> 0:04:55.440 of civil war, lots of land grabs, um, lots of 0:04:55.600 --> 0:04:59.800 just general butchery, yeah, powerships and sure. Um. So these 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:03.400 powerful clans grew out of this and um they started 0:05:03.520 --> 0:05:09.080 basically cultivating samurai and one of the key aspects, key 0:05:09.160 --> 0:05:12.800 characteristics of samurai is pretty much the opposite of ninja. 0:05:12.920 --> 0:05:15.480 Do you remember when we did the Ninja podcast, they 0:05:16.000 --> 0:05:18.599 kind of they turned on whoever hired him, if you know, 0:05:18.680 --> 0:05:21.160 somebody came along and offered him more money. Not so 0:05:21.279 --> 0:05:24.680 with the samurai. No, they serve their master, the daimio. 0:05:24.920 --> 0:05:26.840 Is that you pronounced it, I believe, so, okay, they 0:05:26.839 --> 0:05:30.400 served their daimio with absolute loyalty, even uh if that 0:05:30.440 --> 0:05:32.960 meant death. And didn't you already say it means one 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:36.560 who serves I didn't, did you? Maybe? I just imagine 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:40.320 that samurai means one who serves right, um, And that 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:45.440 was actually funny enough originally applied to bureaucrats. Yeah, interesting, 0:05:45.560 --> 0:05:49.799 and then it was ultimately applied to samurai, which little 0:05:49.839 --> 0:05:53.440 by little, there's all these different foundations that finally come together. 0:05:54.120 --> 0:05:58.080 And I think the twelfth century when these two clans, 0:05:58.120 --> 0:06:02.440 these two warrior clans that we're vying for power, the 0:06:02.560 --> 0:06:06.560 Tyra Tyra t A I R A. We're gonna go 0:06:06.640 --> 0:06:11.160 ahead and say, the Tyra cran and the Minamoto clan 0:06:11.839 --> 0:06:16.160 um basically came together and clashed. And in eleven ninety two, 0:06:16.480 --> 0:06:21.279 the Minamotos one and this uh, the the the head 0:06:21.279 --> 0:06:25.080 of the household, Minamoto, your atomo. How do you like 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:30.080 my Japanese now? Yeah? Um, he said, okay, you know what, 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:34.040 we now run Japan. The emperor said, hey, way to go. 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:37.359 I'm going to make you shogun, which is essentially the 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:40.440 the head of the joint chiefs, the head of the military. 0:06:40.600 --> 0:06:42.680 That kind of backfired on him. What did Minamoto do? 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:45.560 He said, hey, thanks for making me showgun. I'm going 0:06:45.600 --> 0:06:47.760 to take over and strip you off all your power 0:06:48.040 --> 0:06:50.159 and if you say one word, I'll cut your head 0:06:50.240 --> 0:06:53.320 right off of your body. And so what happened was 0:06:53.400 --> 0:06:57.239 the Minamoto clan set the samurai up for this elite 0:06:57.279 --> 0:07:00.800 status that they never had before. Words before exactly they 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:04.080 served the daimio and there was still a a an 0:07:04.240 --> 0:07:08.960 entire class of lower echelon samurai who served the daimio, 0:07:09.480 --> 0:07:13.360 but then the daimio, these feudal lords served the showgun. 0:07:13.760 --> 0:07:19.880 So when shogun, daimio samurai and then everybody else and um, 0:07:20.000 --> 0:07:23.960 the Minamoto clan who set up the showgun. Uh, the 0:07:24.040 --> 0:07:26.800 government that they ran was the Bukufu. Yeah, that was 0:07:26.800 --> 0:07:31.920 a dictatorship basically, right, and uh that that was the 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:34.680 last time the samurai really changed from that point on 0:07:35.080 --> 0:07:41.000 the modern samurai was born, right, Yes, so, Josh, we've 0:07:41.000 --> 0:07:43.840 talked about how they formed. Yes, should we talk a 0:07:43.840 --> 0:07:46.000 little bit about the just the nuts and bolts of 0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:48.480 what makes the samurai? I think we should. If you're 0:07:48.480 --> 0:07:54.239 talking samurai, you cannot skip the armor, the lamellar armor 0:07:54.440 --> 0:07:58.280 it's called and you've probably seen it before. It's that's 0:07:58.560 --> 0:08:01.160 it's made by binding metals scales together on a plate 0:08:01.600 --> 0:08:05.160 and then they they cover it with lacquered waterproof it. 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:07.640 And then all these little light plates are fashioned together 0:08:07.720 --> 0:08:12.000 by like, um, leather strapping, and that's the that's the 0:08:12.080 --> 0:08:14.720 armor that distinctively you've seen on a samurai. You know, 0:08:14.800 --> 0:08:16.960 it's weird. I just wrote in an article about skin 0:08:17.040 --> 0:08:21.040 disorders and um, there is a skin disorder called lamb 0:08:21.360 --> 0:08:27.000 lammelar theosis, which is basically like fish scale skin disorder. 0:08:27.680 --> 0:08:31.080 So you have it full circle. Uh. There were two kinds. 0:08:31.080 --> 0:08:34.640 Early on the Yori, which was mounted samurai, it was 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:37.600 a lot heavier with the heavy helmets and shoulder pads 0:08:37.600 --> 0:08:41.880 and stuff than the domaru, which was lighter obviously for 0:08:41.920 --> 0:08:46.559 the foot soldiers. And then later on the Goosoku in 0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:49.120 the sixteenth century and that's what this dude is wearing 0:08:49.200 --> 0:08:51.520 right there. Yeah, that's a pretty cool picture that you 0:08:51.640 --> 0:08:56.200 got by Wan cal Call. Yeah, I didn't even see 0:08:56.200 --> 0:08:59.600 there was a credit there. Yeah, there's a pretty cool 0:08:59.679 --> 0:09:01.760 It was strach And. And did you see that moment 0:09:01.840 --> 0:09:04.760 link I sent you or the picture from the moment exhibit. 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:08.920 Now there's a moment exhibit of Yes, yes, the of 0:09:09.000 --> 0:09:11.640 the guy who had like the black lacquered like deer 0:09:11.760 --> 0:09:14.600 antlers coming out of his helmet. Basically, if you saw 0:09:14.679 --> 0:09:17.360 this guy coming at you with the sword, you would 0:09:18.040 --> 0:09:21.760 probably die of fright, at the very least you would run. Um, 0:09:21.800 --> 0:09:23.920 And I think that's kind of what is intended for. 0:09:24.040 --> 0:09:26.080 You know. They had iron masks that went with the 0:09:26.080 --> 0:09:30.120 iron helmets. Yes, well, the helmets called the cabudo and um, 0:09:30.240 --> 0:09:32.280 like you said, they would often add like the devil 0:09:32.440 --> 0:09:37.400 face and they would add like horsehair mustaches, uh, and 0:09:37.480 --> 0:09:39.599 little beards made out of horsehair on the front of 0:09:39.600 --> 0:09:41.880 the mask as well, yes, which makes them even more 0:09:42.040 --> 0:09:45.000 even scarier. Yeah, and they're they're riveted together. You see 0:09:45.000 --> 0:09:47.280 the ribbts and does this I got a picture of 0:09:47.280 --> 0:09:51.720 one here I'm showing Josh. Does this look like anyone familiar. Uh. 0:09:51.760 --> 0:09:54.920 It looks kind of like the parawel Nder Powell pearl 0:09:54.960 --> 0:10:02.080 to skateboard from the Dune Dune Vader. Yes. Nice, This 0:10:02.200 --> 0:10:06.040 helmet is absolutely well. Actually, George Lucas absolutely modeled the 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:10.760 Darth Vader look in helmet after the Samurai kobuto. Isn't 0:10:10.840 --> 0:10:14.080 jedi a Japanese word? Yeah? And then the sword, you know, 0:10:14.120 --> 0:10:16.200 the lightsaber was um And we might as well talk 0:10:16.240 --> 0:10:19.079 about the swords since we're there. The katana, Yeah, the 0:10:19.120 --> 0:10:25.040 katana and the wakizashi, which together is called the dice 0:10:25.080 --> 0:10:28.440 show which die is large, show is small and the 0:10:28.480 --> 0:10:32.000 katana is a larger show. Was sword longer? Uh? In 0:10:32.080 --> 0:10:36.760 thinner blade? And the was it kashi? Yes? Or wakazashi 0:10:36.960 --> 0:10:41.160 wakazashi thank you? Um is shorter with a broader blade, 0:10:41.200 --> 0:10:45.240 but you're you never saw a samurai without both. And 0:10:45.280 --> 0:10:49.319 actually you know where the katana is curved? Uh? Because 0:10:49.360 --> 0:10:53.520 of the process of making it. No, No, it's purposefully curved. 0:10:53.679 --> 0:10:56.600 Remember we talked about how horses played a pretty big 0:10:56.679 --> 0:11:00.960 role in Samurai Unsung roll Um. The curved blade made 0:11:01.240 --> 0:11:04.680 for a deeper slashing wound which was inflicted by a 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:08.360 horseback swordsman got you pretty cool? Did you hold one 0:11:08.400 --> 0:11:11.640 that day? At the meeting we took people are like 0:11:11.720 --> 0:11:13.720 you guys took a meeting where there was a samurai sword. 0:11:14.160 --> 0:11:18.000 Remember at the School of Humans deal, I didn't see 0:11:18.040 --> 0:11:20.000 that they had a samurai So yeah, this guy brought 0:11:20.040 --> 0:11:21.559 in a Samurai sword at the end for one of 0:11:21.640 --> 0:11:25.439 their little jobs coming up, And um, I held it. 0:11:25.679 --> 0:11:27.640 Where was I in my hand? You might have been 0:11:27.640 --> 0:11:30.240 in the bathroom or smoking before you quit smoking, and 0:11:30.280 --> 0:11:32.319 I held this thing in my hand and I've never 0:11:32.400 --> 0:11:34.360 held Have you ever held a real samurai sword? I 0:11:34.440 --> 0:11:37.320 was messing with a couple in Japan, But yeah, I 0:11:37.320 --> 0:11:39.800 mean it's it's like way heavier than I thought. And 0:11:39.800 --> 0:11:41.320 when you hold it, and when you feel how sharp 0:11:41.360 --> 0:11:44.000 it is, you're like this, I could literally cut you 0:11:44.080 --> 0:11:45.600 in half right now if I wanted. All the ones 0:11:45.640 --> 0:11:49.040 that I were messing with were in like, um, tourists, 0:11:50.600 --> 0:11:53.000 they're a little plastic key chain ones, they were wood. 0:11:53.480 --> 0:11:57.200 Got you. Well, it's really intimidating. It's extremely heavy, and 0:11:57.320 --> 0:11:59.800 you feel like the power of the sword when you 0:11:59.840 --> 0:12:03.360 hold it right. And the smiths who made samurai swords 0:12:03.400 --> 0:12:06.920 are generally recognized as the greatest sword makers in the 0:12:07.000 --> 0:12:09.679 history of humanity as h And one of the reasons 0:12:09.720 --> 0:12:13.319 why is not just because of these gorgeous, really heavy, 0:12:13.360 --> 0:12:17.280 perfect swords that they made again and again. Yeah, um, 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:21.040 that you could actually cut someone's head right off with 0:12:21.160 --> 0:12:26.040 one slice. Um. But they actually came. They created a 0:12:26.080 --> 0:12:31.160 technology or a method, a technique for an age old problem, 0:12:31.440 --> 0:12:35.160 which was, you wanna sword with a sharp blade that 0:12:35.240 --> 0:12:39.200 won't break. You can use a hard metal to keep 0:12:39.240 --> 0:12:41.760 a blade that will keep its edge, but it makes 0:12:41.760 --> 0:12:44.719 it a very brittle sword, so it'll break easily. Right, 0:12:45.120 --> 0:12:49.240 So what did they do, Josh? They made a sword 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:52.079 with a core made out of soft metal that wouldn't break, 0:12:52.240 --> 0:12:55.120 and then covered it with layers of hard metal that 0:12:55.200 --> 0:12:58.559 were folded in hammer. They hammer it to squeeze out impurities, 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:01.480 and they keep folding it repeatedly until there's all these 0:13:01.559 --> 0:13:06.800 layers laminated together, right, like literally millions of layers. Well, actually, 0:13:06.840 --> 0:13:09.440 this this article has a slight mistake in it, because 0:13:09.760 --> 0:13:12.360 that's lower Um. I looked this up that that when 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:14.959 they fold a blade, they hammered out and there have 0:13:15.080 --> 0:13:17.760 been lord that they folded them hundreds of times and 0:13:17.840 --> 0:13:21.800 thousands of times to create millions of layers Apparently after 0:13:22.080 --> 0:13:26.480 anything over twenty folds adds no more layers. That's what 0:13:26.520 --> 0:13:30.160 they said. So a twentyfold sword would have one million, 0:13:30.520 --> 0:13:33.880 forty thousand, five hundred and seventy six layers, which is 0:13:34.040 --> 0:13:36.240 I mean, so it's kind of like hammering a chicken 0:13:36.320 --> 0:13:39.320 that's been shot by a horseback archer. You just can't 0:13:39.440 --> 0:13:43.839 make it anymore dead. It's yeah, right, yeah, okay, So 0:13:43.880 --> 0:13:46.160 you talked about kill Bill though, Yeah, you know, you 0:13:46.240 --> 0:13:49.240 can buy a hat Tori Hanzo sword on the internet, 0:13:49.280 --> 0:13:52.840 autographed by David Karneen for six hundred bucks. I can't 0:13:52.880 --> 0:13:57.360 believe he's dead. Still hung himself in the bankok hotel room. 0:13:58.280 --> 0:14:01.120 It was fitting somehow though, the odd But yeah, you 0:14:01.120 --> 0:14:02.679 can buy one of those for six entred bucks. Or 0:14:02.760 --> 0:14:04.240 if you don't want to spend that kind of dough, 0:14:04.280 --> 0:14:07.199 I think you can get like a functional katana for 0:14:07.280 --> 0:14:10.640 about two bucks online, or you can get a wood 0:14:10.679 --> 0:14:13.920 one from a tourist trap in Japan. Yeah. Well that's 0:14:13.920 --> 0:14:15.880 what the used for training, you know, yeah, back in 0:14:15.960 --> 0:14:18.800 the day. Yes, um, you know the whole uh, the 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:23.720 cruel tutelage of master pay from kill Bill, and it's 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:27.080 certainly Quentin Tarantino wasn't the first one to um come 0:14:27.200 --> 0:14:31.440 up with the idea that samurai masters taught their students 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:35.960 through you know, rigid and brutal methods. Yes, Um, that's 0:14:36.000 --> 0:14:39.160 that's been a recurring theme through samurai stories all along. 0:14:39.360 --> 0:14:42.440 And the reason why it's because it's true. It really happened. Um. 0:14:42.640 --> 0:14:45.760 There was one sword training master who used to walk 0:14:45.840 --> 0:14:49.680 around with a wooden katana day or night, completely unprovoked 0:14:49.720 --> 0:14:53.120 and without warning, would smack his students pretty hard. Those 0:14:53.160 --> 0:14:55.680 things are hard. They hurt, like just holding it and 0:14:55.760 --> 0:14:58.080 like tapping it in your hand, your hand starts to hurt. 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:01.160 So actually getting hit by one of these swords hurts bad. 0:15:01.520 --> 0:15:04.240 And if you get hit by one m randomly and 0:15:04.480 --> 0:15:06.880 you learned pretty quickly never to let your guard down, 0:15:06.920 --> 0:15:08.840 which is what he was trying to impart. Yeah, you 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:11.880 could be like a sleep and a sword upside the head. 0:15:12.040 --> 0:15:15.480 You can be you know, using the bathroom and right anything, 0:15:15.760 --> 0:15:20.120 eating gruel. Yeah, hammering a chicken that's been shot by 0:15:20.200 --> 0:15:24.000 a horseback archery. Good point, uh josh. They also used 0:15:24.040 --> 0:15:26.440 things called pole arms, which was a long pole with 0:15:26.520 --> 0:15:28.240 like a blade on the end of it that was 0:15:28.320 --> 0:15:31.880 good for, um, stabbing it at dudes on horseback. It 0:15:31.920 --> 0:15:34.440 gives you a little more reach obviously. And they even 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:36.080 had guns, is what something I didn't know. In the 0:15:36.120 --> 0:15:39.960 sixteenth century they started trading with Europe, Japan did, and 0:15:40.080 --> 0:15:43.640 they bought these matchlock guns and kind of kept them 0:15:43.680 --> 0:15:45.520 as backup though the same ware. I was like, I'll 0:15:45.520 --> 0:15:47.360 put a gun on my horse, but I'm not going 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:49.680 to use it. I'm still gonna use the katana unless 0:15:49.720 --> 0:15:52.200 I really needed it. Turns out the they got those 0:15:52.240 --> 0:15:56.240 guns from European missionaries. Oh really, yeah, look at that 0:15:56.680 --> 0:15:59.640 who were kind of infiltrating Japan to try to start trade. 0:16:00.200 --> 0:16:03.760 They were missionaries. Relaxed, We're just missionaries. But interesting, have 0:16:03.880 --> 0:16:08.160 you seen a gun before? Chick? This is my boomstick, 0:16:08.520 --> 0:16:12.000 so chuck um. One of the other characteristics of the 0:16:12.600 --> 0:16:17.840 samurai's is this idea of a very noble, loyal life. 0:16:18.440 --> 0:16:23.280 And we said that the Cuba Nomici was the foundation 0:16:23.400 --> 0:16:28.000 for bushito, which means way of the warrior. Boushi is warrior, 0:16:28.160 --> 0:16:30.600 and doe is the way right, So this is the 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:33.640 way of the warrior. And essentially it's just this code, 0:16:33.760 --> 0:16:36.400 this guide that was kind of put up by one 0:16:36.440 --> 0:16:39.800 samurai or another and Uh, it was. It formed the 0:16:40.000 --> 0:16:42.160 legend of the samurai, but it also informed the way 0:16:42.200 --> 0:16:44.600 they lived their lives, right, Yeah, and it's um. A 0:16:44.640 --> 0:16:46.160 lot of people hear this and they think it's like 0:16:46.400 --> 0:16:48.720 a formal set of rules that everyone followed, but it 0:16:48.880 --> 0:16:52.080 was actually different depending on who you were and where 0:16:52.200 --> 0:16:54.680 you had passed it down or gotten it from. And 0:16:54.760 --> 0:16:57.640 it wasn't even written down until the seventeenth century. So, right, 0:16:57.680 --> 0:17:02.280 there was a there was a samurai um named Yamamoto Sunnitomo, 0:17:02.680 --> 0:17:04.960 and he was a he turned into his en monk, 0:17:05.440 --> 0:17:08.119 and he had a follower who he just basically dictated 0:17:08.280 --> 0:17:11.400 the tenants of bushido to and he wrote them down 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:15.760 right he uh. And actually some of the some of 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:18.680 the high points of bushido, well, it covers everything from 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:22.920 um like life and death situations. If you're presented with 0:17:22.960 --> 0:17:25.480 the choice to choose death and you can't ever go wrong, 0:17:25.600 --> 0:17:27.680 you will never be afraid because you're always prepared for 0:17:27.800 --> 0:17:31.840 death for that reason. Right. It's a little you know, um, 0:17:32.000 --> 0:17:35.040 and then to to really kind of trivial matters like 0:17:35.280 --> 0:17:37.359 you should never sneeze in front of somebody because it 0:17:37.400 --> 0:17:40.639 makes you look foolish. Uh. And then my favorite is 0:17:40.760 --> 0:17:44.000 the lesson of the downpour, where you know, like when 0:17:44.080 --> 0:17:46.240 you're being rained on, you're just so uncomfortable and you're 0:17:46.280 --> 0:17:48.080 running you can't get wet, and oh we gotta can't 0:17:48.080 --> 0:17:51.680 get wet. So there's this Bushido tenant that says, if 0:17:51.720 --> 0:17:55.399 you remind yourself that it is natural to get soaked 0:17:55.760 --> 0:17:59.480 in a rainstorm, that's what's supposed to happen in a rainstorm. 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:03.040 You'll never run for cover again, you just get soaked 0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:05.600 to the problem. And this can be applied to all 0:18:05.720 --> 0:18:08.479 aspects of life. That's my favorite one. Yeah. I used 0:18:08.520 --> 0:18:10.639 to play in the rain like up until you know 0:18:11.000 --> 0:18:13.919 what you're trying to set fires. No, I mean as 0:18:13.920 --> 0:18:18.040 an adult sometimes it's fun. Yeah, highly recommend it. Okay, 0:18:18.200 --> 0:18:20.320 I didn't know I was following some samurai. Yeah, you're 0:18:20.680 --> 0:18:23.320 right there. If you would be willing to die, chuck, 0:18:23.359 --> 0:18:25.440 you would be a samurai. No. I come from the 0:18:25.600 --> 0:18:31.080 Wham Choose life school. That's my code tiny running shorts 0:18:31.080 --> 0:18:36.160 and choosing life. I guess we have to talk about suppuku. Well, yeah, 0:18:36.200 --> 0:18:40.119 I mean if you were dishonored um then yeah, you 0:18:40.600 --> 0:18:44.320 had to kill yourself. Yes, otherwise known as I didn't 0:18:44.359 --> 0:18:47.200 know it was a vulgar phrase, but hara kari, Yeah, 0:18:47.240 --> 0:18:51.439 it essentially means gut cut. No wonder if that is vulgar. Well, 0:18:51.520 --> 0:18:55.080 vulgar also means common. God, you're right. I feel like 0:18:55.119 --> 0:18:58.120 an idiot, now, don't. I still am trying to figure 0:18:58.160 --> 0:19:00.399 out the way I'm reference. Yeah. When I think vulgar, 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:02.679 I think of nasty words. I know what you mean. 0:19:02.800 --> 0:19:05.600 But that's again, it's common, right, you know what I mean? 0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:08.520 So this is what you you know, when you have 0:19:08.880 --> 0:19:12.320 seen the person thrust the sword into their gut, it's 0:19:12.359 --> 0:19:14.560 sort of doesn't really happen that way. What happens is 0:19:14.640 --> 0:19:17.800 you got to wear the right garments, very ritualized. Oh 0:19:17.920 --> 0:19:20.480 is it white? And they present you with a ritual 0:19:20.560 --> 0:19:22.520 knife wrapped in paper right to to give you a 0:19:22.560 --> 0:19:25.200 better grip. Normally, you're gonna do this in a garden 0:19:25.520 --> 0:19:28.080 or a Buddhist temple, never a Shinto temple, because a 0:19:28.119 --> 0:19:30.359 Shinto temple is not to be tainted with death. I 0:19:30.359 --> 0:19:33.119 would choose a garden. Yeah, that'd be my pick. And 0:19:33.760 --> 0:19:37.600 you insert the knife first, First, you write a little 0:19:37.640 --> 0:19:40.719 death poem, okay, and you take four steps of saki 0:19:41.800 --> 0:19:46.680 for being she she meaning remember the Friday thirteenth Podcast 0:19:47.000 --> 0:19:50.920 Japanese four and death are the same kanji character. So 0:19:51.280 --> 0:19:53.240 Flour is kind of like a pawn on I'm about 0:19:53.240 --> 0:19:56.040 to kill myself, okay, go ahead, uh, And then you 0:19:57.080 --> 0:19:58.960 just kinda plunge the sword into myself and please go 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:01.479 ahead and chuck. So you plunge a sword into your 0:20:01.520 --> 0:20:05.200 ballet and you go from left to right. It's very important, 0:20:05.280 --> 0:20:07.520 and you do a little final upward cut at the end, 0:20:08.520 --> 0:20:11.920 and if you're lucky, and usually you're lucky, there was 0:20:11.960 --> 0:20:16.119 another samurai behind you with their sword to cut your 0:20:16.160 --> 0:20:18.359 head off really quick, so you're not like writhing in 0:20:18.600 --> 0:20:23.479 agonizing pain, right, and that was what's what's that samurai called? Uh? 0:20:23.800 --> 0:20:27.919 The second in command is called the kashuku nin. Right, 0:20:28.040 --> 0:20:31.000 And if you were kashaku nin, if you were forced 0:20:31.040 --> 0:20:35.240 to commit sappuku, right, which was you know kind of routine, 0:20:35.640 --> 0:20:38.440 you choose to though, right, No, you could be forced to, 0:20:38.920 --> 0:20:42.720 okay um, the kesha ku nin would be assigned by 0:20:43.040 --> 0:20:47.879 the bakufu, right, the military dictatorship, right to end it quickly. 0:20:48.000 --> 0:20:49.879 If you decided to do it yourself, then yeah, it 0:20:49.920 --> 0:20:51.280 was up to you to come up with the kasha 0:20:51.359 --> 0:20:54.400 ku nin. And what probably who you would want would 0:20:54.400 --> 0:20:59.080 be a friend, right or And I've never heard of 0:20:59.160 --> 0:21:03.119 this before, and I I ju suca. This is somebody 0:21:03.200 --> 0:21:07.160 who had practiced drawing a sword, slashing it and returning 0:21:07.200 --> 0:21:11.280 it to its Oh no, drawing a sword slashing, wiping 0:21:11.320 --> 0:21:13.200 it off and returning it to its sheath, and one 0:21:13.359 --> 0:21:19.399 fluid motion and the aa ju suca succa could Um, 0:21:20.080 --> 0:21:22.960 they could cut your head right off with one slash. No, 0:21:23.640 --> 0:21:26.720 you know it's bad news for the um the the 0:21:26.840 --> 0:21:29.440 second samurai. Oh, but that's what you want, is as 0:21:29.520 --> 0:21:32.359 the you want to be killed the media and that 0:21:32.520 --> 0:21:35.679 was the point. But um, you didn't cut somebody's head 0:21:35.760 --> 0:21:38.399 right off. You you would leave the throat, it's the 0:21:38.560 --> 0:21:41.280 skin attached to the throat, because it was bad form 0:21:41.320 --> 0:21:43.239 to cut somebody's head right off, because you don't want 0:21:43.240 --> 0:21:45.359 it rolling all around on the floor. I wonder how 0:21:45.440 --> 0:21:48.680 those conversations went down, Like, hey man, you want to 0:21:48.720 --> 0:21:51.720 give me a solid this afternoon, I gotta kill myself 0:21:51.880 --> 0:21:54.119 and you could be there to cut my head almost 0:21:54.119 --> 0:21:58.720 all the way off. I would really appreciate that. And um, there, 0:21:59.119 --> 0:22:01.720 let's see what else was Oh, if you were young, 0:22:02.680 --> 0:22:05.320 or if they didn't think you could be trusted with 0:22:06.160 --> 0:22:13.680 a wazukashi. Wakuzashi, are you serious? Oh yeah, yeah, the 0:22:13.720 --> 0:22:16.760 second sword? Yes, sorry, if you if you, if you 0:22:16.800 --> 0:22:18.639 couldn't be if like they were afraid you'd get up 0:22:18.640 --> 0:22:20.719 and kill everybody in the room rather than kill yourself. 0:22:21.040 --> 0:22:23.480 They give you a paper fan and then the moment 0:22:23.560 --> 0:22:27.320 you touch the fan or touched the fan to your belly, right. See, 0:22:27.320 --> 0:22:28.600 I thought I didn't know that was because the lack 0:22:28.640 --> 0:22:30.879 of trust. I thought it was just like a tamer version. 0:22:31.560 --> 0:22:34.600 It's both okay yeah um. And then one last thing 0:22:34.680 --> 0:22:38.200 can I really was like, I want to understand spuku. 0:22:38.880 --> 0:22:44.320 There's this type called jumanji geary and that was where 0:22:44.400 --> 0:22:48.679 you committed sepuku and you bled to death that sword, right, 0:22:48.720 --> 0:22:51.359 And the last guy to do this was a general 0:22:51.480 --> 0:22:54.600 Nogi who did it in nineteen twelve, remember the Mesgi Emperor. 0:22:55.040 --> 0:22:58.879 That's after it was outlawed. Interesting, somebody's committed as recently. 0:22:58.920 --> 0:23:02.040 It's nineteen seventy, but they had the samurai, the backup samurai. 0:23:02.680 --> 0:23:06.200 This guy did it himself. He cut himself in the 0:23:06.359 --> 0:23:09.760 ritual cut and then put his shirt on afterward and 0:23:09.880 --> 0:23:12.879 just set kneel there and bled to death. After the 0:23:12.960 --> 0:23:14.600 death of the emperor, and the shirt just held all 0:23:14.640 --> 0:23:16.960