Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff you should know
Speaker 1: from house Stuff Works dot com? Hey, and welcome to
Speaker 1: actually canichi Wa and welcome to the podcast. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: had no idea what samurai we're all about. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I knew that they were excellent swordsman. I vaguely had
Speaker 1: some sort of conception from Kill Bill Volumes one and two. Um,
Speaker 1: And of course there was like the whole Wu Tang
Speaker 1: clan phase that I went through for a while. But
Speaker 1: that's really about the the limits of my understanding of
Speaker 1: samurai until now. Because we've been meaning to do this
Speaker 1: for about seventeen nineteen months now, and uh, we've researched
Speaker 1: it just about every week. So if we fail on
Speaker 1: this one, it's it's sappuko for us, exactly. Nice one,
Speaker 1: Thank you, Chuck. Let's talk about the history of the samurai. Okay, Josh,
Speaker 1: I have a prepared joke, should I say it? Yeah?
Speaker 1: No one is quite sure who the first samurai was, Josh,
Speaker 1: but we all know who the last one was. That's
Speaker 1: pretty good. And he was short, Yeah, he was real short.
Speaker 1: And still I didn't like that movie Uh. In the fifth,
Speaker 1: six and seven centuries, Josh, there were a bunch of
Speaker 1: rivalries going in UH in Japan and a bunch of wars.
Speaker 1: It's not a very good place to be in a
Speaker 1: lot of these wars, most of them, in fact, were
Speaker 1: against the islands, the people who inhabited the islands of Japan,
Speaker 1: which the Imperial Japanese called Imishi, which means barbarians. And yeah,
Speaker 1: they were tough dudes, apparently, yes they were. And they
Speaker 1: were pretty good at riding horses, right, Yeah, were they
Speaker 1: the ones that were the riding archers? They were, and
Speaker 1: so were another group um from the plans called the
Speaker 1: Canto people and the Canto tribe. Um. Actually, we're kind
Speaker 1: of in charge of fighting the Amishi and the Canto
Speaker 1: and the Amishi were really good at riding a horse
Speaker 1: shooting a bow and arrow at the same time. No,
Speaker 1: it's nineties and actually, um, the earliest samurai did this.
Speaker 1: This is what they were modeled on. They were horse
Speaker 1: back archers. Uh. And that whole school of discipline that
Speaker 1: you identify with with samurai grew out of the kind
Speaker 1: of training it takes to be able to ride a
Speaker 1: horse and accurately shoot someone in the throat with an arrow, right,
Speaker 1: And if to practice shooting someone in the throat with
Speaker 1: an arrow while you're galloping past them, what did they
Speaker 1: used to use, chuck? This is a bad and good
Speaker 1: They bad was they used dogs running dogs, which was awful.
Speaker 1: The good news is even way back then, the showgun
Speaker 1: came along and said, no more dogs. Right he said,
Speaker 1: he's cruel thing? And oh did he really? And yeah,
Speaker 1: they didn't used to target practice anymore animal rights way
Speaker 1: back then. Um. And so originally the samurai was, like
Speaker 1: we said, based out of these horse horseback archers, but
Speaker 1: horses played a big role in the lives of the samurai. Um.
Speaker 1: And this this code that will get two more in depth,
Speaker 1: it's called bushito. Um was grown out of another kind
Speaker 1: of code or a way of living called Cuba Cuba
Speaker 1: Cuba no michi. Man. Do you know how many times
Speaker 1: I've said that in my head and I say it
Speaker 1: out loud. It's Cuba no michi, right, which means the
Speaker 1: way of the horse in the bow, which basically, if
Speaker 1: you were dedicating yourself to being a horseback archer, um,
Speaker 1: that was your life. That's all you did. You lived
Speaker 1: eight and breathed it. Right. So that kind of disciplined
Speaker 1: formed the foundation of the samurai outlook, samurai way of life,
Speaker 1: the samurai super toughness. Yeah, nice work. They're also an
Speaker 1: elite warrior and that sprung. That status sprung from the
Speaker 1: fact that they were powerful families that lived way out
Speaker 1: a far far away from the capital and they would
Speaker 1: like pass their land down, uh in their prestige from
Speaker 1: one generation to the next over hundreds of years. So
Speaker 1: they were these warrior houses and they attamed noble status.
Speaker 1: You combine that with the Amishi barbarian and the code
Speaker 1: the what was it, uh, the Cuba nomici right, the
Speaker 1: warrior code, and basically that was the formation for the
Speaker 1: early samurai. Right. And um, the reason that you had
Speaker 1: all these warrior clans was because, like you said, the
Speaker 1: UM I guess, the early millennia, the first half of
Speaker 1: the first millennia, UM was a really dangerous place. Lots
Speaker 1: of civil war, lots of land grabs, um, lots of
Speaker 1: just general butchery, yeah, powerships and sure. Um. So these
Speaker 1: powerful clans grew out of this and um they started
Speaker 1: basically cultivating samurai and one of the key aspects, key
Speaker 1: characteristics of samurai is pretty much the opposite of ninja.
Speaker 1: Do you remember when we did the Ninja podcast, they
Speaker 1: kind of they turned on whoever hired him, if you know,
Speaker 1: somebody came along and offered him more money. Not so
Speaker 1: with the samurai. No, they serve their master, the daimio.
Speaker 1: Is that you pronounced it, I believe, so, okay, they
Speaker 1: served their daimio with absolute loyalty, even uh if that
Speaker 1: meant death. And didn't you already say it means one
Speaker 1: who serves I didn't, did you? Maybe? I just imagine
Speaker 1: that samurai means one who serves right, um, And that
Speaker 1: was actually funny enough originally applied to bureaucrats. Yeah, interesting,
Speaker 1: and then it was ultimately applied to samurai, which little
Speaker 1: by little, there's all these different foundations that finally come together.
Speaker 1: And I think the twelfth century when these two clans,
Speaker 1: these two warrior clans that we're vying for power, the
Speaker 1: Tyra Tyra t A I R A. We're gonna go
Speaker 1: ahead and say, the Tyra cran and the Minamoto clan
Speaker 1: um basically came together and clashed. And in eleven ninety two,
Speaker 1: the Minamotos one and this uh, the the the head
Speaker 1: of the household, Minamoto, your atomo. How do you like
Speaker 1: my Japanese now? Yeah? Um, he said, okay, you know what,
Speaker 1: we now run Japan. The emperor said, hey, way to go.
Speaker 1: I'm going to make you shogun, which is essentially the
Speaker 1: the head of the joint chiefs, the head of the military.
Speaker 1: That kind of backfired on him. What did Minamoto do?
Speaker 1: He said, hey, thanks for making me showgun. I'm going
Speaker 1: to take over and strip you off all your power
Speaker 1: and if you say one word, I'll cut your head
Speaker 1: right off of your body. And so what happened was
Speaker 1: the Minamoto clan set the samurai up for this elite
Speaker 1: status that they never had before. Words before exactly they
Speaker 1: served the daimio and there was still a a an
Speaker 1: entire class of lower echelon samurai who served the daimio,
Speaker 1: but then the daimio, these feudal lords served the showgun.
Speaker 1: So when shogun, daimio samurai and then everybody else and um,
Speaker 1: the Minamoto clan who set up the showgun. Uh, the
Speaker 1: government that they ran was the Bukufu. Yeah, that was
Speaker 1: a dictatorship basically, right, and uh that that was the
Speaker 1: last time the samurai really changed from that point on
Speaker 1: the modern samurai was born, right, Yes, so, Josh, we've
Speaker 1: talked about how they formed. Yes, should we talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about the just the nuts and bolts of
Speaker 1: what makes the samurai? I think we should. If you're
Speaker 1: talking samurai, you cannot skip the armor, the lamellar armor
Speaker 1: it's called and you've probably seen it before. It's that's
Speaker 1: it's made by binding metals scales together on a plate
Speaker 1: and then they they cover it with lacquered waterproof it.
Speaker 1: And then all these little light plates are fashioned together
Speaker 1: by like, um, leather strapping, and that's the that's the
Speaker 1: armor that distinctively you've seen on a samurai. You know,
Speaker 1: it's weird. I just wrote in an article about skin
Speaker 1: disorders and um, there is a skin disorder called lamb
Speaker 1: lammelar theosis, which is basically like fish scale skin disorder.
Speaker 1: So you have it full circle. Uh. There were two kinds.
Speaker 1: Early on the Yori, which was mounted samurai, it was
Speaker 1: a lot heavier with the heavy helmets and shoulder pads
Speaker 1: and stuff than the domaru, which was lighter obviously for
Speaker 1: the foot soldiers. And then later on the Goosoku in
Speaker 1: the sixteenth century and that's what this dude is wearing
Speaker 1: right there. Yeah, that's a pretty cool picture that you
Speaker 1: got by Wan cal Call. Yeah, I didn't even see
Speaker 1: there was a credit there. Yeah, there's a pretty cool
Speaker 1: It was strach And. And did you see that moment
Speaker 1: link I sent you or the picture from the moment exhibit.
Speaker 1: Now there's a moment exhibit of Yes, yes, the of
Speaker 1: the guy who had like the black lacquered like deer
Speaker 1: antlers coming out of his helmet. Basically, if you saw
Speaker 1: this guy coming at you with the sword, you would
Speaker 1: probably die of fright, at the very least you would run. Um,
Speaker 1: And I think that's kind of what is intended for.
Speaker 1: You know. They had iron masks that went with the
Speaker 1: iron helmets. Yes, well, the helmets called the cabudo and um,
Speaker 1: like you said, they would often add like the devil
Speaker 1: face and they would add like horsehair mustaches, uh, and
Speaker 1: little beards made out of horsehair on the front of
Speaker 1: the mask as well, yes, which makes them even more
Speaker 1: even scarier. Yeah, and they're they're riveted together. You see
Speaker 1: the ribbts and does this I got a picture of
Speaker 1: one here I'm showing Josh. Does this look like anyone familiar. Uh.
Speaker 1: It looks kind of like the parawel Nder Powell pearl
Speaker 1: to skateboard from the Dune Dune Vader. Yes. Nice, This
Speaker 1: helmet is absolutely well. Actually, George Lucas absolutely modeled the
Speaker 1: Darth Vader look in helmet after the Samurai kobuto. Isn't
Speaker 1: jedi a Japanese word? Yeah? And then the sword, you know,
Speaker 1: the lightsaber was um And we might as well talk
Speaker 1: about the swords since we're there. The katana, Yeah, the
Speaker 1: katana and the wakizashi, which together is called the dice
Speaker 1: show which die is large, show is small and the
Speaker 1: katana is a larger show. Was sword longer? Uh? In
Speaker 1: thinner blade? And the was it kashi? Yes? Or wakazashi
Speaker 1: wakazashi thank you? Um is shorter with a broader blade,
Speaker 1: but you're you never saw a samurai without both. And
Speaker 1: actually you know where the katana is curved? Uh? Because
Speaker 1: of the process of making it. No, No, it's purposefully curved.
Speaker 1: Remember we talked about how horses played a pretty big
Speaker 1: role in Samurai Unsung roll Um. The curved blade made
Speaker 1: for a deeper slashing wound which was inflicted by a
Speaker 1: horseback swordsman got you pretty cool? Did you hold one
Speaker 1: that day? At the meeting we took people are like
Speaker 1: you guys took a meeting where there was a samurai sword.
Speaker 1: Remember at the School of Humans deal, I didn't see
Speaker 1: that they had a samurai So yeah, this guy brought
Speaker 1: in a Samurai sword at the end for one of
Speaker 1: their little jobs coming up, And um, I held it.
Speaker 1: Where was I in my hand? You might have been
Speaker 1: in the bathroom or smoking before you quit smoking, and
Speaker 1: I held this thing in my hand and I've never
Speaker 1: held Have you ever held a real samurai sword? I
Speaker 1: was messing with a couple in Japan, But yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean it's it's like way heavier than I thought. And
Speaker 1: when you hold it, and when you feel how sharp
Speaker 1: it is, you're like this, I could literally cut you
Speaker 1: in half right now if I wanted. All the ones
Speaker 1: that I were messing with were in like, um, tourists,
Speaker 1: they're a little plastic key chain ones, they were wood.
Speaker 1: Got you. Well, it's really intimidating. It's extremely heavy, and
Speaker 1: you feel like the power of the sword when you
Speaker 1: hold it right. And the smiths who made samurai swords
Speaker 1: are generally recognized as the greatest sword makers in the
Speaker 1: history of humanity as h And one of the reasons
Speaker 1: why is not just because of these gorgeous, really heavy,
Speaker 1: perfect swords that they made again and again. Yeah, um,
Speaker 1: that you could actually cut someone's head right off with
Speaker 1: one slice. Um. But they actually came. They created a
Speaker 1: technology or a method, a technique for an age old problem,
Speaker 1: which was, you wanna sword with a sharp blade that
Speaker 1: won't break. You can use a hard metal to keep
Speaker 1: a blade that will keep its edge, but it makes
Speaker 1: it a very brittle sword, so it'll break easily. Right,
Speaker 1: So what did they do, Josh? They made a sword
Speaker 1: with a core made out of soft metal that wouldn't break,
Speaker 1: and then covered it with layers of hard metal that
Speaker 1: were folded in hammer. They hammer it to squeeze out impurities,
Speaker 1: and they keep folding it repeatedly until there's all these
Speaker 1: layers laminated together, right, like literally millions of layers. Well, actually,
Speaker 1: this this article has a slight mistake in it, because
Speaker 1: that's lower Um. I looked this up that that when
Speaker 1: they fold a blade, they hammered out and there have
Speaker 1: been lord that they folded them hundreds of times and
Speaker 1: thousands of times to create millions of layers Apparently after
Speaker 1: anything over twenty folds adds no more layers. That's what
Speaker 1: they said. So a twentyfold sword would have one million,
Speaker 1: forty thousand, five hundred and seventy six layers, which is
Speaker 1: I mean, so it's kind of like hammering a chicken
Speaker 1: that's been shot by a horseback archer. You just can't
Speaker 1: make it anymore dead. It's yeah, right, yeah, okay, So
Speaker 1: you talked about kill Bill though, Yeah, you know, you
Speaker 1: can buy a hat Tori Hanzo sword on the internet,
Speaker 1: autographed by David Karneen for six hundred bucks. I can't
Speaker 1: believe he's dead. Still hung himself in the bankok hotel room.
Speaker 1: It was fitting somehow though, the odd But yeah, you
Speaker 1: can buy one of those for six entred bucks. Or
Speaker 1: if you don't want to spend that kind of dough,
Speaker 1: I think you can get like a functional katana for
Speaker 1: about two bucks online, or you can get a wood
Speaker 1: one from a tourist trap in Japan. Yeah. Well that's
Speaker 1: what the used for training, you know, yeah, back in
Speaker 1: the day. Yes, um, you know the whole uh, the
Speaker 1: cruel tutelage of master pay from kill Bill, and it's
Speaker 1: certainly Quentin Tarantino wasn't the first one to um come
Speaker 1: up with the idea that samurai masters taught their students
Speaker 1: through you know, rigid and brutal methods. Yes, Um, that's
Speaker 1: that's been a recurring theme through samurai stories all along.
Speaker 1: And the reason why it's because it's true. It really happened. Um.
Speaker 1: There was one sword training master who used to walk
Speaker 1: around with a wooden katana day or night, completely unprovoked
Speaker 1: and without warning, would smack his students pretty hard. Those
Speaker 1: things are hard. They hurt, like just holding it and
Speaker 1: like tapping it in your hand, your hand starts to hurt.
Speaker 1: So actually getting hit by one of these swords hurts bad.
Speaker 1: And if you get hit by one m randomly and
Speaker 1: you learned pretty quickly never to let your guard down,
Speaker 1: which is what he was trying to impart. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: could be like a sleep and a sword upside the head.
Speaker 1: You can be you know, using the bathroom and right anything,
Speaker 1: eating gruel. Yeah, hammering a chicken that's been shot by
Speaker 1: a horseback archery. Good point, uh josh. They also used
Speaker 1: things called pole arms, which was a long pole with
Speaker 1: like a blade on the end of it that was
Speaker 1: good for, um, stabbing it at dudes on horseback. It
Speaker 1: gives you a little more reach obviously. And they even
Speaker 1: had guns, is what something I didn't know. In the
Speaker 1: sixteenth century they started trading with Europe, Japan did, and
Speaker 1: they bought these matchlock guns and kind of kept them
Speaker 1: as backup though the same ware. I was like, I'll
Speaker 1: put a gun on my horse, but I'm not going
Speaker 1: to use it. I'm still gonna use the katana unless
Speaker 1: I really needed it. Turns out the they got those
Speaker 1: guns from European missionaries. Oh really, yeah, look at that
Speaker 1: who were kind of infiltrating Japan to try to start trade.
Speaker 1: They were missionaries. Relaxed, We're just missionaries. But interesting, have
Speaker 1: you seen a gun before? Chick? This is my boomstick,
Speaker 1: so chuck um. One of the other characteristics of the
Speaker 1: samurai's is this idea of a very noble, loyal life.
Speaker 1: And we said that the Cuba Nomici was the foundation
Speaker 1: for bushito, which means way of the warrior. Boushi is warrior,
Speaker 1: and doe is the way right, So this is the
Speaker 1: way of the warrior. And essentially it's just this code,
Speaker 1: this guide that was kind of put up by one
Speaker 1: samurai or another and Uh, it was. It formed the
Speaker 1: legend of the samurai, but it also informed the way
Speaker 1: they lived their lives, right, Yeah, and it's um. A
Speaker 1: lot of people hear this and they think it's like
Speaker 1: a formal set of rules that everyone followed, but it
Speaker 1: was actually different depending on who you were and where
Speaker 1: you had passed it down or gotten it from. And
Speaker 1: it wasn't even written down until the seventeenth century. So, right,
Speaker 1: there was a there was a samurai um named Yamamoto Sunnitomo,
Speaker 1: and he was a he turned into his en monk,
Speaker 1: and he had a follower who he just basically dictated
Speaker 1: the tenants of bushido to and he wrote them down
Speaker 1: right he uh. And actually some of the some of
Speaker 1: the high points of bushido, well, it covers everything from
Speaker 1: um like life and death situations. If you're presented with
Speaker 1: the choice to choose death and you can't ever go wrong,
Speaker 1: you will never be afraid because you're always prepared for
Speaker 1: death for that reason. Right. It's a little you know, um,
Speaker 1: and then to to really kind of trivial matters like
Speaker 1: you should never sneeze in front of somebody because it
Speaker 1: makes you look foolish. Uh. And then my favorite is
Speaker 1: the lesson of the downpour, where you know, like when
Speaker 1: you're being rained on, you're just so uncomfortable and you're
Speaker 1: running you can't get wet, and oh we gotta can't
Speaker 1: get wet. So there's this Bushido tenant that says, if
Speaker 1: you remind yourself that it is natural to get soaked
Speaker 1: in a rainstorm, that's what's supposed to happen in a rainstorm.
Speaker 1: You'll never run for cover again, you just get soaked
Speaker 1: to the problem. And this can be applied to all
Speaker 1: aspects of life. That's my favorite one. Yeah. I used
Speaker 1: to play in the rain like up until you know
Speaker 1: what you're trying to set fires. No, I mean as
Speaker 1: an adult sometimes it's fun. Yeah, highly recommend it. Okay,
Speaker 1: I didn't know I was following some samurai. Yeah, you're
Speaker 1: right there. If you would be willing to die, chuck,
Speaker 1: you would be a samurai. No. I come from the
Speaker 1: Wham Choose life school. That's my code tiny running shorts
Speaker 1: and choosing life. I guess we have to talk about suppuku. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean if you were dishonored um then yeah, you
Speaker 1: had to kill yourself. Yes, otherwise known as I didn't
Speaker 1: know it was a vulgar phrase, but hara kari, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it essentially means gut cut. No wonder if that is vulgar. Well,
Speaker 1: vulgar also means common. God, you're right. I feel like
Speaker 1: an idiot, now, don't. I still am trying to figure
Speaker 1: out the way I'm reference. Yeah. When I think vulgar,
Speaker 1: I think of nasty words. I know what you mean.
Speaker 1: But that's again, it's common, right, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: So this is what you you know, when you have
Speaker 1: seen the person thrust the sword into their gut, it's
Speaker 1: sort of doesn't really happen that way. What happens is
Speaker 1: you got to wear the right garments, very ritualized. Oh
Speaker 1: is it white? And they present you with a ritual
Speaker 1: knife wrapped in paper right to to give you a
Speaker 1: better grip. Normally, you're gonna do this in a garden
Speaker 1: or a Buddhist temple, never a Shinto temple, because a
Speaker 1: Shinto temple is not to be tainted with death. I
Speaker 1: would choose a garden. Yeah, that'd be my pick. And
Speaker 1: you insert the knife first, First, you write a little
Speaker 1: death poem, okay, and you take four steps of saki
Speaker 1: for being she she meaning remember the Friday thirteenth Podcast
Speaker 1: Japanese four and death are the same kanji character. So
Speaker 1: Flour is kind of like a pawn on I'm about
Speaker 1: to kill myself, okay, go ahead, uh, And then you
Speaker 1: just kinda plunge the sword into myself and please go
Speaker 1: ahead and chuck. So you plunge a sword into your
Speaker 1: ballet and you go from left to right. It's very important,
Speaker 1: and you do a little final upward cut at the end,
Speaker 1: and if you're lucky, and usually you're lucky, there was
Speaker 1: another samurai behind you with their sword to cut your
Speaker 1: head off really quick, so you're not like writhing in
Speaker 1: agonizing pain, right, and that was what's what's that samurai called? Uh?
Speaker 1: The second in command is called the kashuku nin. Right,
Speaker 1: And if you were kashaku nin, if you were forced
Speaker 1: to commit sappuku, right, which was you know kind of routine,
Speaker 1: you choose to though, right, No, you could be forced to,
Speaker 1: okay um, the kesha ku nin would be assigned by
Speaker 1: the bakufu, right, the military dictatorship, right to end it quickly.
Speaker 1: If you decided to do it yourself, then yeah, it
Speaker 1: was up to you to come up with the kasha
Speaker 1: ku nin. And what probably who you would want would
Speaker 1: be a friend, right or And I've never heard of
Speaker 1: this before, and I I ju suca. This is somebody
Speaker 1: who had practiced drawing a sword, slashing it and returning
Speaker 1: it to its Oh no, drawing a sword slashing, wiping
Speaker 1: it off and returning it to its sheath, and one
Speaker 1: fluid motion and the aa ju suca succa could Um,
Speaker 1: they could cut your head right off with one slash. No,
Speaker 1: you know it's bad news for the um the the
Speaker 1: second samurai. Oh, but that's what you want, is as
Speaker 1: the you want to be killed the media and that
Speaker 1: was the point. But um, you didn't cut somebody's head
Speaker 1: right off. You you would leave the throat, it's the
Speaker 1: skin attached to the throat, because it was bad form
Speaker 1: to cut somebody's head right off, because you don't want
Speaker 1: it rolling all around on the floor. I wonder how
Speaker 1: those conversations went down, Like, hey man, you want to
Speaker 1: give me a solid this afternoon, I gotta kill myself
Speaker 1: and you could be there to cut my head almost
Speaker 1: all the way off. I would really appreciate that. And um, there,
Speaker 1: let's see what else was Oh, if you were young,
Speaker 1: or if they didn't think you could be trusted with
Speaker 1: a wazukashi. Wakuzashi, are you serious? Oh yeah, yeah, the
Speaker 1: second sword? Yes, sorry, if you if you, if you
Speaker 1: couldn't be if like they were afraid you'd get up
Speaker 1: and kill everybody in the room rather than kill yourself.
Speaker 1: They give you a paper fan and then the moment
Speaker 1: you touch the fan or touched the fan to your belly, right. See,
Speaker 1: I thought I didn't know that was because the lack
Speaker 1: of trust. I thought it was just like a tamer version.
Speaker 1: It's both okay yeah um. And then one last thing
Speaker 1: can I really was like, I want to understand spuku.
Speaker 1: There's this type called jumanji geary and that was where
Speaker 1: you committed sepuku and you bled to death that sword, right,
Speaker 1: And the last guy to do this was a general
Speaker 1: Nogi who did it in nineteen twelve, remember the Mesgi Emperor.
Speaker 1: That's after it was outlawed. Interesting, somebody's committed as recently.
Speaker 1: It's nineteen seventy, but they had the samurai, the backup samurai.
Speaker 1: This guy did it himself. He cut himself in the
Speaker 1: ritual cut and then put his shirt on afterward and
Speaker 1: just set kneel there and bled to death. After the
Speaker 1: death of the emperor, and the shirt just held all
Speaker 1: his his guts in. I guess it's for like the
Speaker 1: horse diaper. Yeah. Yeah, it was officially abolished though in
Speaker 1: eighteen seventy three, although, like you said, Japanese like to
Speaker 1: stick to their traditions, So it has happened as recently
Speaker 1: as like the two thousand's right. Oh is that right?
Speaker 1: At last? I saw it, but yeah, or maybe it
Speaker 1: started to make a resurgence in nineteen seventy and it's
Speaker 1: still going on. Yeah. I seemed to think there was
Speaker 1: ahead of some corporation that did it recently, but really
Speaker 1: I can't confirm that. It's pretty it's a way to go. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's hardcore. So, Chuck, we should probably talk about what
Speaker 1: happened to the samurai, right, Yeah, where they went? Well,
Speaker 1: let me talk about this one guy first. Um, remember
Speaker 1: we're talking about warring clans and power struggles and everything. Um,
Speaker 1: there was a huge civil war called a Sengoku, which
Speaker 1: was a civil war period in Japan. Right, It was
Speaker 1: from like thirteen thirty eight to sixteen o three, and
Speaker 1: in that year Takagawa ai Yasu grabbed control and this guy,
Speaker 1: he was a minimoti ascendant. So he took the showgun
Speaker 1: title and he kept the piece. His family kept the
Speaker 1: piece for two d and fifty years. He kept a
Speaker 1: complete stranglehold on the other samurai, the damio. Um. He
Speaker 1: made it so that your family had to live in
Speaker 1: the capital. That's that guy and you, right, and you
Speaker 1: lived like way out in the provinces. He basically helped
Speaker 1: family's hostage right to keep to keep the other the
Speaker 1: the other samurai, um, yeah, the other daimyo under control. Right.
Speaker 1: He also had a castle called Nijo Joe and I've
Speaker 1: been in that castle and we've talked about it. Yes,
Speaker 1: remember in the Ninja podcast we talked about a guy
Speaker 1: who had a castle that had squeaky floors. I've walked
Speaker 1: down those floors. They sound like nightingales are called nightingale
Speaker 1: wars come down. And I tried walking on it. I
Speaker 1: got like two steps without making a sound. Really, so
Speaker 1: I could see a ninja possibly doing it. But it
Speaker 1: was random, like wherever you stepped like it was gonna
Speaker 1: make the sound. It was pretty amazing stuff. I don't
Speaker 1: think you and I would be candidates for ninja or samurai.
Speaker 1: Maybe Sumo possibly. That's where that's where I'm headed. So,
Speaker 1: like you're saying, we got to talk about where they went.
Speaker 1: What happened in the samurai um There was a what
Speaker 1: would you say, two and a half centuries a peaceful rule, Yeah,
Speaker 1: under the Takugawa family. Right, So during that time, obviously,
Speaker 1: if you've got peaceful rules, samurai are gonna decline gradually
Speaker 1: just because there's no one to fight. And then the
Speaker 1: main two things Josh are urbanization and the end of
Speaker 1: their isolationism. Right, that's what really drove them out of business. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because Takagawa and his descendants didn't like the Europeans very much,
Speaker 1: and we're like, you guys need to beat it, because
Speaker 1: we know how to cut someone's off and just leave
Speaker 1: a flap of skin of the throat, right you know. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: they were isolationists, and then all of a sudden, the
Speaker 1: Americans started going, you know, we'd like to trade with Japan. Yes,
Speaker 1: we get people who get shipwrecked around there somewhere, and
Speaker 1: we want to make sure they're taking care of and
Speaker 1: we want to use his place as a supply port,
Speaker 1: so we're gonna sail over there. Yeah. So in the
Speaker 1: in eighteen fifty three, They Commander Chandler Bang sailed into
Speaker 1: Ato Bay. Is that not his name? Yeah? Oh, I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: Commander Matthew Perry had that wrong. He sailed over there
Speaker 1: to chat with the Millard Fillmore sent him to chat
Speaker 1: with the emperor, who was a figurehead. But that's who
Speaker 1: you know. You can't go talk to the show gun.
Speaker 1: You gotta go talk to the emperor, right, So he
Speaker 1: went and said, just what you said. We want to
Speaker 1: open trade, and we want if we get guys that
Speaker 1: are shipwrecked here, please take care of them and open
Speaker 1: your ports so we can like dock here and resupply. Right.
Speaker 1: And apparently when he showed up, he said, I'll be
Speaker 1: back in a couple of months. You guys talk it
Speaker 1: over right, talking amongst yourself. But when he showed up,
Speaker 1: he showed up with you know, full cannons out like guns.
Speaker 1: Everybody was basically strapped to the teeth. He's like to
Speaker 1: think about it, but that I guess that kind of
Speaker 1: intimidation really struck a chord with the Japanese or the
Speaker 1: Japanese who are like, WHOA, what's what's been going on
Speaker 1: outside the borders of Japan while we haven't been paying attention.
Speaker 1: Um And so there was a split in the samurai
Speaker 1: class where some wanted to go ahead and open up
Speaker 1: Japan and modernized Japan, and this is the people in charge.
Speaker 1: The lesser samurai didn't like that at all, so they
Speaker 1: actually went and staged a revolt, and the lesser samurai
Speaker 1: actually won. It was because they beat the shogun it,
Speaker 1: which is kind of a big deal. Although they had
Speaker 1: gotten kind of fat and lazy in the in the
Speaker 1: two and a half centuries of peace. Um. So the
Speaker 1: lesser samurai, who hadn't gotten quite as fat and lazy
Speaker 1: and comfortable over through the shogun it took the the
Speaker 1: emperor and restored them to power. The Mesgi restoration. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that was it was actually a boy emperor. Emperor
Speaker 1: Meiji was I think like a teenager at the time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not quite sure, but he was young. He was
Speaker 1: boy king. And now he makes a really good yogurt drink.
Speaker 1: You should try what's it called meggie really well, I
Speaker 1: mean that's the brain. They're like nestly. So they overthrew
Speaker 1: they That was called the nest Le restoration, right, and
Speaker 1: the power of the daimios was taken away the government
Speaker 1: sees their land. Um, there was no way to pay
Speaker 1: the samurai, so they basically started paying them off with
Speaker 1: bonds depending on what their rank was. Right. But it
Speaker 1: was like, here's your settlement, yeah, you know, and go
Speaker 1: and don't be samurai anymore. Right. They had basically turned
Speaker 1: into the modern the equivalent of what in the modern
Speaker 1: era is somebody who falls in the in the grocery
Speaker 1: store and laze around watching Jerry Springer waiting for their
Speaker 1: settlement to come through. Yes, that was kind of what
Speaker 1: happened at the end of the Samurai. It's pretty sad
Speaker 1: and uh. In eighteen seventy six, it finally culminated with
Speaker 1: the final blow, which was the emperor said you cannot
Speaker 1: wear your swords anymore and we're going to draft an army.
Speaker 1: So that was kind of like no more, no more
Speaker 1: used for you, right, And so there were some rebellions
Speaker 1: here there. Tom Cruise shows up, um and the rebellions
Speaker 1: in the outlying areas are crushed, and uh, that was
Speaker 1: the end of the samurai. Japan became modernized, but it
Speaker 1: wasn't the end of the samurai spirit. As Chuck said,
Speaker 1: there's a CEO that recently killed himself maybe suppuku probably, um,
Speaker 1: but also that it kind of informs Japan. There's that
Speaker 1: whole keep a stiff upper lip, don't complain, uh kind
Speaker 1: of tradition and culture. And you can argue that the
Speaker 1: history of the Samurai is the history of Japanese culture, right, um.
Speaker 1: But also in World War Two, the Bushito was resurrected
Speaker 1: and kind of perver hearted by the Japanese government and
Speaker 1: sold to the Japanese military who would go crazy and
Speaker 1: kill everybody before they were killed. The Kama Kazee pilots, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was part of it. There was the Bondsai guys,
Speaker 1: yeah and um yeah, just basically their their whole death
Speaker 1: before dishonor because it's like a suicide bomber today. If
Speaker 1: you're facing somebody who would rather die than lose, that's
Speaker 1: the most dangerous foe you have, as opposed to the
Speaker 1: American way, which is do anything you can to save
Speaker 1: your butt, right or fall into the grocery store, right somebody.
Speaker 1: As we would be remissed, Josh before we leave if
Speaker 1: we didn't mention a few movies, notably The Seven Samurai
Speaker 1: or and The Magnificent Seven, The Awesome Western with you'll
Speaker 1: Brenner was based on the Seventh Samurai, but a Western version.
Speaker 1: There's also a Ghost Dog, which I've been meaning to see,
Speaker 1: but well you haven't seen that. Yeah. I was about
Speaker 1: to say that's my favorite all time maybe favorite Jim
Speaker 1: Jarmish movie. Definitely top two, more than Dead Man. Huh.
Speaker 1: I think it's probably in a dead heat with Dead Man.
Speaker 1: It's awesome. You gotta see Ghost Dog. That's where Forest
Speaker 1: Whittaker is like sort of a modern day Samurai living
Speaker 1: in New York, in Brooklyn, I think even does anybody's pigeons. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's very peaceful. He's just the heat. It's full of
Speaker 1: the bushito like it's broken up with him reading passages
Speaker 1: from the Samurai Code. Pretty cool. Nice, Okay, Well it's
Speaker 1: about it. If you want to see some pretty cool
Speaker 1: images of samurai armor, uh and learn more about the Samurai,
Speaker 1: including what a ronin is and what happened to the
Speaker 1: forty seven ronan, you just want to type in Samurai
Speaker 1: to the handy search bart how stuff works dot com.
Speaker 1: So now I guess then it's time for listener man. Yes, Josh,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna call this the cute kid in New Zealand. Hey, dudes,
Speaker 1: Chuck and Josh. This email comes to you from Felix
Speaker 1: from Wellington, New Zealand. Oh yeah, he's a cool kid.
Speaker 1: I'm nine years old and I've listened to pretty much
Speaker 1: all your podcasts. Dad usually plays them in the car
Speaker 1: on long drives. The recent one on taxidermy I thought
Speaker 1: was seriously gross. I wish I could do a keiy accent.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna try it, though I wouldn't. I had
Speaker 1: a thought that you guys might want to do an
Speaker 1: episode on really long place names around the world and
Speaker 1: how that came about and what do they mean. We
Speaker 1: have one in New Zealand called and I won't even
Speaker 1: bother to say it because it's it looks like the
Speaker 1: alphabet or has just been written down in random order.
Speaker 1: I dared to try and say it in your podcast,
Speaker 1: but Felix, I will not. But I did attach an
Speaker 1: MP three of me saying it to impress you with
Speaker 1: my skills that Felix, Yes, you guys are cool and funny.
Speaker 1: And by the way, it translates roughly as the summit
Speaker 1: where Tomatilla, the man with the big knees, the climber
Speaker 1: of mountains, the land swallow who traveled about played his
Speaker 1: nose flute to his loved one. That's what this name
Speaker 1: translates to. That's crazy. So we got permission from Felix's
Speaker 1: dad since he's a little kid, and he said go
Speaker 1: ahead and play it. So without further ado, here is
Speaker 1: Felix from New Zealand. Hi, this is Felix here. I
Speaker 1: listened to this tom with Tony Hanka Tia tutti Poka
Speaker 1: copy game. That is awesome. I'm glad we finally got
Speaker 1: around to playing that clip. I think it is cool,
Speaker 1: very cute little kid there. Well, um, I don't think
Speaker 1: we should make a call for audio files see you. No, no,
Speaker 1: I think that one belongs to Felix pretty much. He
Speaker 1: is his numbers being retired in the Stuff You Should
Speaker 1: Know Hall of Fame. If you want to come with
Speaker 1: something cool and interesting and clever and have your number retired,
Speaker 1: you should put it in an email send it to
Speaker 1: Stuff podcast at how stuff works dot com. For more
Speaker 1: on this and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot com. Want more how stuff works, check out
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