The Samurai

The Seven Virtues of The Samurai- Why Tiny Japan Became An Economic Superpower in 24 years!

Historically, many societies have had classes or groups of people who were extraordinary in ways that made them famous or notorious or both, in their own time as well as today..

The largest and probably the most famous of these classes of people were the samurai of feudal Japan-the professional warrior class that ruled the country from 1192 until 1868, during which time they made up from ten to twelve percent of the population.

The strengths and profound influence of the samurai on Japanese culture and society were based on concepts adopted from a number of philosophical and religious beliefs, particularly shinto, zen buddhism, confucianism and taoism.

One of the most important of these concepts was the fragility and briefness of life. Of course, all rational individuals become aware of death at young age, but the urge for life is so powerful that most people suppress this knowledge and behave as if they are going to live a very long time, if not forever, not surprisingly, this deeply ingrained behavior has extraordinary consequences that are mostly negative.

Judaism, Christianity and Islam all refer to the inevitability of death and use this fact in an attempt to persuade (and frighten!) people to behave in a certain way. It goes without saying that these attempts often irrational and inhuman have not been successful.

As contrary to common sense as it might seem today, the only large group of people who fully recognized and accepted the fragility and briefness of life and based their way of living on this knowledge were the samurai warriors of feudal Japan-both famous and notorious for their incredible martial arts skills, their ruthlessness in war, and the equanimity with which they faced death.