Japan: The celebrated Kabuki actor Nakamura Shikan as a samurai. Utagawa Kunisada, AKA Utagawa Toyokuni III (1786-1865), c. 1828

Samurai is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. By the end of the 12th century, samurai became almost entirely synonymous with bushi, and the word was closely associated with the middle and upper echelons of the warrior class.

The samurai followed a set of rules that came to be known as Bushidō. While they numbered less than ten percent of Japan's population, samurai teachings can still be found today in both everyday life and in martial arts such as Kendō, meaning the way of the sword.

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