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Notebook: Include 2 interesting facts about samurai women

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Japan: Memoirs of a Secret Empire . Samurai Woman | PBS

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A collection of rare photographs of samurai presented by Daniella Dangoor is being exhibited at The London Photograph Fair. Most photographs purporting to be of samurai are actually not and were taken after 1877, when the samurai system was abolished. These images are of genuine samurai, taken between 1860 and 1877.

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Notebook: What is seppuku? What is the difference in Seppuku between men and women?

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Often called "hara-kiri" in the West, "seppuku" is a form of ritual suicide that originated with Japan's ancient samurai warrior class. The grisly act typically involved stabbing oneself in the belly with a short sword, slicing open the stomach and then turning the blade upwards to ensure a fatal wound. Some practitioners of seppuku allowed themselves to die slowly, but they usually enlisted the help of a "kaishakunin," or second, who would lop off their head with a katana as soon as they made their initial cut. The entire process was accompanied by great ceremony. Among other rituals, the doomed individual often drank sake and composed a short "death poem" before taking up the blade.

Seppuku first developed in the 12th century as a means for samurai to achieve an honorable death. Swordsmen performed the ritual to avoid capture following battlefield defeats, but it also functioned as a means of protest and a way of expressing grief over the death of a revered leader. Beginning in the 1400s, seppuku evolved into a common form of capital punishment for samurai who had committed crimes. In each case, it was considered an act of extreme bravery and self-sacrifice that embodied Bushido, the ancient warrior code of the samurai. There was even a female version of seppuku called "jigai," which involved cutting the throat using a special knife known as a "tanto."

Seppuku fell out of favor with the decline of the samurai in the late-19th century, but the practice didn't disappear entirely. Japanese General Nogi Maresuke disemboweled himself in 1912 out of loyalty to the deceased Meiji Emperor, and many troops later chose the sword over surrender during World War II. Perhaps the most famous case in recent history concerns Yukio Mishima, a renowned novelist and Nobel Prize nominee who committed ritual seppuku in 1970 after leading a failed coup against the Japanese government.

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Often called "hara-kiri" in the West, "seppuku" is a form of ritual suicide that originated with Japan's ancient samurai warrior class. The grisly act typically involved stabbing oneself in the belly with a short sword, slicing open the stomach and then turning the blade upwards to ensure a fatal wound.

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How Sen No Rikyu Used the Japanese Tea Ceremony for Samurai Training

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chado, the way of tea. Chado flourished during Japan's centuries-long civil war, the age of the samurai. You may have read that the warrior class embraced it because it offered a moment of peace and contemplation amid the chaos of battle. That's mostly nonsense.

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Google Form for Picking Favorite Stories

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Google Form for Picking Favorite Stories

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Get access to files anywhere through secure cloud storage and file backup for your photos, videos, files and more with Google Drive.

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Notebook: Fill in the hierarchy.

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Tomoe Gozen the Legendary Female Samurai Champion

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Pick your favorite from the First 5 Samurai Stories

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Pick your favorite from the First 5 Samurai Stories

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Fill out the form below. Which do you think is the coolest?

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For nearly 700 years, the power of the samurai held sway over feudal Japan. These Japanese warriors forged a legend unique among the history of the world. Before the Western world made contact with Japan, the country was segmented into a number of feudal states. Technically there was an Emperor, but for most of the last millennium, the Emperor ruled in name only. It was the daimyo, the individual leaders of each city-state, who really controlled the country. And at the beck and call of the daimyo were the nearly unstoppable samurai, a group of highly disciplined warriors who upheld the tenets of hard work, loyalty, and respect that have formed the foundation of modern Japanese society.

First and foremost, though, samurai were fighters. Utilizing a set of tools that made Medieval knights look like total chumps, badass samurai loomed large in Japanese society from the 12th century all the way until the late 1860s. Here are some of history's crazy samurai tales, featuring the men and women who helped mold the Japan that we know today.

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10 Incredible Stories About Real-Life Samurai That Prove They Are History's Coolest Warriors

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For nearly 700 years, the power of the samurai held sway over feudal Japan. These Japanese warriors forged a legend unique among the history of the world. Before the Western world made contact with Japan, the country was segmented into a number of feudal states.