So what did these guys do all day anyways?
Something uncomfortable, probably.
>>38385
Mostly administrative work, wrote poetry about never surrendering since it had been 200 years since the last time they actually had to fight a war.
>>38385
Sit around, decide some things about local fiefs, train a bit maybe if they were the fighting type.
They were low-tier nobles. Not a whole lot to do compared to the rice farmers they owned.
>>38385
Played Nintendo
Watch hyougemono
>>38546
And then got butfucked by one Korean and 150 ships
they were criminal vagabonds
>>38578
I see you too have watched extra history
Bullied serfs
>>38385
What era?
>>38385
Basically the same as knights. Religious, arts, administration, warfare. Is that really that hard a concept to understand?
>>38649
So does being cultured, literate and learned do anything to help you on the battlefield or is it all just pointless?
>>38630
Who on this board hasn't?
>>38546
Samurai were strictly forbidden from writing poetry.
>>38649
This anon has no idea what he's talking about. Knights were first and foremost heavy Calvary, nobles =/= knights. Not all nobles were knights, in fact many were not. Samurai were politicians first, and almost never fought on the battlefield. They were more akin to our modern day generals, who sit at the back and move pieces that represent armies. Knights were not generals, but soldiers.
>>38726
Samurai weren't high nobility. They usually filled the role of elite troops (often cavalry) or officers, depending on the era.
>>38726
Are you kidding? The idea of a samurai as a bureaucrat first didn't come about until the Edo period and afterward. Knights, especially those part of religious of chivalric orders, were oftentimes nobility that were honored for their contributions in state, economy, or religion.
Both samurai and knights are like the equites and the gentry, which is to say, an upper-middle class low nobility that composes of the higher parts of the military and the backbone of national administration. Whether they're warriors or administrators, or both, varies on the time, but they have all been every possibility.
>>38689
Self-actualization. There were plenty of barbarous samurai that just loved killing, but being wealthy enough to have the leisure of thinking times makes you want to give reason to your life, and celebrate your status.
It's the same reason chivalry got so popular. They wanted to feel heroic.
>>38720
Not true at all, death poems are the most prominent example
>>38990
>The idea of a samurai as a bureaucrat first didn't come about until the Edo period and afterward.
The idea of a samurai as a class at all didn't come about until the Edo period, before that what a Samurai is was very vague and anyone could become one thus you had ashigarus (peasants) being Samurai
>>39168
Fair enough, but the same could be said for knights. We apply labels invented later on to a certain unnamed echelon that existed, though. Not like nomads called the people in the Fertile Crescent "those damn sedentaries".
>>38795
This, it matters what era you're taking about and where.
No matter the era, the best positions were those closest to their lord. They could enjoy the benefits of living in a castle and visiting the castle town. During the Tokugawa period they would be the retainers escorting their lord to and from Edo.
The worst positions were as country samurai, living in rural locations.
The pic is from this article before it was edited.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jizamurai
Has anyone here read Musui's Story?
It gives some interesting perspective.
>>38636
Samurai were strictly forbidden from bullying.
>>39330
Didn't really stop them.
>>38385
>Watch operas
>Calculate rice yield
>Complain about how they have no land and no yield
>molest little boys
>>38573
Samurai were strictly forbidden from playing video games.
>>39310
It should be noted that Kokujin and Jizamurai were different, and that lumping them together is wrong.
>>38726
>>38795
>>38990
>terms and their meanings as well as respective implications do not change throughout history
>>39374
Samurai were strictly forbidden from molestation.
>>39444
Samurai were strictly forbidden from posting on image boards.
Are you dishonoring Bushido by posting here, Heitai?
I am a Samurai, ask me anything
>>39582
What are you strictly forbidden from?
Took. Out there nipiton steel and shaved off all there butt hair
>>39034
Samurai were strictly forbidden from self-actualization.
Samurai were a social class, not an occupation. You didn't need to "do" anything to be a samurai, you were one by virtue of your birth. As a class, they changed significantly from the Heian to Edo periods, so asking what they did is meaningless without a temporal context. Much of the current views about how samurai behaved were inventions of the Meiji Restoration when the leadership of Japan attempted to manufacture a national identity using popular, and often inaccurate, perceptions and apply those virtues to the everyday citizen of Japan.
>>39601
Anything
>>38385
Kung fu.
Better question, and possibly sjorter list, what weren't samurai strictly forbidden from?
Is strictly forbidden a new meme?
>>40135
Nothing.
>>38689
They are feudal aristocracy. So they are responsible for a whole lot of stuff not related to war. Even in war they might have had administrative duties.
>>38385
Most didn't do a whole lot. The Japanese samurai class is primarily interesting in the fact that it was massive. Whereas the nobility in Europe rarely passed more than 1% of the total population, in most parts of Japanese history the samurai constituted up to 10% of the population. This huge number of people who were forbidden from performing most forms of labour outside of administration and warfare was a tremendous drain during peacetime. In practice, this meant economic destitution for most samurai.
A small samurai elite at the top was allowed into positions of government, guaranteeing a good income, but this was almost entirely decided by your ancestors' valour during wartime. The Edo period is full of tales of lesser samurai lamenting the fact that their great-great-grandfather had been on the wrong side of some battle, thus ensuring his offspring the tiniest incomes in perpetuity.
This is also part of the reason why the samurai didn't really violently rebel when the Meiji government tried to abolish them: most were happy to finally be allowed to get a real job instead of living off their meagre stipends. The small elite who stood to lose from reforms were generously compensated or allowed transfer to the new nobility.
>>39711
Oww ash checkum
>>38726
You're thinking of the Daimyo under the shogun.
>>38576
This.
Although the answer will be different according to period.
>>38689
During the Sengoku, the majority of samurai were not cultured, they weren't even literate. In more peaceful times pretty much all of them became learned because they would go on to function as administrators, from that basic learning they could branch out into various other pursuits, because why not? Still, at those times the majority didn't do anything much aside from working and going to whorehouses. Poorer ones had to do private work in addition to official work to sustain their families.
>>40134
Samurai were strictly forbidden from practicing kung-fu.
>>40213
but wouldn't a lesser Samurai still have much more power and money than a peasant/farmer?
I learned about how Japanese society values were a bit different and the order of importance was kinda like this:
Samurai
Farmers
Artisans
Merchants
Outcasts
But even so, one would think that lesser samurai were still better off than the other classes (except maybe the Merchant classes during the Edo period).
>>40642
Samurai were strictly forbidden form having power and money.
>>40684
actually true desu senpai
>>40642
The income of Edo period samurai came almost solely from the stipend he was entitled to. It could be really small, barely enough to live by, and he would have had time getting additional income because of the strict class system.
>>40201
Actually no, samurai were strictly forbidden from administrative duties.
>>38385
Pretty much nothing past the sengoku jidai
>>38990
>knight
>high nobility
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLWzH_1eZsc
