how can i be a true samurai?

Question

i'm a teenage girl with dream of becoming a samurai. For some years i have already took hapkido class, and now add that with kendo class. What's disapointed me that i always beaten in every kendo match. I feel the shinnai is too heavy for me. Is that mean i never can be a samurai girl?

thanks to p37ry
wow, i never tought that girl samurai also required to commit sepukku. Is that true that girl also required to commit sepukku? wow, i think i never have courage to do that

Answer 1

get a time machine, set it for 500 years ago and have fun

Answer 2

Ok, to be a true Samurai you will need to live in a different time period, be a male and you would have to be born into a warrior family.
I am sorry if this upsets you but you cannot be a true samurai in this day and age. The best you can hope for is to be a Samurai re-enactor.

Also, Samurai did not train in hapkido or kendo. Hapkido is Korean, Samurai are Japanese only. Kendo is a sport, not a martial art.


Do yourself a favor and just try to be the best "you" that you can be. It is ok to admire and enjoy the ancient samurai but do not strive to be one. I am sorry if this is "too real" for you but you cannot be a samurai.

Answer 3

If you want to be a true warrior, join the military when you turn 18. Samurai were warriors of their time, to be a true samurai, you are in the wrong time. You can study arts that focus on the sword, stick with it and get stronger and more skilled with the blade but Samurai are a title of the past and anything that is done today is simply ceremonial.

Don't be discouraged, however. Work with your shinnai everyday, do some weight training and you will become proficient with blade fighting and that is something to be proud of.

Answer 4

You have a few options.

Do some weight training. Use a custom made heavier shinnai (easily done DIY) to practise with alone.... at the top of a mountain or by the sea as the sun is setting every other night for at least 2 hours.

After 3 months of training in this manor you will see a marked improvement when you use a regular shinnai.

After 6 months of training your speed and strength will have doubled.

After a year you will be able to defeat your opponents with pride and be well on the path to becoming a truuue samuurai!

Do not tell anyone of your secret training.

Answer 5

1- invent a time-machine

2- go back in time and disguise yourself as a little boy or get a sex-change operation before you go.

3- find a samurai that will take you in (as you are disguised as a little boy the samurai will likely want you as his sex-toy- samurai were known for that).

4- learn.

Ok, as to how to learn swordsmanship- while kendo is fun, it is NOT nor ever will be real japanese swordsmanship- it is the sport form of kenjutsu. I suggest you find a real teacher that teaches realistically.

If a shinai is too heavy for you then you must be in the final stages of a terminal disease or this whole thing is made up.

a bokken weighs more than a shinai and a live blade more than that.

Answer 6

You might be interested in two books:
Hagakure (By Tsunemoto Yamamoto) and the 'Book of 5 Rings' (By Miyamoto Mushashi). These books were written be real samurais and is a legend. It's also known as the 'bible' of the samurais. There's also two more known as the 'warrior's code' or 'Bubishi' and 'Bushido' which tells you more about way of life and how to live as a Samurai.

Those are just books, dear. You might want to learn how to meditate. This is the only answer and way out which you might eventually find your true 'samurai' in you.

Hope this helps and good luck.

Answer 7

For a deeper understanding of what it means to be samurai, I would suggest reading up on the subject.

For instance, I don't believe that there are any actual samurai left. They were once private police forces and soldiers under provincial rulers (and Hatamoto, as well as the Emperor), but since the decline of feudalism in Japan and the subsequent rise of industrialism, I am hard pressed to think that any actually still exist (and in that function.)

Anyways, if you simply want to be samurai in spirit, then I'd suggest reading up on it. A good fiction novel (which, nonetheless, has a great deal of facts about samurai) is Shogun by James Clavell. It is the first of a six book series, but you can read it by itself. Samurai simply means "to serve", so as long as you are a faithful servant to your "masters" (parents, feudal lords, whatever) then you're doing right by Bushido.

Check my sources for more info. Hope this helps, and good luck with your training!

P.S.
I might add, in light of the "men's club" comment, that when a man was a samurai, then his wife and children also became samurai.

There were "women samurai." They have their own form of sepukku and everything. (see sources)

Answer 8

No - it means you need to keep training. Your muscles will get stronger and you will grow bigger.
As for ever becoming a samurai, I'm afraid that won't happen - Samurais stopped existing late in the XIXth century - over 100 year ago.

Answer 9

You can't!

The samurai were a social class of people in the Japanese caste system. To be a "true samurai" you have to be born into the social caste.

Same as being a Brahmana or an Untouchable in India.
.

Answer 10

Are you wanting to be Good with a Sword, or Really a SAMURAI. They live life as Samurai. They call them COPS now. So if You want to be good with your weapon then PRACTICE. If you want to be a SAMURAI good luck finding a role model/instructor.

Answer 11

No you will never be Samurai its an all mens club