Samurai Characteristics

The majority of resources we have regarding the samurai are myths and legends. They tend to exaggerate both the heroic as well as the faulty characteristics of the characters whom they describe. This helps these stories to get across messages about features that people both should and also should not seek to emulate; through this, these stories exemplify the key characteristics of the samurai to varying degrees. Three key qualities of the legendary Japanese warrior that are portrayed most strongly in Legends of the Samurai are an appreciation of beauty, an omnipresent sense of alertness, and a possession of self. The first of these qualities is perhaps the most surprising, largely due to our modern connotations with masculinity. Japanese

Such alertness involves always being aware of one’s surroundings and never fully letting one’s guard down. Even after victory, the samurai are expected to remain vigilant, for it is during times of relaxation following supposed victory that they are often in the most in danger. Such a truth is highlighted on both sides in “Did You Bring His Head?” Both General Yogo and Sawamata suffer extensively when they let down their guards respectively. For Yogo, this occurs when Sawamata appears to have forfeited a battle between the two (39). Yogo’s sense of security and ensuing relaxation of alertness enables Sawamata to lead an extremely successful sneak attack against Yogo, which ultimately results in the deaths of eighty people loyal to General Yogo (40). This is not portrayed as understandable unfair, tragic downfall; the guilt of the incident rests entirely on Yogo’s head. Yogo himself acknowledges this, arguing that the fault for this tragedy was his own for having not maintained alertness even when things seemed peaceful (40). Both the scale of the destruction as well as this self-acceptance of guilt and fault for relaxation by Yogo exemplify just how important alertness is to the samurai. However, Yogo is not the only one to suffer in this story due to a lack of alertness; in an ironic turn of events, the man who takes advantage of Yogo’s own lack of alertness becomes a victim of his own

This only adds more reasoning behind the third important quality of the legendary Japanese warrior: self-possession. In order for a Japanese warrior to be most alert and in-tune with his environment, he needs to have a strong independent control of himself. The opinions of others can easily detour him into dangerous positions if he grants them too much heed. Such is the case in both stories that involve the infamous thief, Hakamadare. In the first of these stories, “Presence of Mind,” Yasumasa prevents Hakamadare from robbing him simply through his maintenance of a calm, collected manner. He fails to react to Hakamadare, instead maintaining an undisturbed composure and concentration on his flute (31). Through this possession of self, he is ultimately able to gain possession of the situation, which frightens Hakamadare into submission (31-32). Had Yasumasa lacked the strong self-posession required to pay no heed to Hakamadare, the thief would have maintained the confidence to take control of the situation hiself, which would have resulted in Yasumasa being robbed and potentially murdered. Of course, it is not only the robber himself whom the legendary Japanese warrior must avoid reacting to. In “To Know When to be Alert,” Hakamadare pretends to be dead, hoping to lure potential victims into a compromising position in order to investigate what appears to be an unusual death