Image: Wikimedia Commons

samurai

Military nobility of pre-industrial Japan

Also known as buke · bushi

Instance of: profession
Subclass of: warrior
Country: Japan

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

The samurai were members of the professional warrior class in pre-industrial Japan, who served as retainers to the lords. These men came from warrior families and trained from a young age in military arts through private instruction. Swordsmanship, archery, and horsemanship were the primary martial skills; and often in Japanese history, only samurai had the right to even possess these weapons. These weapons required years of training to master, and this commitment made the samurai superior to conscripts and militia, the latter who were typically given only days of training. The samurai also studied literature, calligraphy, and Confucian philosophy, befitting their roles as bureaucrats under the shoguns.

Overview

All data

62 statements · 16% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

Female form of label: סמוראית
samurái chinese
ساموراية
samurai
samurajka
samurajka
Male form of label: ساموراي
samurai
samuraj
Said to be the same as: bushi
Has list: list of samurai
Hashtag: samurai

On other databases

46 identifiers linking samurai across the web's reference databases

Data quality

statements

16%

externally sourced

Source last edited September 28, 2026. AIDB refreshes this page daily.

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AIDB. (2026). samurai (Q38142). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/samurai-Q38142