Samurai

Tradition in Japan celebrates the fierce warrior of Japan; the samurai. Sometimes wandering alone, more often fighting in Japans complex civil wars, the samurai may have been history's most effective and terrifying warriors.Legends, movies, popular fiction, books in Japan and all over the world picks the samurai as the most lethal swordsman that has ever lived. Was he that lethal? Yes. Was it pure technique, mere mastery of the sword that made the samurai so deadly, or was it near magical powers that came from their harmony with beauty and nature? For the samurai death had to be something beautiful and honourable. Was this the way they could fight with such intensity because they where unrestrained and un-distracted by the fear of death?
"If one is to fight bravely, he must not be held back by the silly nonsense of survival stuck in his head." -Hagakure, The Book of the Samurai.