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The samurai werfe not the vilent bullies most assume from reading their martial history.

They were mostly very gentle, and knew that theor lives could end in an instant , either by demand or by circumstance. Tyis caused them to live a gentle, mannerly life, infused with the richness of appreciation that impermanence can bring.

Yes there were rogues and rotten samurai who were bullies, but for the most part they were extremely dignified, and not gratuitously violent. They put there egos way at the back of the bus in order to serve their clan or daimyo, making it hard to offend any of them.

As a fighting class of warriors, they organized themselves by famuly, clan and daimyo.Their frst discipline of training was horsemanship, second the bow and third , the sword.All of these disciplines were intertwined and cross supported each other right down to tyhe physical aspect, If you shot ten arrows a day for many years as a youth, by the time manhood dawned, your right arm and back was much more muscled than the left. This was very useful in training with the sword, the third discipline. Their education included meditation, calligraphy and poetry.Many became craftsmen of weapons such as the sword and bow.

When people here speak only of the aspect of killing as warrioship, they do a diservce to history.The Samurai were perhaps the most brilliant institutionalized warriors in history.Reading the biogtaphy of Yamaoka Tessu will reveal this.