Samurai

Samurai

shi

This character originally depicts a strong man. When I use “originally” like this, it always means when it came from China because kanji was brought from China to Japan. For some characters, we have Japanese original meanings. In Japanese, today’s character means samurai (a warrior) which is Japanese original. And it also means a talented person as in Chinese.

In the Edo era (1603-1867), Japan was a feudal society, in which people were divided into social classes called “shi nō kō shō.” The highest class was shi, that is, samurai.  The second class was farmers; the third, artisans; and the lowest, merchants. It did not indicate how wealthy people were. Most merchants were richer than farmers or artisans. This class system reflects Confucius ideas. People working for money were disdained. Practically, samurai was the ruling class and the other classed were the ruled.

We still use this character for some professions and degrees. Bachelors of Art is gakushi. Master of Art is shūshi. A doctor is hakase. A lawyer is bengoshi. A sumo wrestler is rikishi.

In other words, this character is used to express somebody’s title.

You cannot find some of the above characters in our archives. If you want to see them in Japanese, visit >>> here.

The upper horizontal stroke is longer than the lower one. Notice the difference between this character and tsuchi (soil).

Soil by Nao