In popular culture, samurai are often shown as excellent fighters with strong morals who strictly followed their rules. But are these countless portrayals of samurai as honorable warriors following a strict moral code based more in myth or historical fact? In this lesson, students examine a textbook account and historical documents to investigate the question: What rules did samurai follow?
Image: Portion of a horizontal scroll depicting a battle formation, c. 1700s. From the Library of Congress.