The legendary
samurai of old Japan, unrelenting warriors whose
lethal skills were exceeded only by their eagerness
to prove themselves by plunging into danger-- [horse neighing] --how was it possible for these
ruthless swordsmen to also be men of exquisite refinement? The hand which created these
delicate renderings also killed as many as 60 men. What role did women play in
this violent exotic world? Why did some samurai become
ninja, masters of stealth and secret killing techniques? Why did the samurai
believe his soul merged with the soul of his sword? How was the samurai legacy used
to inspire the suicide pilots of World War II? [explosion] Why does the samurai
legacy endure to this day as a
spiritual inspiration throughout Japan and the world? Join us as we enter a
realm of life and death adventure, exquisite beauty, and
intriguing mystery, the realm of the samurai. [music playing] [soft flute and drum music] Japan-- tradition here prizes
grace, tranquility, and harmony with nature. But tradition also celebrates
the fierce warriors of Japan, the samurai. Their era lasted for
more than 1,000 years, only ending in the middle
of the 19th century. [horses galloping] Sometimes wandering alone in
search of fame and wealth, more often fighting in
Japan's complex civil wars, the samurai may well have
been history's most effective and terrifying warriors. Legends, popular
fiction, movies in Japan and all over the world, they
pick the Japanese samurai warrior as the most lethal
swordsman that ever lived. [swords swishing and clanging] Were they that lethal? Yes. [groaning] LEONARD NIMOY: Was
it pure technique, mere physical mastery
of the sword, that made the samurai so deadly? Or had they unlocked near
magical sources of strength and courage for the
contemplation of beauty and nature? [soft music playing] REVEREND KENSHO FURUYA:
The symbol of the warrior was a cherry blossom. And that's a very
interesting metaphor because the cherry
blossom, as it blooms, with the first slight
breeze is just blown away because the petals
are so delicate. So he thinks of
seeing the next day, but inevitably, he realizes
that he will eventually meet his end. And to make that end something
noble and something pure and something
beautiful for himself, I think this is very important. LEONARD NIMOY: Was
this why the samurai were able to wield their weapons
with the focused intensity that has made them legendary? Were they effective
because they were unrestrained and undistracted
by the fear of death? [sword swishing] VOICEOVER: If one
is to fight bravely, he must not be held back by the
silly nonsense of his survival stuck in his head-- Hagakure, the book
of the samurai. LEONARD NIMOY: Warriors
in every culture are trained to be brave
in the face of death. What made the samurai unique was
that they often chose to die. If defeated in
battle or disgraced by some other failure,
honor demanded suicide. But the samurai could not
kill himself, as others might, by poison or
slashing his wrists. Tradition demanded a grisly
ritual, sometimes called seppuku, sometimes harakiri. The samurai plunged his
knife deep into the left side of his abdomen, drew it
across his midsection, and then finished with an
upward pull of the blade. Death from such a wound can
take hours or even days. Why did the samurai choose this
particular form of excruciating death? Why abdomen? Because that is the center
of one's body, which contains the soul of man,
ambition, anger, emotions, all those things
that are contained. And also, it will
not kill instantly. It is a test of sheer will. LEONARD NIMOY: In fact, few men,
even though they were samurai, could actually complete
their own disembowelment. To assure this final
act went smoothly, a friend stood
ready with a sword. At the first sign of
hesitation or distress, in a final act of
friendship, the swordsman sliced off his head. [sword swishes] At this crucial moment,
the very instant of death, great care was taken
to spare witnesses any sight which might seem
indelicate or offensive. Now, when he
lopped off his head, he left just a
little bit of skin right here in the front, which
takes a great deal of skill, so that the head wouldn't
roll about and insult people. LEONARD NIMOY: To the
modern Western sensibility, the samurai may seem an
impenetrable mystery, but they were human. How did they come to their
unique view of life and death? [crowd chanting] The search for
understanding takes us deep into the history
and the heroic legends of this ancient land. The word samurai
means "to serve." And this is how the
samurai began, as warriors in the service of
the emperor of Japan. [birds chirping] [music playing] A country divided by
steep mountain ridges, Japan was difficult for
a central government to subjugate and rule. The emperor needed a
cadre of mountain warriors who could move swiftly to
enforce his authority in even the most remote villages. WILLIAM WAYNE FARRIS: The
samurai really got their start as tax collectors. Beginning in the late
8th and 9th century, they needed rough, tough
fellows to go out and shake down the peasants and get enough
rice, and things of that sort. So they used these
warriors, people who monopolized the arts of
violence, to collect the taxes. LEONARD NIMOY: Eventually the
emperor's warrior servants realized they could
be the masters. By the year 1300, the
samurai were taking control of the provinces and districts
they had once administered for the emperor. Like the knights
of medieval Europe, the samurai built castles
and established hierarchies among themselves. Samurai warriors served
samurai generals, and generals served
samurai warlords. For much of Japan's
history, the emperor was a respected figurehead,
with no real power. Having established themselves
in their various domains, the warlords began to fight each
other with armies of samurai warriors. They fought for their
lord, to expand his lands and increase his power. There was, however, always
something else at stake, something greater, the
warrior's personal honor. Nothing takes precedence over
the preservation of honor, not your own life, not the
lives of your family or your friends, not
even service and loyalty. REVEREND KENSHO FURUYA:
There is a popular saying among the warriors--
one's life is limited, but his name, his honor
will last for generations to come, forever. For over 300 years, beginning
in the 14th century, Japan was wracked by
periodic civil wars. [dramatic music] But even large battles
often consisted of simultaneous
individual duels. Primarily, among samurai,
it's really a question of dominance among males. Who is the most powerful? Who is the greatest leader
of all of the males? LEONARD NIMOY: How
were warriors to know the merits of each other
before the fight began, so that they could
be properly matched? Before battle began then,
you declared your pedigree. And this is very important
because you're not only fighting for your
side, but you're also fighting for your honor
and for your family. And you would declare,
I am Professor Farris. And my father was so-and-so,
and his job was such-and-such. And our land is at
such-and-such a location. And then you would
fight to the death. LEONARD NIMOY: There
was a practical reason for this seemingly fanatical
concern with honor. Samurai status
could be inherited. But for much of
Japanese history, any man could declare
himself a samurai. To actually secure employment
with one of the warring factions, however, he had
to establish a reputation and maintain it. Even the leather armor
often worn by the samurai did more than protect them. It proclaimed their presence. This was a warrior
to be reckoned with. WILLIAM WAYNE FARRIS:
Samurai were not only supposed to be good
fighters, but they were also supposed to look the part. They have beautiful armor, with
various colors of thread in it. They have large helmets. So that when you
fought a samurai, you were fighting somebody. And when you brought one down,
it was a real accomplishment. LEONARD NIMOY: Face guards and
masks enhanced the samurai's fierce demeanor. Some heroes, however, chose
to demonstrate their disdain for danger by appearing
serene in the midst of combat with painted lips
and rouge cheeks. REVEREND KENSHO FURUYA: For
instance, Minamoto Yoshitsune, one of the great generals
of the 12th century, was said to have
worn makeup and was said to be so beautiful
that some even mistook him for a female. LEONARD NIMOY: Battles
begun and fought with such style and honor
could end in only one way-- with the death of
one of the fighters. Whether it killed outright
or committing suicide in acknowledgment of defeat,
death on the battlefield almost always entailed
a decapitation. REVEREND KENSHO FURUYA: Before
the warrior set off for battle, he would burn incense inside
his helmet to scent the helmet. In case he fell in battle and
his head was taken as a trophy, the scent would be very
pleasant for his victor. And this was a very important
matter for the samurai to have this nobility even
within death and after death. HIROYUKI TESHIN
HAMADA: Quite often, a fellow warrior would indicate,
now, you have won the battle. Take my head. And that is done as a
customary procedure. Usually, the battle is
witnessed by both sides. Both admired the courage. And once the beheading
is done, both sides, enemy or your own
fellow warriors, applauded their courage,
valor, honor, and dignity. LEONARD NIMOY: The
concern for severed heads may seem the grotesque
obsession of an ancient people, until the mystery is
dispelled by understanding. The head was irrefutable proof
an enemy had been killed. The victorious samurai would
be rewarded by his master with land, and other gifts. To prepare for
battle, the samurai carried a small
arsenal of weapons-- bow and arrow, a lethal variety
of spears, lances, and knives. Even a fan, so often the very
emblem of delicate gentility, was made with iron
ribs, so they could be used to parry the thrust of
an attacking lance or sword. Of all this deadly
array, it was the sword that eventually became
the paramount weapon of the samurai. In part, this was because as
warlords became more powerful, they fielded ever larger armies. As the battlefield
becomes more crowded, a short weapon like
a sword is less unwieldy than a long
spear, and such. You don't want to be
trapped with people on both sides of
you, and there's no room to maneuver a spear. LEONARD NIMOY: It was
a fearsome weapon. Straw wrapped around bamboo
duplicates the texture and resistance of
flesh and bone. Your whole life is centered
around using this sword in battle. And ultimately, if you commit
ritual suicide, or seppuku, you die by the sword
by your own hand. Therefore, you do not go
and purchase any sword at the local shop. You have to get a perfect
sword made by a great artisan. [music playing] [fire crackling] LEONARD NIMOY: Methods evolved
throughout the centuries, but the essentials
remained unchanged. Steel, heated to the
color of the morning sun, was folded and pounded,
folded and pounded, each redoubling
producing four layers. Four foldings produced 16
layers, eight produced 64. The finest finished swords
contain as many as a million layers. It is this which gives the
sword its unique flexibility, sharpness, and strength. Mastering so deadly a weapon
demanded years of training and a lifetime of
unrelenting practice. The idea was to train
so much for so many years that in that exact moment when
you require that training, pure emotion took over,
and training took over. And one wielded the
sword with deadly effect in a pure moment and an
exaltation of emotion. LEONARD NIMOY: In
time, the sword became the very emblem of the
samurai's status, and more. It was endowed with
mystical qualities. KARL FRIDAY: Certain
blades are designated as good and bad blades. One mystique that says that once
a sword has begun to be used for killing people,
then it will continue to want to kill people. HIROYUKI TESHIN
HAMADA: I, myself, the descendant of samurai,
I believe sword has a soul. The way I feel is that when
sword and samurai merges as one, it emerges
a spiritual union. LEONARD NIMOY: But what happened
to humanity and conscience when a man merged his soul
with that of his weapon? KARL FRIDAY: Then you're
not killing somebody, your sword is killing somebody. And you're simply the thing
that holds that sword. You divorce yourself completely
from any ethical consequences to it. You become simply a thing. [chanting] LEONARD NIMOY: In
fact, many samurai were deeply troubled by
their lives of killing. Many were Buddhists. And therein, lay a
wrenching dilemma. Buddhism preaches cycles
of birth and rebirth, with each life depending
on the virtues and the sins of the life before. KARL FRIDAY: Of course, it's a
tremendously important problem for samurai. Here you are, doing
the most despicable of all possible
things, killing people. And what can you
possibly expect out of the next life except
horrible suffering and pain because you've led such
a despicable life before? LEONARD NIMOY: Indeed,
a samurai saying held that their punishment
was to be reborn in the next life as samurai. For many in the West,
this is the very model of the traditional Japanese
woman, obedient and gentle. But there is
another side to her. In Japanese
literature and movies, women are respected as
ferocious and capable warriors. HITOMI TONOMURA: There is one in
particular whose name is Tomoe. And she was stronger
than most men that she was able to
kill riding a horse. And so she's the
heroine of Japan. DAVID BANNON: There is a story
told that an enemy leader faced off with her on the horses. He tried to kill her,
missed with his sword, grabbed her sleeve. The sleeve tore. This so upset her, she
whipped out her sword and lopped off his head, took
it to her husband as a trophy, as a prize and proof
that she had killed him. [music playing] LEONARD NIMOY: In fact,
women warriors were rare, but there was nothing remarkable
about women holding samurai status. Once a man became a
samurai, the distinction was usually passed down
to all his descendants, male and female. Women samurai ran a
household which was often a large and complex
farming operation. However, during the wars
which periodically raged throughout Japan,
the distinction between home and battlefield
sometimes disappeared. If the men were off
on a distant campaign, the women were expected
to mount a fierce defense. [dramatic music] Defense, household management,
the production of heirs, samurai marriage was
largely a practical affair, with little romance. Often, the marriage represented
a political alliance. And political alliances
were notoriously unstable. Samurai was advised to sleep
with swords because a samurai was not to trust his wife. DAVID BANNON: This is
not a love relationship. Love relationships came into
play between men, samurai warriors, who achieved this
great pure love between men as what they thought
was the ideal. HITOMI TONOMURA: It was normal
actually, in Japanese society at the time, for these different
forms of sexual relationships to take place. People didn't think in terms
of sexual relational categories like bisexuality,
homosexuality, heterosexuality. The vocabulary didn't
exist, and all were fine. LEONARD NIMOY: Much
about the samurai confounds conventional
expectations about a warrior's life. I have a feeling that
the Westerners often think samurai are these
violent killers always. But that is not so. Of course, they
fought sometimes. And they did kill,
and all of that. But they were very cultured
people, who wrote and read and studied, and so on. LEONARD NIMOY: The
warrior was also a poet. It was common samurai practice
to calmly compose a poem before committing suicide
or going into battle. HIROYUKI TESHIN
HAMADA: Great example of the last farewell poem given
by Katsuie, great warlord, was, summer nights, path of
dreams, ever so fleeting, between the clouds, hear
me, mountain birds-- [bird chirping] --which points out his farewell
to the rest of the world. But his dream shall move on. This great battle he
fought as the warrior, his courage shall live. That is his spiritual
resurrection. That's the meaning of the poem. [music playing] LEONARD NIMOY: If a lyrical
farewell poem served to stiffen the courage of the
samurai facing death, what is the explanation
for the achievements of a warrior-artist
like Miyamoto Musashi? His paintings and sculpture are
a treasured part of collections throughout Japan. Musashi was also a
master swordsman. The same hand which created
these exquisite pictures cut down as many as 60 men. Musashi's accomplishments
may have been extraordinary, but his devotion to both
fine arts and martial arts was not unique. Indeed, the samurai made little
distinction between the two. This is why even ikebana, the
ritual arranging of flowers, was regarded by the
samurai as a martial art. DAVID BANNON: It may not
seem like a very lethal art on the battlefield, but
is it a military art? It is. It trains one mind,
one hand, one mindset to become one with the flowers
the same way one would become one with his sword. LEONARD NIMOY: Within this world
of beauty and bravery, however, there was another
world, a shadow world, where all values were reversed. It was inhabited by men
who wore no proud insignia and moved in silence, the ninja. Although a distinction is often
made between ninja and samurai, ninja usually were samurai
serving as spies and assassins. Other than that, little reliable
information about them exists. KARL FRIDAY: Ninja
are, of course, one of the great
mysteries in Japan. The espionage, and
the arts thereof, are not the sort of
thing that people tend to write down and
keep careful records on. Nobody wants to say, yes, I won
this battle because I paid 50 guys to go in and assassinate
half of their generals before the battle took place
or because I bribed somebody into selling me the floor
plans for the castle. [suspenseful music] LEONARD NIMOY: How great a role
did the ninja play in the rise and fall of the great
samurai households? How many deaths attributed to
illness or accident were really their work? [snaps neck] The truth will probably
never be known. [music playing] Long after China, and
other parts of Asia, had become known to Europeans,
the remote islands of Japan remained forbidding
and mysterious. Then, in 1542, a Chinese ship
arrived in Tanegashima island in the south of Japan. The ship's crew included
Portuguese sailors, the first Europeans
to arrive in Japan. Everything about
these strange visitors excited the interest of the
Japanese, most particularly, their weapons. VOICEOVER: In their hands,
they carried something two or three feet long,
straight on the outside, with a passage inside and
made of a heavy substance. They fill it with powder
and small lead pellets. [explosion] The explosion is like lightning,
and the report like thunder-- eyewitness account,
Tanegashima, 1542. LEONARD NIMOY: The samurai
lord of Tanegashima promptly bought two of
these intriguing new weapons and set his chief swordmaker
to duplicating them. At first, most samurai disdained
the new weapons, in part, because men using them
could fire from a distance, without the face-to-face
confrontation demanded by a sword fight. HIROYUKI TESHIN HAMADA:
To classical samurai, a battle with honor
is always at stake. Therefore, many
refuse to use musket. They considered the
usage of firearms as the tactics of the cowards. LEONARD NIMOY: However, as has
happened so often in history, tradition eventually
gave way to technology. Within 50 years, the Japanese
were making more guns than any country in
Europe and using them. At the same time, Japan was
moving toward consolidation, as a few great warlords
subjugated their neighbors. The campaigns culminated
in the year 1600 in the Battle of Sekigahara. At Sekigahara, it was gunpowder
that won the day for the forces of the warlord Tokugawa Ieyasu,
whose dynasty would rule a Japan finally
united and at peace. To protect the new
stability, the dynasty declared Japan closed and
sealed to the outside world. Almost all foreigners
were expelled. Foreign ideas, foreign
religions, and foreign weapons were banned. Soon the making of guns
ceased almost entirely. This new era would
last for 250 years. Generation after
generation would live and die without knowing war. But what role would the samurai
play in a Japan at peace? The fierce but educated warriors
now became administrators. They oversaw rice production,
wrote laws, and sometimes, served as judges. There was, however,
to be an even more profound transformation. A new and great ideal
would be created. In trying to define
themselves, in that process, they idealized their function. And so the code came out as
this very idealized theory as to how they should behave
or should have behaved. LEONARD NIMOY: The code
was called bushido, the way of the warrior. The concept of honor as
more important than life itself remained. But the concept of
honor was enlarged. Honor now included
taking responsibility for the well-being of
society as a whole. The new ideal would
eventually be severely tested. On July 8, 1853, two and a
half centuries after Japan had closed itself to
foreigners, a small squadron of ships from the
United States Navy sailed boldly into Tokyo Bay. The Americans delivered
an ultimatum-- open Japan to trade or
suffer the consequences. The samurai were
indignant, but helpless against modern ships and guns. Faced with the threat
of Western domination, the samurai knew Japan had to
become powerful by becoming modern as quickly as possible. To clear the way
for modernization, the samurai, who, as
individuals, had always been ready to face death,
now decreed the death of the entire samurai class. Traditional dress was discarded,
ancient samurai privileges surrendered. Japan would be like
other countries, with a Constitution
and a monarch. The emperor was restored as
the head of the government. The samurai disappeared, but
their legacy would emerge in a terrifying new form. [music playing] By the early years
of the 20th century, samurai ways were largely
forgotten, discarded relics of an outmoded past. [music playing] [STEAM HISSING AND METAL
CLANGING] Japan had plunged
into modern life, but the new outlook included
a dangerous new ambition. Japan's leaders now
dreamed of conquering a vast overseas empire. [whistle blows] To rally patriotic fervor,
the ancient samurai legacy was invoked. [horn blowing] All Japanese must be ready
to fight with a samurai's unrelenting courage
and self-sacrifice. As Japan invaded Manchuria
in 1931, and then China, army officers carried swords
like those a samurai had used. [explosions] With Nazi Germany
dominating Europe, the Japanese believed there was
only one power which could stop them from conquering
all of Asia. [explosions and gunfire] The Japanese attack
at Pearl Harbor was supposed to destroy
America's ability to fight in the Pacific. [explosions] As Japanese forces continued
their sweep through Asia, they imposed a reign of terror. The proud samurai sword was
used to murder civilians and prisoners of war. Was this really a fulfillment
of the noble samurai legacy or a perversion of it? KARL FRIDAY: A great deal
of what the Japanese did during World War II-- the
various sorts of atrocities, and what have you-- are
attributed in some fashion to the samurai history. But I think that if you
look at Japanese history, that's simply not true. REVEREND KENSHO FURUYA:
I think the government at the time perverted the
ideals of the samurai. I doubt if they were really
concerned with samurai virtue, as they were with their
own military campaigns. [explosions] LEONARD NIMOY: As the
Americans took the offensive, and the tide of war
turned against Japan, a basic tenet of samurai
tradition was fulfilled. Many Japanese surrendered. But many, like the
samurai, chose death. American combat
cameramen recorded the chilling final
moments of some, including this civilian woman. [crashes] By 1943, suicide had
become a form of combat. Inspired by patriotism
and the samurai ideal, they were called
kamikaze pilots, pilots of the divine wind. Their mission, to
attack, not with bombs, but with themselves. Deliberately, they crashed their
planes into the American ships. [explosion] Finally, in August
1945, the Americans unleashed the weapon
that brought the war to an abrupt and terrible end. Immediately following
World War II and that defeat, the samurai ethic of bushido,
the way of the warrior, was not looked on very well
by the Japanese people. It represented a lot of wartime
atrocities, and also, failure. LEONARD NIMOY: As Japan
rebuilt itself, however, the heroic image of the
samurai was restored. A resurgent film industry
helped spread the ideal around the world. The samurai tradition
of courage and honor had been forged through
nearly 800 years of warfare. Then, in the
centuries of peace, it was transformed into a code
of service and justice. World War II had seen
it tragically misused. What role will the proud
legacy play in the future? There's a whole
new generation that is embracing what the world
has to offer, and in return, giving to the world
what Japan has to offer, capitalizing on all that is
good and honest and decent in the bushido ethic. HIROYUKI TESHIN HAMADA: The one
who dedicates his entire life to a single cause, without
expecting the rewards of his dedication, without
seeking fame nor glory, constantly pouring his energy
to the good of the community, in their heart, I would say,
every one of those people who think of above and
beyond their lives, they are already samurai. LEONARD NIMOY: And so, the
determination, self-sacrifice, and grace of a once-remote
and mysterious warrior class now enriched the world's store
of ennobling inspiration. [music playing]
