Literally, "servant"

Usage examples of samurai.

His steps were long, aggressive, permitting no possibility of pause or retreat, the steps that were habitually his before he took the two hundred fifty vows of monkhood, when he was the samurai Tanaka Hidetada, commander of cavalry, sworn vassal in life and in death of Okumichi no kami Kiyori, the late Great Lord of Akaoka.

We should have legends of the various clans, picturizations of the code of the Samurai.

On the other hand, they had a large force, and it would give them joy as a samurai to fight their way through, routing the enemy with a quick victory.

A few years ago the growing shishi movement had formed themselves into small, secret cells, committing themselves to rediscover bushido-- ancient samurai practices of self-discipline, duty, honor, death, swordsmanship and other warlike pursuits, arts long since lost--except for a few Sensei who had kept bushido alive.

Katsumata was one of the few clandestine shishi who was hatomoto--an honored retainer with instant access to his lord--a senior samurai with a personal yearly stipend of a thousand koku.

Behind Hiraga, five of his friends were duelling with the other four samurai, one shishi was already dead, one helpless on the ground mortally wounded and another, screaming with bloodlust, misjudging his adversary, slipped on the body of a sobbing bearer, and took a terrible cut in his side.

The Satsuma sword master, Katsumata, the secret shishi, supported by a hundred mounted samurai, was leading the fight to protect the escape of Lord Sanjiro and their main Satsuma force a few miles southwards.

Satsuma samurai allows his daughter to be betrothed to a Choshu samurai--whether shishi or not, ronin or not?

Ever since he had escaped the trap in the village he had been frantically trying to devise a way to negate the inevitable results of the riot, and of being seen--the samurai officer would surely realize a shishi was loose in the Settlement.

Both shishi leapt to the attack but neither could break out of the net and though they fought bravely, wounding three of the samurai, they were no match for the others who, though wanting to disarm them and capture them alive, could not do so.

More samurai were drawn away from the hedge immediately in front of Saigo and just before the samurai overwhelmed the two fighters, in a coordinated maneuver the two shishi broke off the battle and pretended to flee pell-mell for the fence near the kitchens, well away from Saigo and the three final teams.

For an instant there was a stunned silence-- samurai, shishi, and all nearby slum dwellers equally shocked--the sound of rapid firing unheard of.

In the raging confusion, they were surprised to see a shishi dart through the cordon and run up the alley, escaping into a side alley obscured from attacking Choshu samurai.

There, out of their sight, five shishi were already dead in the dirt together with eight Ogama samurai, and six wounded.

Another battle between three shishi and ten Ogama samurai was drawing to its inevitable conclusion.