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Kanji for Samurai
The kanji most commonly used for "Samurai" are 士、侍.
士
Kanji that mean Samurai
TL;DR: The kanji for samurai is 侍 (samurai), a phono-semantic character built from the “person” radical ⺅ and the phonetic component 寺. The word comes from the old verb saburau (“to wait upon, to serve”) — so a samurai was, etymologically, a warrior in the service of a lord. The closely related term 武士 (bushi) is the broader academic word for Japan’s historical warrior class. The samurai era effectively ended in the 1870s, but the word lives on as a national flattery: Samurai Japan (baseball), Samurai Blue (football), and a thousand films and tattoos.
The Kanji 侍 — Components and Origin
The kanji 
侍 is a phono-semantic compound (形声 keisei). The left side is ⺅ (the “person” radical, a reduced form of 人), which carries the meaning. The right side is 寺, which is purely phonetic — it gives the character its ji reading and is the same sound-mark you can find in 詩 (shi, poem), 持 (ji, to hold), and 時 (ji, time).
So at its root, 侍 is simply “a person whose role is captured by the sound ji.” The Japanese reading samurai comes from a completely different layer: the verb 侍う (saburau in classical Japanese), meaning “to wait upon” or “to attend.” A samurai was therefore, literally and historically, an attendant — a warrior in the personal service of a lord.
The character’s readings are:
- on’yomi: ji
- kun’yomi: samurai, saburau, haberu
侍, 武士, 武者 — What’s the Difference?
Three Japanese words come into English as “samurai,” and they aren’t quite the same.
侍 (samurai) emphasizes service — a warrior in the formal employ of a lord (daimyō). 武士 (bushi) is the broader, more academic term for the entire warrior class. Historians draw the distinction this way: every samurai was a bushi, but not every bushi was a samurai (a wandering swordsman or rōnin, for instance, was bushi but had no current lord to serve). 武者 (musha) is older and more literary — a generic word for “warrior” that turns up in epic tales like The Tale of the Heike.
In contemporary Japanese — and almost universally in English — 侍 and 武士 are used interchangeably. If you want one word to mean “the warrior class of feudal Japan,” either works.
The Samurai Era in Sixty Seconds
The samurai didn’t spring fully formed onto the page of history; they evolved from rural mounted warriors who served the Heian-period court. By the late 12th century they were a recognizable political class, and the rise of 平家 (the Heike clan) and the founding of the Kamakura shogunate in 1185 made them the country’s ruling class.
Under the Tokugawa shogunate (1603–1868) the samurai were the ruling class, and Edo society was often described with the phrase 士農工商 (shi-nō-kō-shō, warrior–farmer–artisan–merchant). Japanese historians no longer treat that phrase as a ranked hierarchy — it was dropped from school textbooks around 2000 — but the samurai’s right to wear two swords was a real and visible mark of their status. The era of warring states (15th–16th centuries) gave way to the long peace of the Edo period (1603–1868), during which samurai became increasingly bureaucratic: in peacetime, ruling daimyō needed administrators more than swordsmen.
The end came in a sequence of Meiji-era edicts. Universal military conscription (1873) ended the samurai’s monopoly on armed service; the 廃刀令 (Haitōrei, Sword Abolishment Edict) of March 1876 forbade former samurai from wearing swords in public; and the failure of the Satsuma Rebellion in 1877 ended any prospect of armed restoration. After that, the samurai existed only as a memory and a set of stories.
武士道 (Bushidō) — The Code of the Warrior
武士道 (bushidō) literally reads as “the way of the warrior.” The phrase first appears in the Edo-era Kōyō Gunkan (c. 1616), but the version most Westerners know was crystallized by 新渡戸稲造 (Nitobe Inazō) in his 1899 English-language book Bushido: The Soul of Japan.
Nitobe organized the warrior’s ethic around seven virtues that have since become a shorthand for the entire tradition:
義 (gi) — rectitude or justice- 勇 (yū) — courage
- 仁 (jin) — benevolence
- 礼 (rei) — respect and propriety
- 誠 (makoto) — honesty and sincerity
- 名誉 (meiyo) — honor
- 忠義 (chūgi) — loyalty
It’s worth noting that Nitobe’s book is itself a Meiji-era reconstruction more than a documentary history. Real-world samurai behaviour through the Edo period was, like behaviour in any human institution, more varied than the code suggests. But the virtues he listed are the ones most Japanese — and most film directors — still reach for when the word bushidō is spoken.
Three Famous Samurai
Pick any three real samurai, and you have three very different stories. Here are three whose lives shape the public image of the class.
Miyamoto Musashi (宮本武蔵, c. 1583–1645)
Swordsman, painter, calligrapher, philosopher. Musashi claimed in his own writings to have fought more than sixty duels from age 13 to age 29 without losing one. His school of swordsmanship, 二天一流 (Niten Ichi-ryū, “two heavens as one”), uses both the long and short swords simultaneously — a technique sometimes generically called nitōryū, but the school itself is Niten Ichi-ryū. His most famous duel, against 佐々木小次郎 (Sasaki Kojirō) on the small island of 巌流島, took place on the thirteenth day of the fourth lunar month of 1612, which falls on May 13 in the Gregorian calendar. In his final years he wrote The Book of Five Rings (五輪書), still read today as a treatise on strategy.
Ōishi Kuranosuke (大石内蔵助, 1659–1703) and the 47 Rōnin
The most famous revenge story in Japanese history. On April 21, 1701, Lord 浅野長矩 (Asano Naganori), provoked beyond endurance by the court protocol official 吉良義央 (Kira Yoshinaka), drew his sword inside Edo Castle. Asano was forced to commit 切腹 (seppuku) that same day, and his domain was confiscated. Twenty-one months later, on the fourteenth day of the twelfth lunar month of Genroku 15 — January 30, 1703 in the Gregorian calendar — his chief retainer 大石内蔵助 led forty-six fellow rōnin in a midnight raid on Kira’s mansion and killed him to avenge their lord. Forty-six of the forty-seven, Ōishi among them, were ordered to commit seppuku — an honorable death rather than execution. Only 寺坂吉右衛門 (Terasaka Kichiemon) was spared. The story is retold every year as 忠臣蔵 (Chūshingura) and has become the cultural shorthand for the meaning of 忠義 (loyalty).
Yagyū Jūbē (柳生十兵衛, 1607–1650)
A master of the 柳生新陰流 (Yagyū Shinkage-ryū) school, Yagyū Jūbē served as a sword instructor to the third Tokugawa shōgun, Iemitsu. A youthful falling-out with Iemitsu sent him into a long period of self-exile in his family’s home province of Yamato (modern Nara) — years he spent refining the family style — before being recalled to favour. The eye patch he is often depicted with in films may or may not be historical: it became iconic in Edo-period plays and stuck.
“Samurai” Today — From Baseball Caps to Anime
There are no more samurai in the literal sense — the last sword was officially sheathed in 1876. But the word survived because the ethical brand survived, and it is now used as a kind of national compliment.
- 侍ジャパン (Samurai Japan) — the official nickname of the Japan men’s national baseball team since 2012.
- サムライブルー (Samurai Blue) — the nickname of the men’s national football team. Their crest features the 八咫烏 (Yatagarasu), the three-legged crow that in Japanese mythology guided Emperor Jinmu, and which has been the Japan Football Association’s emblem since 1931.
- なでしこジャパン (Nadeshiko Japan) — the women’s national football team, named after a wildflower long associated with the Japanese feminine ideal. They won the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup, the first Asian team to do so.
Beyond sports, “samurai” powers an enormous slice of Japanese pop culture: Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, the manga and anime Rurouni Kenshin, video games from Sekiro to Ghost of Tsushima, and the Netflix retelling of Yasuke. The image of the lone swordsman with a code of honour has become one of Japan’s most successful cultural exports.
Using 侍 in Tattoos and Art
侍 is a popular character for kanji tattoos and calligraphic art among Western fans of Japanese culture. Three notes worth keeping in mind:
- Read in context. 侍 alone simply means “samurai.” If you want a sense like “the way of the samurai” or “samurai spirit,” phrases like 武士道 (bushidō) or 侍魂 (samurai-damashii, “samurai soul”) carry more weight than the single character.
- Mind the script. 侍 looks very different in 楷書 (block script), 行書 (semi-cursive), and 草書 (cursive). Pick the style that suits the mood you want.
- Avoid mirror flips. Stock graphics get the character backwards more often than you’d expect — vinyl cutters and silhouette designs are particularly prone to mirroring. Compare against a stroke-order reference (above) before committing.
FAQ
Is 侍 the same as 武士?
In contemporary Japanese they are used interchangeably for “the historical warrior class.” Strictly speaking, 武士 (bushi) is the broader academic term for the warrior class as a whole, and 侍 (samurai) emphasizes a warrior in the personal service of a lord. The verb root of samurai is saburau, “to serve.”
How do you pronounce 侍?
The standard Japanese reading is samurai (sah-moo-rye, with even stress). The on’yomi ji appears in compounds like 侍従 (jijū, chamberlain).
When did the samurai actually end?
The era ended in stages between 1869 and 1877. The most commonly cited single date is 1876, when the 廃刀令 (Haitōrei) prohibited former samurai from wearing swords in public. The Satsuma Rebellion of 1877 was the last armed samurai uprising.
Did samurai really follow Bushidō?
Some did, some didn’t. The codified seven-virtue version familiar to Western readers comes mostly from Nitobe Inazō’s 1899 book Bushido: The Soul of Japan, which is a Meiji-era reconstruction more than a documentary record of Edo behaviour. Real Edo-era samurai were as varied as any large group: some lived austerely by the code, others were corrupt provincial bureaucrats. The romance of Bushidō was, in part, a late retroactive imagination.
What about female samurai (onna-bugeisha)?
Yes — though smaller in number, women of warrior households did fight, especially in the medieval period. 巴御前 (Tomoe Gozen, late 12th century) is the most famous example, and the broader category is sometimes called 女武芸者 (onna-bugeisha), “female martial artist.”
Related Reading
Before you use Samurai kanji
侍 is the character that actually reads samurai and is the safe choice. 士 alone does not — in modern Japanese it mostly marks a qualified profession, so it reads nearer to 'certified practitioner' than to warrior. For the historical register, use 武士 or 武士道.