Samurai

**Samurai** are a class of warriors in Wano Country.Template:Qref Although the title is typically applied directly towards swordsmen, it can also be used as a generic term for all Wano Country warriors, including ninja and sumo wrestlers.Template:Qref

## Overview

### Social Status

The Template:Nihongo have high social status in Wano Country. Under Kurozumi Orochi's corrupt rule, anyone of samurai class may order or kill the lower class without legal repercussions, whether it is to retain their honor or for their self-serving reasons.Template:Qref For a lower class citizen to be married into the samurai class is considered an honor and it would be an insult to the samurai's honor if said lower class refuses the proposal.Template:Qref

20 years ago, the Kozuki Family was known as one of the highest of the samurai classes, having not only existed for centuries in the country, but also having ruled the country as well, until the family was executed in an attack by the current Shogun of Wano Kurozumi Orochi and the Emperor Kaidou.

Certain samurai who do not have any affiliation within the traditional samurai classes or families or having lost ties with their masters or their masters are dead are known specifically as Template:Nihongo.Template:QrefRonin usually works as either mercenaries or bandits. The only known Ronin so far is Ashura Doji.

### Code of Honor

In accordance with their social status, samurai are expected to be honorable, educated, and extremely well-disciplined people. If a samurai has a master, then conduct from them that is unbecoming of a samurai reflects poorly on their master. How a samurai dresses and carries their self in public also affects public perception of their family, as they will often accompany their master whenever he or she travels.Template:Qref

Samurai are typically very prideful and care greatly about the honor of their self and their family. When interacting with others, they have been shown to reject luxuries offered to them, especially if they feel it would put them in a subordinate or dependent position to the gift giver.Template:Qref Samurai also talk in a very formal dialect, with certain slang terms (such as the cry "Sunacchi") being seen as improper for high-class warriors.Template:Qref

Another core tenet of the samurai's code is to remain unflinchingly loyal and obedient to one's leader, master, and/or family at all times until death. When a samurai's master dies, an honorable samurai typically either serves their surviving family or next of kin if any exist, or if the master was killed, the samurai will seek to avenge them by killing the one who attacked them. Changing allegiances to another group, particularly the group responsible for the master's death, is seen as extremely dishonorable and shameful. This trait is well-known even to outsiders like Kaidou.Template:Qref

While these standards were almost universally upheld during the reign of the Kozuki Family, Kurozumi Orochi's time as shogun saw a significant degrading of the code, as most chivalrous samurai were killed by Orochi and the Beasts Pirates. Most surviving samurai who sided with Orochi have been shown abusing their status to harm commoners as they see fit, viewing themselves as having the right to do whatever they would like to people of lesser status.Template:Qref Additionally, very few samurai today adhere to the code of loyalty, with numerous warriors who served the Kozuki Family having defected to the Kurozumi Family's side when Orochi took over; a quarter-century later when Kaidou deposed Orochi, the vast majority of samurai who served the shogun immediately swore allegiance to the pirate rather than trying to fight him and avenge their previous master.Template:Qref

Due to their beliefs of an honorable death and it being dishonorable to flee when dying at the place they are, they are willing to sacrifice themselves if it means they can save someone else and are willing to accept to die where they are, as seen when both Kin'emon and Kikunojo were willing to die so the other one could survive. This could, however, come to great annoyance and may not fully be understood by outsiders, as Usopp was heavily questioning their desire to die this way as well as his wonderance about their culture and their belief it was honorable to die without considering fleeing. This could, however, even impress the ones experiencing this wish as a new view on death and fighting for tomorrow, but if this, however it is unknown if they would consider this as an option, given their view on death and honor.Template:Qref