The samurai of Japan have an almost mythic reputation. The idea of a class of katana-wielding warriors held to a noble code is incredibly romantic, and it’s fueled some of our most fantastic films and legends.

Scattered throughout the history of the real samurai, though, are a few weird little details that we tend not to talk about because if we did, it would ruin the fantasy played out on the silver screen.

10They Wore Inflatable Capes

Samurai would wear massive, 6-foot-long capes called “horo.” They were stuffed full of light materials and designed to catch the wind and blow up. The horo was supposed to stop incoming arrows, to protect a samurai from attacks from behind or the side.

In practice, it was mostly a status symbol. The horo was a big inflated sign that let everyone know you were nobility. It let the enemy know that they weren’t allowed to desecrate your corpse, because the past was a horrible time when everyone did awful things.

“The enemy will understand, as they recognize the horo, that the dead was not a common person,” the samurai were told, “and so your corpse will be well treated.”

9Early Samurai Swords Broke When They Hit Armor

In the 13th century, when Japan was invaded by Mongols, they were forced to face an invading, armored horde for the first time, and their swords didn’t really hold up.

The thin Japanese weapons kept getting stuck in the Mongolian’s leather armor. Sometimes, they would even break in two. Those thin samurai swords snapped so often that they had to give up on them, and they started making bigger, heavier swords like everyone else to fight off the Mongolian invasion.

8Samurai Believed Sleeping With Women Made You Effeminate

In feudal Japan, nothing made a man more of a sissy than spending a whole night sleeping with beautiful women.

Sex with women, the samurai believed, had a feminizing effect that weakened a man’s mind and body. The samurai married because they needed to further the family line, but they didn’t want to get carried away with it. If a samurai was caught kissing his wife in public, he was called a sissy.

That didn’t mean the samurai were celibate. Sex with women was a little fruity, but sex with men was incredibly macho. Homosexual sex, the samurai believed, just made you tougher than ever.

7Apprentices Serviced Their Masters

When a boy was learning the art of the samurai, he would often pair up with an older man. The elder would teach him martial arts, etiquette, the code of honor, and, in exchange, would use him for sex.

This was called shudo, meaning “the way of the adolescent boys.” When a boy turned 13, it was common for him to swear loyalty to an older man and stick with him until for the next six years. This was completely normal. In fact, one Japanese poet wrote, “A young man without a pledged, elder he-lover is likened to a young girl without a fiance.”

It really was treated like a marriage. In the Hakagure, a book written in 1716 on the way of the samurai, boys are instructed to be faithful to their shudo partners. If another man makes a pass at them, they are told, they should threaten them, and, “if pressed further, cut him down by your sword in rage.”

6Samurai Could Kill People For Being Rude

If a samurai was disrespected by someone from a lower class, he could kill that person where he stood. There were a few rules. He had to do it immediately and he had to have a witness, but as long as he had that covered, he could kill anyone who bumped into him.

It wasn’t even really a choice. It was considered embarrassing not to do it. One samurai, after bumping into a peasant, demanded the peasant apologize. When he didn’t, the samurai handed him his short sword and told him to defend himself. It was a mistake. The peasant ran for his life, understandably figuring he had a better chance outrunning a samurai than outfighting him.

The samurai told his family what happened, but they took it as personal humiliation. They disowned him. They told him the only way they’d treat him like family again was if he hunted the peasant down and murdered his whole family.

5Bathroom Trips Were Planned To Be Ready For Assassins

The samurai got paranoid about their bathroom breaks when the 16th-century warrior Uyesugi Kenshin was assassinated on the toilet. His killer, according to rumors, snuck in and stabbed him with a spear, catching off guard and with his pants down.

After, Uyesugi’s rival, Takeda Shingen, became worried that someone would do the same to him. He moved his toilet into a walled outhouse in a corner so that he could make sure nobody snuck up on him.

The details of how this evolved are lost. Lowry claims, though, that by the time he was in Japan, martial artists were trained out of habit to go to the toilet with the right pant leg pulled completely off. That way, if someone snuck in, they’d be ready to fight, as long as they could multi-task.

4Samurai Tried To Leave Sweet-Smelling Corpses

A legendary samurai named Kimura Shigenari made his last stand in 1615, defending the Osaka castle against an invading army. He boldly marched his troops to the fields of war to face their attackers, leaving the safety of the castle walls—but not before dolling up his head like he was getting ready for a first date.

Before battle, Kimura carefully trimmed his hair and burned some incense inside his helmet. He didn’t expect to survive, and, ever considerate to his future killer, he wanted to leave a fragrant corpse. He knew his head would become someone’s trophy, and he wanted it to be a nice one.

It worked. When he died, several enemy soldiers tried to take credit for it, and ended up bickering over who got his head. One of them finally brought his head to their leader, Tokugawa Ieyasu, who was so impressed that he encouraged all of his men to start putting incense in their helmets, too.

3Samurai Had Armor For Their Dogs

We have at least one remaining set of samurai armor custom-fit for a dog.

The armor, built in the early 19th century, comes complete with a doggie helmet, a rawhide skirt, and a handy pouch. We don’t know a lot of the details about how it was used, but it’s believed that it probably wasn’t to send dogs into battle. Instead, the armor was probably just used during parades, or possibly just commissioned for fun.

We’ve only ever found one set of doggie armor, so it wasn’t that common. Still, for one beautiful moment in history, a samurai marched down the streets of Japan with a dog dressed in full military armor.

2Samurai Spies Clubbed People With Flutes

One of the strangest samurai weapons is the shakuhachi, a bamboo flute. Originally, these were nothing but musical instruments, played by Buddhist monks as a substitute for chanting. The flute evolved, though, when a group of Buddhists called the komuso started walking around with baskets on their heads, playing the flute and preaching. The samurai realized that these people walking around with baskets on their heads were wearing the perfect disguise, and they started to copy it.

Samurai spies sent to quell rebellions would pretend to monks in the komuso. They would walk around with flutes in their hands and baskets on their heads, eavesdropping on national threats. There was just one difference: The samurai’s flutes had spikes. If they got caught, they wanted to be ready to bash someone’s head in with their flutes.

1They Regularly Betrayed Their Masters

The samurai code didn’t really exist until the 1600s, and before that, samurais would betray their masters left and right. Even after that, the samurai valued loyalty on paper, but it wasn’t always practical in real life. If a samurai’s master didn’t reward and take care of the warrior who defended him, that samurai usually took the first chance he could to backstab him and team up with someone who would.

When Western missionaries first came to Japan, they were shocked at how much backstabbing they saw. “Treachery was rampant,” a 16th-century missionary wrote about his visit to Japan, “and nobody trusted his neighbor.”

“They rebel whenever they have a chance,” another wrote. “Then they about-turn and declare themselves friends again, only to rebel once more when the opportunity presents itself.”

Anyone who has heard of Japan must have heard about Samurai as well. The Samurai were the group of warriors belonging to various elite classes, who were famous for their ferocity and loyalty. They have an indelible place in the history of Japan, having shaped up the civilization. The Samurai are the symbols of Japanese culture, and their code of honor is ingrained into it. There have been a myriad of warriors who wrote history with their courage and nobility. Here is the list of 10 most famous Samurai warriors in history.

The 10 Most Famous Samurai Warriors:

10. Shimazu Yoshihisa

One of the most famous warlords from the Sengoku period, Shimazu Yoshihisa hailed from the Satsuma Province. He was married to his aunt for a brief time. He launched a campaign to unify Kyushu, and tasted many victories. His clan ruled a major part of Kyushu for many years, but was eventually defeated by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. After the defeat, Yoshihisa is believed to have retired and become a Buddhist monk. He died a peaceful death.

9. Date Masamune

Known for his affinity for violence and lack of mercy, Date Masamune was one of the most feared warriors of his era. Having lost the sight in his right eye in childhood due to smallpox, he had to make extra effort to be recognised as a fighter. After a series of defeats in early days, he slowly built his reputation and became one of the most efficient warriors of the time. When his father was kidnapped by the enemies of his clan, Masamune retaliated with slaughtering all of them, killing his father during the mission. He later served Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu, as the head of Date clan.

8. Uesugi Kenshin

Known as the Dragon of Echigo, Kenshin was a fierce warrior and the leader of Nagao clan. He was famous for his rivalry with Takeda Shingen. The two fought each other for many years, engaging in one-on-one combats several times. He was also one of the warlords who resisted the campaigns of Oda Nobunaga. He was a reputed administrator as well. There are various stories surrounding the cause of his death.

7. Tokugawa Ieyasu

Initially an ally of Oda Nobunaga and his successor Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Tokugawa Ieyasu was more agile with his brain than his sword. After the death of Hideyoshi, he gathered the enemies of Toyotomi clan and fought against it to take over the rule. He defeated the Toyotomis in the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, and became the first Tokugawan Shogun in 1603. The Tokugawa shogunate ushered a new era of peace in Japan, and ruled till 1868.

See Also: 10 Truly Bizarre Services from Japan.

6. Hattori Hanzo

The leader of Iga clan, Hattori Hanzo was one of the rare samurai who were also ninja warriors. He was a loyal servant to Tokugawa Ieyasu, who saved his master a few times from certain death. His primary weapon was a spear. In his older years, Hanzo became a Buddhist monk. He is one of the most famous warriors in Japanese pop culture, and inspired many a fictional warrior.

5. Takeda Shingen

Often called as the Tiger of Kai, Takeda Shingen was a fearsome warrior as well as a poet. He fought in numerous battles. In the fourth battle of Kawanakajima, he met his rival Uesugi Kenshin in a one-on-one fight as well. He was one of the very few warriors who tasted any success against Oda Nobunaga and had power to stop him. However, Shingen died in mysterious circumstances in 1573, after which Nobunaga consolidated power.

4. Honda Tadakatsu

Often known as ‘The Warrior who surpassed Death,’ Honda Tadakatsu was one of the fiercest warriors Japan has produced. One of the Four Heavenly Kings of Tokugawa, he took part in more than a hundred battles, to be never defeated in any of them. His major weapon was a spear known as Dragonfly cutter, which inspired fear in every opponent. Tadakatsu fought in the decisive Battle of Sekigahara which led to a new era in Japanese history.

3. Miyamoto Musashi

Perhaps the most celebrated samurai warrior over the years, Miyamoto Musashi was one of the greatest swordsmen Japan had ever had. His first duel was in the age of 13. He fought in the battle between the Toyotomi clan against the Tokugawa clan, on the side of former, ending up defeated. He later travelled along Japan, winning numerous duels against powerful opponents. Musashi’s most famous duel was in 1612, in which he fought against master swordsman Sasaki Kojiro and killed him. In later years, he spent more time for writing, and authored The Book of Five Rings, which details various sword-fighting techniques.

See Also: 10 Interesting Creatures from Japanese Folklore.

2. Toyotomi Hideyoshi

The successor of Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi was a powerful ruler and warrior. Born in a peasant family, he slowly ascended to power with his skills off and on the battle field. He ruled over a major part of Japan from 1585 until his death in 1598, although he never attained the title of Shogun. Hideyoshi constructed the massive Osaka Castle, and waged battles to conquer Korea and China, albeit unsuccessfully. Soon after his death, his clan was obliterated.

1. Oda Nobunaga

One of the most recognizable warrior in Japanese history, Oda Nobunaga was a charismatic leader as well. In 1560, he killed Yoshimoto Imagawa who attempted to take over Kyoto and set the foundation of the unification of Japan. He made use of firearms in battles, a novel idea at the time. His death was from an act of betrayal by one of his own generals, Akechi Mitsuhide, who set fire to the temple he was resting at. However, Nobunaga committed suicide, a more honourable way to die.

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