Journal Article

Global Samurai

Rosina BUCKLAND, Oleg BENESCH

2026

Overview

One hundred and fifty years since their abolition as a social class, the samurai warriors of premodern Japan survive today as an immediately recognizable, truly global icon. The samurai are an important element of popular culture both produced and consumed not only in Japan, but around the world. These developments do not simply reflect the recent globalization and commodification of an ancient and purely Japanese tradition. Instead, from their very origins, the samurai were influenced by developments beyond Japan’s borders, especially China and Korea, and later Europe and many other parts of the world. The evolution of the samurai has always been influenced by external factors, and the samurai have in turn had a dramatic effect on views of Japan in other societies. In this introductory article, we argue that the emergence of the samurai as a global icon in the twentieth century is directly related to the fact that the development of the samurai image was not “purely” Japanese, but was heavily influenced by, and in dialogue with, views of the samurai and Japan in other countries. From a very early stage, the samurai were taking on elements from other societies and cultures, or defining themselves against them in constructing their identities. From the late nineteenth century onward, the samurai were increasingly identified with Japanese society as a whole and have become a global icon in a way that few other regional or national figures have matched.

• Publisher: International Research Center for Japanese Studies