I just stumbled across this article on Tofugu and really, it explains a whole lot about why Japan seems so off-kilter - it's because we have been given the wrong impression entirely.
http://www.tofugu.com/2014/12/08/bushid ... -bullshit/
Really, now that I've read this article, I think the best example in pop culture of how Samurai actually behaved before the Tokugawa Shogunate unified the country is in Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke - everyone has their own agendas, act however they want to act, and not once is the word 'honor' dropped by anyone (that I can recall, anyhow). It would also explain why Lady Eboshi had absolutely zero qualms about the honor of pitting rifles against swords and archers.
This is going to change how I write some of Garrick's steps as some of them are in pre-Tokugawa settings.
http://www.tofugu.com/2014/12/08/bushid ... -bullshit/
Really, now that I've read this article, I think the best example in pop culture of how Samurai actually behaved before the Tokugawa Shogunate unified the country is in Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke - everyone has their own agendas, act however they want to act, and not once is the word 'honor' dropped by anyone (that I can recall, anyhow). It would also explain why Lady Eboshi had absolutely zero qualms about the honor of pitting rifles against swords and archers.
This is going to change how I write some of Garrick's steps as some of them are in pre-Tokugawa settings.