The samurai (侍) were the warrior class of old Japan, and for nearly seven centuries they held real political power over the country. The word comes from a verb meaning "to serve," which is the point: a samurai was not a free knight but a retainer, bound to a lord he served.
From provincial guards to rulers
Samurai began as hired muscle. Wealthy landowners in the provinces needed men to protect their estates, and by the 900s these fighters had formed a distinct class. In 1185 one of them, Minamoto no Yoritomo, won a long civil war and set up a warrior government in Kamakura. From then until 1868, Japan was ruled by a shogun and his samurai, while the emperor stayed in Kyoto as a respected figurehead. The samurai were never a majority; at their peak they made up something like five to seven percent of the population.
Warriors without a war
The strange part of samurai history is how little of it was spent fighting. After 1603 the Tokugawa shoguns imposed peace, and it held for over 250 years. A warrior class with no wars turned into something closer to a civil service: samurai became administrators, clerks, and teachers, kept their two swords as a mark of rank, and studied poetry and tea alongside swordsmanship. The code later called bushidō, "the way of the warrior," was mostly written down in this peaceful period, by men reflecting on a life their grandfathers had actually lived. In 1876 the government banned the wearing of swords, and the class was abolished outright.
Words & idioms to take away
Idioms & proverbs to carry away
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武士道 (bushidō): "the way of the warrior," the code of loyalty, honour, and self-discipline, set down largely after the fighting had stopped.
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浪人 (rōnin): literally "wave person," a samurai with no lord, adrift. The word is still used today for a student retaking university entrance exams.