A gory set of manuals, one dating to the 17th century, advised Japanese warriors in the secret ways of seppuku.

Authorities later reported Castro’s cause of death as multiple strikes with a sharp object to the head and neck. They identified the blood on Landaeta’s clothes, in his car and on the samurai ... with ...

The samurai were a preeminent class defending Japan for centuries. But as the Tokugawa shogunate ushered in an era of ...

Then his eyes widened and his mouth opened in horror when he turned his head and saw the sword. Holding the sword in a two-handed samurai-style grip, the youth rammed into Asanuma like a blocking ...

The samurai maintained their elite status into the mid-1800s, when Western influences began to take hold ... sword-slashing warrior of yore abandoned his neatly kept ponytail for a shaven head ...

“Educated to be equally skilled in the ‘ways of the pen and the sword’, they ... challenge of a skilled samurai named Moroshige Onda, unhorsed him, and took his head with one clean stroke.

Samurai culture taught that "as soon as the sword is gone from the scabbard, you are defeated," Cleary said. "As soon as you draw your sword, it is already too late. The more highly developed the ...