The Twilight Samurai - Historical Accuracy

Historical Accuracy

The film contains an accurate portrait of the life of the petty samurai at the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate.

By 1700 military duties were limited to a small number of families... The majority of the warrior class were thus robbed of their old function in society. But since they were still maintained economically by the daimyo, it was more practical and less expensive to press them into service as civil officials than to recruit members from other classes in society... The writing brush therefore began to replace the sword as the primary tool of the warrior's trade. — Peter Duus, Feudalism in Japan, pg 100 (1969)

As seen in the film, the majority of the samurai are warriors in name only; they are mostly accountants.

Read more about this topic:  The Twilight Samurai

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