The Samurai warrior developed its own customs that influenced Japanese culture in general. Poetry, rock gardens, monochrome ink painting, and the tea ceremony, all of which came from China, were associated with the samurai. From 1200-1600, warrior patrons adopted these practices as well. The samurai culture was influenced by Buddhism and Zen, and to a lesser degree, Shinto and Confucianism.
Education
Samurai warriors generally had a very high literacy rate in kanji, similar to aristocrats and priests. This was also true for the common classes such as farmers. By the end of the Kamakura period, the kanji literacy rate and math proficiency rate were very high. Several of the first exchange students were well-educated samurai.
Names
A samurai name was normally made up of one kanji from his father or grandfather combined with a new kanji. A samurai warrior could choose their own first names and usually used only a part of their entire name.
Shudo
Shudo was common among samurai from the medieval era until the end of the 19th century. The Japanese tradition of age-structured pederasty, it was commonly believed to have originated from samurai bushido. Shudo was regarded as “the flower of the samurai spirit” and was one of the primary ways in which the skills and ethos of the samurai were handed down through generations.
Samurai manuals such as Hagakure included instructions on how shudo was to be respected and performed. The practice died out after the Meiji Restoration.
Marriage
The marriage of a samurai warrior was arranged by someone of the same or higher rank. For samurai of higher ranks this was necessary as most had little opportunity to meet a potential bride. For those of lower ranks this was a formality. Most samurai married women who came from a samurai family, but lower ranked samurai were allowed to marry commoners. In samurai marriages, dowry was brought by the bride.
A samurai was permitted to have a mistress but a background check would be done by higher ranked samurai. Samurai warriors could divorce their wives with the approval of superiors; however, divorce was rare.
