What does it mean to be honorable? Depending on the Virtue your Clan chose, it means different things. Listed below are six points of view regarding honor based on your Clan’s chosen Virtue. You may agree or disagree with this answer, but if you do not conform to your Clan’s definition of honor, you will lose. Every time. Remember: samurai tragedy is about conforming. Don’t ever forget the lesson of the tall nail.
Beauty
A samurai’s duty is maintaining civilization. Only through culture and art can mankind maintain his dignity. The rules of society provide us with two important benefits. The first is the law and the second is the exquisite.
Culture provides laws to help maintain balance and order. Every creature in the world has its place in the world and man is no different. We fulfill an obligation to the universe. We hold a place within it. We must fulfill that obligation. We must follow the structure and order of law. Justice is what mankind introduces into the world. Without men, there is no justice. It is our duty to maintain order in the world.
Culture also provides the exquisite. The sublime. Art
communicates powerful truths that cannot be stated by words alone.
The recreation of experience. I cannot tell you true beauty, I can only try to show it to you through poetry and painting and the other Arts. This is a vital and necessary part of being human.
As a samurai, it is your duty to maintain civilization and help it grow. Make it better. Rid the world of injustice and bring beauty into the lives of as many as possible. This is the truest and most high virtue of bushido. The true duty of a samurai.
Courage
Courage is the ability to say “No.” There is no other creature in the world that can do so. All other creatures act on instinct. Man
alone is capable of rational thought. Man alone is capable of choosing not to rip off his leg to escape the trap. Courage
is more than just willpower. It is the recognition that some things in this world are more important than yourself.
Duty. Duty is Courage.
When tasked with a charge, many samurai say the word as if it were like any other. That word is
not like any other. It is the only word a samurai needs. It is the recognition that your life means
nothing if it is not serving a higher purpose. As a samurai, it is your duty to subsume your personal desires and accept your obligations to society. What you want is irrelevant. The Clan always comes first. This is the truest and most high virtue of bushido. The true duty of a samurai.
Cunning
A samurai’s Cunning is his most crucial weapon. Without the ability to discern truth from deception, a samurai is useless. Warfare truly is the art of deception. A true samurai knows this. He is not charmed by
the lures of “integrity” or “honesty.” The Clan’s enemies use the tools of
deception. Choosing not to use them only puts our own Clan in danger and only a fool would do that.
A Cunning samurai is not a fool. He buries fools.
We will use distraction and deception. We will make our
opponent think we are weak when we are truly strong. We will make our opponent think we are helpless when we are ready to attack. When we are caught off-guard, we will use tricks to keep him from taking advantage of our weakness. Only through these methods will we serve our Daimyo and our Clan.
As a samurai, it is your duty to use deception to protect the Daimyo from plots and machinations. Our enemies use the same tools. We will use them with even deadlier force. This is the truest and most high virtue of bushido. The true duty of a samurai.
Prowess
A samurai is a warrior. His duty is to defend his Daimyo against the dangers of the world even if that means his own life. If a samurai does not understand the arts of warfare and the sword then all other skills are meaningless.
A wise man needs only a moment in this world to understand that this is a world of violence and struggle. If we do not know the ways to master it, the world will eat us alive. We must study advantage. We must study strife. We must study violence. This is the true language of the world. To live in the world without mastering it is to live in the world like a blind man without full understanding of what is around us.
The sword is the way of truth. The sword is the way of peace. The sword is the way of war. Those who do not master the sword think words can protect them. Those who do not master the sword think books can protect them. Those who do not master the sword think illusion can protect them.
What is more real than the sword? Nothing.
As a samurai, it is your duty to use the sword to protect the Daimyo from the reality of the world. Our enemies use tools—tools of weak men—to take from us what we have rightfully earned. Earned with blood. This is the truest and most high virtue of bushido. The true duty of a samurai.
Strength
A man who cannot lift his own weight… what can I do with that? A man who cannot swim. A man who cannot jump. A man who cannot climb. A man who cannot master his own body. A man who cannot master his own flesh. A man with no discipline.
Your body is your most precious weapon. Without it, you are a weapon that can only be used by my enemy.
Train your body. Give it strength. A courageous man who is weak wastes his courage. A cunning man who is weak wastes his cunning. All other virtues are wasted if a man cannot master his own body. This is the truest and most high virtue of bushido. The true duty of a samurai.
Wisdom
If a man is ignorant, what good is he?
Let me ask that again. If a man is ignorant, what use are his other virtues?
If a man cannot think for himself, if he knows nothing of the world around him, if he acts without true understanding of his actions… he is nothing more than a wild animal who bites and claws without thought, without intention, without meaning.
It is only the meaning of a man’s actions that matter. The truth of his actions. The intent of his actions. Otherwise, he is like a storm: a raging and violent whirlwind. Destructive but without purpose.
It is knowing the meaning of our actions that gives them purpose. Without that, we are nothing. Therefore, a man must study. He must study history to know what came before and he must study philosophy to know the profundity of his deeds.
As a samurai, it is your duty to use your knowledge to bring glory to the Daimyo’s name. Our enemies will use the past against us. They will use knowledge against us. Without this most potent weapon, we will be naked and helpless against them. This is the truest and most high virtue of bushido. The true duty of a samurai.