Talk:List of samurai

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I'm trying to put together a list of samurai. I'm trying not to list shogun or daimyo, because they seem to me to be fundamentally different from samurai, but I'm open to alternate views. I have not listed some World War II military commanders who were descendants of samurai, because by that point the official rank had been abolished, but this might also be a mistake. An example is Yamamoto Isoroku.

The list is expanded but now most samurai's don't have an article. This would be eventually fixd. Yet, there will be problems down the road as this list becomes more comprehensive. Revth 04:38, 21 Aug 2004 (UTC)

  • Too many samurai - I did not include all names of samurai and try to limit to those with a notable record. But, what constitutes a "notable record" is a problem that needs to be discussed. Should all samurai be listed?
  • Alternative names - Some samurai changed their names and some of these names are more famous than the actual name. Should all of them be listed?
  • A "clan" - Most samurai belong to a clan or a member of a clan. However, this distinction becomes fuzzy as there were many political marriages that tried to, often unsuccesfully, avoid wars. Also, how far should a clan be listed is an another problem similar to the "Too many samurai" problem.
  • Different samurai problem - Some samurai and clan would be spelled same alphabetically and this make the list bit odd. For example there are two "Mori", "Mouri" and "Mori" but their name would be mixed in the list.
  • Inclusion of shogun? - All shogun were samurai by the definition but listing their names makes the list longer, maybe unnecessary. They are currently not added except for those with an actual war experience. But this makes a second problem.
  • A bureaucrat samurai? - Many samurai did not fight in a war but have an exceptional record managing their domains. Many of them should be listed, but what about those who did not make an impact?

Instead of writing down all samurai, I tagged a clan after those with an article and erased all other. I think this looks much better as this would shorten the list and avoid being clattered with countless descendants (see Date clan for why this would obviously better way and this list is not yet completed :( ) Revth 08:38, 25 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Non-notable Samurai

I have removed the following samurai, because I could not find out anything about them from google:

  • Akaike Nagatou
  • Kokubun Morishige
  • Miyoshi Nagaharu
  • Nihonmatsu Yoshitsuna
  • Nikaido Moriyoshi
  • Rokkaku Yoshisada
  • Takezaki Genji
  • Takezaki Kita

Tbjablin 08:16, 2 December 2005 (UTC)

I am removing Joseph Hardy Neesima from this list because, he simply is no samurai and there is no evidence that he is. Dorkules 15:37, 15 March 2007 (UTC)