would you rather...

[Hatake girl]

ok, now my friends and i were playing "would you rather" at school and we came to an interesting question: would you rather be a samurai or ninja? what would you guys pick? i picked ninja because i think that ninjas are the best, but samurais are pretty cool too.

[Taurus]

I reckon samurai, just for the haircut.

[Psy]

Definitely ninja, because I'd be allowed to play dirty and not have to commit seppuku for it.

[Belton]

In comic book terms a ninja.

In more real terms a samurai of the edo period, preferably near the top of a domain's hierarchy.
No fighting to do; top of the caste system; little work; supported by the masses; arbitrary power of life or death; time for tea ceremony, hanami and poetry. the idle rich.

Being a ninja was hard training and probably a brutish and nasty life into the bargain.

And regardless of caste it was definitely a man's world.
For a woman the Heian period courtier was probably the best bet. (Sei Shonagon or Murasaki Shikibu )

of course I'm halfway to a samurai hairstyle already. つるつる

[Taurus]

In more real terms a samurai of the edo period, preferably near the top of a domain's hierarchy.
No fighting to do; top of the caste system; little work; supported by the masses; arbitrary power of life or death; time for tea ceremony, hanami and poetry. the idle rich.

The start of the edo period, right? Weren't samurai starting to suffer a little, economically, by the end of it?

[Belton]

probably mid-point edo (^^)

Yes by the end the samurai were mostly in big debt to the merchant class.
And I wouldn't want to be a low ranking landless samurai at any time.
Although I think I'd wait until the Meiji period to be a merchant when various sumptuary laws were relaxed (dropped?) and samurai could no longer kill you on a whim.


All in all the best time to be top of the social heap is now.

[Psy]

Knowledgeable as ever, Belton.

For an interesting contrast on the "cool, comic book perspective" and the "gritty, real life perspective," I invite you to check the following wiki article in English and then Japanese:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunoichi
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%81%8F% ... E%E4%B8%80

I just found that interesting.

[Hatake girl]

Knowledgeable as ever, Belton.

For an interesting contrast on the "cool, comic book perspective" and the "gritty, real life perspective," I invite you to check the following wiki article in English and then Japanese:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunoichi
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%81%8F% ... E%E4%B8%80

I just found that interesting.

the article on kunoichis was pretty awesome. i like how they are/were inventive and seductive

[thomasz]

Can I was both of them? . They are very good at martial arts.

[Psy]

Maybe my point was missed:

くノ一（くのいち）は忍者の隠語で女性のことを指し、仕事のしかけに女性を使うことをくのいちの術と呼んだ。しかし小説や漫画などで女忍すなわち女性の忍者を意味する言葉として用いられることが多く、これが普及している。ちなみに男性を使うことはタヂカラ（タヂカラの術）といった（これは男の田と力から由来していると思われる）。

kunoichi wa ninja no ingo de josei no koto wo sashi, shigoto no shikake ni josei wo tsukau koto wo kunoichi no jutsu to yonda. shikashi shousetsu ya manga nado de "kunoichi" sunawachi josei no ninja wo imi suru kotoba toshite mochiirareru koto ga ooku, kore ga fukyuu shite iru. chinami ni dansei wo tsukau koto wa "tajikara" (tajikara no jutsu) to itta (kore wa otoko no "ta to chikara" kara yurai shiteiru to omowareru)

"Kunoichi" is a Ninja codeword indicating "woman," and the tools of their trade which were aimed at women were called "Kunoichi no Jutsu." However the frequent usage in comic books and similar mediums has popularized the term "kunoichi" to refer to the meaning of "female ninja. Incidentally, those skills aimed at mean were known as "tajikara." (this is believed to have originated from the "field" (ta) and "power" (chikara) of the character meaning "man.")