Samurai in Japanese

Samurai in Japanese is 侍, romanised as samurai and written in hiragana as さむらい. 侍 originally meant one who serves a noble; only later did it come to mean the warrior aristocracy. The famous code is 武士道 (bushidou), not samuraidou.

侍 means "samurai, warrior who serves" (8 strokes; on'yomi: ji, shi; kun'yomi: samurai, habe(ru)). Together the word reads as samurai.

侍 (samurai) is the standard form: 侍 originally meant one who serves a noble; only later did it come to mean the warrior aristocracy. The famous code is 武士道 (bushidou), not samuraidou.. 武士 (bushi) is different — the formal term for the historical warrior class — academic writing prefers this over samurai. Pick based on the exact nuance you want to convey.

侍 is the single kanji that reads samurai and is the iconic tattoo choice for this concept. The character literally depicts a person (亻) attending or serving (寺), reflecting the original meaning of samurai as a retainer. For the broader warrior class concept, 武士 (bushi) is more historically precise and uses two characters.

In hiragana, samurai is written as さむらい, which represents the sound samurai. The kanji form 侍 is used in everyday writing; hiragana is used when the kanji is too difficult, for emphasis, or in children's text.