Japanese Bushido might help you find something more behind katana and swords!

Bushido-Way of the Warrior

Bushido Believes: Benevolence, Love, Sincerity, Honesty, Self-Control and Stoicism.

Bushido had been developed in samurai society that started from the Kamakura period (1192-1333), and ripened at the Edo period (Tokugawa Shogunate era, 1603-1868).

Bushido is a strict code that entailed concepts such as loyalty to one's master, respect and self-discipline, overall ethical behavior.

Bushido comes  from Buddhism, Zen and Confucianism.

1) The Buddhist concept of reincarnation and rebirth led samurai to abandon torture and needless killing, while some samurai even gave up voilence altogether and became Buddhist monks after realizing how fruitless their killings were. Some were killed as they came to terms with these realization in the battlefield.

2) Zen meditation became an important teaching due to it offering a process to calm one's mind.

3) The most defining role that Confucianism played in samurai philosophy was to stress the importance of the lord-retainer relationship; this is, the loyalty that a samurai was required to show his lord. Confucianism is one of the three traditional Chinese religions. Here are some of the most important principles of Confucianism: Humanity, Loyalty, Morality and Consideration.

These different combinations of religions were brought together to create the one code of the Warrior known as Bushido. This code was considered to be very Confucian in nature.

A notable part of the Bushido code is seppuku, which allowed a disgraced samurai to regain his honor by passing into death, where samurai were still beholden to the rules of Bushido.

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