This man is not a samurai - Gaijin Days Reacts to "Samurai Master" with Kenshin's Sakabatō

When I was shown this video, the title alone made me fly into a rage.

I can't stand the way people fictionalize, misinform, or just straight up lie about Japan in order for it to be click-bait or seen as 'cool and interesting'.

Japan is awesome! I love Japan. And that's precisely why there is no need to lie about it. There are so many myths out there about Katana and Samurai and a lot of videos like this just perpetuate falsehoods or bad info.

Don't get me wrong. At the end of the day, I understand it's a small issue that this title used samurai as click bait. Samurai referring to the long-ended social caste (and class before that). It is not a term that refers to people who practice Japanese martial arts. And certainly not the non-combat schools such as this one.

I'm sure this man is very good at the kata practiced within his school. However his opinion on what the pros and cons of the Sakabatō are meaningless in terms of its functionality as a weapon. This man does not use weapons in the sense of combat. As far as I'm aware, his discipline does not do sparring. So what would he possibly know about the functionality of a weapon? Nothing. zero. zip. zilch.

I just don't know why you need to call yourself a samurai when in doing so you are taking away from the truth of the term. call yourself a Japanese swordmaster, a master of kenjutsu, etc. There are plenty of ways you can express this without lying about the samurai.

I do appreciate that there is still skill required for the non-combat martial arts such as this (or Aikido which I used to practice). It's great for your spirit and mental discipline. It's meaningless in combat.

Original Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OwC89qNL6Y&t=0s