Page:Japanese Physical Training (Hancock).djvu/29

Rh were not allowed any other weapons than sticks or stones. Naturally the caste of the samurai was rigidly preserved. Any member of the caste, man or woman, might marry with propriety into a family of the superior nobility. Any one who married beneath his caste was summarily degraded.

Samurai rank went by heredity. Every son of a samurai, unless he disgraced himself, kept his caste and took up the profession of arms. The comparatively few weaklings among these people retained their caste but did not marry.

In battle the samurai carried no weight other than their swords and the clothing they wore. The commoners, who went along as camp-followers, bore all the baggage. It was considered utterly undignified for a samurai to perform any toil outside of that connected with fighting, or with learning and preparing to fight. As a sequence it came about that the samurai spent much of their otherwise idle time in athletic exercises.

Of course sword-play came first of all — scientific combat with long and short bamboo swords. Running, leaping, and wrestling also