Life and death in the name of honor: the samurai The Japanese Samurai were undoubtedly one of the greatest fighters in modern history. Their caste, that of warriors, was one of two classes of ' Japanese aristocracy . Their name is considered as deriving from the verb " saburau " which literally means "one who serves " . Another term by which the samurai were defined was bushi, from " bu "which means martial and" shi ", the union of the lower horizontal section showing the number 1 and the cross