Why are samurai and, by extension, many facets of Japanese culture

Because they were such a novelty.

Think about it, what kinds of places had a traditional warrior culture steeped in tradition into the 19th century? With the exception of Japan, they were all ooga booga fire-worshiping jungle primitives; speaking from the position of a Victorian colonialist, naturally. Because of the shogunate system and Japan's restriction on imports and immigration, the Japanese Samurai would inevitably fascinate outsiders as this weird legacy item that persisted well beyond its time. It'd be like if, in 1853, some backpacker figured out that Liechtenstein had maintained a tradition of jousting tournaments and Renaissance-era fairs and somehow nobody knew about it - how would people not be fascinated?

The above post plus Japan is the least un-Western among Far East Asian countries.

Date Masamune had Hasekura Tsunenaga go all the way to be an ambassador @ Papal States and Spain.

>>3366054
>what kinds of places had a traditional warrior culture steeped in tradition into the 19th century? With the exception of Japan, they were all ooga booga fire-worshiping jungle primitives
China? India? Some parts of central asia?

>>3366032
Because Japanese media is popular and some of their media deals with samurai.
And they haven't faced something such as the Communist revolution that China had or the French revolution.

>>3366124
China didn't have that kind of warrior elite that Japan did and India's caste system was hard for europeans to understand.

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>>3366032
Aesthetics

>>3366149
This. Confucianism doesn't think highly of warriors. Because violence is not the best way.

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>>3366124
China had a military not a warrior class.

Though it was de-facto warrior class anyway because the latter Chinese armies was a hereditary army where sons of soldiers are by the laws of their inheritance destined to be soldiers.

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>>3366179
>Confucianism doesn't think highly of warriors. Because violence is not the best way.
Bullshit.

It did, so long as it was for patriotism and not gloryhoundism.

>>3366189
Confucian criticized governance by military power and advocated the governance by virtue. This is the primal principal of Confucianism.

"Ju-ka (Confucianist), and advocated the principle of rule by virtue of the sovereignty, which believed the country should be governed by the rule of virtue, criticizing the rule by military power"

>>3366189
"You don't make a prostitute out of an honest woman, a nail out of good iron, or a soldier out of a good man"

At its route that is the Confucian attitude towards soldiers

>>3366032
Because the samurai system made the Europeans nostalgic of when they too had a feudal system.
It was relatable.

Because of all of the KatanaXDDD fags both here and elsewhere on the interwebs

>>3366032
Part of the reason is because of the Japanese government's push to create an idealized view of samurai during the Meiji Period. All of the extreme loyalty to the point of self-sacrifice that's associated with samurai was actually completely made up in order to create a militaristic standard for citizens to strive for as Japan became more nationalistic. Basically, since the government did such a good job of creating this idealized version of a warrior, the image stuck around. Compared to other more realistic depictions of warriors, this artificial samurai ideal was easily idolized.

>>3367259
Funny since samurai barely even used katana

>>3366250
>>3366352
But didn't most of their dynasties start with warlords?
Liu Bang, CaoCao, etc

>>3367701
Yes. Confucian emphasized on social status and hereditary. So he opposed to usurpation of the imperial throne by military force. This is the governance by virtue, not by force.

Because they looked cool and because of anime

>>3367691
Yes that does make the Katana fags funnier, the fact that Samurai thought it was shit

>>3367691
This. Samurais mostly used bows and arrows when fighting in battles. Katanas were used only as a last resort or to kill random peasants or to duel.

>>3367915
Not really?

early swords like tachi and nodachi were used all the time in battle, katana were a late evolution, but were very very widely worn by foot soldiers, or ranked bushi who were not on the battlefield