Conclusion
Samurai developed a distinct cultural identity during the long years of the Tokugawa peace. This was due to the special administrative function they performed in government, but also particularly because of the military role they exercised through their exclusive privilege to carry two swords.
These blades were key markers of status but also important as lethal weapons, which they were legally sanctioned to use under prescribed conditions. The tension between the state's interests in maintaining civil order and male samurai culture resulted in the development of an identity of constant readiness to enact honour violence that was periodically exercised across the physical landscape of early modern Japan. Over the course of the Tokugawa period, however, it became increasing problematic for samurai to exercise that monopoly against commoners. Yet in the closing years of the shogunate, after the arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry and his American armada in 1853, samurai would display a resurgence of sensitivity against insult, not against Japanese commoners but rather against the foreign intruders in their land. This resulted in periodic bloody confrontations, but also subsequently led to Western interest in the samurai code of honour violence.
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