>>63136398

It’s complete bullshit and no society that tolerates violence towards its own proletariat that arbitrary has survived for very long. Even the Spartans, who had a reputation as the cruelest slave masters of Antiquity and would literally declare war on their own Helot population, weren’t that arbitrary with it

>only the Krypteia were permitted to carry out such killings
>only allowed to do it one month of the year
>only permitted to kill male Helots deemed to be the strongest (i.e. the ones most capable of rebelling), women and children were off-limits

As others have already posted, the Samurai had a right to draw their swords and strike commoners for insults, but even this was heavily regulated

>had to be done immediately after said insult occurred
>the commoner in question had to be given a short sword so he could defend himself
>you generally weren’t supposed to actually kill said commoner
>you were required to report to the incident to the authorities immediately and submit to voluntary house arrest for up to 30 days pending an investigation
>if the authorities found you had exercised the right inappropriately, you could be stripped of your lands and titles (social death) or in some cases even executed (actual death)
>certain professions such as doctors and midwives were completely off-limits

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/k/

Thread:

How common/real was the thing where a samurai tests his weapon, a sword, by attacking a random civilian at a crossroads?