Japanese print by Yoshiiku Ochia depicting the narrative of a samurai in the process of his training. He cures people of measles with talismans given to him by the gods. Hosho paper mounted on cardboard, woodcut, 1862. Samurai were the military nobility of medieval and early-modern Japan. The samurai followed a set of rules that came to be known as bushido. While the samurai numbered less than 10% of Japan's population, their teachings can still be found today in both everyday life and in modern Japanese martial arts.