I think we can all agree that Japanese samurai and European knights are two of the most skilled and famous forms of warriors in history, right? Well, both warriors began their craft at an early age and went through multiple stages of training throughout their lives. Both basically had a code of honor, but they differed from each other in several ways. The big question is, “Were the similarities greater than the differences?” I immediately began to think about the technical aspects of answering this question. Before I get too much into the technical details, let's discuss some of these differences and similarities and find out how they play out. Before we lead this discussion, let's review our key terms. A clan is a group of close-knit, interconnected families. Feudalism was a political and economic system that flourished in Europe from the 9th to the 15th century, based on upper classes offering services and objects randomly in exchange for something else. Knights were men who served their lord as armored mounted soldiers. Samurai were members of a powerful military social class in feudal Japan. A shogun was a hereditary commander-in-chief in feudal Japan. Chivalry was the medieval system of chivalry with its religious, moral and social code. Bushido was the code of honor and morality developed by the Japanese samurai. In document A we see a very well represented social pyramid. This pyramid attempts to show the reader which classes correspond as closely as possible to their equivalent counterparts. When you start reading the pyramid of Japan, you see something that might seem strange to you. This means that the shogun has more power than the emperor, yet the emperor is still higher up the pyramid. This... middle of paper... respect, honor and loyalty make that difference to me, but there's something to be said about comparison. I find knights to be very efficient, great warriors and are very similar to samurai in many ways. Both wear armor, both train from a young age, and both learn honor, loyalty, and respect; but samurai are taught more effectively during their training, and the Japanese concepts were better. So, to answer the essential question of this essay, I would say that there is definitely a great deal of similarities between the two warriors, but when you consider the samurai's skills which are better, or enhanced; be differences, then I should conclude with a no. The "differences" are too great in my opinion to say that the similarities are so great that they are almost the same, because they are really very different.