Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in Tokyo for his two-day trip to Japan. He attended the 15th India-Japan Annual Summit and is now scheduled to hold talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
Both leaders are also expected to travel to Sendai by high-speed train to visit a semiconductor facility, Tokyo's Electron Factory, and the Tohoku Shinkansen plant, where bullet train coaches are manufactured.
Discussions on Japan's participation in India's bullet train project are also on the agenda.
Sendai And Its Samurai Founder
The city of Sendai was founded by Date Masamune (1567-1636), the samurai warlord known as the "One-Eyed Dragon of Oshu." After the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, Masamune was granted vast lands in the Tohoku region, where he built Sendai Castle on Mount Aoba in 1601. The castle town he developed grew into modern Sendai, now the largest city in northeastern Japan.
Masamune was born into the Date clan and lost his right eye to smallpox as a child. The city still bears his legacy through the ruins of Aoba Castle, where a statue of Masamune on horseback overlooks the city, along with museums and shrines dedicated to the Date clan.
He is known for his distinctive black armour topped with a golden crescent moon and his cultured lifestyle.
Who Were The Samurai?
Samurai were members of Japan's warrior class, serving feudal lords known as daimyo. Emerging around the 10th century and becoming dominant by the 12th century, they formed the country's military and social elite.
Guided by Bushido, the "way of the warrior," focusing on loyalty, honour, discipline, and courage, samurai trained in swordsmanship, archery, martial arts, and later firearms. Many were also educated and involved in poetry, calligraphy, tea ceremony, and governance.
Their role ended with the Meiji Restoration of 1868, when Japan abolished the feudal system and disbanded the class.
Today, their legacy continues through martial arts, descendants of clans such as Tokugawa, Oda, Shimazu, and Date, as well as in festivals, museums, and cultural practices.
Katana: The Samurai Sword
A major samurai identity was the katana, a curved, single-edged sword designed for two-handed use. Forged by layering hard and soft steel for both strength and flexibility, the katana was paired with a shorter sword, the wakizashi, forming the daisho (long and short sword set) that showed a samurai's rank and right to fight.
The wakizashi (short sword) also served in close combat and in ritual seppuku (suicide).
Regarded as the "soul of the samurai," these swords, crafted by master swordsmiths as both weapons and art, were passed down through generations. Following the abolition of the samurai class, carrying katanas by former samurai was also banned in 1876.
