Timothy Kirchner, age 13, of New Bedford, Mass., for his question:

HOW DID A PERSON BECOME A SAMURAI?

Samurai was a term originally referred only to the imperial guards in ancient Japan. Then with the coming of a feudal system, it meant the entire military class.

A person was born to become a samurai. The position was inherited.

The feudal military class included samurai warriors, the feudal lords called daimyos, or diamios, and the shogun. The shogun was the greatest of the Japanese feudal lords.

About five out of every 100 Japanese belonged to this military class.

A code of unquestioning obedience and loyalty, called Bushido, bound the samurai warriors to their lords. The samurai prized honor above wealth or life.

Samurai warriors wore two swords and a distinctive headdress. They were graded in military ranks, each with an appropriate income in rice.

The samurai warriors lost their privileges when the Japanese abolished feudalism in 1871.