Did Japan have female samurai?

The samurai of Japan are famous for being skilled warriors who followed a code of honor. In popular culture and museums, samurai are often depicted as men, which raises a question: Were any samurai women?Female samurai existed and there is some evidence that they fought in battle, several experts told Live Science. But how often they fought is a matter of debate, with some scholars calling it very rare and others suggesting it happened more often.Sign up for our newsletter (Image credit: Marilyn Perkins / Future)Sign up for our weekly Life's Little Mysteries newsletter to get the latest mysteries before they appear online."Any woman born in the samurai status group was a 'female samurai' even if she never picked up a weapon, just as any man born into that status group was a samurai, no matter how wimpy/untrained/etc. he may have been," Sean O'Reilly, a professor of Japan studies at Akita International University, told Live Science in an email.It's unclear how often female samurai fought in battle, however. Women who fought in battle are sometimes called "onna-musha," which translates to "women warriors.""I must say, as an historian, that onnamusha ‪—‬ female warriors ‪—‬ were probably not as frequent or as