> Yes, this is true after the Tokugawa shogunate was established. I
don't
> recall the exact name of the law but it was "Kill and Go Away" in
which
> anyone of the samurai caste could kill a peasant if they were
> 'sufficiently provoked' -- the sufficiently varried from samurai to
> samurai.
I believe, however, that the reverse also applied. If the samurai initiated the combat and the peasant killed HIM (in an honourable fasion, no muskets allowed), the peasant had done no wrong, as clearly the samurai was unworthy...
As to the likelihood of the (mostly unarmed) peasant winning... slim, I think.
Wulf
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