if you know anything about traditional Japanese culture
its not long before you learn that the Japanese of the 18th and 19th century were MORE pragmatic and LESS romantic than modern.
The romanticism of his Code of the Samourai is an adolescent Western fantasy.
The samorai didn't have the luxury of such delusions. They had to deal with the reality of the situation, which was often a matter of concession and establishing strategic alliances.
Not that idealism in the youth isn't valuable, but it's the luxury of the privileged and sheltered.