Re: How (un)realistic are Street Samurai?
Since the first time I recall ever hearing the term "Street Samurai" was way back when I first played Shadowrun I decided to dig out my (dusty) Shadowrun 1st Edition and look at the pictures.
There was a short story in the introduction involving Ghost, the SS, Sally the Mage and Dodger the Decker.
The Mage was the only one with a sword and that for magical purposes.
IIRC in a later short story Ghost was carrying a "bowie knife" but it was intended more as a tool than anything else.
In the cookie cutter pre-made Archtype section the SS has in his equipment list by way of weaponry an Ares Predator heavy pistol, an Uzi III with smartlink, partial heavy armor and a stun baton. The only blades listed are retractable hand razors as part of his cyberware.
People tend to associate the katana with samurai but it's not there in the genre.
Okay maybe I was wrong about where I first heard the term, there was a reference in one of Gibsons short stories to a "jumped up street samurai" who had a monofilament whip in his thumb and in Count Zero one of the protagonists whose name I can't recall at the moment was also described as a street samurai though he never touched anything with a blade in that story