Samurai

the ultimate reward is honor, not awards

Jin is all samurai. You can see it in his piercing gaze, his traditional attire, his dignified stance, his courteous yet aloof nature. His two swords -- the marks of his class -- are his very soul; you might as well kill him before taking them from him. He fights with grace and skill; everything about him speaks discipline and hard work. He's even named after one of the seven virtues meaning "benevolence".

Yet when it comes to bushido -- the samurai code of honor -- Jin has a radically different take on loyalty.

Part of bushido entails complete and utter devotion to one's lord. Most samurai were bound to serve a lord; those without one were considered rounin -- masterless wanderers -- like Jin. Although he is consistently looked down upon as a "third-rate samurai" throughout the series, he doesn't seem to mind this -- after all, he's got the skills to disprove it -- he would prefer to be looked at like a worthless vagrant than give his unconditional loyalty to a man who doesn't deserve it.

Ironically -- despite his disparaged rounin status -- it could be said that Jin's sense of honor is stronger than that of the men around him. He notes that many of these so-called 'honorable' samurai are devoting themselves to a man who does not have much honor to begin with. In fact, as he later says, he never found a second master because all the lords were solely concerned with themselves.

Accordingly, Jin was the first to protest when his sensei, Mariya Enshirou, told him that the dojo would be forced into becoming a school of assassins. Such a move would change the nature of kenjutsu -- it would no longer be an honorable martial art, but another tool for the corrupt lords. Incidentally, it was Jin's opposition that caused him to accidentally murder Mariya, and what put him on the road as a vagrant.