Outside of pitched battles, non samurai weren’t allowed to hold weapons much less swords. Peasant levies could be called on for the defense of a land, but they

Outside of pitched battles, non samurai weren’t allowed to hold weapons much less swords. Peasant levies could be called on for the defense of a land, but they were just temporary troops. Retainers and bodyguards defend the title of their lord, and were essentially always of the samurai class. If you were recruited as a peasant for the job, then you became the class. It’s not like medieval Europe where you have to be officially knighted to join the class. The equivalents of man at arms and mercenaries were also of the samurai class. So as a cross poster said: the man was officially taken as a bodyguard to the daimyo, received a household, and was presented with a katana. Thus for all intents and purposes he’s a samurai. There’s just no other class permitted to do that job. Edit: It would also be a grave insult for a samurai to be protected by a non samurai. To claim the lord, a noble warrior, requires a mere peasant to protect him… well that’s not permissible. So the daimyos bodyguard will be recognized as a samurai at least within his own lands.