Originally Posted by JoeJ
It always seemed to me that Kozakura, the first of the realms to be shown, was strongly influenced by Clavell's Shogun (although possibly as much or more based on the 1980 TV mini-series as the original novel).
In his introduction to the 3.0 Oriental Adventures, James Wyatt writes:

“TSR, Inc. published the first Oriental Adventures just a few years after James Clavell’s novel Shogun aired as a TV miniseries. The legend of the samurai shaped much of the D&D gamer’s concept of what fantasy Asia should and could be, and games such as Bushido brought that vision to life alongside Oriental Adventures.”

Originally Posted by Willie the Duck
I personally feel (feel, not know) that there are a lot of people, particularly in gaming circles, who read up on Genghis Khan and got the takeaway that horse archery is a standout exceptional combat type….
I can’t recall horse archery ever being mentioned at any game I’ve played in, certainly not in 3.5 and Pathfinder. There aren’t a lot of good options for that style in 3.5, and while it might be a little more feasible in Pathfinder, I’ve never seen it come up.

Originally Posted by Max_Killjoy
As evidence that the misconceptions are widespread and influential, I'd point to almost every documentary made about Samurai and Spartans over the last 30 years... and loads of fiction about same...
What are you considering misconceptions?

And what sources are you drawing on that counter these misconceptions?