Although today known only as a domestic species and rare outside Unova, Samurott were once ubiquitous and prized throughout Ransei. Not only were these pokemon known for the disciplined way in which they trained their Oshawott pupils, which inspired many martial arts masters, but in combat they equaled a fully armored samurai in both valor and skill. Their horns in particular were noted for being able to parry swords, and after their deaths were frequently salvaged by human warriors, typically those too poor to afford a katana. In this capacity, Samurott horns were called swords of bone, and were said to be every bit as powerful as their steel counterparts.
Once peace came to Ransei, the shoguns of that region disarmed the peasantry to prevent future rebellions, and the Samurott were victims of that policy. The wild population, already dwindling in that land, was herded into a few reserves which the shogunate could control, but these lands were poor Samurott habitat and if anything accelerated their decline. Domestic Samurott were banned outright except among the samurai aristocracy, but they had access to better weapons, so few saw the need to train them.
When the samurai class was finally abolished with the modernization of what had once been called Ransei (but since fragmented into more familiar names, such as Kanto and Johto), the decline of the Samurott caught the attention of disgruntled ex-samurai, who saw in their disappearance a metaphor for the end of their way of life. Their noble efforts were too late to save the Samurott population in what had been Ransei, but when this fact became clear, the ex-samurai turned their attention to the endangered Unova Samurott; in of the first great international efforts of the conservationist movement, they managed to preserve the Samurott species in captivity.