- 15 Mar 2003
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So just what is this "Bushido"(way of the warrior) thing we hear about from time to time? The term gets thrown around by historians, martial artists, and samurai-buffs fairly often. But where does it come from and how accurate is it in painting a picture of who and what the samurai are? Can, or does, it impact how some foreigners view what it means to be Japanese?ツ・I hope this thread can become a good discussion on all things samurai, and I would like to start with this bushido thing.
The spark to write this came from a brief discussion on this thread about the warrior sprit of Japan. Many people may have come across one treatise or another on what it means to be a samurai. As forum-ite 窶廴as Oyama, Rikidozanツ・pointed out correctly one of the earliest of these works, Budo Shoshinshu (often translated as "Code of the Warrior," it might also be called "A Primer on [the] Japanese Martial Arts") is a book written by Daidoji Yuzan Taira no Shigesuke was written and discussed during the middle to late Edo period (1603 - 1867).ツ・The closest date I could find for this book was 1720 (this is important later on).
Before we get much farther, samurai, or "bushi" were a class of people in historical Japan whose main role for much of history, up until the early 1600's, was one of fighting. However, battles were not fought only by samurai. Being higher on the social ladder, people from this mainly hereditary class often led divisions of conscripted peasant soldiers.
Daidoji and others wrote for the literate samurai class, and not your average Japanese person. This needs to be kept in mind when trying to gauge just how deeply into society concepts of bushidoツ・spread and were adopted.
First, how accurately does Daidoji's book describe what it means to be a samurai? The samurai class didn't just spring into being with the production of his book. However, I don't think Daidoji just got bored one day and wrote for kicks. Many historians see the Tokugawa era as a time of philosophical upheaval for the samurai. Now at the top of the social pyramid and in a time of great stability (no real combat), samurai were firstly politicians and bureaucrats, and secondly fighting men. The concepts and ideals found in Daidoji窶冱 work were intended for a large part to find a new philosophical direction for the samurai of a peaceful pax-Tokugawaツ・era. They seem to draw little from the actual behaviors and norms of earlier samurai.
Additionally, many of the ideas in Daidoji's work (which can be found online in three parts here ) serve to incorporate the fighting sprit of the samurai into the world for political administration and service to the public. While they stand alongside passages on ways to die well, how to buy a horse, and concepts of warfare, in almost every section we can find lines that are vague enough to apply to any type of employment, martial or administrative.
This is a good one; there are three kinds of warriors serving as retainers to a lord. The first are samurai of devotion, the second are samurai of faithful service, and the third are samurai of both devotion and faithful service.ツ・
Pretty open for interpretation isn't it? By 1720 most warriors would be administrators, magistrates, tax collectors, civil servants and the like. Clothe these tasks in the higher cloaks of devotionツ・and serviceツ・and you have a text that satisfies both retainer and liege-lord alike for any role you choose to name.
I don't mean to imply that Daidoji was a political hack, but he cannot be considered as removed from the environment in which he found himself. It is quite obvious that Daidoji was trying to inspire an elite class of society to maintain their pride in their historical role while also strengthen them to function as effectively as they could in the new social environment.
Other authors have added to the conception of bushido.ツ・Most of them are considered rants and romantic visions of the past. The 窶廩akagureツ・was a similar text also written in the mid 1700's by a man who dreamed about the good olツ・days, or rather what they should have been like, similar to historical fiction or the archetypical western novel of today.
Bushido: The Soul of Japan was written in 1905 by Inazo Nitobe and produced for an English-reading audience by a Japanese scholar of all things western (and who knew very little about the history of Japan). It is widely dismissed as nostalgic propaganda.
All of these texts taken together, with their emphasis on loyalty, self-sacrifice, and other virtues were taken up and modified by the Meiji revolutionaries, themselves samurai, and the nationalist propaganda machines right up until the end World War Two. To modernize and expand Japan, all levels of society had to work towards a common goal and with a single mindset. The concepts written about by Daidoji were applied not just to samurai, but all levels of society. The concept of kokutai(lit. national body) took the samurai-liege lord relations and turned them into subject-emperor perspectives.
It is often through these lenses (nostalgia, nationalism, propaganda, and popular fiction) that some foreigners and some Japanese view bushido. The samurai as a class and real social force have been dead for over 130 years while the essence of the samurai has been milled and altered through the machines of public policy, fiction, and western interpretations for the same length of time. How clear an understanding can we (and even me) say we have for what bushido really means?
The bushido we so often throw around is not something that was passed down through and ageless warrior tradition intact to the present day. Bushido is not something we can universally attach or ascribe to all things Japanese. Its concepts cannot be said to penetrate to all levels of society. Rather bushido acts like the word patriot. It means some kind of general concept, generally agreed to be positive, but which will not mean the same thing to the same people. Is a soldier patriotic? What about the protestor who loves his/her country but doesn't like where it is going? How about the union workers or the big industrialists?
What does bushido mean to the average Japanese person today? You will get as many answers as there are individuals. Some may recognize it as being part of their heritage but have no bearing on their life. Others will find it integral to the perception of self, similar to the way a modern American might view the concept of pioneer spirit.ツ・
That the samurai of old woke up everyday looking forward to death, standing sword in hand bravely against overwhelming numbers simply to die with honor is a misconception perpetuated by romanticists, the movies, and propaganda. Did such acts happen? Sure, but the simple lack of their presence in the historical record is enough to raise serious questions about this stalwart image. Indeed one does not have to look far to find examples of samurai killed while running away, or cunning traps sprung on defenseless adversaries (Musashi Miyamoto, a famous samurai and one popularly associated with bushido, employed such tactics, and had such devices sprung against him). At the end of the day samurai too were only human.
I welcome your comments and ideas. I left many things out and glossed over a bunch of interesting supporting items which were counterproductive to flow. If you are interested in reading further, you can find some more information through the links below. Also, if you want to discuss anything else about the samurai or historical Japan, you can start on this thread, or make your own! Thanks for reading.
The Historical Foundations of Bushido The Historical Foundations of Bushido
Yahoo | Mail, Weather, Search, Politics, News, Finance, Sports & Videos Code of the Warrior
Koryu.com Site Guide good outline of texts
Samurai-archives.com nice little samurai site.
The spark to write this came from a brief discussion on this thread about the warrior sprit of Japan. Many people may have come across one treatise or another on what it means to be a samurai. As forum-ite 窶廴as Oyama, Rikidozanツ・pointed out correctly one of the earliest of these works, Budo Shoshinshu (often translated as "Code of the Warrior," it might also be called "A Primer on [the] Japanese Martial Arts") is a book written by Daidoji Yuzan Taira no Shigesuke was written and discussed during the middle to late Edo period (1603 - 1867).ツ・The closest date I could find for this book was 1720 (this is important later on).
Before we get much farther, samurai, or "bushi" were a class of people in historical Japan whose main role for much of history, up until the early 1600's, was one of fighting. However, battles were not fought only by samurai. Being higher on the social ladder, people from this mainly hereditary class often led divisions of conscripted peasant soldiers.
Daidoji and others wrote for the literate samurai class, and not your average Japanese person. This needs to be kept in mind when trying to gauge just how deeply into society concepts of bushidoツ・spread and were adopted.
First, how accurately does Daidoji's book describe what it means to be a samurai? The samurai class didn't just spring into being with the production of his book. However, I don't think Daidoji just got bored one day and wrote for kicks. Many historians see the Tokugawa era as a time of philosophical upheaval for the samurai. Now at the top of the social pyramid and in a time of great stability (no real combat), samurai were firstly politicians and bureaucrats, and secondly fighting men. The concepts and ideals found in Daidoji窶冱 work were intended for a large part to find a new philosophical direction for the samurai of a peaceful pax-Tokugawaツ・era. They seem to draw little from the actual behaviors and norms of earlier samurai.
Additionally, many of the ideas in Daidoji's work (which can be found online in three parts here ) serve to incorporate the fighting sprit of the samurai into the world for political administration and service to the public. While they stand alongside passages on ways to die well, how to buy a horse, and concepts of warfare, in almost every section we can find lines that are vague enough to apply to any type of employment, martial or administrative.
This is a good one; there are three kinds of warriors serving as retainers to a lord. The first are samurai of devotion, the second are samurai of faithful service, and the third are samurai of both devotion and faithful service.ツ・
Pretty open for interpretation isn't it? By 1720 most warriors would be administrators, magistrates, tax collectors, civil servants and the like. Clothe these tasks in the higher cloaks of devotionツ・and serviceツ・and you have a text that satisfies both retainer and liege-lord alike for any role you choose to name.
I don't mean to imply that Daidoji was a political hack, but he cannot be considered as removed from the environment in which he found himself. It is quite obvious that Daidoji was trying to inspire an elite class of society to maintain their pride in their historical role while also strengthen them to function as effectively as they could in the new social environment.
Other authors have added to the conception of bushido.ツ・Most of them are considered rants and romantic visions of the past. The 窶廩akagureツ・was a similar text also written in the mid 1700's by a man who dreamed about the good olツ・days, or rather what they should have been like, similar to historical fiction or the archetypical western novel of today.
Bushido: The Soul of Japan was written in 1905 by Inazo Nitobe and produced for an English-reading audience by a Japanese scholar of all things western (and who knew very little about the history of Japan). It is widely dismissed as nostalgic propaganda.
All of these texts taken together, with their emphasis on loyalty, self-sacrifice, and other virtues were taken up and modified by the Meiji revolutionaries, themselves samurai, and the nationalist propaganda machines right up until the end World War Two. To modernize and expand Japan, all levels of society had to work towards a common goal and with a single mindset. The concepts written about by Daidoji were applied not just to samurai, but all levels of society. The concept of kokutai(lit. national body) took the samurai-liege lord relations and turned them into subject-emperor perspectives.
It is often through these lenses (nostalgia, nationalism, propaganda, and popular fiction) that some foreigners and some Japanese view bushido. The samurai as a class and real social force have been dead for over 130 years while the essence of the samurai has been milled and altered through the machines of public policy, fiction, and western interpretations for the same length of time. How clear an understanding can we (and even me) say we have for what bushido really means?
The bushido we so often throw around is not something that was passed down through and ageless warrior tradition intact to the present day. Bushido is not something we can universally attach or ascribe to all things Japanese. Its concepts cannot be said to penetrate to all levels of society. Rather bushido acts like the word patriot. It means some kind of general concept, generally agreed to be positive, but which will not mean the same thing to the same people. Is a soldier patriotic? What about the protestor who loves his/her country but doesn't like where it is going? How about the union workers or the big industrialists?
What does bushido mean to the average Japanese person today? You will get as many answers as there are individuals. Some may recognize it as being part of their heritage but have no bearing on their life. Others will find it integral to the perception of self, similar to the way a modern American might view the concept of pioneer spirit.ツ・
That the samurai of old woke up everyday looking forward to death, standing sword in hand bravely against overwhelming numbers simply to die with honor is a misconception perpetuated by romanticists, the movies, and propaganda. Did such acts happen? Sure, but the simple lack of their presence in the historical record is enough to raise serious questions about this stalwart image. Indeed one does not have to look far to find examples of samurai killed while running away, or cunning traps sprung on defenseless adversaries (Musashi Miyamoto, a famous samurai and one popularly associated with bushido, employed such tactics, and had such devices sprung against him). At the end of the day samurai too were only human.
I welcome your comments and ideas. I left many things out and glossed over a bunch of interesting supporting items which were counterproductive to flow. If you are interested in reading further, you can find some more information through the links below. Also, if you want to discuss anything else about the samurai or historical Japan, you can start on this thread, or make your own! Thanks for reading.
The Historical Foundations of Bushido The Historical Foundations of Bushido
Yahoo | Mail, Weather, Search, Politics, News, Finance, Sports & Videos Code of the Warrior
Koryu.com Site Guide good outline of texts
Samurai-archives.com nice little samurai site.
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