Inazo Nitobe "Bushido"

[Mikawa Ossan]

-Chapter 10 The Education and Training of a Samurai - continued

A subject of study which one would expect to find in military education and which is rather conspicuous by its absence in the Bushido course of instruction, is mathematics.
This, however, can be readily explained in part by the fact that feudal warfare was not carried on with scientific precision.
Not only that, but the whole training of the samurai was unfavourable to fostering numerical notions.
Chivalry is uneconomical: it boasts of penury.
It says with Ventidius that "ambition, the soldier's virtue, rather makes choice of loss, than gain which darkens him."
Don Quixote takes more pride in his rusty spear and skin-and-bone horse than in gold and lands, and a samurai is in hearty sympathy with his exaggerated confrere of La Mancha.
He disdains money itself,--the art of making or hoarding it.
It was to him veritably filthy lucre.
The hackneyed expression to describe the decadence of an age was "that the civilians loved money and the soldiers feared death."
Niggardliness of gold and of life excited as much disapprobation as their lavish use was panegyrised.
"Less than all things," says a current precept, "men must grudge money: it is by riches that wisdom is hindered."
Hence children were brought up with utter disregard of economy.
It was considered bad taste to speak of it, and ignorance of the value of different coins was a token of good breeding.
Knowledge of numbers was indispensable in the mustering of forces as well as in distribution of benefices and fiefs; but the counting of money was left to meaner hands.
In many feudatories, public finance was administered by a lower kind of samurai or by priests.
Every thinking bushi knew well enough that money formed the sinews of war; but he did not think of raising the appreciation of money to a virtue.
It is true that thrift was enjoined by Bushido, but not for economical reasons so much as for the exercise of abstinence.
Luxury was thought the greatest menace to manhood and severest simplicity of living was required of the warrior class, sumptuary laws being enforced in many of the clans.

Next -Chapter 10 The Education and Training of a Samurai- continued again

 

[Mikawa Ossan]

Next -Chapter 10 The Education and Training of a Samurai- continued again

Not so with the Precepts of Knighthood.
It persisted in systematically regarding finance as something low--low as compared with moral and intellectual vocations.
Money and the love of it being thus diligently ignored, Bushido itself could long remain free from a thousand and one evils of which money is the root.

Of the three services of studies that Bacon gives,--for delight, ornament, and ability,--Bushido had decided preference for the last, where their use was "in judgment and the disposition of business."
Whether it was for the dispostion of public business or for the exercise of self-control, it was with a practical end in view that education was conducted.
"Learing without thought," said Confucius, "is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous."
When character and not intelligence, when the soul and not the head, is chosen by a teacher for the material to work upon and to develop, his vocation partakes of a sacred character.
"It is the parent who has borne me; it is the teacher who makes me man."
With this idea, therefore, the exteem in which one's precerptor was held was very high.
A man to evoke such confidence and respect from the young, must necessarily be endowed with superior personality, without lacking erudition.
He was a father to the fatherless, and an adviser to the erring.
"Thy father and thy mother."--so runs our maxim--"are like heaven and earth; thy teacher and thy lord are like the sun and the moon."
The present system of paying for every sort of service was not in vogue among many adherents of Bushido.
It believed in a servce which can be rendered only without money and without price.
Spiritual Service, be it of a priest or teacher, was not to be repaid in gold or silver, not because it was valueless, but because it was invaluabe.
Here the non-arithmetical honour-instinct of Bushido taught a truer lesson than modern Polical Economy; for wages and salaries can be paid only for services whose results are definite, tangible, and measureable, whereas the best service done in education,--namely, in soul development (and this includes the services of a pastor), is not definite, tangible, or measurable. Being immeasuable, money, the ostensible measure of value, is of inadequate use.

They were grave personifications of high spirits undaunted by adversity.
They were an embodiment of what was considered as an end of all learning, and were thus a living example of that discipline of disciplines, self-control, which was universally required of samurai.

Next -Chapter 11 Self-Control-

 

[osias]

i just started to read this book

 

[Mikawa Ossan]

-Chapter 11 Self-Control-

The discipline of fortitude on the one hand, inculcating endurance without a groan, and the teaching of politeness on the other, requiring us not to mar the pleasure or serenity of another by expressions of our own sorrow or pain, combined to engender a stocial turn of mind, and eventually to confirm it into a national trait of apparent stoicism.
I say apparent stoicism, because I do not believe that true stoicism can ever become the characteristic of a whole nation, and also because some of our national manners and customs may seem to a foreign observer hard-hearted.
Yet we are realy as susceptible to tender emotion as any race under the sky.

I am inclined to think that in one sense we have to feel more than others--yes, doubly more--since the very attempt to restrain natural promptings entail suffering.

It was considered unmanly for a samurai to betray his emotions on his face.
"He shows no sign of joy or anger," was a phrase used, in describing a great character.
The most natural affections were kept under control.
A father could embrace his son only at the expense of his dignity; a husband would not kiss his wife,--no, not in the presence of other people, whatever he might do in private!

To give in so many articulate works one's inmost thoughts and feelings--notably the religious--is taken among us as an unmistakable sign that they are neither very profound nor very sincere.
"Only a pomegranate is he"--so runs a popular saying "who, when he gapes his mouth, displays the contents of his heart."
It is not altogether perverseness of oriental minds that the instant our emotions are moved, we try to guard our lips in order to hide them.
Speech is very often with us, as the Frenchman defines it, "the art of concealing thought."

Indeed, the Japanese have recourse to risibility whenever the frailties of human nature are put to severest test.

NEXT -Chapter 11 Self-Control- continued

 

[Mikawa Ossan]

-Chapter 11 Self-Control- continued

Personally, I believe it was our very excitability and sensitiveness which made it a necessity to recognise and enforce constant self-repression; but whatever may be the explanation, without taking into account long years of descipline in self-control, none can be correct.
Discipline in self-control can easily go to far.
It can well repress the genial current of the soul.
It can force pliant natures into distortions and monstrosities.
It can beget bigotry, breed hyprocrisy, or hebetate affections.
Be a virtue never so noble, it has its counterpart and counterfeit.
We must recognise in each virtue its own positive excellence and follow its positive ideal, and the ideal of self-restraint is to keep the mind level--as our expression is--or, to borrow a Greek term, attain the state of euthymia, which Democritus called the highest good.

The acme and pitch of self-control is reached and best illustrated in the first of the two institutions which we shall now bring to view, namely, the institutions of suicide and redress.

next -Chapter 12 The Institutions of Suicide and Redress-

 

[Mikawa Ossan]

-Chapter 12 The Institutions of Suicide and Redress-

Of these two institutions (the former known as hara-kiri and the latter as kataki-uchi), many foreign writers have treated more or less fully.
To begin with suicide, let me state that I confine my observations only to seppuku or kappuku, popularly known as hara-kiri--which means self-immolation by disembowelment.

Not for extraneous associations only does seppuku lose in our mind any taint of absurdity; for the choice of this particular part of the body to operate upon, was based on an old anatomical belief as to the seat of the soul and of the affections.

Modern neurologists speak of the abdominal and pelvic brains, denoting thereby sympathetic nerve centres in those parts which are strongly affected by any psychical action.
This view of mental physiology once admitted, the syllogism of seppuku is easy to construct.
"I will open the seat of my soul and show you how it fares with it. See for yourself whether it is polluted or clean."
I do not wish to be understood in asserting religious or even moral justification of suicide, but the high estimate placed upon hounour was ample excuse with many for taking one's life.

Death involving a question of honour, was accepted in Bushido as a key to the solution of many complex problems, so that to an ambitious samurai a natural departure from life seemed a rather tame affair and a consummation not devoutly to be wished for.

An invention of the middle ages, it was a process by which warriors could expiate their crimes, apologise for errors, escape from disgrace, redeem their friends, or prove their sincerity.
When enforced as a legal punishment, it was practised with due ceremony.
It was a refinement of self-destruction, and none could perform it without the utmost coolness of temper and composure of demeanour, and for these reasons it was particularly befitting the profession of bushi.

The glorification of seppuku offered, naturally enough, no small temptation to its unwarranted committal.
For causes entirely incompatible with reason, or for reasons entirely undeserving of death, hot-headed youths rushed into it as insects fly into fire; mixed and dubious motives drove more samurai to this deed than nuns into convent gates.

next -Chapter 12 The Institutions of Suicide and Redress- continued

 

[GodEmperorLeto]

Such men are becoming an even rarer breed. He is the one that does not vocalize long 'eeeeeeeeeh' or 'oooooooh' of surprise for every little trivial fact revealed on TV. These values seem all but lost in modern Japanese society.

Consider how bushido is the "soul of Japan," in conjunction with Mishima Yukio's claim that Japan has "lost it's soul", and was a fervent follower of bushido and revered the emperor.

The very posting of this by Mikawa Ossan is, in many ways, a scathing, though unintentional, commentary on Japanese modern society. Mishima would be proud.

An invention of the middle ages, it was a process by which warriors could expiate their crimes, apologise for errors, escape from disgrace, redeem their friends, or prove their sincerity.
When enforced as a legal punishment, it was practised with due ceremony.
It was a refinement of self-destruction, and none could perform it without the utmost coolness of temper and composure of demeanour, and for these reasons it was particularly befitting the profession of bushi.

In some ways, enforcing it as a legal punishment cheapened it. Then again, I'm not Japanese, so who am I to judge?

Although never an institution, suicide has a few interesting parallels in Western culture. Although frowned upon by Christianity, and in many Western countries seen as a form of cowardice, the ancient Romans saw the practice as wholly acceptable as well. However, their view of suicide included it as a form of contempt, as per Cato the Younger's self-disembowelment to "rob Caesar of the glory of pardoning him", as well as a form of political protest (the refusal to live under a monarchy, for example). Honor (read dignitas) was incredibly important to the Romans.

 

[Index]

Ignore this post

 

[ricecake]

I've recently purchased Chinese language translation of this book,a good read for those interest in Japanese mentality.

Japanese people are more highly self-displined than Koreans and Chinese.

 

[Mikawa Ossan]

-Chapter 12 The Institutions of Suicide and Redress- continued

And yet, for a true samurai to hasten death or to court it, was alike cowardice.

This, then, was the Bushido teaching--Scar and face all calamities and adversities with patience and a pure conscience; for, as Mencius taught, "When Heaven is about to confer a great office on anyone, it first exercises his mind with suffering and his sinews and bones with toil; it exposes his body to hunger and subjects him to extreme poverty; and it confounds his undertakings. In all these ways it stimulates his mind, hardens his nature, and supplies his incompetencies."
True honour lies in fulfilling Heaven's decree and no death incurred in so doing is ignominious, whereas, death to avoid what Heaven has in store is cowardly indeed!

We will now see whether its sister institution of Redress--or call it Revenge, if you will--has its mitigating features.

"What is the most beautiful thing on earth?" said Osiris to Horus.
The reply was, "to avenge a parent's wrongs,"--to which a Japanese would have added "and a master's."

Our sense of revenge is as exact as out mathematical faculty, and until both terms of the equation are satisfied we cannot get over the sense of something left undone.

The master of the forty-seven Ronins was condemned to death; he had no court of higher instance to appeal to; his faithful retainers addressed themselves to vengeance, the only Supreme Court existing; they in their turn were condemned by common law,--but the popular instinct passed a different judgement, and hence their memory is still kept as green and fragrant as are their graves at Sengakuji to this day.

Though Lao-tse taught to recompense injury with kindness, the voice of Confucius was very much louder, which taught that injury must be recompensed with justice;--and yet revenge was justified only when it was undertaken in behalf of our superiors and benefactors.

Next -Chapter 13 The Sword, The Soul of the Samurai-

 

[Uchite]

I read this book many years ago and enjoyed it very much. It really can be helpful in understanding how "old" Japan and "new" Japan are so different in so many ways.

Another good book somewhat similar to it is Hagakure: The Book Of The Samurai by Yamamoto Tsunetomo. Somewhat more difficult to understand at times. But full of great advice that is timeless such as:


"One should be careful and not say things that are likely to cause trouble at the time. When some difficulty arises in this world, people get excited, and before one knows it the matter is on everyone's lips. This is useless. If worse comes to worse, you may become the subject of gossip, or at least you will have made enemies by saying something unnecessary and will have created ill will. It is said that at such a time it is better to stay at home and think of poetry."

And:

"A person who knows but a little will put on an air of knowledpe. This is a matter of inexperience. When someone knows something well, it will not be seen in his manner. This person is genteel."

 

[Mikawa Ossan]

-Chapter 13 The Sword, The Soul of the Samurai-

Bushido made the sword its emblem of power and prowess.
When Mahomet proclaimed that "the sword is the key of Heaven and of Hell," he only echoed a Japanese sentiment.
Very early the samurai boy learned to wield it.
It was a momentous occasion for him when at the age of five he was apparelled in the paraphernalia of samurai costumes placed upon a go-board and initiated into the rights of the military professions by having thrust into his girdle a real sword instead of the toy dirk with which he had been playing.
After this first ceremony of adoptio per arma, he was no more to be seen outside his father's gates without this badge of status, even though it was usually substituted for everyday wear by a gilded wooden dirk.
Not many years pass before he wears constantly the genuine steel, though blunt, and then the sham arms are thrown aside and with enjoyment keener than his newly acquired blades, he marches out to try their edge on wood and stone.
When he reaches man's estate, at the age of fifteen, being given independence of action, he can now pride himself upon the possession of arms sharp enough for any work.
The very possession of the dangerous instrument imparts to him a feeling and an air of self-respect and responsibility.
"He beareth not the sword in vain."
What he carries in his belt is a symbol of what he carries in his mind and heart, --loyalty and honour.
The two swords, the longer and the shorter,--called respectively daito and shoto or katana and wakizashi,--never leave his side.
When at home, they grace the most conspicuous place in the study or parlour; by night they guard his pillow within easy reach of his hand.
Constant companions, they are beloved, and proper names of endearment given them.
Being venerated, they are well-nigh worshipped.

next -Chapter 13 The Sword, The Soul of the Samuarai- continued

 

[kamaru]

I saw a BBC documentary recently about what the Muslims "gave us". But almost everything we owe to the Muslims are translations of Ancient Greco-Roman books (esp. the works of Aristotle). Europe also obtained the Indian numbers and Chinese black powder from the Arabs.

MISSING FACTS- MISSING FACTS- MISSING FACTS- MISSING FACTS
Europe has actually inherited much more from the Arabs. In fact Algebra was created by the Arabs ( the word algebra is derived from the name of an Arab scientist), Astronomy was a lead topic of study in the Arab world and the Arabs gave Europe the Arabic numbers while the Indian numbers are used by the Arabs, besides,the 0 ( zero is derived from the Arabic pronunciation) was an Arabic invention and a revolutionnary one ...
MISSING FACTS- MISSING FACTS- MISSING FACTS- MISSING FACTS

 

[Mikawa Ossan]

-Chapter 13 The Sword, The Soul of the Samuarai- continued

The swordsmith was not a mere artisan but an inspired artist and his workshop a sanctuary.
Daily he commenced his craft with prayer and purification, or, as the phrase was, "he committed his soul and spirit into the forging and tempering of the steel."
Every swing of the sledge, every plunge into water, every friction on the grandstone, was a religious act of no slight import.
Was it the spirit of the master or of his tutelary god that cast a formidable spell over our sword?

Harmless were its mission, if it only remained a thing of beauty and joy!
But, ever within reach of the hand, it presented no small temptation for abuse.

Too often did the blade flash forth from its peaceful sheath.
The abuse sometimes went so far as to try the acquired steel on some harmless creature's neck.
The question that concerns us most is, however,--Did Bushido justify the promiscuous use of the weapon?
The answer is unequivocally, no!

As it laid great stress on its proper use, so did it denounce and abhor its misuse.
A dastard or a braggartwas he who brandished his weapon on undeserved occasions.
A self-possessed man knows the right time to use it, and such times come but rarely.

The popular apothegm--"To be beaten is to conquer," meaning true conquest consists in not opposing a riotous foe; and "The best won victory is that obtained without shedding of blood," and others of similar import--will show that after all the ultimate ideal of knighthood was peace.

-Next: Chapter 14 The Training and Position of Woman-

 

[Mikawa Ossan]

-Chapter 14 The Training and Position of Woman-

The female half of our species has sometimes been called the paragon of paradoxes, because the intuitive working of its mind is beyond the comprehension of men's "arithmetical understanding."
The Chinese ideogram denoting "the mysterious," "the unknowable," consistists of two parts, one meaning "young" and the other "woman," because of the physical charms and delicate thoughts of the fair sex are above the coarse mental calibre of our sex to explain.
In the Bushido ideal of woman, however, there is little mystery and only a seeming paradox.
I have said that it was Amazonian, but that is only half the truth.

Without confining the sphere of woman's activity to Kuche, Keirche, Kinder, as the present German Kaiser is said to do, the Bushido ideal of womanhood was pre-eminently domestic.
These seeming contradictions:--domesticity and Amazonian traits--are not inconsistent with the Percepts of Knighthood, as we shall see.
Bushido being a teaching primarily intended for the masculine sex, the virtues it prized in woman were naturally far from being distinctly feminine.

Bushido similarly praised those women most "who emancipated themselves from the frailty of their sex and displayed an heroic fortitude worthy of the strongest and bravest of men."
Young girls, therefore, were trained to repress their feelings, to indurate their nerves, to manipulate weapons--especially the long-handled sword called nagi-nata, so as to be able to hold their own against unexpected odds.
Yet the primary motive for exercise of this martial character was not for use in the field; it was twofold--personal and domestic.
Woman owning no suzerain of her own, formed her own body-guard.
With her weapon she guarded her personal sanctity with as much zeal as her husband did his master's.
The domestic utility of her warlike training was in the education of her sons, as we shall see later.

Fencing and similar exercises, if rarely of practical use, were a wholesome counterbalance to the otherwise sedentary habits of women.
But these exercises were not followed only for hygienic purposes.
They could be turned into use in times of need.
Girls, when they reached womanhood, were presented with dirks (kai-ken, pocket poniards), which might be directed to the bosom of their assailants, or, if advisable, to their own.

-Next: Chapter 14 The Training and Position of Woman continued-

 

[Mikawa Ossan]

-Chapter 14 The Training and Position of Woman- continued

Accomplishments and the gentler graces of life were required of them.
Music, dancing, and literature were not neglected.
Some of the finest verses in our literature were expressions of feminine sentiments; in fact, woman played an important role in the history of Japanese belles-lettres.
Dancing was taught (I am speaking of samurai girls and not of geisha) only to smooth the angularity of their movements.
Music was to regale the weary hours of their fathers and husbands; hence it was not for the technique, the art as such, that music was learned; for the ultimate object was purification of heart, since it was said that no harmony of sound is attainable without the player's heart being in harmony with itself.

The accomplishments of our women were not acquired for show or social ascendancy.
They were a home diversion; and if they shone in social parties, it was as the attributes of a hostess--in other words, as a part of the household contrivance for hospitality.

Woman's surrender of herself to the good of her husband, home, and family, was as willing and honourable as the man's self-surrender to the good of his lord and country.
Self-renunciation, without which no life-enigma can be solved, was the key-note of the loyalty of man as well as of the domesticity of woman.
She was no more the slave of man than was her husband of his liege-lord, and the part she played was recognised as naijo, "the inner help."

In the ascending scale of service stood woman, who annihilated herself for man, that hemight annihilate himself for the master, that he in turn might obey Heaven.
I know the weakness of this teaching and the superiority of Christianity is nowhere more manifested than here, in that it requires of each and every living soul direct responsibility to its Creator.
Nevertheless, as far as the doctrine of service--the serving of a cause higher than one's own self, even at the sacrifice of one's individuality; I say the doctrine of service, which is the greatest that Christ preached and was the sacred key-note of His mission--so far as that is concerned, Bushido was based on eternal truth.
My readers will not accuse me of undue prejudice in favour of slavish surrender of volition.

I accept in a large measure the view advanced and defended with breadth of learning and profundity of thoughy by Hegel, that history is the enfolding and realisation of freedom.
The point I wish to make is that the whole teaching of Bushido was so thoroughly imbued with the spirit of self-sacrifice, that it was required not only of woman but of man.

-Next: Chapter 14 The Training and Position of Woman continued (pt.2)-

 

[Mikawa Ossan]

-Chapter 14: The Training and Position of Woman- continued pt. 2

I shall be guilty of gross injustice to historical truth if my words give a very low opinion of the status of woman under Bushido.
I do not hesitate to state that she was not treated as man's equal; but, until we learn to discriminate between differences nd inequalities, there will always be misunderstandings upon this subject.

In view of the manifold variety of requisites for making each sex fulfil its earthly mission, the standard to be adopted in measuring its relative position must be of a composite character; or to borrow from economic language, it must be a multiple standard.
Bushido had a standard of its own and it was binomial.
It tried to gauge the value of woman on the battle-field and by the hearth.
There she counted for very little; here for all.
The treatment accorded her corresponded to this double measurement;--as a social-political unit not much, while as wife and mother she received highest respect and deepest affection.

Next -Chapter 15: The Influence of Bushido-

 

[Dogen Z]

Video: Soul of the Samurai

I overlooked this thread when I posted the video on this topic on another bushido thread. Actually, it should have gone here because it is about Nitobe's book.

To make amends, I'm posting the link here: http://video.google.com/videoplay?d...GMwgP1ksDHDQ&q=soul+of+the+samura+japan&hl=en

 

[noraemon]

I think that this video studies the history of Japan well. However, a little wrong place : though it is.

It is not the Emperor Tenmu to have abolished nation's armed forces. It is the Emperor Kanmu.
The reason why the Emperor abolished nation's armed forces is that the Emperor and a noble disliked impurity.
The impurity is dirty things such as death / blood / dirtiness / dishonesty.
Blood considered to be dirty because it was related to killing.The reason is because it suggests death.
Therefore the armed forces were considered to be impurity.

However, the criminal of the bandit and the burglar, etc. happened frequently because armed forces had been abolished.
Therefore it is a samurai to have been born.
It is Samurai's start that a local powerful clan and a powerful farmer bore arms.
It is the eighth century.

The position of the samurai was low first.
Afterwards, Samurai picks up stream.It became emperor's attendant.
It is Samurai because it attended on the emperor.
"attending" is called "さぶらう/saburau" in ancient Japanese.
Pronunciation of "さぶらう/saburau" changed, and it came to be said "さむらい/samurai" before long.

It is the twelfth century that a samurai becomes a Japanese substantial best man of power.
The Emperor（tennou-heika） is the best man of power nominally until the Meiji era for 2000 years.

 

[Dogen Z]

Thank you for noting your concerns, Noraemon. However, your claims seem to be minor, and somewhat unverifiable; so we will stick with Dr. Nitobe's account of history.

And instead of being coy, I'll post the vid

[google]1904491468220255450&ei=h1lFSor7IZGMwgP1ksDHDQ&q=soul+of+the+samura+japan&hl=en[/google]

 

[noraemon]

Thank you for noting your concerns, Noraemon. However, your claims seem to be minor, and somewhat unverifiable; so we will stick with Dr. Nitobe's account of history.

Is my claim minor?
Which part of my claim is not recognized?

About the origin of the samurai, there are various opinions.
However, I think that there are many Japanese agreeing to my claim.
For the birth of the samurai, nation's armed forces must be abolished.
There should be a reason for it.
My claim can explain it.

There is not the country where there are not the armaments in history.
The reason is because it is necessary to keep property and life.
The armaments in place of the armed forces were necessary for Japan which abolished the armed forces of the country.
It is a samurai.

I explain it a little in detail.
It is necessary to know an ancient Japanese manorial system.
The samurai was allowed to be born to defend Fujiwara clan 's manor.

If my English is good, I can explain it better.....

 

[Mikawa Ossan]

-Chapter 15: The Influence of Bushido-

Thus far we have brought into view only a few of the more prominent peaks which rise above the range of knightly virtues, in themselves so much more elevated than the general level of our national life.
As the sun in its rising first tips the highest peaks with russet hue, and then gradually casts its rays on the valleys below, so the ethical system which first enlightened the military order drew in course of time followers from amongst the masses.
Democracy raises up a natural prince for its leader, and aristocracy infuses a princely spirit among the people.
Virtues are no less contagious than vices.
"There needs but one wise man in a company, and all are wise, so rapid is the contagion," says Emerson.
No social class or caste can resist the diffusive power of moral influence.

What Japan was she owed to the samurai.
They were not only the flower of the nation, but its root as well.
All the gracious gifts of Heaven flowed through them.
Though they kept themselves socially aloof from the populace, they set a moral standard for them and guided them by their example.
I admit Bushido had its esoteric and exoteric teachings; these were eudemonic, looking after the welfare and happiness of the commonality; those where aretaic, emphasising the practice of virtues for their own sake.

The innumerable avenues of popular amusement and instruction--the theatres, the story-tellers' booths, the preachers' dais, the musical recitations, the novels,--have taken for their chief theme the stories of the samurai.

The samurai gre to be the beau ideal of the whole race. "As among flowers the cherry is queen, so among men the samurai is lord," so sang the populace.
Debarred from commercial pursuits, the military class itself did not aid commerce; but there was no channel of human activity, no avenue of thought, which did not receive in some measure an impetus from Bushido.
Intellectual and moral Japan was directly or indirectly the work of Knighthood.

Next -Chapter 15: The Influence of Bushido- continued

 

[Dogen Z]

Early Samurai

I ran across this link the other day and thought it might be of interest to someone who's studying the subject. It seems well researched, and looks like good resource material - perhaps more detailed in certain areas than Nitobe's book. (Sorry for the intrusion Mikawa san.)

http://books.google.com/books?id=Fx...e=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false

There's lot of material in this "preview".

 

[Dogen Z]

Sengoku Bushu

A resurgence in interest in the Sengoku Period seems to be on the uptrend among young adults in Japan nowadays. But it's not just olden days samurais that are popular, one of the most popular dudes is Sakamoto Ryoma . He's the focus of the current NHK drama series with Masaharu Fukuyama in the starring role. He was unusually bright and helped Japan to turn to the modern era. Unfortunately, he was assassinated when he was just 36years old. A lot of Sakamoto Ryoma paraphernalia is being sold in stores in Tokyo. Tokyu Hands has a section selling T-shirts saying, "Ryoma used a Smith & Wesson," which is true.