Bushido

武士道 Dr. Inazo Nitobe

BUSHIDO The Soul of JapanAn Exposition of Japanese Thought by INAZO

NITOBE• [The First Edition: 1900]

THE LEEDS & BIDDLE CO.Printers and Publishers1019-21 Market St.Philadelphia, Pa.1900http://chiri.let.hokudai.ac.jp/~you/nitobe/data/bushido.htm (Full text)

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武士道 Japanese Chivalry (Bushido) The seven Moral Code

• 武士道の淵源は仏教（禅）の心と神道（忠君、祖先崇拝、親孝行）の調和で , 惻隠の情 (Consideration for enemies and the weak)

を重視する。

• Ｒｅｃｔｉｔｕｄｅ 義　　　Ｒｅｓｐｅｃｔ　尊敬　　• Ｃｏｕｒａｇｅ　　勇　　　Ｂｅｎｅｖ

ｏｌ e ｎｃｅ　仁• Honor 　　　名誉　　 Honesty 　　誠• Loyalty 　　　忠 • Benevolence is man’s mind and Rectitude is his path.

• Ｔｈｅｓｅ ｔｒａｄｉｔｉｏｎａｌ　 moral codes are still highly

estimated in Japanese society. 　

Bushido 　武士道• Bushido actually comes from a

combination of words. "Bushi" which means "Warrior" and "Do" which means way (Gaskin & Hawkins 1994).

• We knew Benevolence was a tender virtue and mother-like. If upright Rectitude and stern Justice were peculiarly masculine, Mercy had the gentleness and the persuasiveness of a feminine nature. We were warned against indulging in indiscriminate charity, without seasoning it with justice and rectitude 　（ Nitobe, 1899)

Bushido spirit in Judo Today 　

Bushido as an ethical system • Chivalry is a flower no less indigenous to the

soil of Japan than its emblem, the cherry blossom; nor is it a dried-up specimen of an antique virtue preserved in the herbarium of our history.

• It is still a living object of power and beauty among us; and if it assumes no tangible shape or form, it not the less scents the moral atmosphere, and makes us aware that we are still under its potent spell. (Nitobe, 1899)

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武士道の淵源は仏教（禅）の心と神道（忠君、祖先崇拝、親孝行）の調和

The Sources of Bushidou influenced by Zen and Shintoism.• Bushido may begin with Buddhism. It

furnished a sense of calm trust in Fate, a quiet submission to the inevitable that stoic composure in sight of danger or calamity, that disdain of life and friendliness with death.

• Zen represents human effort to reach through meditation zones of thought beyond the range of verbal expressions…

• To be convinced of a principle that underlies all phenomena, and if it can, of the Absolute itself, and thus to put oneself in harmony with the Absolute.

Inazou Nitobe (1899) from Bushido

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武士道の淵源は仏教（禅）の心と神道（忠君、祖先崇拝、親孝行）の調和

The Sources of Bushidou influenced by Zen and Shintoism.• What Buddhism failed to give,

Shintoism offered in abundance. Such loyalty to the sovereign, such reverence for ancestral memory, and such filial piety as are not taught by any other creed, were inculcated by the Shinto doctrines, imparting passivity to the otherwise arrogant character of the Samurai.

• Inazou Nitobe (1899) from Bushido

Rectitude of Justice Mencius calls Benevolence man's mind, and Rectitude or

Righteousness his path. "How lamentable," he exclaims, "is it to neglect the path and not pursue it, to lose the mind and not know to seek it again! When men's fowls and dogs are lost, they know to seek for them again, but they lose their mind and do not know to seek for it." Have we not here "as in a glass darkly" a parable propounded three hundred years later in another clime and by a greater Teacher, Who called Himself the Way of righteousness, through whom the lost could be found? But I stray from my point. Righteousness, according to Mencius, is a straight and narrow path which a man ought to take to regain the lost paradise . (Nitobe, 1900)

Rectitude of Justice Even in the latter days of feudalism, when the long

continuance of peace brought leisure into the life of the warrior class, and with it dissipations of all kinds and accomplishments of gentle arts, the epithet Gishi (a man of rectitude) was considered superior to any name that signified mastery of learning or art. The Forty-seven Faithfuls [an event of 1702]---of whom so much is made in our popular education---are known in common parlance as the Forty-seven Gishi . In times when cunning artifice was liable to pass for military tact and downright falsehood for ruse de guerre, this manly virtue, frank and honest, was a jewel that shone the brightest and was most highly praised.

(Nitobe, 1900)

国家の品格　 Masahiko Fujiwara

• I believe the Bushido spirit will save the world ... market fundamentalism is the enemy of Japan, the enemy of humankind.  Math professor and author Masahiko Fujiwara, who says in his best-selling book “A Nation‘s Dignity” that Japanese have become obsessed with wealth as a result of an Americanization that knows no end. (Reuters) Friday, May 5, 2006 at 03:00 EDT

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Bushido Today• The "animating spirit," Yamato Damashi, is

a "guiding principle" Nitobe equates with bushido. There seems to be little doubt that Nitobe's work influenced twentieth-century Japanese self-conceptions of the ideal type: "The Soul of Japan ...

• http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-3438513/Inazo-Nitobe-Bushido-the-Soul.html

Judo as extra-curricular activities in High School life

Judo for children in Japan

Bushido spirit in Karate

Bushido today • After World War ＩＩ , a new warrior rose from the ashes

of the Japanese Soldier. Business families called Zaibatsu 財閥 were the new keepers of the Bushido Code (Clark 1996). Loyalty to the company became a new value in the modern world. A more popular Zaibatsu that you may know is Mitsubishi (Three Diamonds) (Watkins n.d.).Also, after being caught in the act of corruption, several Japanese officials have been reported to resign their positions in government. Another example of Bushido today is how many Japanese martial arts still name their schools after the Bushido code. This can be seen as an attempt to promote the values of the warrior.

• Welcome to my site, JapaneseBushido.org. My name is Sarah, and I am a San Francisco resident with a passion for Japanese History. Japanese Bushido has been an interest of mine for sometime. If you have any questions or comments on my site, please email sarah@savephoenix.org.

Ｂｕｓｈｉｄｏ

• Very strongly recommended reading for students of Japanese cultural history and the martial arts, Bushido: The Soul of Japan is a powerful presentation and a moving book with ideas as relevant today as they were 100 years ago. ...

• www.amazon.com/Bushido-Soul-Japan-Bushido-Warrior/dp/4770027311 - 320k -