Bushido: The Soul of Japan or Code of the Samurai
This month I decided to take a look at Japan, starting with this weeks book Bushido: The Soul of Japan aka Code of the Samurai by Inazo Nitobe. So lets do this!
The book starts with a bang, as Nitobe states right off “Chivalry is a flower no less indigenous to the soil of Japan than its emblem, the cherry blossom.”
Which makes sense. He’s writing this book for a western audience. If you doubt that, note that throughout he references western works of literature and western history to draw parallels to Japanese culture. This book was initially written in 1899, the preface was signed as Malvern, PA. So, this book is to introduce westerner’s to what at the time was largely seen as an insular society, in both senses of the word, it’s both an island, and an inward looking perspective. The book was massively timely in it’s release, since September 5, 1905 would see the Treaty of Portsmouth signed in New Hampshire, under President Theodore Roosevelt, which officially ended the Russo-Japanese War.
So Bushido, is the code of chivalry under which the Samurai lived. And Nitobe undertakes to explain to western culture what is Japanese chivalry. Chivalry, which some people claim is dead in the West, is defined as
1. The medieval system, principles, and customs of knighthood.
2. The qualities idealized by knighthood, such as bravery, courtesy, honor, and gallantry toward women.
3. A manifestation of any of these qualities
This is no different. Nitobe explains not the differences between eastern and western chivalry, but how the Japanese defines chivalry.
In Japan, Bushido is an ethical system. But where did it come from? Nitobe says “It may begin with Buddhism.” A sense of inevitable fate. What will be will be. It is what it is. The knowledge that you can’t, in fact, control everything. And what was not found in Buddhism, was found in Shinto. “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.” Shintoism includes Patriotism and Loyalty. No wonder Japan and America sparked a love affair a few months ago with Elon Musk started including auto translate.
Confucius...from China...plays a role too. Which is slightly less surprising to me following my reading of The World’s Religions by Huston Smith last year.
The first precept of Bushido is...Rectitude. Or Justice. But really, while the two words are closely related, Rectitude is not just Justice. It’s morally upright and being correct in judgment. Wisdom might be another synonym. So someone who has high morals and wisdom in judgment. As Nitobe says “This is the most cogent precept in the code of the samurai.”
Courage in spirit is important, but mostly if it’s used in a cause of Righteousness. One could argue it takes courage to rob a store, but is that a Righteous cause?
Benevolence, kindness towards others. In the west we think of Samurai as wholly fierce warrior class. And to other Samurai, sure. But benevolence is one of the virtues of Bushido. Politeness...as the saying goes, courtesy costs nothing. But being impolite is a mark of low class. Politeness is so ingrained in Japanese culture that, remembering this book was initially published in 1899, in 2026 Japan is still known for “Courtesy and urbanity of manners has been noticed by every foreign tourist…”
Tell the truth, in all things. Equivocation is cowardly. Own your mistakes and be truthful in the telling of the story. Truth is stranger than fiction and should always be spoken. NOTE: Truth...not YOUR truth, THE truth. Whatever postmodernist bullshit created the idea of Your Truth did a grave disservice to kids these days. YOUR truth makes it all too easy to lie. Which will lead to a loss of honor. Which is the next Bushido code. Honor is everything.
Honor your parents. Honor your family. Honor allows you to avoid shame. Nitobe says “The first and worst punishment which befell humanity in consequence of tasting “the fruit of that forbidden tree” was, to my mind, not the sorrow of childbirth, nor the thorns and thistles, but the awakening of the sense of shame.” I never thought of it before, but he’s right. Shame is what you feel when you know you have behaved dishonorably. When you know you have done something you should not have done. Like lying to your parents. That one time you were thoughtlessly rude to the clerk in the store. Some people feel no shame about those things. But it’s easy to see they have no honor.
Duty of loyalty. He tells a dark story in this chapter, about Michizane, who is exiled after being a victim of jealousy and calumny. Michizane’s enemies then go looking for his son, who is being held by a loyal vassal in a village school. The day comes when the schoolmaster of the village is ordered to produce the head of Michizane’s son. The vassal who was guarding the boy used his own son as decoy, in loyalty to his master.
Nitobe is well aware of how horrifying this sounds to western cultures. What! Genzo, the vassal, sacrificed his own son….cut off his own sons head! To save his lord Michizane’s son?! WHAT! In the Japanese story, Genzo’s son was given the choice. And CHOSE to sacrifice himself. The family decided as a whole, and the sacrifice was accepted. Compare this with the biblical story of Abraham and Isaac. Perhaps it says something of Western culture that we needed a God who was willing to soften and allow a sheep to be sacrificed in the end to save Isaac.
This story of loyalty raises the question of individualism. In America, we’re all individualists, which “recognizes separate interests for father and son, husband and wife, necessarily brings into strong relief the duties owed by one to the other; but Bushido held that the interest of the family and of the members thereof is intact – one and inseperable.” They’re all in the same boat, pulling in the same direction. For the good of all.
Education and training of a Samurai does NOT include merchant class training. I mean, yes, everyone needs money. But the getting and making of more money was not something the Samurai were taught or trained in. Bushido training includes fencing, archery, jiujitsu or yawara, horsemanship, spear, tactics, caligraphy, ethics, literature, and history.
Mathematics was not included. And the REASON money was not included is that Samurai were expected to exercise abstinence...not necessarily the lack of sex kind of abstinence, but in the literal meaning...as in to abstain from something. In the west we think of abstinence almost purely in sexual terms because that’s what we’re taught in school. Abstinence is a viable alternative to avoiding unwanted pregnancy. But you can also abstain from excessive spending on luxury goods. And this was part of the Bushido Code.
Self-Control. This is the very heart of Stoic philosophy, remember Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations? You can’t control the world around you, all you can do is control how you react to it. “It was considered unmanly for a samurai to betray his emotions on his face.” Kids having screaming melt-downs over ice-cream in public would not be happening.
He does discuss seppuku, and the why’s of how it is done. Seppuku is ritual suicide done to expiate loss of honor. This is not usually done for something like...lying to your parents. This is a big loss of honor. Cowardice on the battlefield. Attempted treason. See in the West, we consider our soul to be in our hearts or minds. Maybe in the pineal gland, if you followed along while I was reading Dr. Rick Strassman’s book DMT: Spirit Molecule. In Japan, it’s considered in your stomach. That gut feeling you get is your soul talking to you. So seppuku is “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.”
He does quote in length from Tales of Old Japan by A. B. Mitford a detailed description of a Seppuku ceremony.
He calls the sword the soul of the Samurai and discusses it’s proper use, i.e. when and where. It was not just swung willy nilly around, there was a time and place for it.
Women also had a place in Bushido. I mean, all of the above applies to women, honor, courage, truthfulness. It’s not like women get a pass on good behavior because they don’t have penises. But they did receive some different training. “Bushido ...praised those women most “who emancipaed themselves from the frailty of their sex and displayed an heroic fortitude worthy of the strongest and the bravest men.” So young girls were taught stoicism, repress your feelings, and to use the nagi-nata...which is a long handled sword. So that she could defend herself. And women learned music, dancing, and literature. Just enough to be graceful though. Music and dancing was not intended to be agressively in your face.
Nitobe is very clear and honest though, in his reporting on women and Bushido. “I do not hesitate to state that she was not treated as man’s equal; but until we learn to discriminate between difference and inequalities, there will always be misunderstanding upon this subject.” There’s an important point. Just because someone is treated different, does not automatically make that treatment unequal.
Because of all of the above, Samurai, for better or for worse, grew to be the ideal of an entire race. “As among flowers the cherry is queen, so among men the samurai is lord.” Even though the Samurai were not participants in commercialism, they were seen as the leaders in intellectual and moral Japan.
He closes the book by asking if Bushido is still alive and what the future of Bushido might be. I hazard to guess it was still alive in 1899. And 127 years later, I think it probably is.
One of the best X accounts I’ve found and follow is @japan_nobunaga. He’s a Japanese guy who tells tales of living in America and interactions with Americans from a Japanese perspective. It’s absolutely delightful to read through, but having read Code of the Samurai, aka Bushido: The Soul of Japan, his stories take on an extra layer of thoughfulness. Like, to live your life that mindfully is something everyone should aspire to. And that mindfulness is what you’ll learn reading this book.
