Samurai Bushido, Modern Bushido
How Bushido Still Lives in Japan Today
When people hear the word Japan, many still think of samurai.
And many may also have heard the word Bushido. But do you know what Bushido is?
The person who brought the word Bushido to the world was Nitobe Inazō (新渡戸稲造). Born in 1862, he lived through the transition from the end of the Edo period to the beginning of modern Japan. He stood at a turning point, when the age of the samurai was ending and the shape of the country, along with its values, was changing dramatically.
In 1900, Nitobe published Bushido in English. Behind it was his wish to convey Japan’s moral outlook to the outside world. One of the questions that led him to write it came from the Belgian scholar Émile de Laveleye: “In a country where religious education is not strongly emphasized, how do people learn morality?”
In many countries, religion plays a major role as the foundation of ethical values. In Japan, by contrast, many people do not think of themselves as belonging to a specific religion. Even so, people overseas continue to express surprise at Japanese politeness, respect for time, public order, and calm behavior.
One of the answers Nitobe arrived at in order to explain that background was Bushido. It was not simply an old code for samurai. It was also a word that reflected what the Japanese people had regarded as virtue over a long span of time.
Why did the samurai’s way of life, built on risking one’s life, endure beyond its own age?
Bushido was not originally a moral code for all Japanese people. It began as an ethic required of the samurai class.
The responsibilities placed upon them were heavier than most of us today can imagine: loyalty to one’s lord, the honor of one’s house, obedience to orders, and the resolve to give one’s life without hesitation. In an age of warfare, hesitation could lead to defeat, and betrayal could lead to the destruction of an entire family line.
For samurai, honor was not an ornament. It was something close to the very reason for living.
One symbol of this, known overseas as well, is seppuku (切腹). To take one’s own life in order to accept responsibility and wipe away shame seems extraordinarily severe from a modern perspective. Yet in samurai society of the time, there truly existed a way of thinking that valued honor above life itself.
