Bushido, the Code of Honor

Bushido (武士道, Bushidō?), meaning "way of the warrior," is a Japanese code of conduct and a way of life, analogous to the European concept of chivalry. Bushido developed between the 11th to 14th centuries. The ethical and moral foundations of Bushido were formalized into Japanese Feudal Law during the opening years of the Tokugawa shogunate for the members of the Samurai class. According to the Japanese dictionary Shogakukan Kokugo Daijiten: "Bushido is defined as a unique philosophy (ronri) that spread through the warrior class from the Muromachi (chusei) period."

Inazo Nitobe (1862 - 1933), author of Bushido: The Soul of Japan describes Bushido as an unwritten code: "...Bushido, then, is the code of moral principles which the samurai were required or instructed to observe. It is not a written code; at best it consists of a few maxims handed down from mouth to mouth or coming from the pen of some well-known warrior or savant. More frequently it is a code unuttered and unwritten, possessing all the more the powerful sanction of veritable deed, and of a law written on the fleshly tablets of the heart. It was founded not on the creation of one brain, however able, or on the life of a single personage, however renowned. It was an organic growth of decades and centuries of military career."

Early history

The Kojiki is Japan's oldest extant book. Written in 712 AD, it contains passages about Yamato Takeru, the son of the emperor Keiko. It includes references to the use and admiration of the sword by Japanese warriors:

The many-clouds-rising

Izumo Takeru

Wears a Sword

With many vines wrapped around it,

But no blade inside, alas.''''

or this:

Next to the maiden's

Sleeping place

I left

The sabre, the swordÐ'--

Alas, that sword.'

Yamato Takeru may be considered the rough ideal of the Japanese warrior to come. He is sincere and loyal, slicing up his father's enemies "like melons," unbending and yet not unfeeling, as can be seen in his laments for lost wives and homeland, and in his willingness to combat the enemy alone. Most important, his portrayal in the Kojiki shows the ideal of harmonizing the literary with the martial may have been an early trait of Japanese civilization, appealing to the Japanese long before its introduction from Confucian China.

The Shoku Nihongi (797 A.D.) is an Early History of Japan written in the year 797. A section of the book covering the year 723 A.D.is notable for an early use of the term "bushi" in Japanese literature and a reference to the educated warrior-poet ideal:

"Again, the August Personage said, "Literary men and warriors are they whom the nation values."

The term "bushi" entered the Japanese vocabulary with the general introduction of Chinese literature and added to the indigenous words, "tsuwamono" and "mononofu".

In The Kokinshu (early 10th century), the first imperial anthology of poems, there is an early reference to "Saburau"--originally a verb meaning "to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society." In Japanese, the pronunciation would become "saburai." and the term would come to mean "those who serve in close attendance to the nobility." From the mid-Heian Period these attendants were armed and served as guardians to the higher nobility.

Attendant to nobility

Ask for your master's umbrella.

The dews neath the trees of Miyagino

Are thicker than rain.

(Poem 1091)

By the end of the 12th century, saburai became synonymous with bushi almost entirely and the word was closely associated with the middle and upper echelons of the warrior class.

Written in 1371 AD, The Heike Monogatari chronicles the struggle between the Minamoto and Taira clans for control of Japan at the end of the 12th century, a conflict known as the Genpei War. The Heike Monogatari is one of the longest and most beautifully composed of the genre called gunki monogatari, or war chronicles. Clearly depicted throughout the Heike Monogatari is the ideal of the cultivated warrior. This ideal is symbolized in the character 斌 or uruwashii, meaning a situation of balance and harmony between the exterior, pattern or beauty (文), and the interior essence or substance (武). Men who possess this quality will be as accomplished in the world of the arts as in the world of martial skill and courage.

One such example is Taira no Tadanori:

Friends and foes alike wet their sleeves with tears and said,

"What a pity! Tadanori was a great general,

pre-eminent in the arts of both sword and poetry."

(Kitagawa and Tsuchida, 1975)

The warriors in the Heike Monogatari served as models for the educated warriors of later generations, and the ideals depicted by them were not assumed to be beyond reach. Rather, these ideals were vigorously pursued in the upper echelons of warrior society and recommended as the proper form of the Japanese man of arms. With the Heike Monogatari, the image of the Japanese warrior in literature came to its full maturity. (Wilson, 1982)

History 13th to 19th Centuries

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"One should have restraint and deep sympathy in all things."

In the year 1256, the Shogunal Deputy in Kyoto, Hojo Shigetoki (1198-1261) wrote a letter to his son and house elders of his clan. The letter, now known as "The Message Of Master Gokurakuji," emphasized the importance of loyalty to one's master:

When