Japanese Culture: Bushido - Coursework Example

Bushido was the moral of conduct of the bushi or the samurai or military of the pre-modern Japan (Holmes & Ion, 1980). Some people refer to bushido as the religion of Japan while some compare it to chivalry. Bushido was also referred to as “the finest product of Japan” which would save not only Japan but the whole world. Through various efforts it was linked by ultranationalists to the movement for “national purity” and was also referred to as “invented tradition”. Some others like Uchimura thought Bushido was merely an illusion created by projecting Puritanism which Nitobe had learnt from the West, on Japan. Nitobe Inazo, the Christian son of Tokugawa samurai was considered responsible for making people conscious of the term Bushido. Japan’s economy expanded rapidly between 1894 and 1914 and it achieved military successes against China, Russia and Germany. Japan’s emergence as one of world’s major imperial powers and the most powerful nation in East Asia has been associated to Bushido (Holmes & Ion: 1980; Hurst: 1990). Even during World War II the behavior of Japanese forces was conditioned by adherence to the old samurai code of ethics or bushido (Hurst, 1990). This emphasizes the unflinching loyalty to the emperor, even if it requires the sacrifice of one’s life. The impression that Nitobe created amongst the westerners was that pre-modern Japanese samurai behaved according to a strict and disciplined code of conduct or bushido. Bushido contains seven values which include justice, courage, benevolence, politeness, veracity, honor and loyalty. These values are known to have become the “soul” of the people and this was gradually transmitted to the people of Japan. These traits are very general concepts and could be applied to almost any military anywhere at any time (Friday, 1994). Bushido, the “way of the warriors” comprised an ethos of self-discipline, self-sacrifice, single-mindedness, unhesitating obedience to one’s lord and utter fearlessness in the face of death (Sharf, 1993). These qualities were considered to be the birthright of all Japanese and bushido was an expression of Japaneseness itself. It has been used to explain and celebrate the cultural and spiritual superiority of the Japanese. When Japan started becoming powerful in Asia, bushido shaped Japanese behavior. Some believe that the ethics of bushido still motivate the Japanese today. Bushido has also been considered relevant to the revitalization of the western society. Although it was found in several 16th century works (Hurst) the first systematic exposition of Bushido was written in the mid-seventeenth century when the military class was changing from being strict military to also providing the political, bureaucratic and intellectual leadership in the feudal state being developed by the Tokugawa Shoguns (Holmes & Ion). This required the military class to serve as a model and leader for the lower class. Even in medieval Japan there is evidence of house laws and house precepts which espoused moral values among the samurai. The morality of the ruling class samurai were written largely from the Neo-Confucian point of view even though there were different perspectives held by the heterodox and the orthodox schools. According to Hurst, bushido was nothing separate from the orthodox Neo-Confucian school of thought. The few Tokugawa works available give an impression that bushido was a very narrow stream of thought essentially out of touch with the broader spectrum of Confucian ideas to which most of the samurai class adhered. As cited by Nitobe, these did not have seven values but the concentration on loyalty, duty and courage. In bushido, it was believed that Japan possessed a traditional spirit which was in no way inferior to that of the West and in many ways even superior. Bushido went beyond providing a feeling of self-confidence among the Japanese intellectuals in the ability of their own cultural traditions to provide solutions to the problems that confronted the country. It was a part of the re-definition of Japanese nationalism in line with the changed international standing of Japan. When the Japanese life was changing rapidly, when there was domestic social discontentment, when Japan was becoming a major international power, bushido became an increasingly discussed feature of life. However, Friday (1994) contends that even though the essence of bushido was that the young warrior should aim at dying, the actual behavior of the medieval samurai differed. The warriors in desperate situations chose to die heroically rather than be killed while running away. At the same time, such traditions where willingness to die is central to the code of ethics in war, can be found in any of the military traditions at any time in any part of the world. In fact, historical events suggest that samurai used deception and tricks to catch an opponent who was helpless or off guard rather than use self-sacrifice. The second value that they claimed was central to bushido was loyalty. Loyalty was the prime virtue that Japanese could possess. Loyalty to the Japanese is indispensable and every structure of legitimacy is designed to inculcate the values of loyalty (Hurst). Loyalty to Japanese was supposed to be unconditional and selfless. According to Friday, loyalty was not a fundamental part of the warrior character. The unrestricted loyalty that subjects owe their rulers is a basic tenet of the Confucianism and derives nothing from any military tradition (Friday). Even before the samurai tradition, the Japanese government appealed for loyalty from the people. Hence the Japanese warlords that called upon the samurai to render loyalty were in essence only exhorting the subjects on a traditional and general theme of the government. The ties between the master and the retainer were contractual, based on mutual interest, advantage and self-interest. The medieval warriors switched allegiance whenever the situation warranted. Loyalty has also been referred to as platonic homosexual love between the samurai and his lord. Modern bushido was used as a propaganda tool, manipulated to forge a unified, modern nation out of a fundamentally feudal society. Bushido represented much more than the ethics of the feudal warrior class. The warrior values were used to unify traits of character common to all classes. The abolition of the samurai class led to the spread of bushido to the whole of Japanese population. The early modern figures however believed that bushido was what kept samurai apart from other class. They would never accept that these were simply Japanese values. Matsumoto (2006) expresses that cultural worldviews are promulgated by cultural elites who define culture for its members. They exemplify their image of culture in their writings, word or actions. The cultural characterization then promulgated to the members of the culture and over time these characterizations become common knowledge. It is in this very way that Nitobe was influential in bringing awareness about bushido. Verbal descriptions about culture in literature promote an ideological view of culture but the validity and accuracy of such claims have not been verified. Nitobe’s books and expressions on bushido raises doubts as he was educated and brought up away from the traditional Japanese environment. Nitobe’s book Bushido, when compared to other books written on the same topic, during the warring period of Japan’s history, makes it evidently clear that Nitobe’s Bushido was a stylized version of this aspect of culture. In the true and deeper sense, the samurai is the spiritual killing machine absorbed in loyalty and death. The death is not merely the death of others but also of himself, which a samurai is honor-bound to bring to himself when his master dies. Bushido guides his behavior at all times (Hurst). The samurai may have owned unflinching loyalty to the lord but recklessly throwing away one’s life and contemplating suicide to follow the lord in death were in total opposition to the values of the way of the sages like Confucian. What in fact it tries to convey according to some philosophers is that the warrior should live to transcend any real attachment to his life and to take life as if death could strike at any moment. If he has evolved to this state, then he is capable of reacting to the situation immediately rushing crazily into death in the service of the lord devoid of any emotions. Bushido is thus a very ambiguous term that covers a wide range of thinking. The Japanese tradition of the medieval samurai has very little in common with bushido in the early 20th century. Better evidence is available from the attitudes of the Japanese high command, the officer corps and the ordinary troops that were found in the specific circumstances of the war. Besides, the values espoused and the characteristics narrated and desired can be found by any military group in any part of the world. Loyalty cannot be confirmed by following the master in death. Morality that has been talked about in bushido are general principles of the government or any society. The way of the warrior is actually the way the sages have shown, to transcend above the self and live as if death could strike any moment. Nitobe’s expressions merely helped a comparison of the culture with the West and brought about awareness of the term. References: Friday, K. F., (1994), Bushido or Bull? A Medieval Historians Perspective on the Imperial Army and the Japanese Warrior Tradition, The History Teacher, Vol. 27, No. 3. (May, 1994), pp. 339-349. Holmes, C., & Ion, A. H., (1980), Bushido and the Samurai: Images in British Public Opinion, 1894-1914, Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 14, No. 2. (1980), pp. 309-329. Hurst, C. G., Death, honor, and loyalty: the bushido ideal. Philosophy East and West 40, 1990, pp. 511 - 527 Matsumoto, D., (2006), Culture and Cultural Worldviews: Do Verbal Descriptions about Culture Reflect Anything Other Than Verbal Descriptions of Culture? Culture Psychology 2006; 12; 33 Sharf, R. H., (1993), The Zen of Japanese Nationalism, History of Religions, Vol. 33, No. 1. (Aug., 1993), pp. 1-43. Read More