Bushido, exactly translated “Way of the Warrior,” developed in Japan between the Heian and Tokugawa Ages (9th-12th century). It was a code and way of life for Samurai, a class of warriors same like the knights form middle ages of Europe. The philosophies came from Zen and Confucianism, which are two different schools of thought of those ages. Bushido is not different the chivalry and codes of the European knights. “It puts emphasis on loyalty, self sacrifice, justice, sense of shame, refined manners, purity, modesty, frugality, martial spirit, honor and affection” (Nippon Steel Human Resources Development Co., Ltd. 329)
Where came these philosophie
Bushido comes out of Buddhism, Zen, Confucianism, and Shintoism. The mixture of these schools of thought and religions has shaped the code of warrior values known as Bushido.
From Buddhism, Bushido gets its connection to danger and death. The samurai don’t fear death because they trust as Buddhism teaches, after death one will be reincarnated and may live another life here on world. The samurai are fighters from the time they become samurai until their death; they have no fear of danger. Through Zen, a school of Buddhism one can reach the ultimate “Absolute.” Zen meditation teaches one to focus and reach a level of thought words cannot describe. Zen teaches one to “know thyself” and don’ to limit yourself. Samurai used this as a tool to force out fear, instability and ultimately mistakes. These things could get him killed.
Shintoism, another Japanese religion or philosophy, gives Bushido its loyalty and patriotism. Shintoism includes ancestor-worship which makes the Imperial family the fountain-head of the whole nation. It awards the emperor a god-like reverence. He is the incarnation of Heaven on earth. With such loyalty, the samurai pledge themselves to the emperor and their daimyo or feudal landlords, higher position samurai. Shintoism also provides the backbone for patriotism to their country, Japan. They know the land is not just there for their needs, “it is the sacred abode to the gods, the spirits of their forefathers . . .” (Nitobe, 14). The land is cared for, protected and nurtured through an intense patriotism.
Confucianism gives Bushido its beliefs in relationships with the human world, their environment and family. Confucianism’s stress on the five moral relations between master and servant, father and son, husband and wife, older and younger brother, and friend and friend, are what the samurai follow. However, the samurai do not aceppt strongly with many of the writings of Confucius. They thought that man shouldn’t sit and read books whole day, nor shall he write poems all day. Instead, Bushido believes man and the universe were made to be alike in both the spirit and ethics.
Along with these virtues, Bushido also holds justice, integrity, benevolence, love, honesty, sincerity, and self-control in highest respect. Justice is one of the main factors in the code of the samurai. Curved ways and unjust actions are thought to be poor and inhumane. Love and benevolence were supreme virtues and princely acts. Samurai followed a specific etiquette in every day life as well as in war. Sincerity and honesty were as valued as their lives. Bushi no ichi-gon, or “the word of a samurai,” transcends a pact of complete faithfulness and trust. With such pacts there was no need for a written pledge; it was thought beneath one’s dignity. The samurai also needed self-control and stoicism to be fully honored. He showed no sign of pain or joy. He endured all within no groans, no crying. He held a calmness of behavior and composure of the mind neither of which should be bothered by passion of any kind. He was a true and complete warrior.
These factors which make up Bushido were few and simple. Though simple, Bushido created a way of life that was to nurture a nation through its most problematic times, through civil wars, depression and uncertainty. “The wholesome unsophisticated nature of our warrior ancestors derived ample food for their spirit from a sheaf of commonplace and fragmentary teachings, gleaned as it were on the highways and byways of ancient thought, and, stimulated by the demands of the age formed from these gleanings a new and unique way of life” (Nitobe, 20).