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HISTORY OF BUSHIDO

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BOOK01

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HONOUR!

THE WAY OF THE WARRIOR

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VISUAL EXHIBITION

HISTORY

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HISTORY OF BUSHIDO

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BOOK01

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HONOUR!

THE WAY OF THE WARRIOR

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VISUAL EXHIBITION

HISTORY

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BUSHIDO VIRTUE01

HISTORY

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Life is growth. If we stop growing, technically and

spiritually, we are as good as dead.”

_Morihei Ueshiba

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

What is Bushido?

13th Century Bushido

19th Century Bushido

Modern Day Bushido

Samurai Life

Westernisation

7 Virtues

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10

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HISTORY

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Bushido literally translates to “The Way of The Warrior” and is the code of conduct followed by the Samurai warriors of his-torical Japan. You might think the Samurai warriors of Japan are pretty much no more, and you might be right but the cul-ture and tradition of Bushido is still engraved in Japanese cul-ture and plays an undeniably important part in the countries psyche in any_every walk of life.

Bushido originates from the samurai moral code stress-ing frugality, loyalty, martial arts mastery, and honor unto death. Born from Neo-Confu-c i ani sm d u r i n g times of peace in Tokuga-wa Ja-pan and f o l l o w -ing Con-f u c i a n t e x t s , Bushido was also influenced by Shinto and Zen Buddhism, allowing the violent existence of the samurai to be tempered by wisdom and serenity. The word

“Bushido” was first used in Ja-pan during the 17th century. It came into common usage in Ja-pan and the West after the 1899 publication of Nitobe Inazo’s Bushido: The Soul of Japan

Bushido developed between the 9th and 20th centuries and numerous translated docu-ments dating from the 12th to 16th centuries demonstrate its wide influence across the whole of Japan. Samurai war-riors always served a master. Bushido often had a list of 7 untold, but acknowledged vir-tues.

This Bushido exhibition takes the idea of “The Way of The Warrior” broadly and fo-cuses on the portrayal and history of the warrior in cul-ture through-out history, with specific focus to Japan.

Bushido! the exhibition cov-ers the idea of a warrior code from movies,to poetry to art. Bushido! at Tate Modern plays special attention towards Ja-

“Bushido is the code of moral principles which

the samurai were required or instructed to observe....

More frequently it is a code unuttered and

unwritten....”

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WHAT IS BUSHIDO?

The supreme obligation of the samurai

was to his lord, even if this

might cause suffering to his

parents.

pan and the Samurai but isn’t restricted to Japan and the Samurai. Offering a contem-porary approach to the idea of an exhibition and targeting stu-dents of all ages.

Though the name Bushido was not used until the 16th cen-tury, the idea of the code devel-oped during the Kamakura period (1192–1333). Its precise content varied historical-ly as the samurai class came un-der the influence of Zen Buddhist and Confucian thought, but its one unchanging ideal was mar-tial spirit, including athletic and military skills as well as fear-lessness toward the enemy in battle. Frugal living, kindness, and honesty were also highly regarded. But the primary obli-gation of the samurai was to his lord, even if this might cause suffering to his parents.

During the Tokugawa period (1603–1867) Bushido thought was infused with Confucian

ethics and made into a compre-hensive system that stressed obligation or duty. The samurai was equated with the Confu-cian “perfect gentleman” and was taught that his essential function was to exemplify vir-tue to the lower classes. Obe-

dience to authority was stressed, but duty came first even if it entailed violation of statute law.

In the mid-19th century Bushido was made the basis of ethical training for the whole society, with the emperor re-placing the feudal lord as the object of loyalty and sacrifice. As such it contributed to the rise of Japanese national-

ism and to the strengthening of wartime civilian morale up to 1945. This is an exemplary case study of the concept of Bushi-do being engraved in Japanese culture, the virtues and philo-sophical ideals of Bushido can easily apply to any walk of life.

HISTORY

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WHAT IS BUSHIDO?

The Kojiki is Japan’s oldest existing book.

Written in 721, it provides early indication of the

values of the Bushido ideal, including

references to the use and admiration of

the sword of Japanese warriors.

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The 13th century was an in-credibly important time period for the Samurai, this was well before the Western rule over Japan and modernisation of Japan in regards to taking over traditional ideals to an extent.

From the literature of the 13th to 16th centuries, there exists an abundance of references to the ideals of Bushido. Carl Steenstrup noted that 13th and 14th century writings (gunki monogatari, translating to war tales) “portrayed the bushi in their natural element, war, eulogizing such virtues as reckless brav-ery, fierce family pride, and self-less, arguably at times senseless devotion of mas-ter and man.”

The Heike Monogatari chroni-cles the struggle between the Minamoto and Taira clans for control of Japan at the end of the 12th century — a conflict known as the Gempei War. Clearly depicted throughout the Heike Monogatari is the ideal of the cultured and con-

“If a man does not investigate into the matter of Bushido

daily, it will be difficult for him

to die a brave and manly death.”

siderate warrior. The warriors in the Heike Monogatari served as models for the educated warriors of later generations. These ideals were vigorously pursued in thewarrior society and thought of as the proper form of the Japanese man of combat. By the time of Imaga-wa Ryoshun’s “Regulations” at the beginning of the 15th cen-tury, the Bushido ideal was fairly clear, and the term itself came into widespread use.

The sayings of Sengoku-period retainers such as Kato Kiyomasa and were gen-erally recorded or passed down around the turn of the 16th cen-tury when Japan had entered a period of relative

peace. Kato was a legendary warrior who banned even reci-tation of poetry, stating: “One should put forth great effort in matters of learning. One should read books concerning military matters, and the virtues of loy-alty... one’s intentions should be to grasp the long and the short swords and to die.”

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13TH CENTURY BUSHIDO

The Tale of Hogen, a Heiki Monogatari

- or war tale. War tales played an

instrumental role in defining the Bushido

ideal of a warrior.

The Tale of Hogen (above)literary and historical classic is believed to have been com-pleted in the Kamakura period ca. 1320. Its author or authors remain unknown.

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13TH CENTURY BUSHIDO

Kato Kiyamasa_

1561 - 1611

Kato Kiyamasa was a legend-ary and ferocious samurai of the Azuchi Momoyama and Edo perid. Kiyamasa played an in-strumental role in the formuli-sation and application of Bush-ido ideals into Japanese youth from a young age.

Kiyomasa was one of the three senior commanders during the Seven-Year War (1592–1598) against the Korean dynasty of Joseon. Together with Konishi Yukinaga, he captured Seoul, Busan and many other cities. He defeated the last of the Ko-rean regulars at the Battle of Imjin River and pacified Ham-gyong. Kiyomasa was an excel-lent architect of castles and fortification. During the Imjin war, he built several Japanese style castles in Korea to better defend the conquered lands.

William Scott Wilson describes Kato Kiyomasa thus: “He was a military man first and last, outlawing even the recitation of poetry, putting the martial arts above all else. His precepts

show the single-mindedness and Spartan attitudes of the man, [they] demonstrate em-phatically that the warrior’s first duty in the early 17th cen-tury was simply to ‘grasp the sword and die’. Contemporary accounts of Kato describe him as awe-inspiring, yet not un-friendly, and a natural leader of men.”

Kiyamasa is a hugely contro-versial character too. Kiyamasa was a a devoted member of Nichiren Buddhism. Kiyomasa was noted for brutally sup-pressing Christianity. At the battle of Hondo, he ordered his men to cut open the bellies of all pregnant Christian women and cut off their infant’s heads.

In his later years, Kiyomasa tried to work as a mediator for the increasingly complicated relationship between Tokugawa Ieyasu and Toyotomi Hideyori. In 1611, en route by sea to Ku-mamoto after one such meet-ing, he fell ill, and died shortly after his arrival.

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Recent scholarship in both Ja-pan and abroad has focused on differences between the sam-urai class and the bushido the-ories that developed in mod-ern Japan. Bushido in the prewar period was often emperor-centered and placed much greater value on the virtues of loyalty and self-sacrifice than did many Tokugawa-era interpretations. Bushido was used as a propaganda tool by the government and military, who doc-tored it to suit their needs. Scholars of Japanese history agree that the Bushido that spread throughout modern Ja-pan was not simply a continua-tion of earlier traditions.

More recently, it has been ar-gued that modern bushidō dis-course originated in the 1880s as a response to foreign stimuli, such as the English concept of “gentlemanship,” by Japanese with considerable exposure to Western culture. Nitobe Inazo’s Bushido interpretations fol-lowed a similar trajectory, al-though he was following earlier

Bushido was used as a

propaganda tool by the

government and mili-tary, who

doctored it to suit their

needs.

trends. This relatively pacifis-tic bushido was then hijacked and adapted by militarists and the government from the early 1900s onward as nationalism

increased around the time of the Rus-so-Japanese War. The junshi suicide of General Nogi Mare-suke and his wife on the death of Emper-or Meiji occasioned both praise, as an ex-ample to the decay-ing morals of Japan, and criticism, explic-itly declaring that the spirit of bushido thus exemplified should not be revived.

During and before World War II in Japan, Bushido was pressed into use for militarism, to pres-ent war as soul-cleansing and death a duty. This was pre-sented as revitalizing tradi-tional values and “transcending the modern.” Bushido would provide a spiritual shield to let soldiers fight to the end. As the war turned, the spirit of bush-ido was invoked to urge that all depended on the firm and united soul of the nation. When the Battle of Attu was lost, at-

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described as being not propa-ganda but out of sympathy with the enemy, such sympathy as only bushido could inspire.

Yukio Mishima, the famous writer, was outspoken in his by-then anachronistic commit-ment to bushido in the 1960s, until his ritual suicide by sep-puku after a failed coup d’état in November 1970.

19TH CENTURY BUSHIDO

Bushido would pro-vide a spiritual shield to let soldiers fight to the end. As the war turned, the spirit of

bushido was invoked to urge that all de-

pended on a resolute and united nation.

tempts were made to make the more than two thousand Japa-nese deaths an inspirational epic for the fighting spirit of the nation.

Arguments that the plans for the Battle of Leyte Gulf, involv-ing all Japanese ships, would expose Japan to serious danger if they failed, were countered with the plea that the Navy be permitted to “bloom as flow-ers of death.” The first propos-als of organized suicide attacks met resistance because while bushido called for a warrior to be always aware of death, but not to view it as the sole end, but the desperate straits brought about accep-tance.Such at-tacks were ac-claimed as the true spirit of Bushido.

Denials of mis-treatment of prisoners of war declared that they were being well-treated by virtue of bushi-do generosity.Broadcast inter-views with prisoners were also

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Samurai of the Satsuma clan,

during the Boshin War period, circa

1867. Hand-colored Photograph by

Felice Beato

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MODERN DAY BUSHIDO

Bushido was widely practiced, varying little over time, and across the geographic and so-cio-economic backgrounds of the samurai, who at one time represented up to 10% of the Japanese population. The first Meiji era census at the end of the 19th century counted 1,282,000 members of the “high samu-rai”, allowed to ride a horse, and 492,000 members of the “low samurai”, allowed to wear two swords but not to ride a horse, in a country of about 25 million.

As Japan started to modernise itself at the dawn of the industrial age at the end of the 19th century, Japan found itself becoming westernised with new ideals and new mo-tivations. Gone were the days where the common man wore a traditional Kimono - the Samurai traditional attire, instead the common man as-pired to wear suits, read west-ern literature and wear western clothes. Bushido at it’s core is a Japanese philosphy and set of

Gone were the days of

the Kimono. The common man aspired to wear suits, read western

literature and wear western clothes.

values - based off of Buddhism, Shintoism and Confucianism - but it was closely related to Samurai, as the Samurai’s days and importance in society were waning, with western laws and sensibilties, so too did the prominence of Bushido - the code of conduct the Samu-

rai and at extension the Japanese society held so dear.

Emperor Meiji abol-ished the samurai’s right to be the only armed force in favor of a more modern, western-style, con-scripted army in 1873. Samurai became ‘Shizoku‘ - a warrior class merged with the Samurai, a name of high class but little use. Former Samu-rai retained some of their salaries, but the right to wear a

katana in public was eventu-ally abolished along with the right to execute commoners who paid them disrespect. The last samurai conflict was argu-ably in 1877, during the Satsuma Rebellion in the Battle of Shi-royama.

HISTORY

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Armoured samurai with

sword and dagger

_Circa 1860

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MODERN DAY BUSHIDO

Saigo Takamori with his offi-cers, at the Satsuma Rebellion.

circa_1877

The Samurai’s attire and gen-eral traditional sense barely changed from the 12th century to the 19th century, going to show how well thought out and designed and suitable for pur-pose the Samurai’s gear was.

It’s a common misconception Samurai are the people in Ki-mono’s, the often seen tradi-tional clothing. This isn’t the case, around this text is some examples of various Samurai battle gear.

Samurai o-yoroi armour from the Tokyo National Museum.__circa 2008__

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Zen Buddhism spread among the samurai in the 13th century and helped to shape their standards of conduct, particularly overcoming fear

of death and killing

Samurai were the military no-bility of medieval and early-modern Japan. Although often we assume the Samurai no lon-ger exist on a legitimate level, and we’re right they don’t. Many Japanese still live a life of solace practicing the life of a Samurai and the code of Bushido, the only difference is now there’s law preventing you from chopping someones head off for being disrespectful. By the end of the 12th century, samurai became almost en-tirely synonymous with bushi, and the word was closely as-sociated with the middle and upper echelons of the warrior class. The s a m u r a i followed a set of rules that c a m e to be known as bushidō. While the s a m u r a i numbered less than 10% of Ja-pan’s population - their teach-ings can still be found today in both everyday life and in mod-ern Japanese martial arts.

In the early Heian period, the

late 8th and early 9th centu-ries, Emperor Kammu sought to consolidate and expand his rule in northern Honsho, but the armies he sent to conquer the rebellious Emishi people lacked motivation and disci-pline, and failed in their task.[citation needed] Emperor Kammu introduced the title of Shogun, which means military commander, and began to rely on the powerful regional clans to conquer the Emishi.

Skilled in mounted combat and archery, these warriors became the Emperor’s pre-ferred tool for putting down

rebellions. These war-riors then f o r m e d clans and began to formulate t h r o u g h n a t u r a l p r o g r e s s and the

current situations, the ear-ly fundamental principles of Bushido.

Zen Buddhism spread among the samurai in the 13th century and helped to shape their stan-

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SAMURAI LIFE

A Samurai without a master was called a Ronin, often throughout history Ronin were feared and had a loose, or no

code of conduct

dards of conduct, particularly overcoming fear of death and killing, but among the general populace, traditional Buddhism was favoured. The Sengoku ji-dai (“warring-states period”) was marked by the loosening of samurai culture with people born into oth-er social strata some-times making names for themselves as war-riors and thus becom-ing de facto samurai. In this turbulent peri-od, bushido ethics be-came important fac-tors in controlling and maintaining public order.

The philosophies of Buddhism and Zen, and to a lesser extent Confucianism and Shinto, in-fluenced the samurai culture. Zen meditation became an im-portant teaching due to it of-fering a process to calm one’s mind. The Buddhist concept of reincarnation and rebirth led samurai to abandon tor-ture and needless killing, while some samurai even gave up vio-lence altogether and became Buddhist monks after realiz-ing how fruitless their killings were. Some were killed as they

came to terms with these real-izations in the battlefield.

A Samurai was fiercly loyal to-wards his lord and master, the

idea of allow-ing your mas-ter to be mur-dered was disrespectful and shameful, the Samurai believed in the concept of Seppuku. The ritual sui-cide by means of disembow-elment via a

dagger. Not all samurai had a master though, a samurai with-out a master was called a Ronin, often throughout history Ronin were feared and had a loose, or no code of conduct and no one to answer to so a Ronin tended to be volatile. One of the great-est examples of Samurai brav-ery and loyalty is Torii Mototada who faced tens of thousands with a few hundred and fought till death to allow his master to flee, changing Japanese his-tory.

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SAMURAI LIFE

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The relative peace of the Tokugawa era was shattered with the arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry’s massive U.S. Navy steamships in 1853. Perry used his superior firepower to force Japan to open its borders to trade. Prior to that only a few harbor towns, under strict control from the Shogunate, were al-lowed to participate in Western trade, and even then, it was based largely on the idea of playing the Franciscans and Do-minicans off against one another (in ex-change for the crucial arquebus technology, which in turn was a major contributor to the downfall of the classical samurai).From 1854, the samu-rai army and the navy were modernized. A Naval training school was established in Nagasaki in 1855. Naval students were sent to study in Western na-val schools for several years, starting a tradition of foreign-educated future leaders, such as Admiral Enomoto. French naval engineers were hired to

Gone were the days of

the Kimono. The common man aspired to wear suits, read western

literature and wear western clothes.

build naval arsenals, such as Yokosuka and Nagasaki. By the end of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1867, the Japanese navy of the shogun already possessed eight western-style steam war-ships around the flagship Kaiyō Maru, which were used against pro-imperial forces during the

Boshin war, under the command of Admiral Enomoto. A French Military Mission to Ja-pan (1867) was estab-lished to help mod-ernize the armies of the Bakufu. The last showing of the origi-nal samurai was in 1867 Shogunate forc-es in favor of the rule of the emperor in the Boshin War (1868–1869).

Thus began the era of Japan’s Westerni-sation and rise as a major export base for

the West, soon Samurai war-riors rank in society wouldn’t mean nowhere near as much as it did, this idea of Samurai’s de-cline has been covered widely, even in movies, such as The Last Samurai which is covered deeply in Book02.

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WESTERNISATION

The relative peace of the Tokugawa era was shattered with the arrival of Matthew Perry’s huge U.S. Navy steamships in

1853. Perry used his superior

firepower to force Japan to open its borders to trade.

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Bakumatsu shogunal troops in 1864. From Illustrated London News, October 8th, 1864.

In defining how a modern Japan should be, mem-bers of the Meiji govern-ment decided to follow the footsteps of the Unit-ed Kingdom and Germa-ny, basing the country on the concept of noblesse oblige. Samurai were not a political force under the new order.

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WESTERNISATION

Samurai wearing kusari katabi-ra (chain armor jackets) and ku-sari zunin (chain armor hoods) with hachi gane (forehead pro-tectors)._

circa 1870

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The Samurai warriors over time consolidated an almost unwritten and unsaid set of principles, a code of conduct each and every Samurai warrior strived to follow. Over time and in the 20th century the Samu-rai have been ro-manticised as al-ways being noble and honourable warriors, this is obviously not always the case, but it mostly was. These are the 7 virtues they followed, each book men-tions and relates to a virtue, this is the first book in the se-ries and so virtue is honour.

Bushido expanded and formal-ized the earlier code of the samurai, and stressed frugal-ity, loyalty, mastery of martial arts, and honor to the death. Under the bushido ideal, if a samurai failed to uphold his honor he could only regain it by performing seppuku (ritual suicide). In an excerpt from his book Samurai: The World of the Warrior, “In the world of the warrior, seppuku was a deed of bravery that was admirable

The relationship between learning and the way of the warrior is clearly articulated, one being a natural

partner to the other.

in a samurai who knew he was defeated, disgraced, or mor-tally wounded. It meant that he could end his days with his transgressions wiped away and with his reputation not merely intact but actually enhanced.

The cutting of the abdomen re-leased the samu-rai’s spirit in the most dramatic fashion, but it was an extremely painful and un-pleasant way to die, and some-times the samu-rai who was per-

forming the act asked a loyal comrade to cut off his head at the moment of agony.

Bushido includes compassion for those of lower station, and for the preservation of one’s name. Early bushido literature further enforces the require-ment to conduct oneself with calmness, fairness, justice, and propriety. Other parts of the bushido philosophy cover methods of raising children, appearance, and grooming, but all of this may be seen as part of one’s constant preparation for death, with honour.

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7 VIRTUES

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Justice

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Courage

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Benevolence

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Respect

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Honour

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Honesty

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Loyalty

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21 MAY_30 AUGUST