Bushido (The Way of the Samurai), a lost culture?

Tom Miatke

Bushidō (武士道^?), literally «samurai’s way», is a Japanese word for the way of the samurai life, loosely analogous to the concept of chivalry.

Bushido, a modern term rather than a historical one, originates from the samurai moral values, most commonly stressing some combination of frugality, loyalty, martial arts mastery, and honor unto death. Born from Neo-Confucianism during times of peace in Tokugawa Japan and following Confucian texts, Bushido was also influenced by Shinto and Zen Buddhism, allowing the violent existence of the samurai to be tempered by wisdom and serenity. Bushidō developed between the 16th and 20th centuries, debated by pundits who believed they were building on a legacy dating from the 10th century, although some scholars have noted «the term bushidō itself is rarely attested in premodern literature.»

Under the Tokugawa Shogunate, some aspects of warrior values became formalized into Japanese feudal law.

The word was first used in Japan during the 17th century. It came into common usage in Japan and the West after the 1899 publication of Nitobe Inazō‘s Bushido: The Soul of Japan.

In Bushido (1899), Nitobe wrote:

…Bushidō, then, is the code of moral principles which the samurai were required or instructed to observe…. More frequently it is a code unuttered and unwritten…. It was an organic growth of decades and centuries of military career.