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Bushido, the Soul of Japan

Inazo Nitobe

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Bushido, the Soul of Japan | Inazo Nitobe

Bushido, the Soul of Japan

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Bushido: The Soul of Japan written by Inazo Nitobe was one of the first books on samurai ethics that was originally written in English for a Western audience, and has been subsequently translated into many other languages (also Japanese). Nitobe found in Bushido, the Way of the Warrior, the sources of the virtues most admired by his people: rectitude, courage, benevolence, politeness, sincerity, honor, loyalty and self-control, and he uses his deep knowledge of Western culture to draw comparisons with Medieval Chivalry, Philosophy, and Christianity.
ir reading exercises, walking to their teacher with bare feet in the cold of winter; they frequently—once or twice a month, as on the festival of a god of learning,—came together in small groups and passed the night without sleep, in reading aloud by turns. Pilgrimages to all sorts of uncanny places—to execution grounds, to graveyards, to houses reputed to be haunted, were favorite pastimes of the young. In the days when decapitation was public, not only were small boys sent to witness the ghastly scene, but they were made to visit alone the place in the darkness of night and there to leave a mark of their visit on the trunkless head.

Does this ultra-Spartan system of "drilling the nerves" strike the modern pedagogist with horror and doubt—doubt whether the tendency would not be brutalizing, nipping in the bud the tender emotions of the heart? Let us see what other concepts Bushido had of Valor.

The spiritual aspect of valor is evidenced by composure—calm presence of mind. Tranquillity is courage in repose. It is a statical manifestation of valor, as daring deeds are a dynamical. A truly brave man is ever serene; he is never taken by surprise; nothing ruffles the equanimity of his spirit. In the heat of battle he remains cool; in the midst of catastrophes he keeps level his mind. Earthquakes do not shake him, he laughs at storms. We admire him as truly great, who, in the menacing presence of danger or death, retains his self-possession; who, for instance, can compose a poem under impending peril or hum a strain in the face of death. Such indulgence betraying no tremor in the writing or in the voice, is taken as an infallible index of a large nature—of what we call a capacious mind (Yoyū), which, for from being pressed or crowded, has always room for something more.

It passes current among us as a piece of authentic history, that as Ōta Dokan, the gr

emma 06/08/2023
welcome to: THE PENGUIN GREAT IDEAS PROJECT!

i am addicted both to projects and to short books that are Edifying (read: make me seem cool and intellectual) so this series of teeny classics, which i once alleged i would be attempting to read on a daily basis until they were done and now just pick up b
Michael 12/02/2021
Although I was expecting this to be a book on the basic principles of bushido, it was not what I expected, but still turned out to be worth my time. In a traditional Chinese book binding with lovely Japanese paintings, the author, who wrote it in 1905, is explaining bushido ---- the way of the Samur
Steven 01/21/2016
I recommend this book to all who want to understand the character of the Japanese people. The author was the best known author in the west in his time. He melds the phylosophies of the east with the phylosophies of the west going back to the Romans and the Greeks.
Enjoy and Be Blessed.
Diamond
Bernie 07/24/2015
On the whole, people have ambivalent feelings about feudal times. On the one hand, these were horrible times to be alive for 99.5% of the population. Chances are that if you'd lived during that time you'd be toiling ceaselessly on the land with no hope of your lot in life ever improving. To add insu
Capsguy 03/26/2012
What an interesting little book! As many of my Goodreads friends know, I have a keen interest in Japan, although I've never really read into its' history or the philosophical foundations on which it developed, at least to be what it was prior to significant Western influence.

The author makes a great

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