Bushi-NO: The Myth of the Samurai Chivalric Code

You've probably heard of Bushido, the Japanese samurai "Way of the Warrior". Maybe you come across it in a film like The Last Samurai (more on that in a future blog), or encountered it while watching a Japanese anime or reading a manga. If you're like me, you're a huge fan of Akira Kurosawa, who made numerous classic films exploring Samurai themes where the tenants of Bushido occupy a central role.

Kurosawa's Ran

Even if you've never come across it in popular culture, you may have learned about Bushido in school or at a museum. It was the code that inspired Samurai to take their own lives after a defeat. The code which launched the Empire of Japan and saw the Japanese military commit unspeakable atrocities. It even inspired Kamikazes to sacrifice their lives by flying their aircraft into American ships during the Second World War. There's just one problem: it never existed. 

Okay, that's not entirely true. It existed; it exists now afterall. But it was never a single unified concept during the Samurai period. Infact, the concept of Bushido as it's known now, and even the word Bushido is almost entirely an invention of the late 1800's. 

Modern Kendo practitioners

So just in case you're not familiar with the concept, Bushido is a Japanese word meaning "the way of the warrior". It is often compared with the western concept of chivalry; it was supposedly a code which governed the behavior of Samurai. It encouraged them to be loyal to their lord, practice military disciplines, to be respectful of superiors, etc. Today it is most commonly encountered in popular culture, discussed among martial arts instructors and practitioners, or read about in history books. There have even been books written about "professional" or "corporate" Bushido. 

The first Samurai came to power after the Genpei War in the 1180's CE. Samurai were not, contrary to popular western opinion, honorable warriors living by a strict code. Especially early on they were little more than well-armed mercenaries, fighting for the richest lord. During times of peace, lower ranking Samurai could be dangerous; they were unpredictable and the threat of them turning against their overlords frightened the Daimyo, the lords of the powerful clans. Some of these lords began introducing house codes; lists of rules or books outlining the behavior of their Samurai. But throughout the entire Samurai period there was no unified "handbook" of Bushido; in fact the word would have been entirely unknown. And make no mistake, these codes were needed. Samurai had no problem murdering, stealing, killing their own lords, resorting to assassination, These codes were an attempt to impose some sort of order of the Samurai, to varying degrees of success. 

17th Century decorative screen showing a scene from the Genpei War

In addition to these house codes, over time numerous myths and legends which revolved around the early Samurai began to appear. In part these were inspired by Buddhism, and in part by the desire to maintain discipline by the lords in their domains. Over time, similar to the Arthurian legends in Europe, these became more and more popular and began to idealize the past. 

Fast forward to the 1700's. The Samurai were living in one of the most peaceful periods of human history under the Tokugawa Shogunate. For over one hundred years Japan hadn't seen a single major

Woodblock print showing drunken Samurai fighting over a woman

war or disturbance, and for the time being the Shogun's sealing of the country had left the nation isolated. The Samurai warrior class had lost their purpose. They were prohibited from most professions, and most turned increasingly to running martial arts schools, writing poetry, or simply turning to drunkeness. They neglected their military duties, allowing their armor to fall into disrepair and their skills to slacken. Some Samurai took exception to this, and a number wrote manifestos against this. Perhaps the most famous was the Hakagure written by Yamamoto Tsunetomo written in the first two decades of the 18th Century. However, these again were not handbooks or manuals; instead they were manifestos against what they saw as an existential crisis facing the Samurai class. These were rarely widely circulated; Hakagure itself wouldn't be published widely until the close of the next century. 

Perry and the Americans arrive in Japan. Polite looking group, ain't they?

Another century later the Americans arrived and Japan was changed forever. The Shogunate proved itself incapable of defendign Japan from western powers. The Japanese leanred of the fat that China was suffering against colonial powers, and worried they might be next. A group of Domains, made up mostly of traditional enemies of the Tokugawa Shogunate, began advocating for a new government and a return to the power of the Emperor. These groups claimed that Japan would have to return to the old glory of the Samurai talked about in the hold house codes and myths to survive. They advocated a return to Imperial power, as in the glory days before the first Shogun had come to power. 

Interestingly, these men were all Samurai themselves, but quickly advocated for the end of the Samurai class and traditions. In their minds the only way to save Japan was to westernize fully, and to

Colorized photo of Meiji-period Samurai in traditional dress

do it quickly. Some of these leaders believed something extreme might be required; a few even felt that Japan would have to abandon its language and adopt English as a native tongue to survive in this new world. In 1868 the Meiji Emperor was restored and westernization took off fully; swords and traditional Samurai hairstyles and dress were banned, and European manners and technologies began to be adopted. Some of the old Shogunate loyalists fought back (contrary to many popular depictions, they also used western military technology and advisers, and the image of medieval Samurai charging Gatling Guns is a modern myth). These were all crushed. 

In the late 1880's a new generation of leaders began to come to power. They had been born in the last years of the Shogunate, and harbored none of the resentment towards the old system that their parents and grandparents had. Many were worried that Japan was losing its self identity and moral compass. A number of thinkers began to try to find a middle way; to discover how western nations had preserved their unique cultures and self-identities while still becoming world powers they began to travel abroad. 

Ozaki. Where can I get a hat like that?

One of these was Ozaki Yukio, today known as the father of the Japanese constitution. While traveling in England he encountered an idea which he immediately took a liking to; the concept of the English Gentleman. England was similar to Japan in many ways; it was goverened by an ancient monarchy, inhabited an island, and across a narrow expanse of sea it had a massive continental rival. However, while Japan was struggling to catch up to the west, Britain had build the largest empire the world had ever seen. Ozaki came to believe that one of the keys to this success was the concept of English morality and the gentleman ideal. The English gentleman was brave, kind, maintained a stiff upper lip, was humorous and slow to anger, but was terrible once his temper was sparked. Perhaps most importantly, this was an ideal that cut across class lines (at least in Ozaki's mind). Every Englishman endeavored to be a Gentleman regardless of his class or social standing. 

Ozaki began to think of ways to apply these principals in Japan, and he soon found a way. The concept of the Gentleman had developed out of the European code of Chivalry. Chivalry was the way of the knight, and Ozaki reasoned that the Samurai had simply been the Japanese version of knights. His ideas soon spread and began to gain traction; if the Japanese could lock into their own ancient warrior code, they might just find some of the success the west enjoyed. 

I think Ozaki may have been looking at things through rose-colored glasses...

Japanese intellectuals were soon running with this idea; all of the great western nations had followed an ancient warrior code to some degree, so why shouldn't Japan? One famous early work, Bushido: Soul of Japan became famous in America because it was written in English by a Japanese man living in the United States. The work wasn't translated into Japanese for many years, and when it was it was actually criticized in Japan for being "too American" in outlook! Despite its response in Japan, the book formed many of the ideas about Bushido and the Japanese character many American still harbor today. 

A problem would arise though; unlike Chivalry, Bushido had never really been a set code. There was

And you thought I was done picking on the Baltic Fleet

no handbook on how to be a Samurai. Authors began using the new concept to push any viewpoint they wished (Ozaki himself had actually used it to prove the validity of his liberal ideals). As the Japanese empire began to grow, especially after the Sino-Japanese War and Russo-Japanese War (discussed in my last post!). The west began looking for the key to Japan's success, and Japan's leaders, inspired by the intellectuals writing on the subject in their own country, found that the key lay in Bushido. The concept began to permeate Japanese thought. It could be shaped to inspire loyalty in the Emperor (and by extension, the government and later, military), and it explained Japan's unqualified success, even against a major western power. 

Around this time (the late 19th and early 20th century) Bushido began to be used more and more by the government. It appeared as a concept in important works, such as the Imperial Rescripts of Education and on Soldiers and Sailors. These all encouraged loyalty to the death and helped the military, increasingly becoming more powerful in the government, to tighten their hold on power. Leaders looked back to the most extreme cases of Samurai loyalty (like the case of the 47 Ronin), and began to promulgate the idea that these hadn't been extreme cases; they were the norm. 

USS Bunker Hill after being struck by Kamikaze aircraft piloted by Ensign
Kiyoshi Ogawa, pictured Below

This leads us to the World Wars and Japan's military empire in the early 20th Century. Japanese soldiers and sailors were urged to be loyal unto death like the Samurai of old (who, like I said, never really existed). I won't get into all of it here, but suffice to say you know how this turns out for Japan; a brutal war and a major bombing campaign later, Japan lay defeated. Authorities in both the US and Japan distanced themselves from the old regime, and as a result, from Bushido for a time. But by the mid-1950's the concept was coming back, again in a new form. Its ideas were again reinterpreted (thanks to there being no set system in the first place) to

Engisn Kiyoshi Ogawa

encourage personal excellence and good citizenship. These ideas seeped back into the public education sector, the business community, and the martial arts community.

And that's where the concept as you probably recognize it today comes from. Because the system hadn't really existed in the first place, it was easy to interpret however one wanted to fit with the times. It's incredibly useful; it can simultaneously be used as a scapegoat for all of Japan's past crimes as well as used to explain its many modern successes. As a concept, it has just as much to owe to the European knight and the English Gentleman as it does to ancient master swordsmen and Asian mystics. Perhaps because of its malleability, and its mysteriousness, it has persevered to this day. 

A couple of excellent sources are available on this topic. One is Inventing the Way of the Samurai: Nationalism, Internationalism, and Bushido in Modern Japan by Oleg Benesch. Benesch gets into WAY more detail than I was able to here, and if you can find a copy online or at your local library (I found it free on Google books!) I highly suggest it. 

The Hakagure, discussed earlier, is a great look at the things Samurai of the Tokugawa period found important. A deep reading of the book also makes clear that there was no set standard for Samurai behavior, even at the late period of its publication. 

For a deeper look into the development of modern Japanese culture (and Bushido< check out Eiko Ikegami's The Taming of the Samurai: Honorific Individualism and the Making of Modern Japan. 

That's it!