'What Japan was she owed to the samurai. They were not only the flower of the nation, but its root as well.' Inazo Nitobe's book, the most influential ever written on Bushido, or the samurai Way of the Warrior, argues that the philosophy of Bushido is the true key to understanding 'the soul of Japan'. GREAT IDEAS. Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.

Bushido: The Soul of Japan (Penguin Great Ideas)

Nitobé, Inazō

Arts & Photography

Penguin??Books

At the turn of the twentieth century, when Japan was evolving from an isolated feudal society into a modern nation, a Japanese educator wrote this book to introduce the rest of the world to his society's traditional values. Author Inazo Nitobé defines bushido (the way of the warrior) as the source of the virtues most admired by his people; rectitude, courage, benevolence, politeness, sincerity, honor, loyalty, and self-control. In this eloquent work, he explains the influence of the ideals and manners of the martial code and their role in forming the basis of the morals, ethics, and etiquette of Japanese culture, past, and present. This popular and informative book, translated into more than 30 languages since its original publication in 1900, takes an eclectic and far-reaching approach. Nitobé draws examples from indigenous traditions including Buddhism, Shintoism, Confucianism, and the centuries-old moral compass supplied by Japanese samurai and sages. He reinforces these illustrations by citing similarities and contrasts from ancient and modern philosophers and statesmen of the Western world. Generations of scholars and other readers with an interest in sociology have turned to this classic for insights into the nature of Japanese society. Its teachings are essential to gain a true understanding of the soul of Japan.

Bushido: Samurai Ethics and the Soul of Japan (Dover Military History, Weapons, Armor)

History

Asia

Dover Publications

Bushido the Soul of Japan

Literature & Fiction

BiblioLife

BUSHIDO: The Soul of Japan

This classic book is both an important historical document and a guide to everyday practice. Bushido, the way of the warrior, was the samurai code of honour that flourished in feudal Japan. During the modernising Meiji era, Bushido was reinvented and became an important cultural force in the rise of Japanese nationalism and the creation of modern Japan. Initially, the new Bushido had no written text that could help in making it understood to foreigners, and it was to meet this need that Inazo Nitobe,(1862-1933), Japanese diplomat, educator and Quaker, wrote this book which remains the best introduction to the study of Bushido and Japanese thought generally. One of the first Japanese to study in the United States, Nitobe devoted his life to promoting understanding between Japan and the West, in which this volume was invaluable. Nitobe presents Bushido not just as a martial discipline, but as a pervasive system of ethics and morals and a living school of thought, life and ideals that can draw strength from the past to advance the present and future. Bushido has no set dogma, but consists of qualities and practices such as courage, benevolence, politeness, veracity, sincerity, honour, loyalty and self-control, all of which he examines. There are separate chapters on the education and training of a samurai; the word as soul of the samurai, and the training and position of women. This remarkable book shows how modern Japan came into being, and provides the wisdom to make similar changes in private life. 

Bushido: The Soul of Japan

Kegan Paul Intl

Beautifully produced in traditional Chinese binding with a cloth cover and string, and with a timeless design, this book includes the classic Inazo text with a new introduction. It will appeal to anyone interested in leadership, the nobility of the Samurai and Japanese culture.
 Bushido is the chivalric code of moral principles that the Samurai followed: rectitude, frugality, courage, benevolence, respect, honesty, honour and loyalty. Influenced by Confucianism, Shinto and Zen Buddhism, it tempers the violence of a warrior with wisdom and serenity. Alongside Sun Tzu’s The Art of War and Machiavelli’s The Prince, Inazo’s book has become influential among military and corporate leaders looking for ways to manage their people and overcome their opponents. The term bushido was originally used in the 17th Century and came into common use around the world after the original publication of this book in 1899. In the tradition of the Kojiki, the Heike Monogatari, and The Book of Five Rings, this collection of principles sheds a great deal of clarity on the evolution of the Japanese Samurai culture.

The Code of the Samurai

Chartwell Books

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III RECTITUDE OR JUSTICE HERE we discern the most cogent precept in the code of the samurai. Nothing is more loathsome to him than underhand dealings and crooked undertakings. The conception of Rectitude may be erroneous—it may be narrow. A well- known bushi defines it as a power of resolution;—"Rectitude is the power of deciding upon a certain course of conduct in accordance with reason, without wavering;—to die when it is right to die, to strike when to strike is right." Another speaks of it in the following terms: " Rectitude is the bone that gives firmness and stature. As without bones the head cannot rest on the top of the spine, nor hands move nor feet stand, so without rectitude neither talent nor learning can make of a human frame a samurai. With it the lack of accomplishments is as nothing." Mencius calls Benevolence man's mind, and Rectitude or Righteousness his path. "How lamentable," he exclaims, "is it to neglect the path and not pursue it, to lose the mind and not know to seek it again! When men's fowls and dogs are lost, they know to seek for them again, but they lose their mind and do not know to seek for it." Have we not here "as in a glass darkly" a parable propounded three hundred years later in another clime and by a greater Teacher, Who called Himself the Way of righteousness, through whom the lost could be found? But I stray from my point. Righteousness, according to Mencius, is a straight and narrow path which a man ought to take to regain the lost paradise. Even in the latter days of feudalism, when the long continuance of peace brought leisure into the life of the warrior class, and with it dissipations of all kinds and accomplishments of gentle arts, the epithet Gishi (a man of rectitude) was considered superior to anyname that signified ...

Bushido: The Soul of Japan : An Exposition of Japanese Thought

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

Tuttle Pub

Japanese Bushido has played a major role in shaping modern Japanese society as well as the various modern Japanese martial arts within Japan and internationally. Bushido: The Classic Portrait of Samurai Martial Culture written by Inazo Nitobe, one of Japan's foremost scholars, thoroughly explores each of these values and explains how they differ from their western counterparts. First published in 1905 as Bushido: The Soul of Japan, this samurai guide reveals the very essence of samurai warriors and Japanese culture and represents one of the most popular and authentic depictions of Japanese samurai philosophy. Chapters include: <ul>
<li>Bushido as an Ethical System</li>
<li>Sources of Bushido</li>
<li>Honor</li>
<li>The Education and Training of a Samurai</li>
<li>Self-Control</li>
<li>The Influence of Bushido</li>
<li>The Future of Bushido</li>
</ul>

Bushido: The Classic Portrait of Samurai Martial Culture

Religion & Spirituality

Tuttle+publishing

This reprint of the 1899 original is perhaps the most complete study of samurai life, exhaustively researched using original documents.

Bushido: The Warrior's Code

Black Belt Communications

Bushido, the Soul of Japan: An Exposition of Japanese Thought

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