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Academic Paper
BUSHIDO: Japanese Code of the Warrior

Type of Ethics: Military

Date: Coined 17th century Japan

Associated with: Yamaga Soko (1622-1685), Japanese master of religion and military science.

Definition: The term "Bushido" literally means the "Way of the Warrior." This "Way" incorporates strict ethical responsibilities with a code of physical sacrifice. Significance to ethics: Bushido requires systematic training of mind and body, emphasizing absolute loyalty, spontaneity, collective responsibility, and personal sacrifice. This training has been adapted to business and religious practices.

HISTORY
The "Way of the Warrior" derives from three early sources:

The ancient animistic belief of the Japanese, known as Shintoism (the Way of the Gods) emphasized naturalness, sincerity and the spirituality of all things Japanese. This tradition suffused bushido with the sense of a sacred link to one's peers, the soil and the mission of Japan.
During the 12th century, a warrior class (bushi) emerged near present-day Tokyo. The Bushi usurped power from the aristocratic elite in the capital of Kyoto, and conquered new territory in eastern Japan. Some of these bands gave allegiance to their lords through total self-renunciation and personal loyalty; others constantly shifted their allegiance for materialistic gain. Gradually, a code of ethics developed which stressed the samurai's unconditional willingness to die for his master. By the mid-seventeenth century, this code supported an attitude toward death which idealized and romanticized the warrior who was honor-bound to die for his lord, or even to commit ritualistic suicide (seppuku).
The major religious influence on the warrior class was Zen Buddhism, which teaches that the goal of life is personal enlightenment through ascetic selflessness, rigorous discipline, and repetitive effort. However, religious discipline must not become lost in the drudgery of the rituals. Enlightenment is achieved through spontaneous, instinctive revelations, or single acts of self-awareness which erupt from toilsome tasks. Enlightenment is not a consequence of rational judgement, but of sudden personal discovery.

PRINCIPLES OF BUSHIDO
Yamaga Soko (1622-1685) synthesized the thinking of the various religious and military schools to describe what became known as "The Way of the Warrior." Yamaga related the traditional values of sincerity, loyalty, self-discipline, and self-sacrifice to the Chinese values of a sage. To be a real warrior, one needs to be cultivated in humanistic arts, i.e., poetry, painting, calligraphy and music, while in service to the master. The true sage combines virtues of "wisdom, humanity, and valor" to perform his service to his lord's government. During the peaceful Tokugawa era (1602-1868), ethics of bushido prevented the military from becoming a warlike and oppressive elite. Rather, the samurai became administrators, accountants, artists, scholars, and entrepreneurs. Miyamoto Musashi (b. 1584?-d. ?) combined the roles of warrior, artist and intellectual. In l643 he wrote the classic on military strategy, A Book of Five Rings. As an artist, he became noted for his intensity and extraordinary monochromatic ink paintings. Other samurai such as Uragami Gyokudo (1745-1820) renounced or neglected their military role and concentrated on the humanistic artist of music, painting, and literature. The Mitsui Company, one of Japan's largest business enterprises, was just one of many Tokugawa businesses operated by a samurai family. These contributions to civil society helped Japan develop economically and intellectually into the twentieth century.

There was also a non-Chinese or indigenous influence. The samurai classic Hagakure (1716), by Yamamoto Tsunetomo (1659-1719), provided the famous aphorism: "Bushido is a way of dying." Contrary to Yamaga's emphasis on public service or the balance between the military and civic role of the samurai, Yamamoto idealized and spiritualized the role of death. The loyal and self-abnegating samurai is expected to give his life spontaneously and unquestioningly for his master. A life that ends in death on the battlefield with unswerving hard work and dedication, or in ritualistic suicide is glorious. Yamaga and Yamamoto agreed that only through action could one pursue truth and self-enlightenment. The "Way of the Warrior" emphasized human performance, intuition, and spontaneity. Training in the martial arts (bujutsu) was an important technique to promote group cohesiveness and self-awareness. Through bujutsu the samurai discovers and overcomes his spiritual and physical weaknesses, thereby deepening his self-awareness and ultimately preparing himself for a life of service and a readiness to sacrifice. The abolishment of feudalism and the samurai class in 1872 did not also end the appeal of bushido. The rise of militant nationalism and Imperial Shintoism created a militaristic bushido. The publication of Fundamentals of Our National Polity by the Ministry of Education in 1937 declared in unequivocable terms that bushido was the "outstanding characteristic of our national morality." The new bushido "shed itself of an outdated feudalism . . . [and] became the Way of loyalty and patriotism, and has evolved before us as the spirit of the imperial forces." The Japanese soldier was called upon to sacrifice his life for the Emperor. A strong central government and a fascist military system forcefully made the new bushido a significant part of Japan's imperialist expansion.

LEGACIES
Bushido is no longer a military force in Japan. The vainglorious attempt by the writer Mishima Yukio (1925-1970) to revive the martial spirit of Japan ended in his brutal and meaningless act of seppuku. However, bushido's ethical foundations are still part of Japanese culture and society. Bushido's stress on loyalty to the head of a group is still evident in the strong sense of loyalty workers have to their employers, students to their teachers, apprentices to their masters. Corporate groups imitate the samurai system by dovetailing the personal values of their members with common group and public goals. Ethical training camps (a direct legacy of Zen martial arts training) for workers are week-long intensive seminars combining physical exertion with a type of group therapy. These consciousness-raising exercises are designed to create a loyal, harmonious and ethical workforce.

CONCLUSION
"Bushido" unfortunately invokes images of Japanese soldiers dashing off into suicidal missions against the enemy and committing atrocities of every kind. Since World War II, cartoons depict the Japanese businessman as a samurai (Japanese warrior) in a business suit. The relationship of bushido with the military nationalism of World War II and its alleged association with Japan's postwar economic expansion has obscured its ethical contributions of loyalty, frugality and dedication to Japanese society and culture.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Addiss, Stephen, and Cameron Hurst III. Samurai painters. Tokyo; New York: Kodansha International. 1983.

de Bary, Theodore. With Ryusaku Tsunoda and Donald Kene. Sources of Japanese Tradition. New York: Columbia University Press. 1958.

Fukushima, Shoichi. "Bushido in Tokugawa Japan: A Reassessment of the Warrior Ethos." Unpublished Ph.D. thesis in Education. Berkeley: University of California, 1984.

Mishima, Yukio. On Hagakure. 1977.

Yamamoto, Tsunetomo. Hagakure: the book of the samurai. Tokyo; New York: Kodansha International. 1983.

Cross Reference: (Note : These are not tightly related.)

Chu Hsi, Wang Yang-ming.