{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_12096/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_12096","id":"gutenberg_12096","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12096","summary":null,"tags":["Bushido","Category: History - Other","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Ethics -- Japan","Japan -- Civilization","Japan -- Social life and customs","Philosophy, Japanese","Samurai -- History"],"text":"BUSHIDO\n                           THE SOUL OF JAPAN\n\n                                  BY\n                       INAZO NITOB\u00c9, A.M., Ph.D.\n\n                Author\u2019s Edition, Revised and Enlarged\n\n                             13th EDITION\n                                 1908\n\n\n                            DECEMBER, 1904\n\n\n                          TO MY BELOVED UNCLE\n                             TOKITOSHI OTA\n                   WHO TAUGHT ME TO REVERE THE PAST\n                                  AND\n                  TO ADMIRE THE DEEDS OF THE SAMURAI\n                              I DEDICATE\n                           THIS LITTLE BOOK\n\n\n                               \u2014\u201cThat way\n    Over the mountain, which who stands upon,\n    Is apt to doubt if it be indeed a road;\n    While if he views it from the waste itself,\n    Up goes the line there, plain from base to brow,\n    Not vague, mistakable! What\u2019s a break or two\n    Seen from the unbroken desert either side?\n    And then (to bring in fresh philosophy)\n    What if the breaks themselves should prove at last\n    The most consummate of contrivances\n    To train a man\u2019s eye, teach him what is faith?\u201d\n                \u2014ROBERT BROWNING,\n                          _Bishop Blougram\u2019s Apology_.\n\n\n    \u201cThere are, if I may so say, three powerful spirits, which have\n    from time to time, moved on the face of the waters, and given a\n    predominant impulse to the moral sentiments and energies of\n    mankind. These are the spirits of liberty, of religion, and of\n    honor.\u201d\n                \u2014HALLAM,\n                          _Europe in the Middle Ages_.\n\n\n    \u201cChivalry is itself the poetry of life.\u201d\n\n                          \u2014SCHLEGEL,\n                              _Philosophy of History_.\n\n\n\n\n                                PREFACE\n\n\nAbout ten years ago, while spending a few days under the hospitable roof\nof the distinguished Belgian jurist, the lamented M. de Laveleye, our\nconversation turned, during one of our rambles, to the subject of\nreligion. \u201cDo you mean to say,\u201d asked the venerable professor, \u201cthat you\nhave no religious instruction in your schools?\u201d On my replying in the\nnegative he suddenly halted in astonishment, and in a voice which I\nshall not easily forget, he repeated \u201cNo religion! How do you impart\nmoral education?\u201d The question stunned me at the time. I could give no\nready answer, for the moral precepts I learned in my childhood days,\nwere not given in schools; and not until I began to analyze the\ndifferent elements that formed my notions of right and wrong, did I find\nthat it was Bushido that breathed them into my nostrils.\n\nThe direct inception of this little book is due to the frequent queries\nput by my wife as to the reasons why such and such ideas and customs\nprevail in Japan.\n\nIn my attempts to give satisfactory replies to M. de Laveleye and to my\nwife, I found that without understanding Feudalism and Bushido,[1] the\nmoral ideas of present Japan are a sealed volume.\n\n  [Footnote 1: Pronounced _Bo\u00f3-shee-doh\u2019_. In putting Japanese words\n  and names into English, Hepburn\u2019s rule is followed, that the vowels\n  should be used as in European languages, and the consonants as in\n  English.]\n\nTaking advantage of enforced idleness on account of long illness, I put\ndown in the order now presented to the public some of the answers given\nin our household conversation. They consist mainly of what I was taught\nand told in my youthful days, when Feudalism was still in force.\n\nBetween Lafcadio Hearn and Mrs. Hugh Fraser on one side and Sir Ernest\nSatow and Professor Chamberlain on the other, it is indeed discouraging\nto write anything Japanese in English. The only advantage I have over\nthem is that I can assume the attitude of a personal defendant, while\nthese distinguished writers are at best solicitors and attorneys. I\nhave often thought,\u2014\u201cHad I their gift of language, I would present the\ncause of Japan in more eloquent terms!\u201d But one who speaks in a borrowed\ntongue should be thankful if he can just make himself intelligible.\n\nAll through the discourse I have tried to illustrate whatever points I\nhave made with parallel examples from European history and literature,\nbelieving that these will aid in bringing the subject nearer to the\ncomprehension of foreign readers.\n\nShould any of my allusions to religious subjects and to religious\nworkers be thought slighting, I trust my attitude towards Christianity\nitself will not be questioned. It is with ecclesiastical methods and\nwith the forms which obscure the teachings of Christ, and not with the\nteachings themselves, that I have little sympathy. I believe in the\nreligion taught by Him and handed down to us in the New Testament, as\nwell as in the law written in the heart. Further, I believe that God\nhath made a testament which maybe called \u201cold\u201d with every people and\nnation,\u2014Gentile or Jew, Christian or Heathen. As to the rest of my\ntheology, I need not impose upon the patience of the public.\n\nIn concluding this preface, I wish to express my thanks to my friend\nAnna C. Hartshorne for many valuable suggestions and for the\ncharacteristically Japanese design made by her for the cover of this\nbook.\n\n                                                  INAZO NITOBE.\n\n_Malvern, Pa., Twelfth Month, 1899._\n\n\n\n\n                                PREFACE\n\n                   TO THE TENTH AND REVISED EDITION\n\n\nSince its first publication in Philadelphia, more than six years ago,\nthis little book has had an unexpected history. The Japanese reprint has\npassed through eight editions, the present thus being its tenth\nappearance in the English language. Simultaneously with this will be\nissued an American and English edition, through the publishing-house of\nMessrs. George H. Putnam\u2019s Sons, of New York.\n\nIn the meantime, _Bushido_ has been translated into Mahratti by Mr. Dev\nof Khandesh, into German by Fr\u00e4ulein Kaufmann of Hamburg, into Bohemian\nby Mr. Hora of Chicago, into Polish by the Society of Science and Life\nin Lemberg,\u2014although this Polish edition has been censured by the\nRussian Government. It is now being rendered into Norwegian and into\nFrench. A Chinese translation is under contemplation. A Russian\nofficer, now a prisoner in Japan, has a manuscript in Russian ready for\nthe press. A part of the volume has been brought before the Hungarian\npublic and a detailed review, almost amounting to a commentary, has been\npublished in Japanese. Full scholarly notes for the help of younger\nstudents have been compiled by my friend Mr. H. Sakurai, to whom I also\nowe much for his aid in other ways.\n\nI have been more than gratified to feel that my humble work has found\nsympathetic readers in widely separated circles, showing that the\nsubject matter is of some interest to the world at large. Exceedingly\nflattering is the news that has reached me from official sources, that\nPresident Roosevelt has done it undeserved honor by reading it and\ndistributing several dozens of copies among his friends.\n\nIn making emendations and additions for the present edition, I have\nlargely confined them to concrete examples. I still continue to regret,\nas I indeed have never ceased to do, my inability to add a chapter on\nFilial Piety, which is considered one of the two wheels of the chariot\nof Japanese ethics\u2014Loyalty being the other. My inability is due rather\nto my ignorance of the Western sentiment in regard to this particular\nvirtue, than to ignorance of our own attitude towards it, and I cannot\ndraw comparisons satisfying to my own mind. I hope one day to enlarge\nupon this and other topics at some length. All the subjects that are\ntouched upon in these pages are capable of further amplification and\ndiscussion; but I do not now see my way clear to make this volume larger\nthan it is.\n\nThis Preface would be incomplete and unjust, if I were to omit the debt\nI owe to my wife for her reading of the proof-sheets, for helpful\nsuggestions, and, above all, for her constant encouragement.\n\n                                                  I. N.\n\n  _Kyoto,\nFifth Month twenty-second, 1905._\n\n\n\n\n                               CONTENTS\n\n\n    Bushido as an Ethical System\n\n    Sources of Bushido\n\n    Rectitude or Justice\n\n    Courage, the Spirit of Daring and Bearing\n\n    Benevolence, the Feeling of Distress\n\n    Politeness\n\n    Veracity or Truthfulness\n\n    Honor\n\n    The Duty of Loyalty\n\n    Education and Training of a Samurai\n\n    Self-Control\n\n    The Institutions of Suicide and Redress\n\n    The Sword, the Soul of the Samurai\n\n    The Training and Position of Woman\n\n    The Influence of Bushido\n\n    Is Bushido Still Alive?\n\n    The Future of Bushido\n\n\n\n\n                     BUSHIDO AS AN ETHICAL SYSTEM.\n\n\nChivalry is a flower no less indigenous to the soil of Japan than its\nemblem, the cherry blossom; nor is it a dried-up specimen of an antique\nvirtue preserved in the herbarium of our history. It is still a living\nobject of power and beauty among us; and if it assumes no tangible shape\nor form, it not the less scents the moral atmosphere, and makes us aware\nthat we are still under its potent spell. The conditions of society\nwhich brought it forth and nourished it have long disappeared; but as\nthose far-off stars which once were and are not, still continue to shed\ntheir rays upon us, so the light of chivalry, which was a child of\nfeudalism, still illuminates our moral path, surviving its mother\ninstitution. It is a pleasure to me to reflect upon this subject in the\nlanguage of Burke, who uttered the well-known touching eulogy over the\nneglected bier of its European prototype.\n\nIt argues a sad defect of information concerning the Far East, when so\nerudite a scholar as Dr. George Miller did not hesitate to affirm that\nchivalry, or any other similar institution, has never existed either\namong the nations of antiquity or among the modern Orientals.[2] Such\nignorance, however, is amply excusable, as the third edition of the good\nDoctor\u2019s work appeared the same year that Commodore Perry was knocking\nat the portals of our exclusivism. More than a decade later, about the\ntime that our feudalism was in the last throes of existence, Carl Marx,\nwriting his \u201cCapital,\u201d called the attention of his readers to the\npeculiar advantage of studying the social and political institutions of\nfeudalism, as then to be seen in living form only in Japan. I would\nlikewise invite the Western historical and ethical student to the study\nof chivalry in the Japan of the present.\n\n  [Footnote 2: _History Philosophically Illustrated_, (3rd Ed. 1853),\n  Vol. II, p. 2.]\n\nEnticing as is a historical disquisition on the comparison between\nEuropean and Japanese feudalism and chivalry, it is not the purpose of\nthis paper to enter into it at length. My attempt is rather to relate,\n_firstly_, the origin and sources of our chivalry; _secondly_, its\ncharacter and teaching; _thirdly_, its influence among the masses; and,\n_fourthly_, the continuity and permanence of its influence. Of these\nseveral points, the first will be only brief and cursory, or else I\nshould have to take my readers into the devious paths of our national\nhistory; the second will be dwelt upon at greater length, as being most\nlikely to interest students of International Ethics and Comparative\nEthology in our ways of thought and action; and the rest will be dealt\nwith as corollaries.\n\nThe Japanese word which I have roughly rendered Chivalry, is, in the\noriginal, more expressive than Horsemanship. _Bu-shi-do_ means literally\nMilitary-Knight-Ways\u2014the ways which fighting nobles should observe in\ntheir daily life as well as in their vocation; in a word, the \u201cPrecepts\nof Knighthood,\u201d the _noblesse oblige_ of the warrior class. Having thus\ngiven its literal significance, I may be allowed henceforth to use the\nword in the original. The use of the original term is also advisable\nfor this reason, that a teaching so circumscribed and unique,\nengendering a cast of mind and character so peculiar, so local, must\nwear the badge of its singularity on its face; then, some words have a\nnational _timbre_ so expressive of race characteristics that the best of\ntranslators can do them but scant justice, not to say positive injustice\nand grievance. Who can improve by translation what the German \u201c_Gem\u00fcth_\u201d\nsignifies, or who does not feel the difference between the two words\nverbally so closely allied as the English _gentleman_ and the French\n_gentilhomme_?\n\nBushido, then, is the code of moral principles which the knights were\nrequired or instructed to observe. It is not a written code; at best it\nconsists of a few maxims handed down from mouth to mouth or coming from\nthe pen of some well-known warrior or savant. More frequently it is a\ncode unuttered and unwritten, possessing all the more the powerful\nsanction of veritable deed, and of a law written on the fleshly tablets\nof the heart. It was founded not on the creation of one brain, however\nable, or on the life of a single personage, however renowned. It was an\norganic growth of decades and centuries of military career. It, perhaps,\nfills the same position in the history of ethics that the English\nConstitution does in political history; yet it has had nothing to\ncompare with the Magna Charta or the Habeas Corpus Act. True, early in\nthe seventeenth century Military Statutes (_Buk\u00e9 Hatto_) were\npromulgated; but their thirteen short articles were taken up mostly with\nmarriages, castles, leagues, etc., and didactic regulations were but\nmeagerly touched upon. We cannot, therefore, point out any definite time\nand place and say, \u201cHere is its fountain head.\u201d Only as it attains\nconsciousness in the feudal age, its origin, in respect to time, may be\nidentified with feudalism. But feudalism itself is woven of many\nthreads, and Bushido shares its intricate nature. As in England the\npolitical institutions of feudalism may be said to date from the Norman\nConquest, so we may say that in Japan its rise was simultaneous with the\nascendency of Yoritomo, late in the twelfth century. As, however, in\nEngland, we find the social elements of feudalism far back in the period\nprevious to William the Conqueror, so, too, the germs of feudalism in\nJapan had been long existent before the period I have mentioned.\n\nAgain, in Japan as in Europe, when feudalism was formally inaugurated,\nthe professional class of warriors naturally came into prominence. These\nwere known as _samurai_, meaning literally, like the old English _cniht_\n(knecht, knight), guards or attendants\u2014resembling in character the\n_soldurii_ whom C\u00e6sar mentioned as existing in Aquitania, or the\n_comitati_, who, according to Tacitus, followed Germanic chiefs in his\ntime; or, to take a still later parallel, the _milites medii_ that one\nreads about in the history of Medi\u00e6val Europe. A Sinico-Japanese word\n_Bu-k\u00e9_ or _Bu-shi_ (Fighting Knights) was also adopted in common use.\nThey were a privileged class, and must originally have been a rough\nbreed who made fighting their vocation. This class was naturally\nrecruited, in a long period of constant warfare, from the manliest and\nthe most adventurous, and all the while the process of elimination went\non, the timid and the feeble being sorted out, and only \u201ca rude race,\nall masculine, with brutish strength,\u201d to borrow Emerson\u2019s phrase,\nsurviving to form families and the ranks of the _samurai_. Coming to\nprofess great honor and great privileges, and correspondingly great\nresponsibilities, they soon felt the need of a common standard of\nbehavior, especially as they were always on a belligerent footing and\nbelonged to different clans. Just as physicians limit competition among\nthemselves by professional courtesy, just as lawyers sit in courts of\nhonor in cases of violated etiquette, so must also warriors possess some\nresort for final judgment on their misdemeanors.\n\nFair play in fight! What fertile germs of morality lie in this primitive\nsense of savagery and childhood. Is it not the root of all military and\ncivic virtues? We smile (as if we had outgrown it!) at the boyish desire\nof the small Britisher, Tom Brown, \u201cto leave behind him the name of a\nfellow who never bullied a little boy or turned his back on a big one.\u201d\nAnd yet, who does not know that this desire is the corner-stone on which\nmoral structures of mighty dimensions can be reared? May I not go even\nso far as to say that the gentlest and most peace-loving of religions\nendorses this aspiration? This desire of Tom\u2019s is the basis on which the\ngreatness of England is largely built, and it will not take us long to\ndiscover that _Bushido_ does not stand on a lesser pedestal. If fighting\nin itself, be it offensive or defensive, is, as Quakers rightly testify,\nbrutal and wrong, we can still say with Lessing, \u201cWe know from what\nfailings our virtue springs.\u201d[3] \u201cSneaks\u201d and \u201ccowards\u201d are epithets of\nthe worst opprobrium to healthy, simple natures. Childhood begins life\nwith these notions, and knighthood also; but, as life grows larger and\nits relations many-sided, the early faith seeks sanction from higher\nauthority and more rational sources for its own justification,\nsatisfaction and development. If military interests had operated alone,\nwithout higher moral support, how far short of chivalry would the ideal\nof knighthood have fallen! In Europe, Christianity, interpreted with\nconcessions convenient to chivalry, infused it nevertheless with\nspiritual data. \u201cReligion, war and glory were the three souls of a\nperfect Christian knight,\u201d says Lamartine. In Japan there were several\n\n\n                          SOURCES OF BUSHIDO,\n\nof which I may begin with Buddhism. It furnished a sense of calm trust\nin Fate, a quiet submission to the inevitable, that stoic composure in\nsight of danger or calamity, that disdain of life and friendliness with\ndeath. A foremost teacher of swordsmanship, when he saw his pupil\nmaster the utmost of his art, told him, \u201cBeyond this my instruction must\ngive way to Zen teaching.\u201d \u201cZen\u201d is the Japanese equivalent for the\nDhy\u00e2na, which \u201crepresents human effort to reach through meditation zones\nof thought beyond the range of verbal expression.\u201d[4] Its method is\ncontemplation, and its purport, as far as I understand it, to be\nconvinced of a principle that underlies all phenomena, and, if it can,\nof the Absolute itself, and thus to put oneself in harmony with this\nAbsolute. Thus defined, the teaching was more than the dogma of a sect,\nand whoever attains to the perception of the Absolute raises himself\nabove mundane things and awakes, \u201cto a new Heaven and a new Earth.\u201d\n\n  [Footnote 3: Ruskin was one of the most gentle-hearted and peace\n  loving men that ever lived. Yet he believed in war with all the\n  fervor of a worshiper of the strenuous life. \u201cWhen I tell you,\u201d he\n  says in the _Crown of Wild Olive_, \u201cthat war is the foundation of\n  all the arts, I mean also that it is the foundation of all the high\n  virtues and faculties of men. It is very strange to me to discover\n  this, and very dreadful, but I saw it to be quite an undeniable\n  fact. * * * I found in brief, that all great nations learned their\n  truth of word and strength of thought in war; that they were\n  nourished in war and wasted by peace, taught by war and deceived by\n  peace; trained by war and betrayed by peace; in a word, that they\n  were born in war and expired in peace.\u201d]\n\n  [Footnote 4: Lafcadio Hearn, _Exotics and Retrospectives_, p. 84.]\n\nWhat Buddhism failed to give, Shintoism offered in abundance. Such\nloyalty to the sovereign, such reverence for ancestral memory, and such\nfilial piety as are not taught by any other creed, were inculcated by\nthe Shinto doctrines, imparting passivity to the otherwise arrogant\ncharacter of the samurai. Shinto theology has no place for the dogma of\n\u201coriginal sin.\u201d On the contrary, it believes in the innate goodness and\nGod-like purity of the human soul, adoring it as the adytum from which\ndivine oracles are proclaimed. Everybody has observed that the Shinto\nshrines are conspicuously devoid of objects and instruments of worship,\nand that a plain mirror hung in the sanctuary forms the essential part\nof its furnishing. The presence of this article is easy to explain: it\ntypifies the human heart, which, when perfectly placid and clear,\nreflects the very image of the Deity. When you stand, therefore, in\nfront of the shrine to worship, you see your own image reflected on its\nshining surface, and the act of worship is tantamount to the old Delphic\ninjunction, \u201cKnow Thyself.\u201d But self-knowledge does not imply, either in\nthe Greek or Japanese teaching, knowledge of the physical part of man,\nnot his anatomy or his psycho-physics; knowledge was to be of a moral\nkind, the introspection of our moral nature. Mommsen, comparing the\nGreek and the Roman, says that when the former worshiped he raised his\neyes to heaven, for his prayer was contemplation, while the latter\nveiled his head, for his was reflection. Essentially like the Roman\nconception of religion, our reflection brought into prominence not so\nmuch the moral as the national consciousness of the individual. Its\nnature-worship endeared the country to our inmost souls, while its\nancestor-worship, tracing from lineage to lineage, made the Imperial\nfamily the fountain-head of the whole nation. To us the country is more\nthan land and soil from which to mine gold or to reap grain\u2014it is the\nsacred abode of the gods, the spirits of our forefathers: to us the\nEmperor is more than the Arch Constable of a _Rechtsstaat_, or even the\nPatron of a _Culturstaat_\u2014he is the bodily representative of Heaven on\nearth, blending in his person its power and its mercy. If what M.\nBoutmy[5] says is true of English royalty\u2014that it \u201cis not only the\nimage of authority, but the author and symbol of national unity,\u201d as I\nbelieve it to be, doubly and trebly may this be affirmed of royalty in\nJapan.\n\n  [Footnote 5: _The English People_, p. 188.]\n\nThe tenets of Shintoism cover the two predominating features of the\nemotional life of our race\u2014Patriotism and Loyalty. Arthur May Knapp\nvery truly says: \u201cIn Hebrew literature it is often difficult to tell\nwhether the writer is speaking of God or of the Commonwealth; of heaven\nor of Jerusalem; of the Messiah or of the nation itself.\u201d[6] A similar\nconfusion may be noticed in the nomenclature of our national faith.\nI said confusion, because it will be so deemed by a logical intellect\non account of its verbal ambiguity; still, being a framework of\nnational instinct and race feelings, Shintoism never pretends to a\nsystematic philosophy or a rational theology. This religion\u2014or, is\nit not more correct to say, the race emotions which this religion\nexpressed?\u2014thoroughly imbued Bushido with loyalty to the sovereign and\nlove of country. These acted more as impulses than as doctrines; for\nShintoism, unlike the Medi\u00e6val Christian Church, prescribed to its\nvotaries scarcely any _credenda_, furnishing them at the same time with\n_agenda_ of a straightforward and simple type.\n\n  [Footnote 6: \u201c_Feudal and Modern Japan_\u201d Vol. I, p. 183.]\n\nAs to strictly ethical doctrines, the teachings of Confucius were the\nmost prolific source of Bushido. His enunciation of the five moral\nrelations between master and servant (the governing and the governed),\nfather and son, husband and wife, older and younger brother, and between\nfriend and friend, was but a confirmation of what the race instinct had\nrecognized before his writings were introduced from China. The calm,\nbenignant, and worldly-wise character of his politico-ethical precepts\nwas particularly well suited to the samurai, who formed the ruling\nclass. His aristocratic and conservative tone was well adapted to the\nrequirements of these warrior statesmen. Next to Confucius, Mencius\nexercised an immense authority over Bushido. His forcible and often\nquite democratic theories were exceedingly taking to sympathetic\nnatures, and they were even thought dangerous to, and subversive of, the\nexisting social order, hence his works were for a long time under\ncensure. Still, the words of this master mind found permanent lodgment\nin the heart of the samurai.\n\nThe writings of Confucius and Mencius formed the principal text-books\nfor youths and the highest authority in discussion among the old. A mere\nacquaintance with the classics of these two sages was held, however, in\nno high esteem. A common proverb ridicules one who has only an\nintellectual knowledge of Confucius, as a man ever studious but ignorant\nof _Analects_. A typical samurai calls a literary savant a book-smelling\nsot. Another compares learning to an ill-smelling vegetable that must be\nboiled and boiled before it is fit for use. A man who has read a little\nsmells a little pedantic, and a man who has read much smells yet more\nso; both are alike unpleasant. The writer meant thereby that knowledge\nbecomes really such only when it is assimilated in the mind of the\nlearner and shows in his character. An intellectual specialist was\nconsidered a machine. Intellect itself was considered subordinate to\nethical emotion. Man and the universe were conceived to be alike\nspiritual and ethical. Bushido could not accept the judgment of Huxley,\nthat the cosmic process was unmoral.\n\nBushido made light of knowledge as such. It was not pursued as an end in\nitself, but as a means to the attainment of wisdom. Hence, he who\nstopped short of this end was regarded no higher than a convenient\nmachine, which could turn out poems and maxims at bidding. Thus,\nknowledge was conceived as identical with its practical application in\nlife; and this Socratic doctrine found its greatest exponent in the\nChinese philosopher, Wan Yang Ming, who never wearies of repeating, \u201cTo\nknow and to act are one and the same.\u201d\n\nI beg leave for a moment\u2019s digression while I am on this subject,\ninasmuch as some of the noblest types of _bushi_ were strongly\ninfluenced by the teachings of this sage. Western readers will easily\nrecognize in his writings many parallels to the New Testament. Making\nallowance for the terms peculiar to either teaching, the passage, \u201cSeek\nye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things\nshall be added unto you,\u201d conveys a thought that may be found on almost\nany page of Wan Yang Ming. A Japanese disciple[7] of his says\u2014\u201cThe lord\nof heaven and earth, of all living beings, dwelling in the heart of man,\nbecomes his mind (_Kokoro_); hence a mind is a living thing, and is ever\nluminous:\u201d and again, \u201cThe spiritual light of our essential being is\npure, and is not affected by the will of man. Spontaneously springing up\nin our mind, it shows what is right and wrong: it is then called\nconscience; it is even the light that proceedeth from the god of\nheaven.\u201d How very much do these words sound like some passages from\nIsaac Pennington or other philosophic mystics! I am inclined to think\nthat the Japanese mind, as expressed in the simple tenets of the Shinto\nreligion, was particularly open to the reception of Yang Ming\u2019s\nprecepts. He carried his doctrine of the infallibility of conscience to\nextreme transcendentalism, attributing to it the faculty to perceive,\nnot only the distinction between right and wrong, but also the nature\nof psychical facts and physical phenomena. He went as far as, if not\nfarther than, Berkeley and Fichte, in Idealism, denying the existence of\nthings outside of human ken. If his system had all the logical errors\ncharged to Solipsism, it had all the efficacy of strong conviction and\nits moral import in developing individuality of character and equanimity\nof temper cannot be gainsaid.\n\n  [Footnote 7: Miwa Shissai.]\n\nThus, whatever the sources, the essential principles which _Bushido_\nimbibed from them and assimilated to itself, were few and simple. Few\nand simple as these were, they were sufficient to furnish a safe conduct\nof life even through the unsafest days of the most unsettled period of\nour nation\u2019s history. The wholesome, unsophisticated nature of our\nwarrior ancestors derived ample food for their spirit from a sheaf of\ncommonplace and fragmentary teachings, gleaned as it were on the\nhighways and byways of ancient thought, and, stimulated by the demands\nof the age, formed from these gleanings anew and unique type of manhood.\nAn acute French _savant_, M. de la Mazeli\u00e8re, thus sums up his\nimpressions of the sixteenth century:\u2014\u201cToward the middle of the\nsixteenth century, all is confusion in Japan, in the government, in\nsociety, in the church. But the civil wars, the manners returning to\nbarbarism, the necessity for each to execute justice for himself,\u2014these\nformed men comparable to those Italians of the sixteenth century, in\nwhom Taine praises \u2018the vigorous initiative, the habit of sudden\nresolutions and desperate undertakings, the grand capacity to do and to\nsuffer.\u2019 In Japan as in Italy \u2018the rude manners of the Middle Ages made\nof man a superb animal, wholly militant and wholly resistant.\u2019 And this\nis why the sixteenth century displays in the highest degree the\nprincipal quality of the Japanese race, that great diversity which one\nfinds there between minds (_esprits_) as well as between temperaments.\nWhile in India and even in China men seem to differ chiefly in degree of\nenergy or intelligence, in Japan they differ by originality of character\nas well. Now, individuality is the sign of superior races and of\ncivilizations already developed. If we make use of an expression dear to\nNietzsche, we might say that in Asia, to speak of humanity is to speak\nof its plains; in Japan as in Europe, one represents it above all by its\nmountains.\u201d\n\nTo the pervading characteristics of the men of whom M. de la Mazeli\u00e8re\nwrites, let us now address ourselves. I shall begin with\n\n\n                         RECTITUDE OR JUSTICE,\n\nthe most cogent precept in the code of the samurai. Nothing is more\nloathsome to him than underhand dealings and crooked undertakings. The\nconception of Rectitude may be erroneous\u2014it may be narrow. A well-known\nbushi defines it as a power of resolution;\u2014\u201cRectitude is the power of\ndeciding upon a certain course of conduct in accordance with reason,\nwithout wavering;\u2014to die when it is right to die, to strike when to\nstrike is right.\u201d Another speaks of it in the following terms:\n\u201cRectitude is the bone that gives firmness and stature. As without\nbones the head cannot rest on the top of the spine, nor hands move nor\nfeet stand, so without rectitude neither talent nor learning can make of\na human frame a samurai. With it the lack of accomplishments is as\nnothing.\u201d Mencius calls Benevolence man\u2019s mind, and Rectitude or\nRighteousness his path. \u201cHow lamentable,\u201d he exclaims, \u201cis it to neglect\nthe path and not pursue it, to lose the mind and not know to seek it\nagain! When men\u2019s fowls and dogs are lost, they know to seek for them\nagain, but they lose their mind and do not know to seek for it.\u201d Have we\nnot here \u201cas in a glass darkly\u201d a parable propounded three hundred years\nlater in another clime and by a greater Teacher, who called Himself _the\nWay_ of Righteousness, through whom the lost could be found? But I stray\nfrom my point. Righteousness, according to Mencius, is a straight and\nnarrow path which a man ought to take to regain the lost paradise.\n\nEven in the latter days of feudalism, when the long continuance of peace\nbrought leisure into the life of the warrior class, and with it\ndissipations of all kinds and gentle accomplishments, the epithet\n_Gishi_ (a man of rectitude) was considered superior to any name that\nsignified mastery of learning or art. The Forty-seven Faithfuls\u2014of whom\nso much is made in our popular education\u2014are known in common parlance\nas the Forty-seven _Gishi_.\n\nIn times when cunning artifice was liable to pass for military tact and\ndownright falsehood for _ruse de guerre_, this manly virtue, frank and\nhonest, was a jewel that shone the brightest and was most highly\npraised. Rectitude is a twin brother to Valor, another martial virtue.\nBut before proceeding to speak of Valor, let me linger a little while on\nwhat I may term a derivation from Rectitude, which, at first deviating\nslightly from its original, became more and more removed from it, until\nits meaning was perverted in the popular acceptance. I speak of _Gi-ri_,\nliterally the Right Reason, but which came in time to mean a vague sense\nof duty which public opinion expected an incumbent to fulfil. In its\noriginal and unalloyed sense, it meant duty, pure and simple,\u2014hence,\nwe speak of the _Giri_ we owe to parents, to superiors, to inferiors, to\nsociety at large, and so forth. In these instances _Giri_ is duty; for\nwhat else is duty than what Right Reason demands and commands us to do.\nShould not Right Reason be our categorical imperative?\n\n_Giri_ primarily meant no more than duty, and I dare say its etymology\nwas derived from the fact that in our conduct, say to our parents,\nthough love should be the only motive, lacking that, there must be some\nother authority to enforce filial piety; and they formulated this\nauthority in _Giri_. Very rightly did they formulate this\nauthority\u2014_Giri_\u2014since if love does not rush to deeds of virtue,\nrecourse must be had to man\u2019s intellect and his reason must be quickened\nto convince him of the necessity of acting aright. The same is true of\nany other moral obligation. The instant Duty becomes onerous, Right\nReason steps in to prevent our shirking it. _Giri_ thus understood is a\nsevere taskmaster, with a birch-rod in his hand to make sluggards\nperform their part. It is a secondary power in ethics; as a motive it\nis infinitely inferior to the Christian doctrine of love, which should\nbe _the_ law. I deem it a product of the conditions of an artificial\nsociety\u2014of a society in which accident of birth and unmerited favour\ninstituted class distinctions, in which the family was the social unit,\nin which seniority of age was of more account than superiority of\ntalents, in which natural affections had often to succumb before\narbitrary man-made customs. Because of this very artificiality, _Giri_\nin time degenerated into a vague sense of propriety called up to explain\nthis and sanction that,\u2014as, for example, why a mother must, if need be,\nsacrifice all her other children in order to save the first-born; or why\na daughter must sell her chastity to get funds to pay for the father\u2019s\ndissipation, and the like. Starting as Right Reason, _Giri_ has, in my\nopinion, often stooped to casuistry. It has even degenerated into\ncowardly fear of censure. I might say of _Giri_ what Scott wrote of\npatriotism, that \u201cas it is the fairest, so it is often the most\nsuspicious, mask of other feelings.\u201d Carried beyond or below Right\nReason, _Giri_ became a monstrous misnomer. It harbored under its wings\nevery sort of sophistry and hypocrisy. It might easily have been turned\ninto a nest of cowardice, if Bushido had not a keen and correct sense of\n\n\n                     COURAGE, THE SPIRIT OF DARING\n                             AND BEARING,\n\nto the consideration of which we shall now return. Courage was scarcely\ndeemed worthy to be counted among virtues, unless it was exercised in\nthe cause of Righteousness. In his \u201cAnalects\u201d Confucius defines Courage\nby explaining, as is often his wont, what its negative is. \u201cPerceiving\nwhat is right,\u201d he says, \u201cand doing it not, argues lack of courage.\u201d Put\nthis epigram into a positive statement, and it runs, \u201cCourage is doing\nwhat is right.\u201d To run all kinds of hazards, to jeopardize one\u2019s self,\nto rush into the jaws of death\u2014these are too often identified with\nValor, and in the profession of arms such rashness of conduct\u2014what\nShakespeare calls, \u201cvalor misbegot\u201d\u2014is unjustly applauded; but not so\nin the Precepts of Knighthood. Death for a cause unworthy of dying for,\nwas called a \u201cdog\u2019s death.\u201d \u201cTo rush into the thick of battle and to be\nslain in it,\u201d says a Prince of Mito, \u201cis easy enough, and the merest\nchurl is equal to the task; but,\u201d he continues, \u201cit is true courage to\nlive when it is right to live, and to die only when it is right to die,\u201d\nand yet the Prince had not even heard of the name of Plato, who defines\ncourage as \u201cthe knowledge of things that a man should fear and that he\nshould not fear.\u201d A distinction which is made in the West between moral\nand physical courage has long been recognized among us. What samurai\nyouth has not heard of \u201cGreat Valor\u201d and the \u201cValor of a Villein?\u201d\n\nValor, Fortitude, Bravery, Fearlessness, Courage, being the qualities of\nsoul which appeal most easily to juvenile minds, and which can be\ntrained by exercise and example, were, so to speak, the most popular\nvirtues, early emulated among the youth. Stories of military exploits\nwere repeated almost before boys left their mother\u2019s breast. Does a\nlittle booby cry for any ache? The mother scolds him in this fashion:\n\u201cWhat a coward to cry for a trifling pain! What will you do when your\narm is cut off in battle? What when you are called upon to commit\n_harakiri_?\u201d We all know the pathetic fortitude of a famished little\nboy-prince of Sendai, who in the drama is made to say to his little\npage, \u201cSeest thou those tiny sparrows in the nest, how their yellow\nbills are opened wide, and now see! there comes their mother with worms\nto feed them. How eagerly and happily the little ones eat! but for a\nsamurai, when his stomach is empty, it is a disgrace to feel hunger.\u201d\nAnecdotes of fortitude and bravery abound in nursery tales, though\nstories of this kind are not by any means the only method of early\nimbuing the spirit with daring and fearlessness. Parents, with sternness\nsometimes verging on cruelty, set their children to tasks that called\nforth all the pluck that was in them. \u201cBears hurl their cubs down the\ngorge,\u201d they said. Samurai\u2019s sons were let down the steep valleys of\nhardship, and spurred to Sisyphus-like tasks. Occasional deprivation of\nfood or exposure to cold, was considered a highly efficacious test for\ninuring them to endurance. Children of tender age were sent among utter\nstrangers with some message to deliver, were made to rise before the\nsun, and before breakfast attend to their reading exercises, walking to\ntheir teacher with bare feet in the cold of winter; they\nfrequently\u2014once or twice a month, as on the festival of a god of\nlearning,\u2014came together in small groups and passed the night without\nsleep, in reading aloud by turns. Pilgrimages to all sorts of uncanny\nplaces\u2014to execution grounds, to graveyards, to houses reputed to be\nhaunted, were favorite pastimes of the young. In the days when\ndecapitation was public, not only were small boys sent to witness the\nghastly scene, but they were made to visit alone the place in the\ndarkness of night and there to leave a mark of their visit on the\ntrunkless head.\n\nDoes this ultra-Spartan system of \u201cdrilling the nerves\u201d strike the\nmodern pedagogist with horror and doubt\u2014doubt whether the tendency\nwould not be brutalizing, nipping in the bud the tender emotions of the\nheart? Let us see what other concepts Bushido had of Valor.\n\nThe spiritual aspect of valor is evidenced by composure\u2014calm presence\nof mind. Tranquillity is courage in repose. It is a statical\nmanifestation of valor, as daring deeds are a dynamical. A truly brave\nman is ever serene; he is never taken by surprise; nothing ruffles the\nequanimity of his spirit. In the heat of battle he remains cool; in the\nmidst of catastrophes he keeps level his mind. Earthquakes do not shake\nhim, he laughs at storms. We admire him as truly great, who, in the\nmenacing presence of danger or death, retains his self-possession; who,\nfor instance, can compose a poem under impending peril or hum a strain\nin the face of death. Such indulgence betraying no tremor in the writing\nor in the voice, is taken as an infallible index of a large nature\u2014of\nwhat we call a capacious mind (_yoy\u016b_), which, for from being pressed or\ncrowded, has always room for something more.\n\nIt passes current among us as a piece of authentic history, that as \u014cta\nDokan, the great builder of the castle of Tokyo, was pierced through\nwith a spear, his assassin, knowing the poetical predilection of his\nvictim, accompanied his thrust with this couplet\u2014\n\n    \u201cAh! how in moments like these\n     Our heart doth grudge the light of life;\u201d\n\nwhereupon the expiring hero, not one whit daunted by the mortal wound in\nhis side, added the lines\u2014\n\n    \u201cHad not in hours of peace,\n     It learned to lightly look on life.\u201d\n\nThere is even a sportive element in a courageous nature. Things which\nare serious to ordinary people, may be but play to the valiant. Hence in\nold warfare it was not at all rare for the parties to a conflict to\nexchange repartee or to begin a rhetorical contest. Combat was not\nsolely a matter of brute force; it was, as well, an intellectual\nengagement.\n\nOf such character was the battle fought on the bank of the Koromo River,\nlate in the eleventh century. The eastern army routed, its leader,\nSadato, took to flight. When the pursuing general pressed him hard and\ncalled aloud\u2014\u201cIt is a disgrace for a warrior to show his back to the\nenemy,\u201d Sadato reined his horse; upon this the conquering chief shouted\nan impromptu verse\u2014\n\n    \u201cTorn into shreds is the warp of the cloth\u201d (_koromo_).\n\nScarcely had the words escaped his lips when the defeated warrior,\nundismayed, completed the couplet\u2014\n\n    \u201cSince age has worn its threads by use.\u201d\n\nYoshiie, whose bow had all the while been bent, suddenly unstrung it and\nturned away, leaving his prospective victim to do as he pleased. When\nasked the reason of his strange behavior, he replied that he could not\nbear to put to shame one who had kept his presence of mind while hotly\npursued by his enemy.\n\nThe sorrow which overtook Antony and Octavius at the death of Brutus,\nhas been the general experience of brave men. Kenshin, who fought for\nfourteen years with Shingen, when he heard of the latter\u2019s death, wept\naloud at the loss of \u201cthe best of enemies.\u201d It was this same Kenshin who\nhad set a noble example for all time, in his treatment of Shingen,\nwhose provinces lay in a mountainous region quite away from the sea, and\nwho had consequently depended upon the H\u014dj\u014d provinces of the Tokaido for\nsalt. The H\u014dj\u014d prince wishing to weaken him, although not openly at war\nwith him, had cut off from Shingen all traffic in this important\narticle. Kenshin, hearing of his enemy\u2019s dilemma and able to obtain his\nsalt from the coast of his own dominions, wrote Shingen that in his\nopinion the H\u014dj\u014d lord had committed a very mean act, and that although\nhe (Kenshin) was at war with him (Shingen) he had ordered his subjects\nto furnish him with plenty of salt\u2014adding, \u201cI do not fight with salt,\nbut with the sword,\u201d affording more than a parallel to the words of\nCamillus, \u201cWe Romans do not fight with gold, but with iron.\u201d Nietzsche\nspoke for the samurai heart when he wrote, \u201cYou are to be proud of your\nenemy; then, the success of your enemy is your success also.\u201d Indeed\nvalor and honor alike required that we should own as enemies in war only\nsuch as prove worthy of being friends in peace. When valor attains this\nheight, it becomes akin to\n\n\n                      BENEVOLENCE, THE FEELING OF\n                               DISTRESS,\n\nlove, magnanimity, affection for others, sympathy and pity, which were\never recognized to be supreme virtues, the highest of all the attributes\nof the human soul. Benevolence was deemed a princely virtue in a twofold\nsense;\u2014princely among the manifold attributes of a noble spirit;\nprincely as particularly befitting a princely profession. We needed no\nShakespeare to feel\u2014though, perhaps, like the rest of the world, we\nneeded him to express it\u2014that mercy became a monarch better than his\ncrown, that it was above his sceptered sway. How often both Confucius\nand Mencius repeat the highest requirement of a ruler of men to consist\nin benevolence. Confucius would say, \u201cLet but a prince cultivate virtue,\npeople will flock to him; with people will come to him lands; lands will\nbring forth for him wealth; wealth will give him the benefit of right\nuses. Virtue is the root, and wealth an outcome.\u201d Again, \u201cNever has\nthere been a case of a sovereign loving benevolence, and the people not\nloving righteousness,\u201d Mencius follows close at his heels and says,\n\u201cInstances are on record where individuals attained to supreme power\nin a single state, without benevolence, but never have I heard of a\nwhole empire falling into the hands of one who lacked this virtue.\u201d\nAlso,\u2014\u201cIt is impossible that any one should become ruler of the\npeople to whom they have not yielded the subjection of their hearts.\u201d\nBoth defined this indispensable requirement in a ruler by saying,\n\u201cBenevolence\u2014Benevolence is Man.\u201d Under the r\u00e9gime of feudalism, which\ncould easily be perverted into militarism, it was to Benevolence that we\nowed our deliverance from despotism of the worst kind. An utter\nsurrender of \u201clife and limb\u201d on the part of the governed would have left\nnothing for the governing but self-will, and this has for its natural\nconsequence the growth of that absolutism so often called \u201coriental\ndespotism,\u201d\u2014as though there were no despots of occidental history!\n\nLet it be far from me to uphold despotism of any sort; but it is a\nmistake to identify feudalism with it. When Frederick the Great wrote\nthat \u201cKings are the first servants of the State,\u201d jurists thought\nrightly that a new era was reached in the development of freedom.\nStrangely coinciding in time, in the backwoods of North-western Japan,\nYozan of Yon\u00e9zawa made exactly the same declaration, showing that\nfeudalism was not all tyranny and oppression. A feudal prince, although\nunmindful of owing reciprocal obligations to his vassals, felt a higher\nsense of responsibility to his ancestors and to Heaven. He was a father\nto his subjects, whom Heaven entrusted to his care. In a sense not\nusually assigned to the term, Bushido accepted and corroborated paternal\ngovernment\u2014paternal also as opposed to the less interested avuncular\ngovernment (Uncle Sam\u2019s, to wit!). The difference between a despotic and\na paternal government lies in this, that in the one the people obey\nreluctantly, while in the other they do so with \u201cthat proud submission,\nthat dignified obedience, that subordination of heart which kept alive,\neven in servitude itself, the spirit of exalted freedom.\u201d[8] The old\nsaying is not entirely false which called the king of England the \u201cking\nof devils, because of his subjects\u2019 often insurrections against, and\ndepositions of, their princes,\u201d and which made the French monarch the\n\u201cking of asses, because of their infinite taxes and impositions,\u201d but\nwhich gave the title of \u201cthe king of men\u201d to the sovereign of Spain\n\u201cbecause of his subjects\u2019 willing obedience.\u201d But enough!\u2014\n\n  [Footnote 8: Burke, _French Revolution_.]\n\nVirtue and absolute power may strike the Anglo-Saxon mind as terms which\nit is impossible to harmonize. Pobyedonostseff has clearly set before us\nthe contrast in the foundations of English and other European\ncommunities; namely that these were organized on the basis of common\ninterest, while that was distinguished by a strongly developed\nindependent personality. What this Russian statesman says of the\npersonal dependence of individuals on some social alliance and in the\nend of ends of the State, among the continental nations of Europe and\nparticularly among Slavonic peoples, is doubly true of the Japanese.\nHence not only is a free exercise of monarchical power not felt as\nheavily by us as in Europe, but it is generally moderated by parental\nconsideration for the feelings of the people. \u201cAbsolutism,\u201d says\nBismarck, \u201cprimarily demands in the ruler impartiality, honesty,\ndevotion to duty, energy and inward humility.\u201d If I may be allowed to\nmake one more quotation on this subject, I will cite from the speech of\nthe German Emperor at Coblenz, in which he spoke of \u201cKingship, by the\ngrace of God, with its heavy duties, its tremendous responsibility to\nthe Creator alone, from which no man, no minister, no parliament, can\nrelease the monarch.\u201d\n\nWe knew Benevolence was a tender virtue and mother-like. If upright\nRectitude and stern Justice were peculiarly masculine, Mercy had the\ngentleness and the persuasiveness of a feminine nature. We were warned\nagainst indulging in indiscriminate charity, without seasoning it with\njustice and rectitude. Masamun\u00e9 expressed it well in his oft-quoted\naphorism\u2014\u201cRectitude carried to excess hardens into stiffness;\nBenevolence indulged beyond measure sinks into weakness.\u201d\n\nFortunately Mercy was not so rare as it was beautiful, for it is\nuniversally true that \u201cThe bravest are the tenderest, the loving are the\ndaring.\u201d \u201c_Bushi no nasak\u00e9_\u201d\u2014the tenderness of a warrior\u2014had a sound\nwhich appealed at once to whatever was noble in us; not that the mercy\nof a samurai was generically different from the mercy of any other\nbeing, but because it implied mercy where mercy was not a blind impulse,\nbut where it recognized due regard to justice, and where mercy did not\nremain merely a certain state of mind, but where it was backed with\npower to save or kill. As economists speak of demand as being effectual\nor ineffectual, similarly we may call the mercy of bushi effectual,\nsince it implied the power of acting for the good or detriment of the\nrecipient.\n\nPriding themselves as they did in their brute strength and privileges to\nturn it into account, the samurai gave full consent to what Mencius\ntaught concerning the power of Love. \u201cBenevolence,\u201d he says, \u201cbrings\nunder its sway whatever hinders its power, just as water subdues fire:\nthey only doubt the power of water to quench flames who try to\nextinguish with a cupful a whole burning wagon-load of fagots.\u201d He also\nsays that \u201cthe feeling of distress is the root of benevolence, therefore\na benevolent man is ever mindful of those who are suffering and in\ndistress.\u201d Thus did Mencius long anticipate Adam Smith who founds his\nethical philosophy on Sympathy.\n\nIt is indeed striking how closely the code of knightly honor of one\ncountry coincides with that of others; in other words, how the much\nabused oriental ideas of morals find their counterparts in the noblest\nmaxims of European literature. If the well-known lines,\n\n    Hae tibi erunt artes\u2014pacisque imponere morem,\n    Parcere subjectis, et debellare superbos,\n\nwere shown a Japanese gentleman, he might readily accuse the Mantuan\nbard of plagiarizing from the literature of his own country.\n\nBenevolence to the weak, the downtrodden or the vanquished, was ever\nextolled as peculiarly becoming to a samurai. Lovers of Japanese art\nmust be familiar with the representation of a priest riding backwards\non a cow. The rider was once a warrior who in his day made his name a\nby-word of terror. In that terrible battle of Sumano-ura, (1184 A.D.),\nwhich was one of the most decisive in our history, he overtook an enemy\nand in single combat had him in the clutch of his gigantic arms. Now\nthe etiquette of war required that on such occasions no blood should be\nspilt, unless the weaker party proved to be a man of rank or ability\nequal to that of the stronger. The grim combatant would have the name\nof the man under him; but he refusing to make it known, his helmet\nwas ruthlessly torn off, when the sight of a juvenile face, fair and\nbeardless, made the astonished knight relax his hold. Helping the youth\nto his feet, in paternal tones he bade the stripling go: \u201cOff, young\nprince, to thy mother\u2019s side! The sword of Kumagaye shall never be\ntarnished by a drop of thy blood. Haste and flee o\u2019er yon pass before\nthy enemies come in sight!\u201d The young warrior refused to go and begged\nKumagaye, for the honor of both, to despatch him on the spot. Above\nthe hoary head of the veteran gleams the cold blade, which many a time\nbefore has sundered the chords of life, but his stout heart quails;\nthere flashes athwart his mental eye the vision of his own boy, who\nthis self-same day marched to the sound of bugle to try his maiden\narms; the strong hand of the warrior quivers; again he begs his victim\nto flee for his life. Finding all his entreaties vain and hearing the\napproaching steps of his comrades, he exclaims: \u201cIf thou art overtaken,\nthou mayest fall at a more ignoble hand than mine. O, thou Infinite!\nreceive his soul!\u201d In an instant the sword flashes in the air, and\nwhen it falls it is red with adolescent blood. When the war is ended,\nwe find our soldier returning in triumph, but little cares he now for\nhonor or fame; he renounces his warlike career, shaves his head, dons a\npriestly garb, devotes the rest of his days to holy pilgrimage, never\nturning his back to the West, where lies the Paradise whence salvation\ncomes and whither the sun hastes daily for his rest.\n\nCritics may point out flaws in this story, which is casuistically\nvulnerable. Let it be: all the same it shows that Tenderness, Pity and\nLove, were traits which adorned the most sanguinary exploits of the\nsamurai. It was an old maxim among them that \u201cIt becometh not the fowler\nto slay the bird which takes refuge in his bosom.\u201d This in a large\nmeasure explains why the Red Cross movement, considered peculiarly\nChristian, so readily found a firm footing among us. For decades before\nwe heard of the Geneva Convention, Bakin, our greatest novelist, had\nfamiliarized us with the medical treatment of a fallen foe. In the\nprincipality of Satsuma, noted for its martial spirit and education, the\ncustom prevailed for young men to practice music; not the blast of\ntrumpets or the beat of drums,\u2014\u201cthose clamorous harbingers of blood and\ndeath\u201d\u2014stirring us to imitate the actions of a tiger, but sad and\ntender melodies on the _biwa_,[9] soothing our fiery spirits, drawing\nour thoughts away from scent of blood and scenes of carnage. Polybius\ntells us of the Constitution of Arcadia, which required all youths\nunder thirty to practice music, in order that this gentle art might\nalleviate the rigors of that inclement region. It is to its influence\nthat he attributes the absence of cruelty in that part of the Arcadian\nmountains.\n\n  [Footnote 9: A musical instrument, resembling the guitar.]\n\nNor was Satsuma the only place in Japan where gentleness was inculcated\namong the warrior class. A Prince of Shirakawa jots down his random\nthoughts, and among them is the following: \u201cThough they come stealing to\nyour bedside in the silent watches of the night, drive not away, but\nrather cherish these\u2014the fragrance of flowers, the sound of distant\nbells, the insect humming of a frosty night.\u201d And again, \u201cThough they\nmay wound your feelings, these three you have only to forgive, the\nbreeze that scatters your flowers, the cloud that hides your moon, and\nthe man who tries to pick quarrels with you.\u201d\n\nIt was ostensibly to express, but actually to cultivate, these gentler\nemotions that the writing of verses was encouraged. Our poetry has\ntherefore a strong undercurrent of pathos and tenderness. A well-known\nanecdote of a rustic samurai illustrates a case in point. When he was\ntold to learn versification, and \u201cThe Warbler\u2019s Notes\u201d[10] was given him\nfor the subject of his first attempt, his fiery spirit rebelled and he\nflung at the feet of his master this uncouth production, which ran\n\n  [Footnote 10: The uguisu or warbler, sometimes called the\n  nightingale of Japan.]\n\n    \u201cThe brave warrior keeps apart\n     The ear that might listen\n     To the warbler\u2019s song.\u201d\n\nHis master, undaunted by the crude sentiment, continued to encourage the\nyouth, until one day the music of his soul was awakened to respond to\nthe sweet notes of the _uguisu_, and he wrote\n\n    \u201cStands the warrior, mailed and strong,\n     To hear the uguisu\u2019s song,\n     Warbled sweet the trees among.\u201d\n\nWe admire and enjoy the heroic incident in K\u00f6rner\u2019s short life, when, as\nhe lay wounded on the battle-field, he scribbled his famous \u201cFarewell to\nLife.\u201d Incidents of a similar kind were not at all unusual in our\nwarfare. Our pithy, epigrammatic poems were particularly well suited to\nthe improvisation of a single sentiment. Everybody of any education was\neither a poet or a poetaster. Not infrequently a marching soldier might\nbe seen to halt, take his writing utensils from his belt, and compose an\node,\u2014and such papers were found afterward in the helmets or the\nbreast-plates, when these were removed from their lifeless wearers.\n\nWhat Christianity has done in Europe toward rousing compassion in the\nmidst of belligerent horrors, love of music and letters has done in\nJapan. The cultivation of tender feelings breeds considerate regard for\nthe sufferings of others. Modesty and complaisance, actuated by respect\nfor others\u2019 feelings, are at the root of\n\n\n                              POLITENESS,\n\nthat courtesy and urbanity of manners which has been noticed by every\nforeign tourist as a marked Japanese trait. Politeness is a poor virtue,\nif it is actuated only by a fear of offending good taste, whereas it\nshould be the outward manifestation of a sympathetic regard for the\nfeelings of others. It also implies a due regard for the fitness of\nthings, therefore due respect to social positions; for these latter\nexpress no plutocratic distinctions, but were originally distinctions\nfor actual merit.\n\nIn its highest form, politeness almost approaches love. We may\nreverently say, politeness \u201csuffereth long, and is kind; envieth not,\nvaunteth not itself, is not puffed up; doth not behave itself unseemly,\nseeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, taketh not account of\nevil.\u201d Is it any wonder that Professor Dean, in speaking of the six\nelements of Humanity, accords to Politeness an exalted position,\ninasmuch as it is the ripest fruit of social intercourse?\n\nWhile thus extolling Politeness, far be it from me to put it in the\nfront rank of virtues. If we analyze it, we shall find it correlated\nwith other virtues of a higher order; for what virtue stands alone?\nWhile\u2014or rather because\u2014it was exalted as peculiar to the profession\nof arms, and as such esteemed in a degree higher than its deserts, there\ncame into existence its counterfeits. Confucius himself has repeatedly\ntaught that external appurtenances are as little a part of propriety as\nsounds are of music.\n\nWhen propriety was elevated to the _sine qua non_ of social intercourse,\nit was only to be expected that an elaborate system of etiquette should\ncome into vogue to train youth in correct social behavior. How one must\nbow in accosting others, how he must walk and sit, were taught and\nlearned with utmost care. Table manners grew to be a science. Tea\nserving and drinking were raised to a ceremony. A man of education is,\nof course, expected to be master of all these. Very fitly does Mr.\nVeblen, in his interesting book,[11] call decorum \u201ca product and an\nexponent of the leisure-class life.\u201d\n\n  [Footnote 11: _Theory of the Leisure Class_, N.Y. 1899, p. 46.]\n\nI have heard slighting remarks made by Europeans upon our elaborate\ndiscipline of politeness. It has been criticized as absorbing too much\nof our thought and in so far a folly to observe strict obedience to it.\nI admit that there may be unnecessary niceties in ceremonious etiquette,\nbut whether it partakes as much of folly as the adherence to\never-changing fashions of the West, is a question not very clear to my\nmind. Even fashions I do not consider solely as freaks of vanity; on the\ncontrary, I look upon these as a ceaseless search of the human mind for\nthe beautiful. Much less do I consider elaborate ceremony as altogether\ntrivial; for it denotes the result of long observation as to the most\nappropriate method of achieving a certain result. If there is anything\nto do, there is certainly a best way to do it, and the best way is both\nthe most economical and the most graceful. Mr. Spencer defines grace as\nthe most economical manner of motion. The tea ceremony presents certain\ndefinite ways of manipulating a bowl, a spoon, a napkin, etc. To a\nnovice it looks tedious. But one soon discovers that the way prescribed\nis, after all, the most saving of time and labor; in other words, the\nmost economical use of force,\u2014hence, according to Spencer\u2019s dictum, the\nmost graceful.\n\nThe spiritual significance of social decorum,\u2014or, I might say, to\nborrow from the vocabulary of the \u201cPhilosophy of Clothes,\u201d the\nspiritual discipline of which etiquette and ceremony are mere outward\ngarments,\u2014is out of all proportion to what their appearance warrants us\nin believing. I might follow the example of Mr. Spencer and trace in our\nceremonial institutions their origins and the moral motives that gave\nrise to them; but that is not what I shall endeavor to do in this book.\nIt is the moral training involved in strict observance of propriety,\nthat I wish to emphasize.\n\nI have said that etiquette was elaborated into the finest niceties, so\nmuch so that different schools advocating different systems, came into\nexistence. But they all united in the ultimate essential, and this was\nput by a great exponent of the best known school of etiquette, the\nOgasawara, in the following terms: \u201cThe end of all etiquette is to so\ncultivate your mind that even when you are quietly seated, not the\nroughest ruffian can dare make onset on your person.\u201d It means, in other\nwords, that by constant exercise in correct manners, one brings all the\nparts and faculties of his body into perfect order and into such\nharmony with itself and its environment as to express the mastery of\nspirit over the flesh. What a new and deep significance the French word\n_biens\u00e8ance_[12] comes thus to contain!\n\n  [Footnote 12: Etymologically _well-seatedness_.]\n\nIf the premise is true that gracefulness means economy of force, then it\nfollows as a logical sequence that a constant practice of graceful\ndeportment must bring with it a reserve and storage of force. Fine\nmanners, therefore, mean power in repose. When the barbarian Gauls,\nduring the sack of Rome, burst into the assembled Senate and dared pull\nthe beards of the venerable Fathers, we think the old gentlemen were to\nblame, inasmuch as they lacked dignity and strength of manners. Is lofty\nspiritual attainment really possible through etiquette? Why not?\u2014All\nroads lead to Rome!\n\nAs an example of how the simplest thing can be made into an art and then\nbecome spiritual culture, I may take _Cha-no-yu_, the tea ceremony.\nTea-sipping as a fine art! Why should it not be? In the children drawing\npictures on the sand, or in the savage carving on a rock, was the\npromise of a Raphael or a Michael Angelo. How much more is the drinking\nof a beverage, which began with the transcendental contemplation of a\nHindoo anchorite, entitled to develop into a handmaid of Religion and\nMorality? That calmness of mind, that serenity of temper, that composure\nand quietness of demeanor, which are the first essentials of _Cha-no-yu_\nare without doubt the first conditions of right thinking and right\nfeeling. The scrupulous cleanliness of the little room, shut off from\nsight and sound of the madding crowd, is in itself conducive to direct\none\u2019s thoughts from the world. The bare interior does not engross one\u2019s\nattention like the innumerable pictures and bric-a-brac of a Western\nparlor; the presence of _kakemono_[13] calls our attention more to grace\nof design than to beauty of color. The utmost refinement of taste is the\nobject aimed at; whereas anything like display is banished with\nreligious horror. The very fact that it was invented by a contemplative\nrecluse, in a time when wars and the rumors of wars were incessant, is\nwell calculated to show that this institution was more than a pastime.\nBefore entering the quiet precincts of the tea-room, the company\nassembling to partake of the ceremony laid aside, together with their\nswords, the ferocity of the battle-field or the cares of government,\nthere to find peace and friendship.\n\n  [Footnote 13: Hanging scrolls, which may be either paintings or\n  ideograms, used for decorative purposes.]\n\n_Cha-no-yu_ is more than a ceremony\u2014it is a fine art; it is poetry,\nwith articulate gestures for rhythm: it is a _modus operandi_ of soul\ndiscipline. Its greatest value lies in this last phase. Not infrequently\nthe other phases preponderated in the mind of its votaries, but that\ndoes not prove that its essence was not of a spiritual nature.\n\nPoliteness will be a great acquisition, if it does no more than impart\ngrace to manners; but its function does not stop here. For propriety,\nspringing as it does from motives of benevolence and modesty, and\nactuated by tender feelings toward the sensibilities of others, is ever\na graceful expression of sympathy. Its requirement is that we should\nweep with those that weep and rejoice with those that rejoice. Such\ndidactic requirement, when reduced into small every-day details of life,\nexpresses itself in little acts scarcely noticeable, or, if noticed, is,\nas one missionary lady of twenty years\u2019 residence once said to me,\n\u201cawfully funny.\u201d You are out in the hot glaring sun with no shade over\nyou; a Japanese acquaintance passes by; you accost him, and instantly\nhis hat is off\u2014well, that is perfectly natural, but the \u201cawfully funny\u201d\nperformance is, that all the while he talks with you his parasol is down\nand he stands in the glaring sun also. How foolish!\u2014Yes, exactly so,\nprovided the motive were less than this: \u201cYou are in the sun; I\nsympathize with you; I would willingly take you under my parasol if it\nwere large enough, or if we were familiarly acquainted; as I cannot\nshade you, I will share your discomforts.\u201d Little acts of this kind,\nequally or more amusing, are not mere gestures or conventionalities.\nThey are the \u201cbodying forth\u201d of thoughtful feelings for the comfort of\nothers.\n\nAnother \u201cawfully funny\u201d custom is dictated by our canons of Politeness;\nbut many superficial writers on Japan have dismissed it by simply\nattributing it to the general topsy-turvyness of the nation. Every\nforeigner who has observed it will confess the awkwardness he felt in\nmaking proper reply upon the occasion. In America, when you make a gift,\nyou sing its praises to the recipient; in Japan we depreciate or slander\nit. The underlying idea with you is, \u201cThis is a nice gift: if it were\nnot nice I would not dare give it to you; for it will be an insult to\ngive you anything but what is nice.\u201d In contrast to this, our logic\nruns: \u201cYou are a nice person, and no gift is nice enough for you. You\nwill not accept anything I can lay at your feet except as a token of my\ngood will; so accept this, not for its intrinsic value, but as a token.\nIt will be an insult to your worth to call the best gift good enough for\nyou.\u201d Place the two ideas side by side; and we see that the ultimate\nidea is one and the same. Neither is \u201cawfully funny.\u201d The American\nspeaks of the material which makes the gift; the Japanese speaks of the\nspirit which prompts the gift.\n\nIt is perverse reasoning to conclude, because our sense of propriety\nshows itself in all the smallest ramifications of our deportment, to\ntake the least important of them and uphold it as the type, and pass\njudgment upon the principle itself. Which is more important, to eat or\nto observe rules of propriety about eating? A Chinese sage answers, \u201cIf\nyou take a case where the eating is all-important, and the observing the\nrules of propriety is of little importance, and compare them together,\nwhy merely say that the eating is of the more importance?\u201d \u201cMetal is\nheavier than feathers,\u201d but does that saying have reference to a single\nclasp of metal and a wagon-load of feathers? Take a piece of wood a foot\nthick and raise it above the pinnacle of a temple, none would call it\ntaller than the temple. To the question, \u201cWhich is the more important,\nto tell the truth or to be polite?\u201d the Japanese are said to give an\nanswer diametrically opposite to what the American will say,\u2014but I\nforbear any comment until I come to speak of\n\n\n                       VERACITY OR TRUTHFULNESS,\n\nwithout which Politeness is a farce and a show. \u201cPropriety carried\nbeyond right bounds,\u201d says Masamun\u00e9, \u201cbecomes a lie.\u201d An ancient poet\nhas outdone Polonius in the advice he gives: \u201cTo thyself be faithful: if\nin thy heart thou strayest not from truth, without prayer of thine the\nGods will keep thee whole.\u201d The apotheosis of Sincerity to which Tsu-tsu\ngives expression in the _Doctrine of the Mean_, attributes to it\ntranscendental powers, almost identifying them with the Divine.\n\u201cSincerity is the end and the beginning of all things; without Sincerity\nthere would be nothing.\u201d He then dwells with eloquence on its\nfar-reaching and long enduring nature, its power to produce changes\nwithout movement and by its mere presence to accomplish its purpose\nwithout effort. From the Chinese ideogram for Sincerity, which is a\ncombination of \u201cWord\u201d and \u201cPerfect,\u201d one is tempted to draw a parallel\nbetween it and the Neo-Platonic doctrine of _Logos_\u2014to such height\ndoes the sage soar in his unwonted mystic flight.\n\nLying or equivocation were deemed equally cowardly. The bushi held that\nhis high social position demanded a loftier standard of veracity than\nthat of the tradesman and peasant. _Bushi no ichi-gon_\u2014the word of a\nsamurai or in exact German equivalent _ein Ritterwort_\u2014was sufficient\nguaranty of the truthfulness of an assertion. His word carried such\nweight with it that promises were generally made and fulfilled without a\nwritten pledge, which would have been deemed quite beneath his dignity.\nMany thrilling anecdotes were told of those who atoned by death for\n_ni-gon_, a double tongue.\n\nThe regard for veracity was so high that, unlike the generality of\nChristians who persistently violate the plain commands of the Teacher\nnot to swear, the best of samurai looked upon an oath as derogatory to\ntheir honor. I am well aware that they did swear by different deities or\nupon their swords; but never has swearing degenerated into wanton form\nand irreverent interjection. To emphasize our words a practice of\nliterally sealing with blood was sometimes resorted to. For the\nexplanation of such a practice, I need only refer my readers to Goethe\u2019s\nFaust.\n\nA recent American writer is responsible for this statement, that if you\nask an ordinary Japanese which is better, to tell a falsehood or be\nimpolite, he will not hesitate to answer \u201cto tell a falsehood!\u201d Dr.\nPeery[14] is partly right and partly wrong; right in that an ordinary\nJapanese, even a samurai, may answer in the way ascribed to him, but\nwrong in attributing too much weight to the term he translates\n\u201cfalsehood.\u201d This word (in Japanese _uso_) is employed to denote\nanything which is not a truth (_makoto_) or fact (_honto_). Lowell tells\nus that Wordsworth could not distinguish between truth and fact, and an\nordinary Japanese is in this respect as good as Wordsworth. Ask a\nJapanese, or even an American of any refinement, to tell you whether he\ndislikes you or whether he is sick at his stomach, and he will not\nhesitate long to tell falsehoods and answer, \u201cI like you much,\u201d or, \u201cI\nam quite well, thank you.\u201d To sacrifice truth merely for the sake of\npoliteness was regarded as an \u201cempty form\u201d (_kyo-rei_) and \u201cdeception by\nsweet words,\u201d and was never justified.\n\n  [Footnote 14: Peery, _The Gist of Japan_, p. 86.]\n\nI own I am speaking now of the Bushido idea of veracity; but it may not\nbe amiss to devote a few words to our commercial integrity, of which I\nhave heard much complaint in foreign books and journals. A loose\nbusiness morality has indeed been the worst blot on our national\nreputation; but before abusing it or hastily condemning the whole race\nfor it, let us calmly study it and we shall be rewarded with consolation\nfor the future.\n\nOf all the great occupations of life, none was farther removed from the\nprofession of arms than commerce. The merchant was placed lowest in the\ncategory of vocations,\u2014the knight, the tiller of the soil, the\nmechanic, the merchant. The samurai derived his income from land and\ncould even indulge, if he had a mind to, in amateur farming; but the\ncounter and abacus were abhorred. We knew the wisdom of this social\narrangement. Montesquieu has made it clear that the debarring of the\nnobility from mercantile pursuits was an admirable social policy, in\nthat it prevented wealth from accumulating in the hands of the powerful.\nThe separation of power and riches kept the distribution of the latter\nmore nearly equable. Professor Dill, the author of \u201cRoman Society in the\nLast Century of the Western Empire,\u201d has brought afresh to our mind that\none cause of the decadence of the Roman Empire, was the permission given\nto the nobility to engage in trade, and the consequent monopoly of\nwealth and power by a minority of the senatorial families.\n\nCommerce, therefore, in feudal Japan did not reach that degree of\ndevelopment which it would have attained under freer conditions. The\nobloquy attached to the calling naturally brought within its pale such\nas cared little for social repute. \u201cCall one a thief and he will steal:\u201d\nput a stigma on a calling and its followers adjust their morals to it,\nfor it is natural that \u201cthe normal conscience,\u201d as Hugh Black says,\n\u201crises to the demands made on it, and easily falls to the limit of the\nstandard expected from it.\u201d It is unnecessary to add that no business,\ncommercial or otherwise, can be transacted without a code of morals. Our\nmerchants of the feudal period had one among themselves, without which\nthey could never have developed, as they did, such fundamental\nmercantile institutions as the guild, the bank, the bourse, insurance,\nchecks, bills of exchange, etc.; but in their relations with people\noutside their vocation, the tradesmen lived too true to the reputation\nof their order.\n\nThis being the case, when the country was opened to foreign trade, only\nthe most adventurous and unscrupulous rushed to the ports, while the\nrespectable business houses declined for some time the repeated requests\nof the authorities to establish branch houses. Was Bushido powerless to\nstay the current of commercial dishonor? Let us see.\n\nThose who are well acquainted with our history will remember that only a\nfew years after our treaty ports were opened to foreign trade,\nfeudalism was abolished, and when with it the samurai\u2019s fiefs were taken\nand bonds issued to them in compensation, they were given liberty to\ninvest them in mercantile transactions. Now you may ask, \u201cWhy could they\nnot bring their much boasted veracity into their new business relations\nand so reform the old abuses?\u201d Those who had eyes to see could not weep\nenough, those who had hearts to feel could not sympathize enough, with\nthe fate of many a noble and honest samurai who signally and irrevocably\nfailed in his new and unfamiliar field of trade and industry, through\nsheer lack of shrewdness in coping with his artful plebeian rival. When\nwe know that eighty per cent. of the business houses fail in so\nindustrial a country as America, is it any wonder that scarcely one\namong a hundred samurai who went into trade could succeed in his new\nvocation? It will be long before it will be recognized how many fortunes\nwere wrecked in the attempt to apply Bushido ethics to business methods;\nbut it was soon patent to every observing mind that the ways of wealth\nwere not the ways of honor. In what respects, then, were they different?\n\nOf the three incentives to Veracity that Lecky enumerates, viz: the\nindustrial, the political, and the philosophical, the first was\naltogether lacking in Bushido. As to the second, it could develop little\nin a political community under a feudal system. It is in its\nphilosophical, and as Lecky says, in its highest aspect, that Honesty\nattained elevated rank in our catalogue of virtues. With all my sincere\nregard for the high commercial integrity of the Anglo-Saxon race, when I\nask for the ultimate ground, I am told that \u201cHonesty is the best\npolicy,\u201d that it _pays_ to be honest. Is not this virtue, then, its own\nreward? If it is followed because it brings in more cash than falsehood,\nI am afraid Bushido would rather indulge in lies!\n\nIf Bushido rejects a doctrine of _quid pro quo_ rewards, the shrewder\ntradesman will readily accept it. Lecky has very truly remarked that\nVeracity owes its growth largely to commerce and manufacture; as\nNietzsche puts it, \u201cHonesty is the youngest of virtues\u201d\u2014in other\nwords, it is the foster-child of industry, of modern industry. Without\nthis mother, Veracity was like a blue-blood orphan whom only the most\ncultivated mind could adopt and nourish. Such minds were general among\nthe samurai, but, for want of a more democratic and utilitarian\nfoster-mother, the tender child failed to thrive. Industries advancing,\nVeracity will prove an easy, nay, a profitable, virtue to practice. Just\nthink, as late as November 1880, Bismarck sent a circular to the\nprofessional consuls of the German Empire, warning them of \u201ca lamentable\nlack of reliability with regard to German shipments _inter alia_,\napparent both as to quality and quantity;\u201d now-a-days we hear\ncomparatively little of German carelessness and dishonesty in trade. In\ntwenty years her merchants learned that in the end honesty pays. Already\nour merchants are finding that out. For the rest I recommend the reader\nto two recent writers for well-weighed judgment on this point.[15] It is\ninteresting to remark in this connection that integrity and honor were\nthe surest guaranties which even a merchant debtor could present in the\nform of promissory notes. It was quite a usual thing to insert such\nclauses as these: \u201cIn default of the repayment of the sum lent to me, I\nshall say nothing against being ridiculed in public;\u201d or, \u201cIn case I\nfail to pay you back, you may call me a fool,\u201d and the like.\n\n  [Footnote 15: Knapp, _Feudal and Modern Japan_, Vol. I, Ch. IV.\n  Ransome, _Japan in Transition_, Ch. VIII.]\n\nOften have I wondered whether the Veracity of Bushido had any motive\nhigher than courage. In the absence of any positive commandment against\nbearing false witness, lying was not condemned as sin, but simply\ndenounced as weakness, and, as such, highly dishonorable. As a matter of\nfact, the idea of honesty is so intimately blended, and its Latin and\nits German etymology so identified with\n\n\n                                HONOR,\n\nthat it is high time I should pause a few moments for the consideration\nof this feature of the Precepts of Knighthood.\n\nThe sense of honor, implying a vivid consciousness of personal dignity\nand worth, could not fail to characterize the samurai, born and bred to\nvalue the duties and privileges of their profession. Though the word\nordinarily given now-a-days as the translation of Honor was not used\nfreely, yet the idea was conveyed by such terms as _na_ (name)\n_men-moku_ (countenance), _guai-bun_ (outside hearing), reminding us\nrespectively of the biblical use of \u201cname,\u201d of the evolution of the term\n\u201cpersonality\u201d from the Greek mask, and of \u201cfame.\u201d A good name\u2014one\u2019s\nreputation, the immortal part of one\u2019s self, what remains being\nbestial\u2014assumed as a matter of course, any infringement upon its\nintegrity was felt as shame, and the sense of shame (_Ren-chi-shin_) was\none of the earliest to be cherished in juvenile education. \u201cYou will be\nlaughed at,\u201d \u201cIt will disgrace you,\u201d \u201cAre you not ashamed?\u201d were the\nlast appeal to correct behavior on the part of a youthful delinquent.\nSuch a recourse to his honor touched the most sensitive spot in the\nchild\u2019s heart, as though it had been nursed on honor while it was in its\nmother\u2019s womb; for most truly is honor a prenatal influence, being\nclosely bound up with strong family consciousness. \u201cIn losing the\nsolidarity of families,\u201d says Balzac, \u201csociety has lost the fundamental\nforce which Montesquieu named Honor.\u201d Indeed, the sense of shame seems\nto me to be the earliest indication of the moral consciousness of our\nrace. The first and worst punishment which befell humanity in\nconsequence of tasting \u201cthe fruit of that forbidden tree\u201d was, to my\nmind, not the sorrow of childbirth, nor the thorns and thistles, but the\nawakening of the sense of shame. Few incidents in history excel in\npathos the scene of the first mother plying with heaving breast and\ntremulous fingers, her crude needle on the few fig leaves which her\ndejected husband plucked for her. This first fruit of disobedience\nclings to us with a tenacity that nothing else does. All the sartorial\ningenuity of mankind has not yet succeeded in sewing an apron that will\nefficaciously hide our sense of shame. That samurai was right who\nrefused to compromise his character by a slight humiliation in his\nyouth; \u201cbecause,\u201d he said, \u201cdishonor is like a scar on a tree, which\ntime, instead of effacing, only helps to enlarge.\u201d\n\nMencius had taught centuries before, in almost the identical phrase,\nwhat Carlyle has latterly expressed,\u2014namely, that \u201cShame is the soil of\nall Virtue, of good manners and good morals.\u201d\n\nThe fear of disgrace was so great that if our literature lacks\nsuch eloquence as Shakespeare puts into the mouth of Norfolk, it\nnevertheless hung like Damocles\u2019 sword over the head of every samurai\nand often assumed a morbid character. In the name of Honor, deeds were\nperpetrated which can find no justification in the code of Bushido.\nAt the slightest, nay, imaginary insult, the quick-tempered braggart\ntook offense, resorted to the use of the sword, and many an unnecessary\nstrife was raised and many an innocent life lost. The story of a\nwell-meaning citizen who called the attention of a bushi to a flea\njumping on his back, and who was forthwith cut in two, for the simple\nand questionable reason that inasmuch as fleas are parasites which\nfeed on animals, it was an unpardonable insult to identify a noble\nwarrior with a beast\u2014I say, stories like these are too frivolous to\nbelieve. Yet, the circulation of such stories implies three things;\n(1) that they were invented to overawe common people; (2) that abuses\nwere really made of the samurai\u2019s profession of honor; and (3) that\na very strong sense of shame was developed among them. It is plainly\nunfair to take an abnormal case to cast blame upon the Precepts, any\nmore than to judge of the true teaching of Christ from the fruits of\nreligious fanaticism and extravagance\u2014inquisitions and hypocrisy. But,\nas in religious monomania there is something touchingly noble, as\ncompared with the delirium tremens of a drunkard, so in that extreme\nsensitiveness of the samurai about their honor do we not recognize the\nsubstratum of a genuine virtue?\n\nThe morbid excess into which the delicate code of honor was inclined\nto run was strongly counterbalanced by preaching magnanimity and\npatience. To take offense at slight provocation was ridiculed as\n\u201cshort-tempered.\u201d The popular adage said: \u201cTo bear what you think you\ncannot bear is really to bear.\u201d The great Iy\u00e9yasu left to posterity\na few maxims, among which are the following:\u2014\u201cThe life of man is\nlike going a long distance with a heavy load upon the shoulders.\nHaste not. * * * * Reproach none, but be forever watchful of thine\nown short-comings. * * * Forbearance is the basis of length of\ndays.\u201d He proved in his life what he preached. A literary wit put a\ncharacteristic epigram into the mouths of three well-known personages\nin our history: to Nobunaga he attributed, \u201cI will kill her, if the\nnightingale sings not in time;\u201d to Hid\u00e9yoshi, \u201cI will force her to sing\nfor me;\u201d and to Iy\u00e9yasu, \u201cI will wait till she opens her lips.\u201d\n\nPatience and long suffering were also highly commended by Mencius. In\none place he writes to this effect: \u201cThough you denude yourself and\ninsult me, what is that to me? You cannot defile my soul by your\noutrage.\u201d Elsewhere he teaches that anger at a petty offense is unworthy\na superior man, but indignation for a great cause is righteous wrath.\n\nTo what height of unmartial and unresisting meekness Bushido could\nreach in some of its votaries, may be seen in their utterances. Take,\nfor instance, this saying of Ogawa: \u201cWhen others speak all manner of\nevil things against thee, return not evil for evil, but rather reflect\nthat thou wast not more faithful in the discharge of thy duties.\u201d Take\nanother of Kumazawa:\u2014\u201cWhen others blame thee, blame them not; when\nothers are angry at thee, return not anger. Joy cometh only as Passion\nand Desire part.\u201d Still another instance I may cite from Saigo, upon\nwhose overhanging brows \u201cshame is ashamed to sit;\u201d\u2014\u201cThe Way is the way\nof Heaven and Earth: Man\u2019s place is to follow it: therefore make it the\nobject of thy life to reverence Heaven. Heaven loves me and others with\nequal love; therefore with the love wherewith thou lovest thyself, love\nothers. Make not Man thy partner but Heaven, and making Heaven thy\npartner do thy best. Never condemn others; but see to it that thou\ncomest not short of thine own mark.\u201d Some of those sayings remind us of\nChristian expostulations and show us how far in practical morality\nnatural religion can approach the revealed. Not only did these sayings\nremain as utterances, but they were really embodied in acts.\n\nIt must be admitted that very few attained this sublime height of\nmagnanimity, patience and forgiveness. It was a great pity that nothing\nclear and general was expressed as to what constitutes Honor, only a few\nenlightened minds being aware that it \u201cfrom no condition rises,\u201d but\nthat it lies in each acting well his part: for nothing was easier than\nfor youths to forget in the heat of action what they had learned in\nMencius in their calmer moments. Said this sage, \u201c\u2019Tis in every man\u2019s\nmind to love honor: but little doth he dream that what is truly\nhonorable lies within himself and not anywhere else. The honor which men\nconfer is not good honor. Those whom Ch\u00e2o the Great ennobles, he can\nmake mean again.\u201d\n\nFor the most part, an insult was quickly resented and repaid by death,\nas we shall see later, while Honor\u2014too often nothing higher than vain\nglory or worldly approbation\u2014was prized as the _summum bonum_ of\nearthly existence. Fame, and not wealth or knowledge, was the goal\ntoward which youths had to strive. Many a lad swore within himself as he\ncrossed the threshold of his paternal home, that he would not recross it\nuntil he had made a name in the world: and many an ambitious mother\nrefused to see her sons again unless they could \u201creturn home,\u201d as the\nexpression is, \u201ccaparisoned in brocade.\u201d To shun shame or win a name,\nsamurai boys would submit to any privations and undergo severest ordeals\nof bodily or mental suffering. They knew that honor won in youth grows\nwith age. In the memorable siege of Osaka, a young son of Iy\u00e9yasu, in\nspite of his earnest entreaties to be put in the vanguard, was placed at\nthe rear of the army. When the castle fell, he was so chagrined and wept\nso bitterly that an old councillor tried to console him with all the\nresources at his command. \u201cTake comfort, Sire,\u201d said he, \u201cat thought of\nthe long future before you. In the many years that you may live, there\nwill come divers occasions to distinguish yourself.\u201d The boy fixed his\nindignant gaze upon the man and said\u2014\u201cHow foolishly you talk! Can ever\nmy fourteenth year come round again?\u201d\n\nLife itself was thought cheap if honor and fame could be attained\ntherewith: hence, whenever a cause presented itself which was considered\ndearer than life, with utmost serenity and celerity was life laid down.\n\nOf the causes in comparison with which no life was too dear to\nsacrifice, was\n\n\n                         THE DUTY OF LOYALTY,\n\nwhich was the key-stone making feudal virtues a symmetrical arch. Other\nvirtues feudal morality shares in common with other systems of ethics,\nwith other classes of people, but this virtue\u2014homage and fealty to a\nsuperior\u2014is its distinctive feature. I am aware that personal fidelity\nis a moral adhesion existing among all sorts and conditions of men,\u2014a\ngang of pickpockets owe allegiance to a Fagin; but it is only in the\ncode of chivalrous honor that Loyalty assumes paramount importance.\n\nIn spite of Hegel\u2019s criticism that the fidelity of feudal vassals,\nbeing an obligation to an individual and not to a Commonwealth, is a\nbond established on totally unjust principles,[16] a great compatriot of\nhis made it his boast that personal loyalty was a German virtue.\nBismarck had good reason to do so, not because the _Treue_ he boasts of\nwas the monopoly of his Fatherland or of any single nation or race, but\nbecause this favored fruit of chivalry lingers latest among the people\nwhere feudalism has lasted longest. In America where \u201ceverybody is as\ngood as anybody else,\u201d and, as the Irishman added, \u201cbetter too,\u201d such\nexalted ideas of loyalty as we feel for our sovereign may be deemed\n\u201cexcellent within certain bounds,\u201d but preposterous as encouraged among\nus. Montesquieu complained long ago that right on one side of the\nPyrenees was wrong on the other, and the recent Dreyfus trial proved the\ntruth of his remark, save that the Pyrenees were not the sole boundary\nbeyond which French justice finds no accord. Similarly, Loyalty as we\nconceive it may find few admirers elsewhere, not because our conception\nis wrong, but because it is, I am afraid, forgotten, and also because we\ncarry it to a degree not reached in any other country. Griffis[17] was\nquite right in stating that whereas in China Confucian ethics made\nobedience to parents the primary human duty, in Japan precedence was\ngiven to Loyalty. At the risk of shocking some of my good readers, I\nwill relate of one \u201cwho could endure to follow a fall\u2019n lord\u201d and who\nthus, as Shakespeare assures, \u201cearned a place i\u2019 the story.\u201d\n\n  [Footnote 16: _Philosophy of History_ (Eng. trans. by Sibree), Pt.\n  IV, Sec. II, Ch. I.]\n\n  [Footnote 17: _Religions of Japan_.]\n\nThe story is of one of the purest characters in our history, Michizan\u00e9,\nwho, falling a victim to jealousy and calumny, is exiled from the\ncapital. Not content with this, his unrelenting enemies are now bent\nupon the extinction of his family. Strict search for his son\u2014not yet\ngrown\u2014reveals the fact of his being secreted in a village school kept\nby one Genzo, a former vassal of Michizan\u00e9. When orders are dispatched\nto the schoolmaster to deliver the head of the juvenile offender on a\ncertain day, his first idea is to find a suitable substitute for it. He\nponders over his school-list, scrutinizes with careful eyes all the\nboys, as they stroll into the class-room, but none among the children\nborn of the soil bears the least resemblance to his prot\u00e9g\u00e9. His\ndespair, however, is but for a moment; for, behold, a new scholar is\nannounced\u2014a comely boy of the same age as his master\u2019s son, escorted by\na mother of noble mien. No less conscious of the resemblance between\ninfant lord and infant retainer, were the mother and the boy himself. In\nthe privacy of home both had laid themselves upon the altar; the one his\nlife,\u2014the other her heart, yet without sign to the outer world.\nUnwitting of what had passed between them, it is the teacher from whom\ncomes the suggestion.\n\nHere, then, is the scape-goat!\u2014The rest of the narrative may be briefly\ntold.\u2014On the day appointed, arrives the officer commissioned to\nidentify and receive the head of the youth. Will he be deceived by the\nfalse head? The poor Genzo\u2019s hand is on the hilt of the sword, ready to\nstrike a blow either at the man or at himself, should the examination\ndefeat his scheme. The officer takes up the gruesome object before him,\ngoes calmly over each feature, and in a deliberate, business-like tone,\npronounces it genuine.\u2014That evening in a lonely home awaits the mother\nwe saw in the school. Does she know the fate of her child? It is not for\nhis return that she watches with eagerness for the opening of the\nwicket. Her father-in-law has been for a long time a recipient of\nMichizan\u00e9\u2019s bounties, but since his banishment circumstances have forced\nher husband to follow the service of the enemy of his family\u2019s\nbenefactor. He himself could not be untrue to his own cruel master; but\nhis son could serve the cause of the grandsire\u2019s lord. As one acquainted\nwith the exile\u2019s family, it was he who had been entrusted with the task\nof identifying the boy\u2019s head. Now the day\u2019s\u2014yea, the life\u2019s\u2014hard work\nis done, he returns home and as he crosses its threshold, he accosts his\nwife, saying: \u201cRejoice, my wife, our darling son has proved of service\nto his lord!\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat an atrocious story!\u201d I hear my readers exclaim,\u2014\u201cParents\ndeliberately sacrificing their own innocent child to save the life of\nanother man\u2019s.\u201d But this child was a conscious and willing victim: it is\na story of vicarious death\u2014as significant as, and not more revolting\nthan, the story of Abraham\u2019s intended sacrifice of Isaac. In both cases\nit was obedience to the call of duty, utter submission to the command of\na higher voice, whether given by a visible or an invisible angel, or\nheard by an outward or an inward ear;\u2014but I abstain from preaching.\n\nThe individualism of the West, which recognizes separate interests for\nfather and son, husband and wife, necessarily brings into strong relief\nthe duties owed by one to the other; but Bushido held that the interest\nof the family and of the members thereof is intact,\u2014one and\ninseparable. This interest it bound up with affection\u2014natural,\ninstinctive, irresistible; hence, if we die for one we love with natural\nlove (which animals themselves possess), what is that? \u201cFor if ye love\nthem that love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the\nsame?\u201d\n\nIn his great history, Sanyo relates in touching language the heart\nstruggle of Shigemori concerning his father\u2019s rebellious conduct. \u201cIf I\nbe loyal, my father must be undone; if I obey my father, my duty to my\nsovereign must go amiss.\u201d Poor Shigemori! We see him afterward praying\nwith all his soul that kind Heaven may visit him with death, that he may\nbe released from this world where it is hard for purity and\nrighteousness to dwell.\n\nMany a Shigemori has his heart torn by the conflict between duty and\naffection. Indeed neither Shakespeare nor the Old Testament itself\ncontains an adequate rendering of _ko_, our conception of filial piety,\nand yet in such conflicts Bushido never wavered in its choice of\nLoyalty. Women, too, encouraged their offspring to sacrifice all for the\nking. Ever as resolute as Widow Windham and her illustrious consort, the\nsamurai matron stood ready to give up her boys for the cause of Loyalty.\n\nSince Bushido, like Aristotle and some modern sociologists, conceived\nthe state as antedating the individual\u2014the latter being born into the\nformer as part and parcel thereof\u2014he must live and die for it or for\nthe incumbent of its legitimate authority. Readers of Crito will\nremember the argument with which Socrates represents the laws of the\ncity as pleading with him on the subject of his escape. Among others he\nmakes them (the laws, or the state) say:\u2014\u201cSince you were begotten and\nnurtured and educated under us, dare you once to say you are not our\noffspring and servant, you and your fathers before you!\u201d These are words\nwhich do not impress us as any thing extraordinary; for the same thing\nhas long been on the lips of Bushido, with this modification, that the\nlaws and the state were represented with us by a personal being. Loyalty\nis an ethical outcome of this political theory.\n\nI am not entirely ignorant of Mr. Spencer\u2019s view according to which\npolitical obedience\u2014Loyalty\u2014is accredited with only a transitional\nfunction.[18] It may be so. Sufficient unto the day is the virtue\nthereof. We may complacently repeat it, especially as we believe _that_\nday to be a long space of time, during which, so our national anthem\nsays, \u201ctiny pebbles grow into mighty rocks draped with moss.\u201d We may\nremember at this juncture that even among so democratic a people as the\nEnglish, \u201cthe sentiment of personal fidelity to a man and his posterity\nwhich their Germanic ancestors felt for their chiefs, has,\u201d as Monsieur\nBoutmy recently said, \u201conly passed more or less into their profound\nloyalty to the race and blood of their princes, as evidenced in their\nextraordinary attachment to the dynasty.\u201d\n\n  [Footnote 18: _Principles of Ethics_, Vol. I, Pt. II, Ch. X.]\n\nPolitical subordination, Mr. Spencer predicts, will give place to\nloyalty to the dictates of conscience. Suppose his induction is\nrealized\u2014will loyalty and its concomitant instinct of reverence\ndisappear forever? We transfer our allegiance from one master to\nanother, without being unfaithful to either; from being subjects of\na ruler that wields the temporal sceptre we become servants of the\nmonarch who sits enthroned in the penetralia of our heart. A few years\nago a very stupid controversy, started by the misguided disciples of\nSpencer, made havoc among the reading class of Japan. In their zeal\nto uphold the claim of the throne to undivided loyalty, they charged\nChristians with treasonable propensities in that they avow fidelity to\ntheir Lord and Master. They arrayed forth sophistical arguments without\nthe wit of Sophists, and scholastic tortuosities minus the niceties of\nthe Schoolmen. Little did they know that we can, in a sense, \u201cserve two\nmasters without holding to the one or despising the other,\u201d \u201crendering\nunto C\u00e6sar the things that are C\u00e6sar\u2019s and unto God the things that are\nGod\u2019s.\u201d Did not Socrates, all the while he unflinchingly refused to\nconcede one iota of loyalty to his _d\u00e6mon_, obey with equal fidelity\nand equanimity the command of his earthly master, the State? His\nconscience he followed, alive; his country he served, dying. Alack the\nday when a state grows so powerful as to demand of its citizens the\ndictates of their conscience!\n\nBushido did not require us to make our conscience the slave of any lord\nor king. Thomas Mowbray was a veritable spokesman for us when he said:\n\n    \u201cMyself I throw, dread sovereign, at thy foot.\n     My life thou shalt command, but not my shame.\n     The one my duty owes; but my fair name,\n     Despite of death, that lives upon my grave,\n     To dark dishonor\u2019s use, thou shalt not have.\u201d\n\nA man who sacrificed his own conscience to the capricious will or freak\nor fancy of a sovereign was accorded a low place in the estimate of the\nPrecepts. Such a one was despised as _nei-shin_, a cringeling, who\nmakes court by unscrupulous fawning or as _ch\u00f4-shin_, a favorite who\nsteals his master\u2019s affections by means of servile compliance; these two\nspecies of subjects corresponding exactly to those which Iago\ndescribes,\u2014the one, a duteous and knee-crooking knave, doting on his\nown obsequious bondage, wearing out his time much like his master\u2019s ass;\nthe other trimm\u2019d in forms and visages of duty, keeping yet his heart\nattending on himself. When a subject differed from his master, the loyal\npath for him to pursue was to use every available means to persuade him\nof his error, as Kent did to King Lear. Failing in this, let the master\ndeal with him as he wills. In cases of this kind, it was quite a usual\ncourse for the samurai to make the last appeal to the intelligence and\nconscience of his lord by demonstrating the sincerity of his words with\nthe shedding of his own blood.\n\nLife being regarded as the means whereby to serve his master, and its\nideal being set upon honor, the whole\n\n\n                       EDUCATION AND TRAINING OF\n                              A SAMURAI,\n\nwere conducted accordingly.\n\nThe first point to observe in knightly pedagogics was to build up\ncharacter, leaving in the shade the subtler faculties of prudence,\nintelligence and dialectics. We have seen the important part \u00e6sthetic\naccomplishments played in his education. Indispensable as they were to a\nman of culture, they were accessories rather than essentials of samurai\ntraining. Intellectual superiority was, of course, esteemed; but the\nword _Chi_, which was employed to denote intellectuality, meant wisdom\nin the first instance and placed knowledge only in a very subordinate\nplace. The tripod that supported the framework of Bushido was said to be\n_Chi_, _Jin_, _Yu_, respectively Wisdom, Benevolence, and Courage. A\nsamurai was essentially a man of action. Science was without the pale of\nhis activity. He took advantage of it in so far as it concerned his\nprofession of arms. Religion and theology were relegated to the priests;\nhe concerned himself with them in so far as they helped to nourish\ncourage. Like an English poet the samurai believed \u201c\u2019tis not the creed\nthat saves the man; but it is the man that justifies the creed.\u201d\nPhilosophy and literature formed the chief part of his intellectual\ntraining; but even in the pursuit of these, it was not objective truth\nthat he strove after,\u2014literature was pursued mainly as a pastime, and\nphilosophy as a practical aid in the formation of character, if not for\nthe exposition of some military or political problem.\n\nFrom what has been said, it will not be surprising to note that the\ncurriculum of studies, according to the pedagogics of Bushido, consisted\nmainly of the following,\u2014fencing, archery, _jiujutsu_ or _yawara_,\nhorsemanship, the use of the spear, tactics, caligraphy, ethics,\nliterature and history. Of these, _jiujutsu_ and caligraphy may require\na few words of explanation. Great stress was laid on good writing,\nprobably because our logograms, partaking as they do of the nature of\npictures, possess artistic value, and also because chirography was\naccepted as indicative of one\u2019s personal character. _Jiujutsu_ may be\nbriefly defined as an application of anatomical knowledge to the purpose\nof offense or defense. It differs from wrestling, in that it does not\ndepend upon muscular strength. It differs from other forms of attack in\nthat it uses no weapon. Its feat consists in clutching or striking such\npart of the enemy\u2019s body as will make him numb and incapable of\nresistance. Its object is not to kill, but to incapacitate one for\naction for the time being.\n\nA subject of study which one would expect to find in military education\nand which is rather conspicuous by its absence in the Bushido course of\ninstruction, is mathematics. This, however, can be readily explained in\npart by the fact that feudal warfare was not carried on with scientific\nprecision. Not only that, but the whole training of the samurai was\nunfavorable to fostering numerical notions.\n\nChivalry is uneconomical; it boasts of penury. It says with Ventidius\nthat \u201cambition, the soldier\u2019s virtue, rather makes choice of loss, than\ngain which darkens him.\u201d Don Quixote takes more pride in his rusty spear\nand skin-and-bone horse than in gold and lands, and a samurai is in\nhearty sympathy with his exaggerated confr\u00e8re of La Mancha. He disdains\nmoney itself,\u2014the art of making or hoarding it. It is to him veritably\nfilthy lucre. The hackneyed expression to describe the decadence of an\nage is \u201cthat the civilians loved money and the soldiers feared death.\u201d\nNiggardliness of gold and of life excites as much disapprobation as\ntheir lavish use is panegyrized. \u201cLess than all things,\u201d says a current\nprecept, \u201cmen must grudge money: it is by riches that wisdom is\nhindered.\u201d Hence children were brought up with utter disregard of\neconomy. It was considered bad taste to speak of it, and ignorance of\nthe value of different coins was a token of good breeding. Knowledge of\nnumbers was indispensable in the mustering of forces as well, as in the\ndistribution of benefices and fiefs; but the counting of money was left\nto meaner hands. In many feudatories, public finance was administered by\na lower kind of samurai or by priests. Every thinking bushi knew well\nenough that money formed the sinews of war; but he did not think of\nraising the appreciation of money to a virtue. It is true that thrift\nwas enjoined by Bushido, but not for economical reasons so much as for\nthe exercise of abstinence. Luxury was thought the greatest menace to\nmanhood, and severest simplicity was required of the warrior class,\nsumptuary laws being enforced in many of the clans.\n\nWe read that in ancient Rome the farmers of revenue and other financial\nagents were gradually raised to the rank of knights, the State thereby\nshowing its appreciation of their service and of the importance of money\nitself. How closely this was connected with the luxury and avarice of\nthe Romans may be imagined. Not so with the Precepts of Knighthood.\nThese persisted in systematically regarding finance as something\nlow\u2014low as compared with moral and intellectual vocations.\n\nMoney and the love of it being thus diligently ignored, Bushido itself\ncould long remain free from a thousand and one evils of which money is\nthe root. This is sufficient reason for the fact that our public men\nhave long been free from corruption; but, alas, how fast plutocracy is\nmaking its way in our time and generation!\n\nThe mental discipline which would now-a-days be chiefly aided by the\nstudy of mathematics, was supplied by literary exegesis and\ndeontological discussions. Very few abstract subjects troubled the mind\nof the young, the chief aim of their education being, as I have said,\ndecision of character. People whose minds were simply stored with\ninformation found no great admirers. Of the three services of studies\nthat Bacon gives,\u2014for delight, ornament, and ability,\u2014Bushido had\ndecided preference for the last, where their use was \u201cin judgment and\nthe disposition of business.\u201d Whether it was for the disposition of\npublic business or for the exercise of self-control, it was with a\npractical end in view that education was conducted. \u201cLearning without\nthought,\u201d said Confucius, \u201cis labor lost: thought without learning is\nperilous.\u201d\n\nWhen character and not intelligence, when the soul and not the head, is\nchosen by a teacher for the material to work upon and to develop, his\nvocation partakes of a sacred character. \u201cIt is the parent who has borne\nme: it is the teacher who makes me man.\u201d With this idea, therefore, the\nesteem in which one\u2019s preceptor was held was very high. A man to evoke\nsuch confidence and respect from the young, must necessarily be endowed\nwith superior personality without lacking erudition. He was a father to\nthe fatherless, and an adviser to the erring. \u201cThy father and thy\nmother\u201d\u2014so runs our maxim\u2014\u201care like heaven and earth; thy teacher and\nthy lord are like the sun and moon.\u201d\n\nThe present system of paying for every sort of service was not in vogue\namong the adherents of Bushido. It believed in a service which can be\nrendered only without money and without price. Spiritual service, be it\nof priest or teacher, was not to be repaid in gold or silver, not\nbecause it was valueless but because it was invaluable. Here the\nnon-arithmetical honor-instinct of Bushido taught a truer lesson than\nmodern Political Economy; for wages and salaries can be paid only for\nservices whose results are definite, tangible, and measurable, whereas\nthe best service done in education,\u2014namely, in soul development (and\nthis includes the services of a pastor), is not definite, tangible or\nmeasurable. Being immeasurable, money, the ostensible measure of value,\nis of inadequate use. Usage sanctioned that pupils brought to their\nteachers money or goods at different seasons of the year; but these were\nnot payments but offerings, which indeed were welcome to the recipients\nas they were usually men of stern calibre, boasting of honorable penury,\ntoo dignified to work with their hands and too proud to beg. They were\ngrave personifications of high spirits undaunted by adversity. They were\nan embodiment of what was considered as an end of all learning, and were\nthus a living example of that discipline of disciplines,\n\n\n                             SELF-CONTROL,\n\nwhich was universally required of samurai.\n\nThe discipline of fortitude on the one hand, inculcating endurance\nwithout a groan, and the teaching of politeness on the other, requiring\nus not to mar the pleasure or serenity of another by manifestations of\nour own sorrow or pain, combined to engender a stoical turn of mind, and\neventually to confirm it into a national trait of apparent stoicism. I\nsay apparent stoicism, because I do not believe that true stoicism can\never become the characteristic of a whole nation, and also because some\nof our national manners and customs may seem to a foreign observer\nhard-hearted. Yet we are really as susceptible to tender emotion as any\nrace under the sky.\n\nI am inclined to think that in one sense we have to feel more than\nothers\u2014yes, doubly more\u2014since the very attempt to restrain natural\npromptings entails suffering. Imagine boys\u2014and girls too\u2014brought up\nnot to resort to the shedding of a tear or the uttering of a groan for\nthe relief of their feelings,\u2014and there is a physiological problem\nwhether such effort steels their nerves or makes them more sensitive.\n\nIt was considered unmanly for a samurai to betray his emotions on his\nface. \u201cHe shows no sign of joy or anger,\u201d was a phrase used in\ndescribing a strong character. The most natural affections were kept\nunder control. A father could embrace his son only at the expense of his\ndignity; a husband would not kiss his wife,\u2014no, not in the presence of\nother people, whatever he might do in private! There may be some truth\nin the remark of a witty youth when he said, \u201cAmerican husbands kiss\ntheir wives in public and beat them in private; Japanese husbands beat\ntheirs in public and kiss them in private.\u201d\n\nCalmness of behavior, composure of mind, should not be disturbed by\npassion of any kind. I remember when, during the late war with China, a\nregiment left a certain town, a large concourse of people flocked to the\nstation to bid farewell to the general and his army. On this occasion\nan American resident resorted to the place, expecting to witness loud\ndemonstrations, as the nation itself was highly excited and there were\nfathers, mothers, and sweethearts of the soldiers in the crowd. The\nAmerican was strangely disappointed; for as the whistle blew and the\ntrain began to move, the hats of thousands of people were silently taken\noff and their heads bowed in reverential farewell; no waving of\nhandkerchiefs, no word uttered, but deep silence in which only an\nattentive ear could catch a few broken sobs. In domestic life, too, I\nknow of a father who spent whole nights listening to the breathing of a\nsick child, standing behind the door that he might not be caught in such\nan act of parental weakness! I know of a mother who, in her last\nmoments, refrained from sending for her son, that he might not be\ndisturbed in his studies. Our history and everyday life are replete with\nexamples of heroic matrons who can well bear comparison with some of the\nmost touching pages of Plutarch. Among our peasantry an Ian Maclaren\nwould be sure to find many a Marget Howe.\n\nIt is the same discipline of self-restraint which is accountable for the\nabsence of more frequent revivals in the Christian churches of Japan.\nWhen a man or woman feels his or her soul stirred, the first instinct is\nto quietly suppress any indication of it. In rare instances is the\ntongue set free by an irresistible spirit, when we have eloquence of\nsincerity and fervor. It is putting a premium upon a breach of the third\ncommandment to encourage speaking lightly of spiritual experience. It is\ntruly jarring to Japanese ears to hear the most sacred words, the most\nsecret heart experiences, thrown out in promiscuous audiences. \u201cDost\nthou feel the soil of thy soul stirred with tender thoughts? It is time\nfor seeds to sprout. Disturb it not with speech; but let it work alone\nin quietness and secrecy,\u201d\u2014writes a young samurai in his diary.\n\nTo give in so many articulate words one\u2019s inmost thoughts and\nfeelings\u2014notably the religious\u2014is taken among us as an unmistakable\nsign that they are neither very profound nor very sincere. \u201cOnly a\npomegranate is he\u201d\u2014so runs a popular saying\u2014\u201cwho, when he gapes his\nmouth, displays the contents of his heart.\u201d\n\nIt is not altogether perverseness of oriental minds that the instant our\nemotions are moved we try to guard our lips in order to hide them.\nSpeech is very often with us, as the Frenchman defined it, \u201cthe art of\nconcealing thought.\u201d\n\nCall upon a Japanese friend in time of deepest affliction and he will\ninvariably receive you laughing, with red eyes or moist cheeks. At first\nyou may think him hysterical. Press him for explanation and you will get\na few broken commonplaces\u2014\u201cHuman life has sorrow;\u201d \u201cThey who meet must\npart;\u201d \u201cHe that is born must die;\u201d \u201cIt is foolish to count the years of\na child that is gone, but a woman\u2019s heart will indulge in follies;\u201d and\nthe like. So the noble words of a noble Hohenzollern\u2014\u201cLerne zu leiden\nohne Klagen\u201d\u2014had found many responsive minds among us, long before they\nwere uttered.\n\nIndeed, the Japanese have recourse to risibility whenever the frailties\nof human nature are put to severest test. I think we possess a better\nreason than Democritus himself for our Abderian tendency; for laughter\nwith us oftenest veils an effort to regain balance of temper, when\ndisturbed by any untoward circumstance. It is a counterpoise of sorrow\nor rage.\n\nThe suppression of feelings being thus steadily insisted upon, they find\ntheir safety-valve in poetical aphorism. A poet of the tenth century\nwrites, \u201cIn Japan and China as well, humanity, when moved by sorrow,\ntells its bitter grief in verse.\u201d A mother who tries to console her\nbroken heart by fancying her departed child absent on his wonted chase\nafter the dragon-fly, hums,\n\n    \u201cHow far to-day in chase, I wonder,\n     Has gone my hunter of the dragon-fly!\u201d\n\nI refrain from quoting other examples, for I know I could do only scant\njustice to the pearly gems of our literature, were I to render into a\nforeign tongue the thoughts which were wrung drop by drop from bleeding\nhearts and threaded into beads of rarest value. I hope I have in a\nmeasure shown that inner working of our minds which often presents an\nappearance of callousness or of an hysterical mixture of laughter and\ndejection, and whose sanity is sometimes called in question.\n\nIt has also been suggested that our endurance of pain and indifference\nto death are due to less sensitive nerves. This is plausible as far as\nit goes. The next question is,\u2014Why are our nerves less tightly strung?\nIt may be our climate is not so stimulating as the American. It may be\nour monarchical form of government does not excite us as much as the\nRepublic does the Frenchman. It may be that we do not read _Sartor\nResartus_ as zealously as the Englishman. Personally, I believe it was\nour very excitability and sensitiveness which made it a necessity to\nrecognize and enforce constant self-repression; but whatever may be the\nexplanation, without taking into account long years of discipline in\nself-control, none can be correct.\n\nDiscipline in self-control can easily go too far. It can well repress\nthe genial current of the soul. It can force pliant natures into\ndistortions and monstrosities. It can beget bigotry, breed hypocrisy or\nhebetate affections. Be a virtue never so noble, it has its counterpart\nand counterfeit. We must recognize in each virtue its own positive\nexcellence and follow its positive ideal, and the ideal of\nself-restraint is to keep our mind _level_\u2014as our expression is\u2014or, to\nborrow a Greek term, attain the state of _euthymia_, which Democritus\ncalled the highest good.\n\nThe acme of self-control is reached and best illustrated in the first of\nthe two institutions which we shall now bring to view; namely,\n\n\n                      THE INSTITUTIONS OF SUICIDE\n                             AND REDRESS,\n\nof which (the former known as _hara-kiri_ and the latter as\n_kataki-uchi_) many foreign writers have treated more or less fully.\n\nTo begin with suicide, let me state that I confine my observations only\nto _seppuku_ or _kappuku_, popularly known as _hara-kiri_\u2014which means\nself-immolation by disembowelment. \u201cRipping the abdomen? How\nabsurd!\u201d\u2014so cry those to whom the name is new. Absurdly odd as it may\nsound at first to foreign ears, it can not be so very foreign to\nstudents of Shakespeare, who puts these words in Brutus\u2019 mouth\u2014\u201cThy\n(C\u00e6sar\u2019s) spirit walks abroad and turns our swords into our proper\nentrails.\u201d Listen to a modern English poet, who in his _Light of Asia_,\nspeaks of a sword piercing the bowels of a queen:\u2014none blames him for\nbad English or breach of modesty. Or, to take still another example,\nlook at Guercino\u2019s painting of Cato\u2019s death, in the Palazzo Rossa in\nGenoa. Whoever has read the swan-song which Addison makes Cato sing,\nwill not jeer at the sword half-buried in his abdomen. In our minds this\nmode of death is associated with instances of noblest deeds and of most\ntouching pathos, so that nothing repugnant, much less ludicrous, mars\nour conception of it. So wonderful is the transforming power of virtue,\nof greatness, of tenderness, that the vilest form of death assumes a\nsublimity and becomes a symbol of new life, or else\u2014the sign which\nConstantine beheld would not conquer the world!\n\nNot for extraneous associations only does _seppuku_ lose in our mind any\ntaint of absurdity; for the choice of this particular part of the body\nto operate upon, was based on an old anatomical belief as to the seat of\nthe soul and of the affections. When Moses wrote of Joseph\u2019s \u201cbowels\nyearning upon his brother,\u201d or David prayed the Lord not to forget his\nbowels, or when Isaiah, Jeremiah and other inspired men of old spoke of\nthe \u201csounding\u201d or the \u201ctroubling\u201d of bowels, they all and each endorsed\nthe belief prevalent among the Japanese that in the abdomen was\nenshrined the soul. The Semites habitually spoke of the liver and\nkidneys and surrounding fat as the seat of emotion and of life. The term\n_hara_ was more comprehensive than the Greek _phren_ or _thumos_ and\nthe Japanese and Hellenese alike thought the spirit of man to dwell\nsomewhere in that region. Such a notion is by no means confined to the\npeoples of antiquity. The French, in spite of the theory propounded by\none of their most distinguished philosophers, Descartes, that the soul\nis located in the pineal gland, still insist in using the term _ventre_\nin a sense, which, if anatomically too vague, is nevertheless\nphysiologically significant. Similarly _entrailles_ stands in their\nlanguage for affection and compassion. Nor is such belief mere\nsuperstition, being more scientific than the general idea of making the\nheart the centre of the feelings. Without asking a friar, the Japanese\nknew better than Romeo \u201cin what vile part of this anatomy one\u2019s name did\nlodge.\u201d Modern neurologists speak of the abdominal and pelvic brains,\ndenoting thereby sympathetic nerve-centres in those parts which are\nstrongly affected by any psychical action. This view of mental\nphysiology once admitted, the syllogism of _seppuku_ is easy to\nconstruct. \u201cI will open the seat of my soul and show you how it fares\nwith it. See for yourself whether it is polluted or clean.\u201d\n\nI do not wish to be understood as asserting religious or even moral\njustification of suicide, but the high estimate placed upon honor was\nample excuse with many for taking one\u2019s own life. How many acquiesced in\nthe sentiment expressed by Garth,\n\n    \u201cWhen honor\u2019s lost, \u2019tis a relief to die;\n     Death\u2019s but a sure retreat from infamy,\u201d\n\nand have smilingly surrendered their souls to oblivion! Death when honor\nwas involved, was accepted in Bushido as a key to the solution of many\ncomplex problems, so that to an ambitious samurai a natural departure\nfrom life seemed a rather tame affair and a consummation not devoutly to\nbe wished for. I dare say that many good Christians, if only they are\nhonest enough, will confess the fascination of, if not positive\nadmiration for, the sublime composure with which Cato, Brutus, Petronius\nand a host of other ancient worthies, terminated their own earthly\nexistence. Is it too bold to hint that the death of the first of the\nphilosophers was partly suicidal? When we are told so minutely by his\npupils how their master willingly submitted to the mandate of the\nstate\u2014which he knew was morally mistaken\u2014in spite of the possibilities\nof escape, and how he took up the cup of hemlock in his own hand, even\noffering libation from its deadly contents, do we not discern in his\nwhole proceeding and demeanor, an act of self-immolation? No physical\ncompulsion here, as in ordinary cases of execution. True the verdict of\nthe judges was compulsory: it said, \u201cThou shalt die,\u2014and that by thy\nown hand.\u201d If suicide meant no more than dying by one\u2019s own hand,\nSocrates was a clear case of suicide. But nobody would charge him with\nthe crime; Plato, who was averse to it, would not call his master a\nsuicide.\n\nNow my readers will understand that _seppuku_ was not a mere suicidal\nprocess. It was an institution, legal and ceremonial. An invention of\nthe middle ages, it was a process by which warriors could expiate their\ncrimes, apologize for errors, escape from disgrace, redeem their\nfriends, or prove their sincerity. When enforced as a legal punishment,\nit was practiced with due ceremony. It was a refinement of\nself-destruction, and none could perform it without the utmost coolness\nof temper and composure of demeanor, and for these reasons it was\nparticularly befitting the profession of bushi.\n\nAntiquarian curiosity, if nothing else, would tempt me to give here a\ndescription of this obsolete ceremonial; but seeing that such a\ndescription was made by a far abler writer, whose book is not much read\nnow-a-days, I am tempted to make a somewhat lengthy quotation. Mitford,\nin his \u201cTales of Old Japan,\u201d after giving a translation of a treatise on\n_seppuku_ from a rare Japanese manuscript, goes on to describe an\ninstance of such an execution of which he was an eye-witness:\u2014\n\n\u201cWe (seven foreign representatives) were invited to follow the Japanese\nwitness into the _hondo_ or main hall of the temple, where the ceremony\nwas to be performed. It was an imposing scene. A large hall with a high\nroof supported by dark pillars of wood. From the ceiling hung a\nprofusion of those huge gilt lamps and ornaments peculiar to Buddhist\ntemples. In front of the high altar, where the floor, covered with\nbeautiful white mats, is raised some three or four inches from the\nground, was laid a rug of scarlet felt. Tall candles placed at regular\nintervals gave out a dim mysterious light, just sufficient to let all\nthe proceedings be seen. The seven Japanese took their places on the\nleft of the raised floor, the seven foreigners on the right. No other\nperson was present.\n\n\u201cAfter the interval of a few minutes of anxious suspense, Taki\nZenzaburo, a stalwart man thirty-two years of age, with a noble air,\nwalked into the hall attired in his dress of ceremony, with the peculiar\nhempen-cloth wings which are worn on great occasions. He was accompanied\nby a _kaishaku_ and three officers, who wore the _jimbaori_ or war\nsurcoat with gold tissue facings. The word _kaishaku_ it should be\nobserved, is one to which our word executioner is no equivalent term.\nThe office is that of a gentleman: in many cases it is performed by a\nkinsman or friend of the condemned, and the relation between them is\nrather that of principal and second than that of victim and executioner.\nIn this instance the _kaishaku_ was a pupil of Taki Zenzaburo, and was\nselected by friends of the latter from among their own number for his\nskill in swordsmanship.\n\n\u201cWith the _kaishaku_ on his left hand, Taki Zenzaburo advanced slowly\ntowards the Japanese witnesses, and the two bowed before them, then\ndrawing near to the foreigners they saluted us in the same way, perhaps\neven with more deference; in each case the salutation was ceremoniously\nreturned. Slowly and with great dignity the condemned man mounted on to\nthe raised floor, prostrated himself before the high altar twice, and\nseated[19] himself on the felt carpet with his back to the high altar,\nthe _kaishaku_ crouching on his left hand side. One of the three\nattendant officers then came forward, bearing a stand of the kind used\nin the temple for offerings, on which, wrapped in paper, lay the\n_wakizashi_, the short sword or dirk of the Japanese, nine inches and a\nhalf in length, with a point and an edge as sharp as a razor\u2019s. This he\nhanded, prostrating himself, to the condemned man, who received it\nreverently, raising it to his head with both hands, and placed it in\nfront of himself.\n\n  [Footnote 19: Seated himself\u2014that is, in the Japanese fashion, his\n  knees and toes touching the ground and his body resting on his\n  heels. In this position, which is one of respect, he remained until\n  his death.]\n\n\u201cAfter another profound obeisance, Taki Zenzaburo, in a voice which\nbetrayed just so much emotion and hesitation as might be expected from a\nman who is making a painful confession, but with no sign of either in\nhis face or manner, spoke as follows:\u2014\n\n\u2018I, and I alone, unwarrantably gave the order to fire on the foreigners\nat Kobe, and again as they tried to escape. For this crime I disembowel\nmyself, and I beg you who are present to do me the honor of witnessing\nthe act.\u2019\n\n\u201cBowing once more, the speaker allowed his upper garments to slip down\nto his girdle, and remained naked to the waist. Carefully, according to\ncustom, he tucked his sleeves under his knees to prevent himself from\nfalling backward; for a noble Japanese gentleman should die falling\nforwards. Deliberately, with a steady hand he took the dirk that lay\nbefore him; he looked at it wistfully, almost affectionately; for a\nmoment he seemed to collect his thoughts for the last time, and then\nstabbing himself deeply below the waist in the left-hand side, he drew\nthe dirk slowly across to his right side, and turning it in the wound,\ngave a slight cut upwards. During this sickeningly painful operation he\nnever moved a muscle of his face. When he drew out the dirk, he leaned\nforward and stretched out his neck; an expression of pain for the first\ntime crossed his face, but he uttered no sound. At that moment the\n_kaishaku_, who, still crouching by his side, had been keenly watching\nhis every movement, sprang to his feet, poised his sword for a second in\nthe air; there was a flash, a heavy, ugly thud, a crashing fall; with\none blow the head had been severed from the body.\n\n\u201cA dead silence followed, broken only by the hideous noise of the blood\nthrobbing out of the inert head before us, which but a moment before had\nbeen a brave and chivalrous man. It was horrible.\n\n\u201cThe _kaishaku_ made a low bow, wiped his sword with a piece of paper\nwhich he had ready for the purpose, and retired from the raised floor;\nand the stained dirk was solemnly borne away, a bloody proof of the\nexecution.\n\n\u201cThe two representatives of the Mikado then left their places, and\ncrossing over to where the foreign witnesses sat, called to us to\nwitness that the sentence of death upon Taki Zenzaburo had been\nfaithfully carried out. The ceremony being at an end, we left the\ntemple.\u201d\n\nI might multiply any number of descriptions of _seppuku_ from literature\nor from the relation of eye-witnesses; but one more instance will\nsuffice.\n\nTwo brothers, Sakon and Naiki, respectively twenty-four and seventeen\nyears of age, made an effort to kill Iy\u00e9yasu in order to avenge their\nfather\u2019s wrongs; but before they could enter the camp they were made\nprisoners. The old general admired the pluck of the youths who dared an\nattempt on his life and ordered that they should be allowed to die an\nhonorable death. Their little brother Hachimaro, a mere infant of eight\nsummers, was condemned to a similar fate, as the sentence was pronounced\non all the male members of the family, and the three were taken to a\nmonastery where it was to be executed. A physician who was present on\nthe occasion has left us a diary from which the following scene is\ntranslated. \u201cWhen they were all seated in a row for final despatch,\nSakon turned to the youngest and said\u2014\u2018Go thou first, for I wish to be\nsure that thou doest it aright.\u2019 Upon the little one\u2019s replying that, as\nhe had never seen _seppuku_ performed, he would like to see his brothers\ndo it and then he could follow them, the older brothers smiled between\ntheir tears:\u2014\u2018Well said, little fellow! So canst thou well boast of\nbeing our father\u2019s child.\u2019 When they had placed him between them, Sakon\nthrust the dagger into the left side of his own abdomen and\nasked\u2014\u2018Look, brother! Dost understand now? Only, don\u2019t push the dagger\ntoo far, lest thou fall back. Lean forward, rather, and keep thy knees\nwell composed.\u2019 Naiki did likewise and said to the boy\u2014\u2018Keep thy eyes\nopen or else thou mayst look like a dying woman. If thy dagger feels\nanything within and thy strength fails, take courage and double thy\neffort to cut across.\u2019 The child looked from one to the other, and when\nboth had expired, he calmly half denuded himself and followed the\nexample set him on either hand.\u201d\n\nThe glorification of _seppuku_ offered, naturally enough, no small\ntemptation to its unwarranted committal. For causes entirely\nincompatible with reason, or for reasons entirely undeserving of death,\nhot headed youths rushed into it as insects fly into fire; mixed and\ndubious motives drove more samurai to this deed than nuns into convent\ngates. Life was cheap\u2014cheap as reckoned by the popular standard of\nhonor. The saddest feature was that honor, which was always in the\n_agio_, so to speak, was not always solid gold, but alloyed with baser\nmetals. No one circle in the Inferno will boast of greater density of\nJapanese population than the seventh, to which Dante consigns all\nvictims of self-destruction!\n\nAnd yet, for a true samurai to hasten death or to court it, was alike\ncowardice. A typical fighter, when he lost battle after battle and\nwas pursued from plain to hill and from bush to cavern, found himself\nhungry and alone in the dark hollow of a tree, his sword blunt with use,\nhis bow broken and arrows exhausted\u2014did not the noblest of the Romans\nfall upon his own sword in Phillippi under like circumstances?\u2014deemed\nit cowardly to die, but with a fortitude approaching a Christian\nmartyr\u2019s, cheered himself with an impromptu verse:\n\n    \u201cCome! evermore come,\n       Ye dread sorrows and pains!\n     And heap on my burden\u2019d back;\n       That I not one test may lack\n     Of what strength in me remains!\u201d\n\nThis, then, was the Bushido teaching\u2014Bear and face all calamities and\nadversities with patience and a pure conscience; for as Mencius[20]\ntaught, \u201cWhen Heaven is about to confer a great office on anyone,\nit first exercises his mind with suffering and his sinews and\nbones with toil; it exposes his body to hunger and subjects him to\nextreme poverty; and it confounds his undertakings. In all these\nways it stimulates his mind, hardens his nature, and supplies his\nincompetencies.\u201d True honor lies in fulfilling Heaven\u2019s decree and no\ndeath incurred in so doing is ignominious, whereas death to avoid what\nHeaven has in store is cowardly indeed! In that quaint book of Sir\nThomas Browne\u2019s, _Religio Medici_, there is an exact English equivalent\nfor what is repeatedly taught in our Precepts. Let me quote it: \u201cIt is\na brave act of valor to contemn death, but where life is more terrible\nthan death, it is then the truest valor to dare to live.\u201d A renowned\npriest of the seventeenth century satirically observed\u2014\u201cTalk as he\nmay, a samurai who ne\u2019er has died is apt in decisive moments to flee\nor hide.\u201d Again\u2014\u201cHim who once has died in the bottom of his breast, no\nspears of Sanada nor all the arrows of Tametomo can pierce.\u201d How near\nwe come to the portals of the temple whose Builder taught \u201che that\nloseth his life for my sake shall find it!\u201d These are but a few of the\nnumerous examples which tend to confirm the moral identity of the human\nspecies, notwithstanding an attempt so assiduously made to render the\ndistinction between Christian and Pagan as great as possible.\n\n  [Footnote 20: I use Dr. Legge\u2019s translation verbatim.]\n\nWe have thus seen that the Bushido institution of suicide was neither\nso irrational nor barbarous as its abuse strikes us at first sight. We\nwill now see whether its sister institution of Redress\u2014or call it\nRevenge, if you will\u2014has its mitigating features. I hope I can dispose\nof this question in a few words, since a similar institution, or call it\ncustom, if that suits you better, has at some time prevailed among all\npeoples and has not yet become entirely obsolete, as attested by the\ncontinuance of duelling and lynching. Why, has not an American captain\nrecently challenged Esterhazy, that the wrongs of Dreyfus be avenged?\nAmong a savage tribe which has no marriage, adultery is not a sin, and\nonly the jealousy of a lover protects a woman from abuse: so in a time\nwhich has no criminal court, murder is not a crime, and only the\nvigilant vengeance of the victim\u2019s people preserves social order. \u201cWhat\nis the most beautiful thing on earth?\u201d said Osiris to Horus. The reply\nwas, \u201cTo avenge a parent\u2019s wrongs,\u201d\u2014to which a Japanese would have\nadded \u201cand a master\u2019s.\u201d\n\nIn revenge there is something which satisfies one\u2019s sense of justice.\nThe avenger reasons:\u2014\u201cMy good father did not deserve death. He who\nkilled him did great evil. My father, if he were alive, would not\ntolerate a deed like this: Heaven itself hates wrong-doing. It is the\nwill of my father; it is the will of Heaven that the evil-doer cease\nfrom his work. He must perish by my hand; because he shed my father\u2019s\nblood, I, who am his flesh and blood, must shed the murderer\u2019s. The same\nHeaven shall not shelter him and me.\u201d The ratiocination is simple and\nchildish (though we know Hamlet did not reason much more deeply),\nnevertheless it shows an innate sense of exact balance and equal justice\n\u201cAn eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.\u201d Our sense of revenge is as\nexact as our mathematical faculty, and until both terms of the equation\nare satisfied we cannot get over the sense of something left undone.\n\nIn Judaism, which believed in a jealous God, or in Greek mythology,\nwhich provided a Nemesis, vengeance may be left to superhuman agencies;\nbut common sense furnished Bushido with the institution of redress as a\nkind of ethical court of equity, where people could take cases not to be\njudged in accordance with ordinary law. The master of the forty-seven\nRonins was condemned to death;\u2014he had no court of higher instance to\nappeal to; his faithful retainers addressed themselves to Vengeance, the\nonly Supreme Court existing; they in their turn were condemned by common\nlaw,\u2014but the popular instinct passed a different judgment and hence\ntheir memory is still kept as green and fragrant as are their graves at\nSengakuji to this day.\n\nThough Lao-tse taught to recompense injury with kindness, the voice of\nConfucius was very much louder, which counselled that injury must be\nrecompensed with justice;\u2014and yet revenge was justified only when it\nwas undertaken in behalf of our superiors and benefactors. One\u2019s own\nwrongs, including injuries done to wife and children, were to be borne\nand forgiven. A samurai could therefore fully sympathize with Hannibal\u2019s\noath to avenge his country\u2019s wrongs, but he scorns James Hamilton for\nwearing in his girdle a handful of earth from his wife\u2019s grave, as an\neternal incentive to avenge her wrongs on the Regent Murray.\n\nBoth of these institutions of suicide and redress lost their _raison\nd\u2019\u00eatre_ at the promulgation of the criminal code. No more do we hear of\nromantic adventures of a fair maiden as she tracks in disguise the\nmurderer of her parent. No more can we witness tragedies of family\nvendetta enacted. The knight errantry of Miyamoto Musashi is now a tale\nof the past. The well-ordered police spies out the criminal for the\ninjured party and the law metes out justice. The whole state and society\nwill see that wrong is righted. The sense of justice satisfied, there is\nno need of _kataki-uchi_. If this had meant that \u201chunger of the heart\nwhich feeds upon the hope of glutting that hunger with the life-blood of\nthe victim,\u201d as a New England divine has described it, a few paragraphs\nin the Criminal Code would not so entirely have made an end of it.\n\nAs to _seppuku_, though it too has no existence _de jure_, we still hear\nof it from time to time, and shall continue to hear, I am afraid, as\nlong as the past is remembered. Many painless and time-saving methods of\nself-immolation will come in vogue, as its votaries are increasing with\nfearful rapidity throughout the world; but Professor Morselli will have\nto concede to _seppuku_ an aristocratic position among them. He\nmaintains that \u201cwhen suicide is accomplished by very painful means or at\nthe cost of prolonged agony, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, it\nmay be assigned as the act of a mind disordered by fanaticism, by\nmadness, or by morbid excitement.\u201d[21] But a normal _seppuku_ does not\nsavor of fanaticism, or madness or excitement, utmost _sang froid_ being\nnecessary to its successful accomplishment. Of the two kinds into which\nDr. Strahan[22] divides suicide, the Rational or Quasi, and the\nIrrational or True, _seppuku_ is the best example of the former type.\n\n  [Footnote 21: Morselli, _Suicide_, p. 314.]\n\n  [Footnote 22: _Suicide and Insanity_.]\n\nFrom these bloody institutions, as well as from the general tenor of\nBushido, it is easy to infer that the sword played an important part in\nsocial discipline and life. The saying passed as an axiom which called\n\n\n                       THE SWORD THE SOUL OF THE\n                               SAMURAI,\n\nand made it the emblem of power and prowess. When Mahomet proclaimed\nthat \u201cThe sword is the key of Heaven and of Hell,\u201d he only echoed a\nJapanese sentiment. Very early the samurai boy learned to wield it. It\nwas a momentous occasion for him when at the age of five he was\napparelled in the paraphernalia of samurai costume, placed upon a\n_go_-board[23] and initiated into the rights of the military profession\nby having thrust into his girdle a real sword, instead of the toy dirk\nwith which he had been playing. After this first ceremony of _adoptio\nper arma_, he was no more to be seen outside his father\u2019s gates without\nthis badge of his status, even if it was usually substituted for\nevery-day wear by a gilded wooden dirk. Not many years pass before he\nwears constantly the genuine steel, though blunt, and then the sham arms\nare thrown aside and with enjoyment keener than his newly acquired\nblades, he marches out to try their edge on wood and stone. When he\nreaches man\u2019s estate at the age of fifteen, being given independence of\naction, he can now pride himself upon the possession of arms sharp\nenough for any work. The very possession of the dangerous instrument\nimparts to him a feeling and an air of self-respect and responsibility.\n\u201cHe beareth not his sword in vain.\u201d What he carries in his belt is a\nsymbol of what he carries in his mind and heart\u2014Loyalty and Honor. The\ntwo swords, the longer and the shorter\u2014called respectively _daito_ and\n_shoto_ or _katana_ and _wakizashi_\u2014never leave his side. When at home,\nthey grace the most conspicuous place in study or parlor; by night they\nguard his pillow within easy reach of his hand. Constant companions,\nthey are beloved, and proper names of endearment given them. Being\nvenerated, they are well-nigh worshiped. The Father of History has\nrecorded as a curious piece of information that the Scythians sacrificed\nto an iron scimitar. Many a temple and many a family in Japan hoards a\nsword as an object of adoration. Even the commonest dirk has due respect\npaid to it. Any insult to it is tantamount to personal affront. Woe to\nhim who carelessly steps over a weapon lying on the floor!\n\n  [Footnote 23: The game of _go_ is sometimes called Japanese\n  checkers, but is much more intricate than the English game. The\n  _go-_board contains 361 squares and is supposed to represent a\n  battle-field\u2014the object of the game being to occupy as much space\n  as possible.]\n\nSo precious an object cannot long escape the notice and the skill of\nartists nor the vanity of its owner, especially in times of peace, when\nit is worn with no more use than a crosier by a bishop or a sceptre by a\nking. Shark-skin and finest silk for hilt, silver and gold for guard,\nlacquer of varied hues for scabbard, robbed the deadliest weapon of half\nits terror; but these appurtenances are playthings compared with the\nblade itself.\n\nThe swordsmith was not a mere artisan but an inspired artist and his\nworkshop a sanctuary. Daily he commenced his craft with prayer and\npurification, or, as the phrase was, \u201che committed his soul and spirit\ninto the forging and tempering of the steel.\u201d Every swing of the sledge,\nevery plunge into water, every friction on the grindstone, was a\nreligious act of no slight import. Was it the spirit of the master or of\nhis tutelary god that cast a formidable spell over our sword? Perfect as\na work of art, setting at defiance its Toledo and Damascus rivals, there\nis more than art could impart. Its cold blade, collecting on its surface\nthe moment it is drawn the vapors of the atmosphere; its immaculate\ntexture, flashing light of bluish hue; its matchless edge, upon which\nhistories and possibilities hang; the curve of its back, uniting\nexquisite grace with utmost strength;\u2014all these thrill us with mixed\nfeelings of power and beauty, of awe and terror. Harmless were its\nmission, if it only remained a thing of beauty and joy! But, ever within\nreach of the hand, it presented no small temptation for abuse. Too often\ndid the blade flash forth from its peaceful sheath. The abuse sometimes\nwent so far as to try the acquired steel on some harmless creature\u2019s\nneck.\n\nThe question that concerns us most is, however,\u2014Did Bushido justify\nthe promiscuous use of the weapon? The answer is unequivocally, no! As\nit laid great stress on its proper use, so did it denounce and abhor its\nmisuse. A dastard or a braggart was he who brandished his weapon on\nundeserved occasions. A self-possessed man knows the right time to use\nit, and such times come but rarely. Let us listen to the late Count\nKatsu, who passed through one of the most turbulent times of our\nhistory, when assassinations, suicides, and other sanguinary practices\nwere the order of the day. Endowed as he once was with almost\ndictatorial powers, repeatedly marked out as an object for\nassassination, he never tarnished his sword with blood. In relating some\nof his reminiscences to a friend he says, in a quaint, plebeian way\npeculiar to him:\u2014\u201cI have a great dislike for killing people and so I\nhaven\u2019t killed one single man. I have released those whose heads should\nhave been chopped off. A friend said to me one day, \u2018You don\u2019t kill\nenough. Don\u2019t you eat pepper and egg-plants?\u2019 Well, some people are no\nbetter! But you see that fellow was slain himself. My escape may be due\nto my dislike of killing. I had the hilt of my sword so tightly fastened\nto the scabbard that it was hard to draw the blade. I made up my mind\nthat though they cut me, I will not cut. Yes, yes! some people are truly\nlike fleas and mosquitoes and they bite\u2014but what does their biting\namount to? It itches a little, that\u2019s all; it won\u2019t endanger life.\u201d\nThese are the words of one whose Bushido training was tried in the fiery\nfurnace of adversity and triumph. The popular apothegm\u2014\u201cTo be beaten is\nto conquer,\u201d meaning true conquest consists in not opposing a riotous\nfoe; and \u201cThe best won victory is that obtained without shedding of\nblood,\u201d and others of similar import\u2014will show that after all the\nultimate ideal of knighthood was Peace.\n\nIt was a great pity that this high ideal was left exclusively to priests\nand moralists to preach, while the samurai went on practicing and\nextolling martial traits. In this they went so far as to tinge the\nideals of womanhood with Amazonian character. Here we may profitably\ndevote a few paragraphs to the subject of\n\n\n                     THE TRAINING AND POSITION OF\n                                WOMAN.\n\nThe female half of our species has sometimes been called the paragon of\nparadoxes, because the intuitive working of its mind is beyond the\ncomprehension of men\u2019s \u201carithmetical understanding.\u201d The Chinese\nideogram denoting \u201cthe mysterious,\u201d \u201cthe unknowable,\u201d consists of two\nparts, one meaning \u201cyoung\u201d and the other \u201cwoman,\u201d because the physical\ncharms and delicate thoughts of the fair sex are above the coarse mental\ncalibre of our sex to explain.\n\nIn the Bushido ideal of woman, however, there is little mystery and only\na seeming paradox. I have said that it was Amazonian, but that is only\nhalf the truth. Ideographically the Chinese represent wife by a woman\nholding a broom\u2014certainly not to brandish it offensively or defensively\nagainst her conjugal ally, neither for witchcraft, but for the more\nharmless uses for which the besom was first invented\u2014the idea involved\nbeing thus not less homely than the etymological derivation of the\nEnglish wife (weaver) and daughter (_duhitar_, milkmaid). Without\nconfining the sphere of woman\u2019s activity to _K\u00fcche, Kirche, Kinder_, as\nthe present German Kaiser is said to do, the Bushido ideal of womanhood\nwas preeminently domestic. These seeming contradictions\u2014Domesticity and\nAmazonian traits\u2014are not inconsistent with the Precepts of Knighthood,\nas we shall see.\n\nBushido being a teaching primarily intended for the masculine sex, the\nvirtues it prized in woman were naturally far from being distinctly\nfeminine. Winckelmann remarks that \u201cthe supreme beauty of Greek art is\nrather male than female,\u201d and Lecky adds that it was true in the moral\nconception of the Greeks as in their art. Bushido similarly praised\nthose women most \u201cwho emancipated themselves from the frailty of their\nsex and displayed an heroic fortitude worthy of the strongest and the\nbravest of men.\u201d[24] Young girls therefore, were trained to repress\ntheir feelings, to indurate their nerves, to manipulate\nweapons,\u2014especially the long-handled sword called _nagi-nata_, so as to\nbe able to hold their own against unexpected odds. Yet the primary\nmotive for exercises of this martial character was not for use in the\nfield; it was twofold\u2014personal and domestic. Woman owning no suzerain\nof her own, formed her own bodyguard. With her weapon she guarded her\npersonal sanctity with as much zeal as her husband did his master\u2019s. The\ndomestic utility of her warlike training was in the education of her\nsons, as we shall see later.\n\n  [Footnote 24: Lecky, _History of European Morals_ II, p. 383.]\n\nFencing and similar exercises, if rarely of practical use, were a\nwholesome counterbalance to the otherwise sedentary habits of woman. But\nthese exercises were not followed only for hygienic purposes. They could\nbe turned into use in times of need. Girls, when they reached womanhood,\nwere presented with dirks (_kai-ken_, pocket poniards), which might be\ndirected to the bosom of their assailants, or, if advisable, to their\nown. The latter was very often the case: and yet I will not judge them\nseverely. Even the Christian conscience with its horror of\nself-immolation, will not be harsh with them, seeing Pelagia and\nDomnina, two suicides, were canonized for their purity and piety. When a\nJapanese Virginia saw her chastity menaced, she did not wait for her\nfather\u2019s dagger. Her own weapon lay always in her bosom. It was a\ndisgrace to her not to know the proper way in which she had to\nperpetrate self-destruction. For example, little as she was taught in\nanatomy, she must know the exact spot to cut in her throat: she must\nknow how to tie her lower limbs together with a belt so that, whatever\nthe agonies of death might be, her corpse be found in utmost modesty\nwith the limbs properly composed. Is not a caution like this worthy of\nthe Christian Perpetua or the Vestal Cornelia? I would not put such an\nabrupt interrogation, were it not for a misconception, based on our\nbathing customs and other trifles, that chastity is unknown among\nus.[25] On the contrary, chastity was a pre-eminent virtue of the\nsamurai woman, held above life itself. A young woman, taken prisoner,\nseeing herself in danger of violence at the hands of the rough soldiery,\nsays she will obey their pleasure, provided she be first allowed to\nwrite a line to her sisters, whom war has dispersed in every direction.\nWhen the epistle is finished, off she runs to the nearest well and saves\nher honor by drowning. The letter she leaves behind ends with these\nverses;\u2014\n\n    \u201cFor fear lest clouds may dim her light,\n     Should she but graze this nether sphere,\n     The young moon poised above the height\n     Doth hastily betake to flight.\u201d\n\n  [Footnote 25: For a very sensible explanation of nudity and bathing\n  see Finck\u2019s _Lotos Time in Japan_, pp. 286-297.]\n\nIt would be unfair to give my readers an idea that masculinity alone was\nour highest ideal for woman. Far from it! Accomplishments and the\ngentler graces of life were required of them. Music, dancing and\nliterature were not neglected. Some of the finest verses in our\nliterature were expressions of feminine sentiments; in fact, women\nplayed an important role in the history of Japanese _belles lettres_.\nDancing was taught (I am speaking of samurai girls and not of _geisha_)\nonly to smooth the angularity of their movements. Music was to regale\nthe weary hours of their fathers and husbands; hence it was not for the\ntechnique, the art as such, that music was learned; for the ultimate\nobject was purification of heart, since it was said that no harmony of\nsound is attainable without the player\u2019s heart being in harmony with\nherself. Here again we see the same idea prevailing which we notice in\nthe training of youths\u2014that accomplishments were ever kept subservient\nto moral worth. Just enough of music and dancing to add grace and\nbrightness to life, but never to foster vanity and extravagance. I\nsympathize with the Persian prince, who, when taken into a ball-room in\nLondon and asked to take part in the merriment, bluntly remarked that in\nhis country they provided a particular set of girls to do that kind of\nbusiness for them.\n\nThe accomplishments of our women were not acquired for show or social\nascendency. They were a home diversion; and if they shone in social\nparties, it was as the attributes of a hostess,\u2014in other words, as a\npart of the household contrivance for hospitality. Domesticity guided\ntheir education. It may be said that the accomplishments of the women\nof Old Japan, be they martial or pacific in character, were mainly\nintended for the home; and, however far they might roam, they never lost\nsight of the hearth as the center. It was to maintain its honor and\nintegrity that they slaved, drudged and gave up their lives. Night and\nday, in tones at once firm and tender, brave and plaintive, they sang to\ntheir little nests. As daughter, woman sacrificed herself for her\nfather, as wife for her husband, and as mother for her son. Thus from\nearliest youth she was taught to deny herself. Her life was not one of\nindependence, but of dependent service. Man\u2019s helpmeet, if her presence\nis helpful she stays on the stage with him: if it hinders his work, she\nretires behind the curtain. Not infrequently does it happen that a youth\nbecomes enamored of a maiden who returns his love with equal ardor, but,\nwhen she realizes his interest in her makes him forgetful of his duties,\ndisfigures her person that her attractions may cease. Adzuma, the ideal\nwife in the minds of samurai girls, finds herself loved by a man who,\nin order to win her affection, conspires against her husband. Upon\npretence of joining in the guilty plot, she manages in the dark to take\nher husband\u2019s place, and the sword of the lover assassin descends upon\nher own devoted head.\n\nThe following epistle written by the wife of a young daimio, before\ntaking her own life, needs no comment:\u2014\u201cOft have I heard that no\naccident or chance ever mars the march of events here below, and that\nall moves in accordance with a plan. To take shelter under a common\nbough or a drink of the same river, is alike ordained from ages prior to\nour birth. Since we were joined in ties of eternal wedlock, now two\nshort years ago, my heart hath followed thee, even as its shadow\nfolloweth an object, inseparably bound heart to heart, loving and being\nloved. Learning but recently, however, that the coming battle is to be\nthe last of thy labor and life, take the farewell greeting of thy loving\npartner. I have heard that K\u014d-u, the mighty warrior of ancient China,\nlost a battle, loth to part with his favorite Gu. Yoshinaka, too, brave\nas he was, brought disaster to his cause, too weak to bid prompt\nfarewell to his wife. Why should I, to whom earth no longer offers hope\nor joy\u2014why should I detain thee or thy thoughts by living? Why should I\nnot, rather, await thee on the road which all mortal kind must sometime\ntread? Never, prithee, never forget the many benefits which our good\nmaster Hideyori hath heaped upon thee. The gratitude we owe him is as\ndeep as the sea and as high as the hills.\u201d\n\nWoman\u2019s surrender of herself to the good of her husband, home and\nfamily, was as willing and honorable as the man\u2019s self-surrender to the\ngood of his lord and country. Self-renunciation, without which no\nlife-enigma can be solved, was the keynote of the Loyalty of man as well\nas of the Domesticity of woman. She was no more the slave of man than\nwas her husband of his liege-lord, and the part she played was\nrecognized as _Naijo_, \u201cthe inner help.\u201d In the ascending scale of\nservice stood woman, who annihilated herself for man, that he might\nannihilate himself for the master, that he in turn might obey heaven. I\nknow the weakness of this teaching and that the superiority of\nChristianity is nowhere more manifest than here, in that it requires of\neach and every living soul direct responsibility to its Creator.\nNevertheless, as far as the doctrine of service\u2014the serving of a cause\nhigher than one\u2019s own self, even at the sacrifice of one\u2019s\nindividuality; I say the doctrine of service, which is the greatest that\nChrist preached and is the sacred keynote of his mission\u2014as far as that\nis concerned, Bushido is based on eternal truth.\n\nMy readers will not accuse me of undue prejudice in favor of slavish\nsurrender of volition. I accept in a large measure the view advanced\nwith breadth of learning and defended with profundity of thought by\nHegel, that history is the unfolding and realization of freedom. The\npoint I wish to make is that the whole teaching of Bushido was so\nthoroughly imbued with the spirit of self-sacrifice, that it was\nrequired not only of woman but of man. Hence, until the influence of its\nPrecepts is entirely done away with, our society will not realize the\nview rashly expressed by an American exponent of woman\u2019s rights, who\nexclaimed, \u201cMay all the daughters of Japan rise in revolt against\nancient customs!\u201d Can such a revolt succeed? Will it improve the female\nstatus? Will the rights they gain by such a summary process repay the\nloss of that sweetness of disposition, that gentleness of manner, which\nare their present heritage? Was not the loss of domesticity on the part\nof Roman matrons followed by moral corruption too gross to mention? Can\nthe American reformer assure us that a revolt of our daughters is the\ntrue course for their historical development to take? These are grave\nquestions. Changes must and will come without revolts! In the meantime\nlet us see whether the status of the fair sex under the Bushido regimen\nwas really so bad as to justify a revolt.\n\nWe hear much of the outward respect European knights paid to \u201cGod and\nthe ladies,\u201d\u2014the incongruity of the two terms making Gibbon blush; we\nare also told by Hallam that the morality of Chivalry was coarse, that\ngallantry implied illicit love. The effect of Chivalry on the weaker\nvessel was food for reflection on the part of philosophers, M. Guizot\ncontending that Feudalism and Chivalry wrought wholesome influences,\nwhile Mr. Spencer tells us that in a militant society (and what is\nfeudal society if not militant?) the position of woman is necessarily\nlow, improving only as society becomes more industrial. Now is M.\nGuizot\u2019s theory true of Japan, or is Mr. Spencer\u2019s? In reply I might\naver that both are right. The military class in Japan was restricted to\nthe samurai, comprising nearly 2,000,000 souls. Above them were the\nmilitary nobles, the _daimio_, and the court nobles, the _kug\u00e9_\u2014these\nhigher, sybaritical nobles being fighters only in name. Below them were\nmasses of the common people\u2014mechanics, tradesmen, and peasants\u2014whose\nlife was devoted to arts of peace. Thus what Herbert Spencer gives as\nthe characteristics of a militant type of society may be said to have\nbeen exclusively confined to the samurai class, while those of the\nindustrial type were applicable to the classes above and below it. This\nis well illustrated by the position of woman; for in no class did she\nexperience less freedom than among the samurai. Strange to say, the\nlower the social class\u2014as, for instance, among small artisans\u2014the more\nequal was the position of husband and wife. Among the higher nobility,\ntoo, the difference in the relations of the sexes was less marked,\nchiefly because there were few occasions to bring the differences of sex\ninto prominence, the leisurely nobleman having become literally\neffeminate. Thus Spencer\u2019s dictum was fully exemplified in Old Japan. As\nto Guizot\u2019s, those who read his presentation of a feudal community will\nremember that he had the higher nobility especially under consideration,\nso that his generalization applies to the _daimio_ and the _kug\u00e9_.\n\nI shall be guilty of gross injustice to historical truth if my words\ngive one a very low opinion of the status of woman under Bushido. I do\nnot hesitate to state that she was not treated as man\u2019s equal; but until\nwe learn to discriminate between difference and inequalities, there will\nalways be misunderstandings upon this subject.\n\nWhen we think in how few respects men are equal among themselves,\n_e.g._, before law courts or voting polls, it seems idle to trouble\nourselves with a discussion on the equality of sexes. When, the American\nDeclaration of Independence said that all men were created equal, it had\nno reference to their mental or physical gifts: it simply repeated what\nUlpian long ago announced, that before the law all men are equal. Legal\nrights were in this case the measure of their equality. Were the law the\nonly scale by which to measure the position of woman in a community, it\nwould be as easy to tell where she stands as to give her avoirdupois in\npounds and ounces. But the question is: Is there a correct standard in\ncomparing the relative social position of the sexes? Is it right, is it\nenough, to compare woman\u2019s status to man\u2019s as the value of silver is\ncompared with that of gold, and give the ratio numerically? Such a\nmethod of calculation excludes from consideration the most important\nkind of value which a human being possesses; namely, the intrinsic. In\nview of the manifold variety of requisites for making each sex fulfil\nits earthly mission, the standard to be adopted in measuring its\nrelative position must be of a composite character; or, to borrow from\neconomic language, it must be a multiple standard. Bushido had a\nstandard of its own and it was binomial. It tried to guage the value of\nwoman on the battle-field and by the hearth. There she counted for very\nlittle; here for all. The treatment accorded her corresponded to this\ndouble measurement;\u2014as a social-political unit not much, while as wife\nand mother she received highest respect and deepest affection. Why among\nso military a nation as the Romans, were their matrons so highly\nvenerated? Was it not because they were _matrona_, mothers? Not as\nfighters or law-givers, but as their mothers did men bow before them. So\nwith us. While fathers and husbands were absent in field or camp, the\ngovernment of the household was left entirely in the hands of mothers\nand wives. The education of the young, even their defence, was entrusted\nto them. The warlike exercises of women, of which I have spoken, were\nprimarily to enable them intelligently to direct and follow the\neducation of their children.\n\nI have noticed a rather superficial notion prevailing among\nhalf-informed foreigners, that because the common Japanese expression\nfor one\u2019s wife is \u201cmy rustic wife\u201d and the like, she is despised and\nheld in little esteem. When it is told that such phrases as \u201cmy foolish\nfather,\u201d \u201cmy swinish son,\u201d \u201cmy awkward self,\u201d etc., are in current use,\nis not the answer clear enough?\n\nTo me it seems that our idea of marital union goes in some ways further\nthan the so-called Christian. \u201cMan and woman shall be one flesh.\u201d The\nindividualism of the Anglo-Saxon cannot let go of the idea that husband\nand wife are two persons;\u2014hence when they disagree, their separate\n_rights_ are recognized, and when they agree, they exhaust their\nvocabulary in all sorts of silly pet-names and\u2014nonsensical\nblandishments. It sounds highly irrational to our ears, when a husband\nor wife speaks to a third party of his other half\u2014better or worse\u2014as\nbeing lovely, bright, kind, and what not. Is it good taste to speak of\none\u2019s self as \u201cmy bright self,\u201d \u201cmy lovely disposition,\u201d and so forth?\nWe think praising one\u2019s own wife or one\u2019s own husband is praising a part\nof one\u2019s own self, and self-praise is regarded, to say the least, as bad\ntaste among us,\u2014and I hope, among Christian nations too! I have\ndiverged at some length because the polite debasement of one\u2019s consort\nwas a usage most in vogue among the samurai.\n\nThe Teutonic races beginning their tribal life with a superstitious awe\nof the fair sex (though this is really wearing off in Germany!), and the\nAmericans beginning their social life under the painful consciousness of\nthe numerical insufficiency of women[26] (who, now increasing, are, I am\nafraid, fast losing the prestige their colonial mothers enjoyed), the\nrespect man pays to woman has in Western civilization become the chief\nstandard of morality. But in the martial ethics of Bushido, the main\nwater-shed dividing the good and the bad was sought elsewhere. It was\nlocated along the line of duty which bound man to his own divine soul\nand then to other souls, in the five relations I have mentioned in the\nearly part of this paper. Of these we have brought to our reader\u2019s\nnotice, Loyalty, the relation between one man as vassal and another as\nlord. Upon the rest, I have only dwelt incidentally as occasion\npresented itself; because they were not peculiar to Bushido. Being\nfounded on natural affections, they could but be common to all mankind,\nthough in some particulars they may have been accentuated by conditions\nwhich its teachings induced. In this connection, there comes before me\nthe peculiar strength and tenderness of friendship between man and man,\nwhich often added to the bond of brotherhood a romantic attachment\ndoubtless intensified by the separation of the sexes in youth,\u2014a\nseparation which denied to affection the natural channel open to it in\nWestern chivalry or in the free intercourse of Anglo-Saxon lands. I\nmight fill pages with Japanese versions of the story of Damon and\nPythias or Achilles and Patroclos, or tell in Bushido parlance of ties\nas sympathetic as those which bound David and Jonathan.\n\n  [Footnote 26: I refer to those days when girls were imported from\n  England and given in marriage for so many pounds of tobacco, etc.]\n\nIt is not surprising, however, that the virtues and teachings unique in\nthe Precepts of Knighthood did not remain circumscribed to the military\nclass. This makes us hasten to the consideration of\n\n\n                       THE INFLUENCE OF BUSHIDO\n\non the nation at large.\n\nWe have brought into view only a few of the more prominent peaks which\nrise above the range of knightly virtues, in themselves so much more\nelevated than the general level of our national life. As the sun in its\nrising first tips the highest peaks with russet hue, and then gradually\ncasts its rays on the valley below, so the ethical system which first\nenlightened the military order drew in course of time followers from\namongst the masses. Democracy raises up a natural prince for its leader,\nand aristocracy infuses a princely spirit among the people. Virtues are\nno less contagious than vices. \u201cThere needs but one wise man in a\ncompany, and all are wise, so rapid is the contagion,\u201d says Emerson. No\nsocial class or caste can resist the diffusive power of moral\ninfluence.\n\nPrate as we may of the triumphant march of Anglo-Saxon liberty, rarely\nhas it received impetus from the masses. Was it not rather the work of\nthe squires and _gentlemen_? Very truly does M. Taine say, \u201cThese three\nsyllables, as used across the channel, summarize the history of English\nsociety.\u201d Democracy may make self-confident retorts to such a statement\nand fling back the question\u2014\u201cWhen Adam delved and Eve span, where then\nwas the gentleman?\u201d All the more pity that a gentleman was not present\nin Eden! The first parents missed him sorely and paid a high price for\nhis absence. Had he been there, not only would the garden have been more\ntastefully dressed, but they would have learned without painful\nexperience that disobedience to Jehovah was disloyalty and dishonor,\ntreason and rebellion.\n\nWhat Japan was she owed to the samurai. They were not only the flower of\nthe nation but its root as well. All the gracious gifts of Heaven flowed\nthrough them. Though they kept themselves socially aloof from the\npopulace, they set a moral standard for them and guided them by their\nexample. I admit Bushido had its esoteric and exoteric teachings; these\nwere eudemonistic, looking after the welfare and happiness of the\ncommonalty, while those were aretaic, emphasizing the practice of\nvirtues for their own sake.\n\nIn the most chivalrous days of Europe, Knights formed numerically but a\nsmall fraction of the population, but, as Emerson says\u2014\u201cIn English\nLiterature half the drama and all the novels, from Sir Philip Sidney to\nSir Walter Scott, paint this figure (gentleman).\u201d Write in place of\nSidney and Scott, Chikamatsu and Bakin, and you have in a nutshell the\nmain features of the literary history of Japan.\n\nThe innumerable avenues of popular amusement and instruction\u2014the\ntheatres, the story-teller\u2019s booths, the preacher\u2019s dais, the musical\nrecitations, the novels\u2014have taken for their chief theme the stories of\nthe samurai. The peasants round the open fire in their huts never tire\nof repeating the achievements of Yoshitsun\u00e9 and his faithful retainer\nBenkei, or of the two brave Soga brothers; the dusky urchins listen with\ngaping mouths until the last stick burns out and the fire dies in its\nembers, still leaving their hearts aglow with the tale that is told. The\nclerks and the shop-boys, after their day\u2019s work is over and the\n_amado_[27] of the store are closed, gather together to relate the story\nof Nobunaga and Hid\u00e9yoshi far into the night, until slumber overtakes\ntheir weary eyes and transports them from the drudgery of the counter to\nthe exploits of the field. The very babe just beginning to toddle is\ntaught to lisp the adventures of Momotaro, the daring conqueror of\nogre-land. Even girls are so imbued with the love of knightly deeds and\nvirtues that, like Desdemona, they would seriously incline to devour\nwith greedy ear the romance of the samurai.\n\n  [Footnote 27: Outside shutters.]\n\nThe samurai grew to be the _beau ideal_ of the whole race. \u201cAs among\nflowers the cherry is queen, so among men the samurai is lord,\u201d so sang\nthe populace. Debarred from commercial pursuits, the military class\nitself did not aid commerce; but there was no channel of human activity,\nno avenue of thought, which did not receive in some measure an impetus\nfrom Bushido. Intellectual and moral Japan was directly or indirectly\nthe work of Knighthood.\n\nMr. Mallock, in his exceedingly suggestive book, \u201cAristocracy and\nEvolution,\u201d has eloquently told us that \u201csocial evolution, in so far as\nit is other than biological, may be defined as the unintended result of\nthe intentions of great men;\u201d further, that historical progress is\nproduced by a struggle \u201cnot among the community generally, to live, but\na struggle amongst a small section of the community to lead, to direct,\nto employ, the majority in the best way.\u201d Whatever may be said about the\nsoundness of his argument, these statements are amply verified in the\npart played by bushi in the social progress, as far as it went, of our\nEmpire.\n\nHow the spirit of Bushido permeated all social classes is also shown in\nthe development of a certain order of men, known as _otoko-dat\u00e9_, the\nnatural leaders of democracy. Staunch fellows were they, every inch of\nthem strong with the strength of massive manhood. At once the spokesmen\nand the guardians of popular rights, they had each a following of\nhundreds and thousands of souls who proffered in the same fashion that\nsamurai did to daimio, the willing service of \u201climb and life, of body,\nchattels and earthly honor.\u201d Backed by a vast multitude of rash and\nimpetuous working-men, those born \u201cbosses\u201d formed a formidable check to\nthe rampancy of the two-sworded order.\n\nIn manifold ways has Bushido filtered down from the social class where\nit originated, and acted as leaven among the masses, furnishing a moral\nstandard for the whole people. The Precepts of Knighthood, begun at\nfirst as the glory of the \u00e9lite, became in time an aspiration and\ninspiration to the nation at large; and though the populace could not\nattain the moral height of those loftier souls, yet _Yamato Damashii_,\nthe Soul of Japan, ultimately came to express the _Volksgeist_ of the\nIsland Realm. If religion is no more than \u201cMorality touched by\nemotion,\u201d as Matthew Arnold defines it, few ethical systems are better\nentitled to the rank of religion than Bushido. Moto\u00f6ri has put the mute\nutterance of the nation into words when he sings:\u2014\n\n    \u201cIsles of blest Japan!\n       Should your Yamato spirit\n     Strangers seek to scan,\n       Say\u2014scenting morn\u2019s sun-lit air,\n     Blows the cherry wild and fair!\u201d\n\nYes, the _sakura_[28] has for ages been the favorite of our people and\nthe emblem of our character. Mark particularly the terms of definition\nwhich the poet uses, the words the _wild cherry flower scenting the\nmorning sun_.\n\n  [Footnote 28: _Cerasus pseudo-cerasus_, Lindley.]\n\nThe Yamato spirit is not a tame, tender plant, but a wild\u2014in the sense\nof natural\u2014growth; it is indigenous to the soil; its accidental\nqualities it may share with the flowers of other lands, but in its\nessence it remains the original, spontaneous outgrowth of our clime. But\nits nativity is not its sole claim to our affection. The refinement and\ngrace of its beauty appeal to _our_ \u00e6sthetic sense as no other flower\ncan. We cannot share the admiration of the Europeans for their roses,\nwhich lack the simplicity of our flower. Then, too, the thorns that are\nhidden beneath the sweetness of the rose, the tenacity with which she\nclings to life, as though loth or afraid to die rather than drop\nuntimely, preferring to rot on her stem; her showy colors and heavy\nodors\u2014all these are traits so unlike our flower, which carries no\ndagger or poison under its beauty, which is ever ready to depart life at\nthe call of nature, whose colors are never gorgeous, and whose light\nfragrance never palls. Beauty of color and of form is limited in its\nshowing; it is a fixed quality of existence, whereas fragrance is\nvolatile, ethereal as the breathing of life. So in all religious\nceremonies frankincense and myrrh play a prominent part. There is\nsomething spirituelle in redolence. When the delicious perfume of the\n_sakura_ quickens the morning air, as the sun in its course rises to\nillumine first the isles of the Far East, few sensations are more\nserenely exhilarating than to inhale, as it were, the very breath of\nbeauteous day.\n\nWhen the Creator himself is pictured as making new resolutions in his\nheart upon smelling a sweet savor (Gen. VIII, 21), is it any wonder that\nthe sweet-smelling season of the cherry blossom should call forth the\nwhole nation from their little habitations? Blame them not, if for a\ntime their limbs forget their toil and moil and their hearts their pangs\nand sorrows. Their brief pleasure ended, they return to their daily\ntasks with new strength and new resolutions. Thus in ways more than one\nis the sakura the flower of the nation.\n\nIs, then, this flower, so sweet and evanescent, blown whithersoever the\nwind listeth, and, shedding a puff of perfume, ready to vanish forever,\nis this flower the type of the Yamato spirit? Is the Soul of Japan so\nfrailly mortal?\n\n\n                        IS BUSHIDO STILL ALIVE?\n\nOr has Western civilization, in its march through the land, already\nwiped out every trace of its ancient discipline?\n\nIt were a sad thing if a nation\u2019s soul could die so fast. That were a\npoor soul that could succumb so easily to extraneous influences. The\naggregate of psychological elements which constitute a national\ncharacter, is as tenacious as the \u201cirreducible elements of species, of\nthe fins of fish, of the beak of the bird, of the tooth of the\ncarnivorous animal.\u201d In his recent book, full of shallow asseverations\nand brilliant generalizations, M. LeBon[29] says, \u201cThe discoveries due\nto the intelligence are the common patrimony of humanity; qualities or\ndefects of character constitute the exclusive patrimony of each people:\nthey are the firm rock which the waters must wash day by day for\ncenturies, before they can wear away even its external asperities.\u201d\nThese are strong words and would be highly worth pondering over,\nprovided there were qualities and defects of character which _constitute\nthe exclusive patrimony_ of each people. Schematizing theories of this\nsort had been advanced long before LeBon began to write his book, and\nthey were exploded long ago by Theodor Waitz and Hugh Murray. In\nstudying the various virtues instilled by Bushido, we have drawn upon\nEuropean sources for comparison and illustrations, and we have seen that\nno one quality of character was its _exclusive_ patrimony. It is true\nthe aggregate of moral qualities presents a quite unique aspect. It is\nthis aggregate which Emerson names a \u201ccompound result into which every\ngreat force enters as an ingredient.\u201d But, instead of making it, as\nLeBon does, an exclusive patrimony of a race or people, the Concord\nphilosopher calls it \u201can element which unites the most forcible persons\nof every country; makes them intelligible and agreeable to each other;\nand is somewhat so precise that it is at once felt if an individual lack\nthe Masonic sign.\u201d\n\n  [Footnote 29: _The Psychology of Peoples_, p. 33.]\n\nThe character which Bushido stamped on our nation and on the samurai in\nparticular, cannot be said to form \u201can irreducible element of species,\u201d\nbut nevertheless as to the vitality which it retains there is no doubt.\nWere Bushido a mere physical force, the momentum it has gained in the\nlast seven hundred years could not stop so abruptly. Were it\ntransmitted only by heredity, its influence must be immensely\nwidespread. Just think, as M. Cheysson, a French economist, has\ncalculated, that supposing there be three generations in a century,\n\u201ceach of us would have in his veins the blood of at least twenty\nmillions of the people living in the year 1000 A.D.\u201d The merest peasant\nthat grubs the soil, \u201cbowed by the weight of centuries,\u201d has in his\nveins the blood of ages, and is thus a brother to us as much as \u201cto the\nox.\u201d\n\nAn unconscious and irresistible power, Bushido has been moving the\nnation and individuals. It was an honest confession of the race when\nYoshida Sh\u00f4in, one of the most brilliant pioneers of Modern Japan, wrote\non the eve of his execution the following stanza;\u2014\n\n    \u201cFull well I knew this course must end in death;\n     It was Yamato spirit urged me on\n     To dare whate\u2019er betide.\u201d\n\nUnformulated, Bushido was and still is the animating spirit, the motor\nforce of our country.\n\nMr. Ransome says that \u201cthere are three distinct Japans in existence\nside by side to-day,\u2014the old, which has not wholly died out; the new,\nhardly yet born except in spirit; and the transition, passing now\nthrough its most critical throes.\u201d While this is very true in most\nrespects, and particularly as regards tangible and concrete\ninstitutions, the statement, as applied to fundamental ethical notions,\nrequires some modification; for Bushido, the maker and product of Old\nJapan, is still the guiding principle of the transition and will prove\nthe formative force of the new era.\n\nThe great statesmen who steered the ship of our state through the\nhurricane of the Restoration and the whirlpool of national rejuvenation,\nwere men who knew no other moral teaching than the Precepts of\nKnighthood. Some writers[30] have lately tried to prove that the\nChristian missionaries contributed an appreciable quota to the making\nof New Japan. I would fain render honor to whom honor is due: but this\nhonor can hardly be accorded to the good missionaries. More fitting it\nwill be to their profession to stick to the scriptural injunction of\npreferring one another in honor, than to advance a claim in which they\nhave no proofs to back them. For myself, I believe that Christian\nmissionaries are doing great things for Japan\u2014in the domain of\neducation, and especially of moral education:\u2014only, the mysterious\nthough not the less certain working of the Spirit is still hidden in\ndivine secrecy. Whatever they do is still of indirect effect. No, as yet\nChristian missions have effected but little visible in moulding the\ncharacter of New Japan. No, it was Bushido, pure and simple, that urged\nus on for weal or woe. Open the biographies of the makers of Modern\nJapan\u2014of Sakuma, of Saigo, of Okubo, of Kido, not to mention the\nreminiscences of living men such as Ito, Okuma, Itagaki, etc.:\u2014and you\nwill find that it was under the impetus of samuraihood that they thought\nand wrought. When Mr. Henry Norman declared, after his study and\nobservation of the Far East,[31] that only the respect in which Japan\ndiffered from other oriental despotisms lay in \u201cthe ruling influence\namong her people of the strictest, loftiest, and the most punctilious\ncodes of honor that man has ever devised,\u201d he touched the main spring\nwhich has made new Japan what she is and which will make her what she is\ndestined to be.\n\n  [Footnote 30: Speer; _Missions and Politics in Asia_, Lecture IV,\n  pp. 189-190; Dennis: _Christian Missions and Social Progress_, Vol.\n  I, p. 32, Vol. II, p. 70, etc.]\n\n  [Footnote 31: _The Far East_, p. 375.]\n\nThe transformation of Japan is a fact patent to the whole world. In a\nwork of such magnitude various motives naturally entered; but if one\nwere to name the principal, one would not hesitate to name Bushido. When\nwe opened the whole country to foreign trade, when we introduced the\nlatest improvements in every department of life, when we began to study\nWestern politics and sciences, our guiding motive was not the\ndevelopment of our physical resources and the increase of wealth; much\nless was it a blind imitation of Western customs. A close observer of\noriental institutions and peoples has written:\u2014\u201cWe are told every day\nhow Europe has influenced Japan, and forget that the change in those\nislands was entirely self-generated, that Europeans did not teach Japan,\nbut that Japan of herself chose to learn from Europe methods of\norganization, civil and military, which have so far proved successful.\nShe imported European mechanical science, as the Turks years before\nimported European artillery. That is not exactly influence,\u201d continues\nMr. Townsend, \u201cunless, indeed, England is influenced by purchasing tea\nof China. Where is the European apostle,\u201d asks our author, \u201cor\nphilosopher or statesman or agitator who has re-made Japan?\u201d[32] Mr.\nTownsend has well perceived that the spring of action which brought\nabout the changes in Japan lay entirely within our own selves; and if he\nhad only probed into our psychology, his keen powers of observation\nwould easily have convinced him that that spring was no other than\nBushido. The sense of honor which cannot bear being looked down upon as\nan inferior power,\u2014that was the strongest of motives. Pecuniary or\nindustrial considerations were awakened later in the process of\ntransformation.\n\n  [Footnote 32: Meredith Townsend, _Asia and Europe_, N.Y., 1900, 28.]\n\nThe influence of Bushido is still so palpable that he who runs may read.\nA glimpse into Japanese life will make it manifest. Read Hearn, the most\neloquent and truthful interpreter of the Japanese mind, and you see the\nworking of that mind to be an example of the working of Bushido. The\nuniversal politeness of the people, which is the legacy of knightly\nways, is too well known to be repeated anew. The physical endurance,\nfortitude and bravery that \u201cthe little Jap\u201d possesses, were sufficiently\nproved in the China-Japanese war.[33] \u201cIs there any nation more loyal\nand patriotic?\u201d is a question asked by many; and for the proud answer,\n\u201cThere is not,\u201d we must thank the Precepts of Knighthood.\n\n  [Footnote 33: Among other works on the subject, read Eastlake and\n  Yamada on _Heroic Japan_, and Diosy on _The New Far East_.]\n\nOn the other hand, it is fair to recognize that for the very faults and\ndefects of our character, Bushido is largely responsible. Our lack of\nabstruse philosophy\u2014while some of our young men have already gained\ninternational reputation in scientific researches, not one has achieved\nanything in philosophical lines\u2014is traceable to the neglect of\nmetaphysical training under Bushido\u2019s regimen of education. Our sense of\nhonor is responsible for our exaggerated sensitiveness and touchiness;\nand if there is the conceit in us with which some foreigners charge us,\nthat, too, is a pathological outcome of honor.\n\nHave you seen in your tour of Japan many a young man with unkempt hair,\ndressed in shabbiest garb, carrying in his hand a large cane or a book,\nstalking about the streets with an air of utter indifference to mundane\nthings? He is the _shosei_ (student), to whom the earth is too small and\nthe Heavens are not high enough. He has his own theories of the universe\nand of life. He dwells in castles of air and feeds on ethereal words of\nwisdom. In his eyes beams the fire of ambition; his mind is athirst for\nknowledge. Penury is only a stimulus to drive him onward; worldly goods\nare in his sight shackles to his character. He is the repository of\nLoyalty and Patriotism. He is the self-imposed guardian of national\nhonor. With all his virtues and his faults, he is the last fragment of\nBushido.\n\nDeep-rooted and powerful as is still the effect of Bushido, I have said\nthat it is an unconscious and mute influence. The heart of the people\nresponds, without knowing the reason why, to any appeal made to what it\nhas inherited, and hence the same moral idea expressed in a newly\ntranslated term and in an old Bushido term, has a vastly different\ndegree of efficacy. A backsliding Christian, whom no pastoral persuasion\ncould help from downward tendency, was reverted from his course by an\nappeal made to his loyalty, the fidelity he once swore to his Master.\nThe word \u201cLoyalty\u201d revived all the noble sentiments that were permitted\nto grow lukewarm. A band of unruly youths engaged in a long continued\n\u201cstudents\u2019 strike\u201d in a college, on account of their dissatisfaction\nwith a certain teacher, disbanded at two simple questions put by the\nDirector,\u2014\u201cIs your professor a blameless character? If so, you ought\nto respect him and keep him in the school. Is he weak? If so, it is\nnot manly to push a falling man.\u201d The scientific incapacity of the\nprofessor, which was the beginning of the trouble, dwindled into\ninsignificance in comparison with the moral issues hinted at. By\narousing the sentiments nurtured by Bushido, moral renovation of great\nmagnitude can be accomplished.\n\nOne cause of the failure of mission work is that most of the\nmissionaries are grossly ignorant of our history\u2014\u201cWhat do we care for\nheathen records?\u201d some say\u2014and consequently estrange their religion\nfrom the habits of thought we and our forefathers have been accustomed\nto for centuries past. Mocking a nation\u2019s history!\u2014as though the career\nof any people\u2014even of the lowest African savages possessing no\nrecord\u2014were not a page in the general history of mankind, written by\nthe hand of God Himself. The very lost races are a palimpsest to be\ndeciphered by a seeing eye. To a philosophic and pious mind, the races\nthemselves are marks of Divine chirography clearly traced in black and\nwhite as on their skin; and if this simile holds good, the yellow race\nforms a precious page inscribed in hieroglyphics of gold! Ignoring the\npast career of a people, missionaries claim that Christianity is a new\nreligion, whereas, to my mind, it is an \u201cold, old story,\u201d which, if\npresented in intelligible words,\u2014that is to say, if expressed in the\nvocabulary familiar in the moral development of a people\u2014will find easy\nlodgment in their hearts, irrespective of race or nationality.\nChristianity in its American or English form\u2014with more of Anglo-Saxon\nfreaks and fancies than grace and purity of its founder\u2014is a poor scion\nto graft on Bushido stock. Should the propagator of the new faith uproot\nthe entire stock, root and branches, and plant the seeds of the Gospel\non the ravaged soil? Such a heroic process may be possible\u2014in Hawaii,\nwhere, it is alleged, the church militant had complete success in\namassing spoils of wealth itself, and in annihilating the aboriginal\nrace: such a process is most decidedly impossible in Japan\u2014nay, it is\na process which Jesus himself would never have employed in founding his\nkingdom on earth. It behooves us to take more to heart the following\nwords of a saintly man, devout Christian and profound scholar:\u2014\u201cMen\nhave divided the world into heathen and Christian, without considering\nhow much good may have been hidden in the one, or how much evil may\nhave been mingled with the other. They have compared the best part of\nthemselves with the worst of their neighbors, the ideal of Christianity\nwith the corruption of Greece or the East. They have not aimed at\nimpartiality, but have been contented to accumulate all that could be\nsaid in praise of their own, and in dispraise of other forms of\nreligion.\u201d[34]\n\n  [Footnote 34: Jowett, _Sermons on Faith and Doctrine_, II.]\n\nBut, whatever may be the error committed by individuals, there is little\ndoubt that the fundamental principle of the religion they profess is a\npower which we must take into account in reckoning\n\n\n                        THE FUTURE OF BUSHIDO,\n\nwhose days seem to be already numbered. Ominous signs are in the air,\nthat betoken its future. Not only signs, but redoubtable forces are at\nwork to threaten it.\n\nFew historical comparisons can be more judiciously made than between the\nChivalry of Europe and the Bushido of Japan, and, if history repeats\nitself, it certainly will do with the fate of the latter what it did\nwith that of the former. The particular and local causes for the decay\nof Chivalry which St. Palaye gives, have, of course, little application\nto Japanese conditions; but the larger and more general causes that\nhelped to undermine Knighthood and Chivalry in and after the Middle Ages\nare as surely working for the decline of Bushido.\n\nOne remarkable difference between the experience of Europe and of Japan\nis, that, whereas in Europe when Chivalry was weaned from Feudalism and\nwas adopted by the Church, it obtained a fresh lease of life, in Japan\nno religion was large enough to nourish it; hence, when the mother\ninstitution, Feudalism, was gone, Bushido, left an orphan, had to shift\nfor itself. The present elaborate military organization might take it\nunder its patronage, but we know that modern warfare can afford little\nroom for its continuous growth. Shintoism, which fostered it in its\ninfancy, is itself superannuated. The hoary sages of ancient China are\nbeing supplanted by the intellectual parvenu of the type of Bentham and\nMill. Moral theories of a comfortable kind, flattering to the\nChauvinistic tendencies of the time, and therefore thought well-adapted\nto the need of this day, have been invented and propounded; but as yet\nwe hear only their shrill voices echoing through the columns of yellow\njournalism.\n\nPrincipalities and powers are arrayed against the Precepts of\nKnighthood. Already, as Veblen says, \u201cthe decay of the ceremonial\ncode\u2014or, as it is otherwise called, the vulgarization of life\u2014among\nthe industrial classes proper, has become one of the chief enormities\nof latter-day civilization in the eyes of all persons of delicate\nsensibilities.\u201d The irresistible tide of triumphant democracy, which can\ntolerate no form or shape of trust\u2014and Bushido was a trust organized\nby those who monopolized reserve capital of intellect and culture,\nfixing the grades and value of moral qualities\u2014is alone powerful enough\nto engulf the remnant of Bushido. The present societary forces are\nantagonistic to petty class spirit, and Chivalry is, as Freeman severely\ncriticizes, a class spirit. Modern society, if it pretends to any unity,\ncannot admit \u201cpurely personal obligations devised in the interests of an\nexclusive class.\u201d[35] Add to this the progress of popular instruction,\nof industrial arts and habits, of wealth and city-life,\u2014then we can\neasily see that neither the keenest cuts of samurai\u2019s sword nor the\nsharpest shafts shot from Bushido\u2019s boldest bows can aught avail. The\nstate built upon the rock of Honor and fortified by the same\u2014shall we\ncall it the _Ehrenstaat_ or, after the manner of Carlyle, the\nHeroarchy?\u2014is fast falling into the hands of quibbling lawyers and\ngibbering politicians armed with logic-chopping engines of war. The\nwords which a great thinker used in speaking of Theresa and Antigone may\naptly be repeated of the samurai, that \u201cthe medium in which their ardent\ndeeds took shape is forever gone.\u201d\n\n  [Footnote 35: _Norman Conquest_, Vol. V, p. 482.]\n\nAlas for knightly virtues! alas for samurai pride! Morality ushered into\nthe world with the sound of bugles and drums, is destined to fade away\nas \u201cthe captains and the kings depart.\u201d\n\nIf history can teach us anything, the state built on martial virtues\u2014be\nit a city like Sparta or an Empire like Rome\u2014can never make on earth a\n\u201ccontinuing city.\u201d Universal and natural as is the fighting instinct in\nman, fruitful as it has proved to be of noble sentiments and manly\nvirtues, it does not comprehend the whole man. Beneath the instinct to\nfight there lurks a diviner instinct to love. We have seen that\nShintoism, Mencius and Wan Yang Ming, have all clearly taught it; but\nBushido and all other militant schools of ethics, engrossed, doubtless,\nwith questions of immediate practical need, too often forgot duly to\nemphasize this fact. Life has grown larger in these latter times.\nCallings nobler and broader than a warrior\u2019s claim our attention to-day.\nWith an enlarged view of life, with the growth of democracy, with better\nknowledge of other peoples and nations, the Confucian idea of\nBenevolence\u2014dare I also add the Buddhist idea of Pity?\u2014will expand\ninto the Christian conception of Love. Men have become more than\nsubjects, having grown to the estate of citizens: nay, they are more\nthan citizens, being men.\n\nThough war clouds hang heavy upon our horizon, we will believe that the\nwings of the angel of peace can disperse them. The history of the world\nconfirms the prophecy that \u201cthe meek shall inherit the earth.\u201d A nation\nthat sells its birthright of peace, and backslides from the front rank\nof Industrialism into the file of Filibusterism, makes a poor bargain\nindeed!\n\nWhen the conditions of society are so changed that they have become not\nonly adverse but hostile to Bushido, it is time for it to prepare for an\nhonorable burial. It is just as difficult to point out when chivalry\ndies, as to determine the exact time of its inception. Dr. Miller says\nthat Chivalry was formally abolished in the year 1559, when Henry II. of\nFrance was slain in a tournament. With us, the edict formally\nabolishing Feudalism in 1870 was the signal to toll the knell of\nBushido. The edict, issued two years later, prohibiting the wearing of\nswords, rang out the old, \u201cthe unbought grace of life, the cheap defence\nof nations, the nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise,\u201d it rang\nin the new age of \u201csophisters, economists, and calculators.\u201d\n\nIt has been said that Japan won her late war with China by means of\nMurata guns and Krupp cannon; it has been said the victory was the work\nof a modern school system; but these are less than half-truths. Does\never a piano, be it of the choicest workmanship of Ehrbar or Steinway,\nburst forth into the Rhapsodies of Liszt or the Sonatas of Beethoven,\nwithout a master\u2019s hand? Or, if guns win battles, why did not Louis\nNapoleon beat the Prussians with his _Mitrailleuse_, or the Spaniards\nwith their Mausers the Filipinos, whose arms were no better than the\nold-fashioned Remingtons? Needless to repeat what has grown a trite\nsaying that it is the spirit that quickeneth, without which the best of\nimplements profiteth but little. The most improved guns and cannon do\nnot shoot of their own accord; the most modern educational system does\nnot make a coward a hero. No! What won the battles on the Yalu, in Corea\nand Manchuria, was the ghosts of our fathers, guiding our hands and\nbeating in our hearts. They are not dead, those ghosts, the spirits of\nour warlike ancestors. To those who have eyes to see, they are clearly\nvisible. Scratch a Japanese of the most advanced ideas, and he will show\na samurai. The great inheritance of honor, of valor and of all martial\nvirtues is, as Professor Cramb very fitly expresses it, \u201cbut ours on\ntrust, the fief inalienable of the dead and of the generation to come,\u201d\nand the summons of the present is to guard this heritage, nor to bate\none jot of the ancient spirit; the summons of the future will be so to\nwiden its scope as to apply it in all walks and relations of life.\n\nIt has been predicted\u2014and predictions have been corroborated by the\nevents of the last half century\u2014that the moral system of Feudal Japan,\nlike its castles and its armories, will crumble into dust, and new\nethics rise phoenix-like to lead New Japan in her path of progress.\nDesirable and probable as the fulfilment of such a prophecy is, we must\nnot forget that a phoenix rises only from its own ashes, and that it is\nnot a bird of passage, neither does it fly on pinions borrowed from\nother birds. \u201cThe Kingdom of God is within you.\u201d It does not come\nrolling down the mountains, however lofty; it does not come sailing\nacross the seas, however broad. \u201cGod has granted,\u201d says the Koran, \u201cto\nevery people a prophet in its own tongue.\u201d The seeds of the Kingdom, as\nvouched for and apprehended by the Japanese mind, blossomed in Bushido.\nNow its days are closing\u2014sad to say, before its full fruition\u2014and we\nturn in every direction for other sources of sweetness and light, of\nstrength and comfort, but among them there is as yet nothing found to\ntake its place. The profit and loss philosophy of Utilitarians and\nMaterialists finds favor among logic-choppers with half a soul. The\nonly other ethical system which is powerful enough to cope with\nUtilitarianism and Materialism is Christianity, in comparison with\nwhich Bushido, it must be confessed, is like \u201ca dimly burning wick\u201d\nwhich the Messiah was proclaimed not to quench but to fan into a flame.\nLike His Hebrew precursors, the prophets\u2014notably Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos\nand Habakkuk\u2014Bushido laid particular stress on the moral conduct of\nrulers and public men and of nations, whereas the Ethics of Christ,\nwhich deal almost solely with individuals and His personal followers,\nwill find more and more practical application as individualism, in its\ncapacity of a moral factor, grows in potency. The domineering,\nself-assertive, so-called master-morality of Nietzsche, itself akin in\nsome respects to Bushido, is, if I am not greatly mistaken, a passing\nphase or temporary reaction against what he terms, by morbid distortion,\nthe humble, self-denying slave-morality of the Nazarene.\n\nChristianity and Materialism (including Utilitarianism)\u2014or will the\nfuture reduce them to still more archaic forms of Hebraism and\nHellenism?\u2014will divide the world between them. Lesser systems of morals\nwill ally themselves on either side for their preservation. On which\nside will Bushido enlist? Having no set dogma or formula to defend, it\ncan afford to disappear as an entity; like the cherry blossom, it is\nwilling to die at the first gust of the morning breeze. But a total\nextinction will never be its lot. Who can say that stoicism is dead? It\nis dead as a system; but it is alive as a virtue: its energy and\nvitality are still felt through many channels of life\u2014in the philosophy\nof Western nations, in the jurisprudence of all the civilized world.\nNay, wherever man struggles to raise himself above himself, wherever his\nspirit masters his flesh by his own exertions, there we see the immortal\ndiscipline of Zeno at work.\n\nBushido as an independent code of ethics may vanish, but its power will\nnot perish from the earth; its schools of martial prowess or civic honor\nmay be demolished, but its light and its glory will long survive their\nruins. Like its symbolic flower, after it is blown to the four winds, it\nwill still bless mankind with the perfume with which it will enrich\nlife. Ages after, when its customaries shall have been buried and its\nvery name forgotten, its odors will come floating in the air as from a\nfar-off unseen hill, \u201cthe wayside gaze beyond;\u201d\u2014then in the beautiful\nlanguage of the Quaker poet,\n\n    \u201cThe traveler owns the grateful sense\n     Of sweetness near, he knows not whence,\n     And, pausing, takes with forehead bare\n     The benediction of the air.\u201d\n\n\n    \u660e\u6cbb\u4e09\u5341\u516b\u5e74\u516d\u6708\u4e8c\u5341\u4e8c\u65e5\u5370\n    \u660e\u6cbb\u4e09\u5341\u516b\u5e74\u516d\u6708\u4e8c\u5341\u4e94\u65e5\u8a02\u6b63\u589e\u88dc\u7b2c\u5341\u7248\u767c\u884c\n    \u660e\u6cbb\u4e09\u5341\u516b\u5e74\u4e5d\u6708\u4e8c\u5341\u65e5\u7b2c\u5341\u4e00\u7248\u767c\u884c\n    \u660e\u6cbb\u56db\u5341\u5e74\u4e8c\u6708\u4e8c\u5341\u65e5\u7b2c\u5341\u4e8c\u7248\u767c\u884c\n    \u660e\u6cbb\u56db\u5341\u4e00\u5e74\u4e09\u6708\u4e8c\u5341\u4e94\u65e5\u7b2c\u5341\u4e09\u7248\u767c\u884c\n\n    \u82f1\u6587\u6b66\u58eb\u9053\n    \u6b63\u50f9\u91d1\u58f9\u5713\n\n    \u8457\u4f5c\u6b0a\u767b\u9304\u6fdf\n\n    \u8457\u4f5c\u8005\u3000\u65b0\u6e21\u6236\u7a3b\u9020\n    \u6771\u4eac\u5e02\u5c0f\u77f3\u5ddd\u5340\u5c0f\u65e5\u5411\u81fa\u753a\u4e00\u4e01\u76ee\u4e03\u5341\u4e94\u756a\u5730\n\n    \u767c\u884c\u8005\u3000\u6afb\u4e95\u5f65\u4e00\u90ce\n    \u6771\u4eac\u5e02\u725b\u8fbc\u5340\u5e02\u30f6\u8c37\u52a0\u8cc0\u753a\u4e00\u4e01\u76ee\u4e09\u756a\u5730\n\n    \u5370\u5237\u8005\u3000\u9752\u6728\u5f18\n    \u6771\u4eac\u5e02\u725b\u8fbc\u5340\u5e02\u30f6\u8c37\u52a0\u8cc0\u753a\u4e00\u4e01\u76ee\u5341\u4e8c\u756a\u5730\n\n    \u5370\u5237\u6240\u3000\u682a\u5f0f\u6703\u793e\u3000\u79c0\u82f1\u820d\u7b2c\u4e00\u5de5\u5834\n    \u6771\u4eac\u5e02\u725b\u8fbc\u5340\u5e02\u30f6\u8c37\u52a0\u8cc0\u753a\u4e00\u4e01\u76ee\u5341\u4e8c\u756a\u5730\n\n    \u767c\u884c\u6240\u3000\u4e01\u672a\u51fa\u7248\u793e\n    \u6771\u4eac\u5e02\u9eb4\u753a\u5340\u4e94\u756a\u753a\u5341\u516d\u756a\u5730","title":"Bushido, the Soul of Japan","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":33455}