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    The Samurai Way
    The Samurai Way
    The Samurai Way
    Ebook207 pages3 hours

    The Samurai Way

    By Inazo Nitobe

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Collected here in one edition are two of the most important books on the Samurai Way, Bushido: The Soul of Japan and The Book of Five Rings. Bushido: Chivalry is a flower no less indigenous to the soil of Japan than its emblem, the cherry blossom; nor is it a dried-up specimen of an antique virtue preserved in the herbarium of our history. It is still a living object of power and beauty among us. The Book of Five Rings: There are various Ways. There is the Way of salvation by the law of Buddha, the Way of Confucius governing the Way of learning, the Way of healing as a doctor, as a poet teaching the Way of Waka, tea, archery, and many arts and skills. Generally speaking, the Way of the warrior is resolute acceptance of death.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherStart Publishing LLC
    Release dateMay 20, 2013
    ISBN9781627931830
    The Samurai Way

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    Reviews for The Samurai Way

    3.5/5

    109 ratings3 reviews

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    • 5/5
      This book is short, and accessibly written (provided you view ordinary late nineteenth-century writing as accessible).

      When reading this book, it is important to remember two things:

      1. It was written in 1900. The approach and the ethics therefore reflect the attitudes and society of the nineteenth century, not the twenty-first.
      2. It was written by a Japanese man who had seen the fall of the feudal system, to explain Japanese and, particularly, samurai culture to Westerners. In fact, it was originally written in English and only later translated into Japanese.

      Some people have criticised this book for its ethics in general - but I think this is unjust, as it's a book of its time. Although there are parts which do more than merely raise eyebrows, it is only fair to the book, and to the author, to acknowledge that our ethics are a century away from Nitobe's. It is unfair to expect a nineteenth-century Japanese man to have exactly the same moral values as twenty-first century Westerners.

      Others have criticised the book for its very intent: to explain Japanese culture in terms that Westerners could understand. Again, it's very easy to criticise from our twenty-first century internet-enabled Western point of view. If we want to know about Japan, or any other country, we can look it up on the internet in a few moments. In fact, nowadays, it's very hard not to know at least a little about other cultures unless you deliberately shut yourself off.

      It was different at the end of the nineteenth century: Japan had only just emerged from its isolation, and not only was its culture strange to the Western world, but most societies were much less multicultural than they are now, so people were less likely to have encountered a culture other than their own.

      Thus, Nitobe discusses Bushido with lots of Western and Christian comparisons and examples, because these are what will make sense to his chosen audience.

      The result is a very interesting book.

      Nitobe himself was born in 1862, so he was eight years old when feudalism was abolished, and ten when the carrying of swords was forbidden. This not only gives Nitobe a unique perspective, but also means that when the book was written, many Japanese people would have remembered the feudal system. To them, it was not some foreign (or even barbaric) practice - it was their own culture. It was normal.

      So with this book, there is a strange mix of explanation and defence. Nowadays, it's shocking to read the story of an eight-year-old samurai boy being order to commit seppuku (ceremonial suicide by disembowelment) and actually doing it. But under bushido - and to Nitobe, who seems to have been of the samurai class himself, or close to it - the story emphasises the strength of devotion to duty, and courage, of even samurai children.

      The attitude to women, too, is shocking nowadays. However, it's important to remember that since this was written in 1900, the attitude to women in the West wasn't much different. Admittedly, young girls in the West weren't given daggers in case they needed to commit suicide to protect their honour - but then, neither were boys. If you read much about the life of women in the West during the late 19th century, you do wonder who had the better deal: the samurai girl in feudal Japan, or the middle-class young woman in London.

      All in all, this is a very interesting and thought-provoking book - and not the least because it's not written as a scholarly study by an outsider, but by a man trying to explain (and, in some senses, justify) his own culture. It therefore has the result of telling the reader perhaps more about feudal Japanese society and culture than even the author intended.
    • 3/5
      Calling this adapted version of Bushido: The Soul of Japan a graphic novel is, at best, a stretch. An illustrated adaptation would be a more apt description as, with a few small exceptions, the images are in no way required to “tell the story.” And I can't avoid harping on my personal pet peeve regarding the “graphic novel” boom. A novel is a book of fictitious prose, I repeat, fictitious. A nonfiction title that uses a symbiotic combination of words and pictures to tell a story is graphic nonfiction. Additionally, I generally expect a graphic adaptation to be more accessible to a wider range of readers but, if that was a goal of this title, it certainly isn't evident. Many sections parse poorly for a modern reader of English and the teen manga fans who I hoped might enjoy this title would have a hard time getting through it.
    • 3/5
      What I actually got out of the book is what an educated Japanese man at the turn of the century thought of European culture. The parallels he draws between Japanese and European culture are pretty awesome.

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    The Samurai Way - Inazo Nitobe

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