Bushido Soul of Japan - Couverture souple

Nitobe, Inazo

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 080483413X ISBN 13 : 9780804834131

Editeur : Tuttle Publishing, 2001

Synopsis

Bushido, (the "Way of the Knight"), the unwritten code governing the life and conduct of the samurai, is one of the cornerstones of Japanese culture. With roots in Buddhism, Shinto, and Confucianism, this book shows how Bushido is the basis of Japanese morals and ethics.

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

Bushido: The Soul of Japan is a book written by Inazo Nitobe exploring the way of the samurai. Bushido: The Soul of Japan is, along with the classic text Hagakure by Tsunetomo Yamamoto (1659-1719), a study of the way of the samurai. A best-seller in its day, it was read by many influential foreigners, among them President Theodore Roosevelt, President John F. Kennedy and Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of the Boy Scouts.[1] Nitobe originally wrote Bushido: The Soul of Japan in English (1899), in Malvern, Pennsylvania. The book was not translated into Japanese until it had been popular in the English-speaking world for several years. As Japan underwent deep transformations of its traditional lifestyle while becoming a modern nation, Nitobe engaged in an inquiry into the ethos of his nation, and the result of his meditations was this seminal work. A fine stylist in English, he wrote many books in that language, which earned him a place among the best known Japanese writers of his age. He found in Bushido, the Way of the Warrior, the sources of the eight virtues most admired by his people: rectitude, courage, benevolence, politeness, sincerity, honor, loyalty and self-control. He also delved into the other indigenous traditions of Japan, such as Buddhism, Shintoism, Confucianism and the moral guidelines handed down over hundreds of years by Japan's samurai and sages. In addition, he sought similarities and contrasts by citing not only Western philosophers and statesmen, but also the shapers of European and American thought and civilization going back to the Romans, the Greeks and Biblical[citation needed] times. He found a close resemblance between the samurai ethos of what he called Bushido and the spirit of medieval chivalry and the ethos of ancient Greece, as observed in books such as the Iliad of Homer.

Présentation de l'éditeur

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; and if it assumes no tangible shape or form, it not the less scents the moral atmosphere, and makes us aware that we are still under its potent spell. The conditions of society which brought it forth and nourished it have long disappeared; but as those far-off stars which once were and are not, still continue to shed their rays upon us, so the light of chivalry, which was a child of feudalism, still illuminates our moral path, surviving its mother institution. It is a pleasure to me to reflect upon this subject in the language of Burke, who uttered the well-known touching eulogy over the neglected bier of its European prototype.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Tuttle Publishing
• Date d'édition: 2001
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 080483413X
• ISBN 13: 9780804834131
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 203
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible