Bushido, the Soul of Japan - Couverture souple

Nitobe, Inazo

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1605974374 ISBN 13 : 9781605974378

Editeur : Book Jungle, 2008

Synopsis

Nitobe Inazo (1862 - 1933) was a Japanese author, agricultural economist, educator and diplomat during the Meiji period in Japan. Nitobe published many scholarly books, novels and articles for magazines. Bushibo: The Soul of Japan is his most famous work. Published in 1900 this work was one of the first samurai ethics books. Nitobe found in Buchibo the qualities he most admired in his country, those of rectitude, courage, benevolence, politeness, sincerity, honor, loyalty and self-control. The book also discusses the values brought down through the centuries by the samurai and sages of Japan. Nitobe used examples form several religions and historic periods to develop his theories. He compared the samurai philosophy with that of chivalry in Medieval England and the ancient Romans and Greeks.

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

About ten years ago, while spending a few days under the hospitable roof of the distinguished Belgian jurist, the lamented M. de Laveleye, our conversation turned, during one of our rambles, to the subject of religion. "Do you mean to say," asked the venerable professor, "that you have no religious instruction in your schools?" On my replying in the negative he suddenly halted in astonishment, and in a voice which I shall not easily forget, he repeated "No religion! How do you impart moral education?" The question stunned me at the time. I could give no ready answer, for the moral precepts I learned in my childhood days, were not given in schools; and not until I began to analyze the different elements that formed my notions of right and wrong, did I find that it was Bushido that breathed them into my nostrils. The direct inception of this little book is due to the frequent queries put by my wife as to the reasons why such and such ideas and customs prevail in Japan. In my attempts to give satisfactory replies to M. de Laveleye and to my wife, I found that without understanding Feudalism and Bushido, the moral ideas of present Japan are a sealed volume.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Book Jungle
• Date d'édition: 2008
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1605974374
• ISBN 13: 9781605974378
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 100
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: gpsr@libri.de; gpsr@libri.de; ; Friedensallee 273; Hamburg; 22763; Allemagne