The honorable samurai is a myth?

[Independent voter]

This guy writes article about how bushido and samurai being the epitome of what is honorable is a myth, it was invented by an author in 1900.

I was reading Japanese history about the feudal period and one of the things that struck me beside the nonstop warring was how often people would betray each other. It was common for one lord to bribe the allies of another lord, sometimes to get them not to show up on battle day but other times to betray and attack their allies. I thought, this isn't very Japanese. The author did say that upper classes weren't very honorable but the lower classes might've been. Well, maybe the lower classes weren't all that honorable either.

Turns out the samurai in the book were a cross between Christian warriors, like King Arthur, and Japanese samurai.

Also, the myth may have brought the Japanese into WWII.

And the author wrote his book in California. lol







Really long article at the link

https://www.tofugu.com/japan/bushido/



In reality the term bushido went unrecognized until the early twentieth century, long after Nathan Algren's fictitious character joined the factual Satsuma Rebellion and years after the ousting of the samurai class. In all likelihood samurai never even uttered the word.

It may come as an even greater surprise that bushido once received more recognition abroad than in Japan. In 1900 writer Inazo Nitobe's published Bushido: The Soul of Japan in English, for the Western audience. Nitobe subverted fact for an idealized imagining of Japan's culture and past, infusing Japan's samurai class with Christian values in hopes of shaping Western interpretations of his country.

Though initially rejected in Japan, Nitobe's ideology would be embraced by a government driven war machine. Thanks to its empowering vision of the past, the extreme nationalist movement embraced bushido, exploiting The Soul of Japan to pave Japan's way to fascism in the buildup to World War II.

Years of isolationism meant Japan had fallen behind the world powers in terms of technology and military power. When Commodore Matthew Perry flexed his black ships' military muscle in the early 1850s, Japan had no alternative but to accept his terms. In professor Ohno's words, resulting exposure to foreign technology and culture "shattered their (Japan's) pride," making Japanese view their own nation as backward and out of step with the world (43).



At the time, Westerners knew little about the formerly isolated nation. Rumors about Japan – a feudalistic society whose armies relied on swords and bows and arrows – painted the picture of an unsophisticated, archaic island nation. In From Chivalry to Terrorism Leo Braudy writes, "Before World War I, many in Europe viewed Japan as a warrior society unadulterated by either commerce or the control of civilian politicians, with it's aristocratic military class still intact" (467).

Nitobe put faith in the power of his pen and began to write. By simplifying the most eloquent, ideal aspects of Japanese culture into terms the West could relate to, he hoped to paint a new, noble image of Japan. Writing in English only served to make Nitobe's contrivance more deliberate. Maria Navarro and Alison Beeby explain,

Bushido: The Soul of Japan represents a synthesis of Japanese culture with Western ideology. Nitobe tames Japan's samurai class by fusing it with European chivalry and Christian morality. "I wanted to show…" Nitobe admitted, "that the Japanese are not really so different (from people of the West)" (Benesch 165). Although it saw release years after the extinction of the samurai, Bushido: The Soul of Japan presents an original idealization and idolization of the samurai class.

[Macaquerie]

The idea of honor in warfare is a myth.

[Usagi Senshi]

I'd still like to think that there were a few people like Kenshin though. :P

[Collegeguy]

Samurai in pop culture as we know it pretty much. Much of the time, samurai used their katana for nothing more than terrorizing the peasants and the weak wearing nothing but cloth. That's what builds up the culture of the katana being such a feared weapon because it was not so much so against armor on the field.

[Techno-Druid]

Yes and No, it's very complex and I'm no historian or Japanologist.

Samurai were a noble class of warriors, steps above the foot soldier. The idealized image of a samurai in the Edõ Period was this honorable and noble warrior who fought for their masters until the very end.

However, many samurai used their nobility and higher status to subjugate and bully the peasant class of farmers and workers. The situation also got worse when Japan was united, leaving many samurai as nothing more than glorified police officers (if even that).

Just from my personal research, it's obviously way more complex than what I just described. I could be incorrect about a few things or it could be pretty subjective.

[Unholyground]

The idea of honor in warfare is a myth.

You don't win fights with honor, you win them with dirty tactics.

[Techno-Druid]

You don't win fights with honor, you win them with dirty tactics.

Well samurai werrwere not guerrilla fighters, they were very confrontational.

Run up to your opponent, kill them, bring the head of your victim (if they were a samurai) back to your Daimyo. Get rewarded.

[xChurch]

Pretty much just like the myth of the honourable Knight.

[Mormolyce]

The Samurai seem to be quite similar to Knights in the West - a privileged economic class with military obligations that later had a lot of romantic notions associated with them through poetry and the like. For the Samurai, bushido - for the Knights, chivalry.

[mizeri]

we always like to paint the warrior caste as the best of us that would protect the weak and uphold the law and what not, but in reality they were just like the cops, soldiers, politicians of today

[THE Bigzoman]

I mean, you didn;t beleive they were all Gin/Jack dd you?

[Shelly]

This is really nothing new.

Basically our idea of the noble samurai comes from the meiji era (I may have spelled that wrong), but basically the era after they set up a true feudal caste system and samurai as warriors basically went out of fashion and the swords became lighter and much more of a fashion accessory than a weapon of war.

The closest western example would be like how these days you'll have people show up at blackpowder rendezvous gun shoots or cowboy shootouts and wild west shows. They are still using 6-guns and such but they aren't actually showing the brutal life of days past, opting instead for a happier and more noble ideal.

As for the samurai themselves, they were just retainers. Once Tokugawa came in and solidified the caste system as put in place by Hideyoshi there was no real way for the samurai to move either. Which is funny since Hideyoshi was well known to have just been a nameless peasant that rose to power based on huge balls and charisma.

Either way so many things that we attribute to the samurai - never retreating, pure honor, etc - stems from an era of peace. In prior eras and even during the time of Nobunaga which preceded Tokugawa there was no shame in retreating in battle and as for honorable treatment, well, the Japanese have never been all that good at it. Mostly because there isn't the same history of ransom - that I know of - that has existed in the west and somewhat in the middle east.

See in the feudal times of the west you very seldom wanted to kill a nobleman. For one thing they were probably related to you, for another it was very hard to do as they were wearing armor and lastly it just wasn't worth it to kill them when if you could capture them you could hold them for ransom and get a lot of money. This tradition even extended int the crusades.

In the east though war was personal, you went in to kill. Probably more the result of the warring states period of China than anything else.

Anyway, Samurai loyalties could be bought, though that was more stuff that happened the further up the food chain you went. Where a lord could just switch loyalties at the drop of a hat. I mean supposedly Nobunaga was killed because he kept insulting the battle skills of one of his generals and said he looked like a turnip.

[Mormolyce]

we always like to paint the warrior caste as the best of us that would protect the weak and uphold the law and what not, but in reality they were just like the cops, soldiers, politicians of today

Or the opportunistic rich assholes with weapons as depicted in George R. R. Martin books. The reality is probably somewhere in between...

[Sky High]

I mean, you didn;t beleive they were all Gin/Jack dd you?

Seems like most of them were like Mugen.

[THE Bigzoman]

Seems like most of them were like Mugen.

Breakdancers?

[Sky High]

Breakdancers?

was he a breakdancer? I was gonna say a bastard.

[Independent voter]

Mugen

[Ravenblade]

A lot of samurai became ronin and they were the foot soldiers of many lords during the Sengoku Jidai, even in external campaigns like in the conquests of Korea they were pretty brutal. In the end they were no more honourable than the German Landsknechte who saw war as business and loyalty as someone you have to your own band

[Independent voter]

It's just amazing that a book could change a society so much.

I read this one historical article how Ivanhoe, a fictional medieval story, was widely read by Confederate soldiers during the US Civil War and it had an impact on soldiers, changing the culture somewhat, more honorable and other knight like stuff. Well Ivanhoe knight like stuff.

[Dug]

I read somewhere Samurai were kind of assholes that killed lots of peasants/common folk