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Inventing the Way of the Samurai: Nationalism, Internationalism, and Bushidō in Modern Japan

Online ISBN:
9780191778476
Print ISBN:
9780198706625
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

Inventing the Way of the Samurai: Nationalism, Internationalism, and Bushidō in Modern Japan

Oleg Benesch
Oleg Benesch

Anniversary Research Lecturer in History

Anniversary Research Lecturer in History, University of York
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Published online:
23 October 2014
Published in print:
11 September 2014
Online ISBN:
9780191778476
Print ISBN:
9780198706625
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

This book examines the development of the ‘way of the samurai’ (bushidō), which is popularly viewed as a defining element of the Japanese national character and even the ‘soul of Japan’. Rather than a continuation of ancient traditions, however, bushidō developed from a search for identity during Japan’s modernization in the late nineteenth century. In the 1880s the former samurai class was widely viewed as a relic of a bygone age, and the first significant discussions of bushidō at the end of that decade were strongly influenced by contemporary European ideals of gentlemanship and chivalry. At the same time, Japanese thinkers increasingly looked to their own traditions for sources of national identity, and this process accelerated as national confidence grew with military victories over China and Russia. This book considers the people, events, and writings that drove the rapid growth of bushidō, which came to emphasize martial virtues and absolute loyalty to the emperor. In the early twentieth century, bushidō became a core subject in civilian and military education, and was a key ideological pillar supporting the imperial state until its collapse in 1945. The close identification of bushidō with Japanese militarism meant that it was rejected immediately after the Second World War, but different interpretations of bushidō were revived by Japanese and foreign commentators seeking to explain Japan’s past, present, and future. This book further explores the factors behind this resurgence of bushidō, which has proven resilient through 130 years of dramatic social, political, and cultural change.

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