Code of the Samurai: A Modern Translation of the Bushido Shoshinshu of Taira Shigesuke - Hardcover

Ratti, Oscar; Thomas Cleary

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0804831904 ISBN 13: 9780804831901

Publisher: Tuttle Publishing, 1999

Synopsis

Learn the ways of the Japanese Bushido Code with this very readable, modern translation of the Bushido Shoshinshu.

Code of the Samurai is a four-hundred-year-old explication of the rules and expectations embodied in Bushido, the Japanese Way of the Warrior. Bushido has played a significant role in shaping the behavior of modern Japanese government, corporations, society, and individuals, as well as in developing modern Japanese martial arts within Japan and internationally.

The Japanese original of this book, Bushido Shoshinshu, (Bushido for Beginners), has been one of the primary sources on the tenets of Bushido, a way of thought that remains fascinating and relevant to the modern world, East and West. This handbook, written after five hundred years of military rule in Japan, was composed to provide practical and moral instruction for warriors, correcting wayward tendencies and outlining the personal, social, and professional standards of conduct characteristic of Bushido, the Japanese chivalric tradition.

With a bright, conversational narrative by Thomas Clear,y and powerfully evocative line drawings by master illustrator Oscar Ratti, this book is indispensable to corporate executives, students of Asian Culture, martial artists, or anyone sincerely interested in Japan and its people.

About this title

About the Author

Thomas Cleary is one of the best known and most accomplished translators of the wisdom of Asia. He holds a doctorate in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University. Cleary has translated Soul of the Samurai, Samurai Wisdom, The Art of War and Secrets of the Japanese Art of Warfare, as well as over 70 other titles on martial arts philosophy, Buddhism, Taoism and religion.

Oscar Ratti co-authored Aikido and the Dynamic Sphere and Secrets of the Samurai: The Martial Arts of Feudal Japan, and was a frequent contributor of artwork and essays to major publications.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

One who is supposed to be a warrior considers it his foremost concern to keep death in mind at all times, every day and every night, from the morning of New Year's Day through the night of New Year's Eve.

As long as you keep death in mind at all times, you will also fulfill the ways of loyalty and familial duty. You will also avoid myriad evils and calamities, you will be physically sound and healthy, and you will live a long life. What is more, your character will improve and your virtue will grow.

Here are the reasons for that. All human life is likened to evening dew and morning frost, considered something quite fragile and ephemeral. While this is so of all people's lives, the life of the warrior is particularly precarious.

If people comfort their minds with the assumption that they will live a long time, something might happen, because they think they will have forever to do their work and look after their parents-they may fail to perform for their employers and also treat their parents thoughtlessly.

But if you realize that the life that is here today is not certain on the morrow, then when you take your orders from your employer, and when you look in on your parents, you will have the sense that this may be the last time-so you cannot fail to become truly attentive to your employer and your parents. This is why I say you also fulfill the paths of loyalty and familial duty when you keep death in mind.

In any case, when you forget death and become inattentive, you are not circumspect about things. You may say something offensive to someone and get into an argument. You may challenge something you might as well have ignored, and get into a quarrel.

Or you may stroll about in resorts where you have no business, not avoiding the crowds, where you might bump into some oaf and get into an unexpected brawl. You could lose your own life, get your employer bad publicity, and cause your parents and siblings difficulties.

All this trouble comes from inattentiveness when you fail to keep death in mind at all times.

Edition details

• Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0804831904
• ISBN 13: 9780804831901
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 128