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Kamuii
10th June 2000, 06:50
Greetings to all! http://216.10.1.92/ubb/smile.gif

I would like to have some recomendations on a good book on Bushido. I have read some, but it look more like a journalist perspective... Any recomendations for a good one to read?

Thanks,

Arnold Vargas
Genbukan Satoichi Dojo
&
Tsunami-Ryu Bujutsu

Joseph Svinth
10th June 2000, 07:59
Assuming you don't mean the Prussian-inspired Soldier's Code that saw the light of day at Nanking and the Bataan Death March, probably the books by Karl Friday are among your better places to start. Also check Meik Skoss's recommended reading list at www.koryu.com (http://www.koryu.com) .

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Joe
http://ejmas.com

Gil Gillespie
10th June 2000, 17:24
Dear Arnold

Just so happens that on my shelf here within reach of my computer is "Bushido: The Soul of Japan," by Inazo Nitobe, originally written in 1905. This beautiful little 200 pp paperback is published by Tuttle,orig in 1969, 22d printing in 1990.

I trust you'll be able to find this pretty easily. Hope you enjoy it!!

Gil Gillespie

Joseph Svinth
11th June 2000, 02:00
Nitobe was a Quaker, and he was writing as a jingoist during the Russo-Japanese War, which killed about 100,000 Japanese in 18 months. Furthermore, in my opinion the philosophy that he describes has more to do with the British philosophy known as Muscular Christianity than the Neo-Confucian philosophy known as bushido. (Certainly it was influenced by his Canadian girlfriend, Anna Hartshorne.)

Be that as it may, see Rennis Buchner, "Inazo Nitobe," http://ejmas.com/tin/tinframe.htm

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Joe
http://ejmas.com

Kolschey
11th June 2000, 06:31
Have a look at William Scott Wilson's translation of the Budoshoshinshu- The Warrior's Primer of Daidoji Yuzan. You will find that it is rather pertinent to your studies. Enjoy!

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Krzysztof M. Mathews
" For I am the Cat who walks by himself, and all places are alike to me"
-Rudyard Kipling

MarkF
11th June 2000, 11:43
Re: Nitobe: Buddhist? Quaker? Mennonite? British "musuclar" Christianity=Bushido? Wow! Great book if you are studying to be an ethical murderer.

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Mark F. Feigenbaum

Anthony Chui
12th June 2000, 03:23
An interesting article about bushido, Nitobe and the Hagakure is "Death, honor, and loyalty: the bushido ideal" by G. Cameron Hurst III in the journal "Philosophy East & West, vol 40, no 4(Oct 1990) pp-511-527.

Apparently Nitobe knew more about western history and values than he did Japanese and was" the least qualified Japanese of his age to have been informing anyone of Japan's history and culture."
Nitobe's bushido, as Joseph Svinth has pointed out, was largely based on western religious values, not on any universal samurai "code".
The term "bushido" itself is rarely used in historical texts, the Hagakure and the Budo shoshinshu are a part of the handful that do.

This is not to deny that there were no samurai ideals or codes of behaviour, but that they were not at all uniform and universal in the way idealised by Nitobe and by many today. The Hagakure is an example of an extreme ideal not approved of in its time by mainstream samurai.

Joseph Svinth
12th June 2000, 10:09
I just finished reading Donald Richie's "Memoirs of the Warrior Kumagai." (I've had it awhile, I just hadn't read it.) A good book, and for a complete review see Meik Skoss's comments at http://koryu.com/books/kumagai.html

I mention this because the discussion here describes the years *before* classical Bushido was invented.

Popie mentioned Ruth Benedict. Now, while I really like her book, note that her informants were Issei living in US concentration camps during World War II. Thus their image reflected what Japanese learned of Bushido between, say, 1890 and 1925. Not really classical (or indicative of what WWII-era Japanese thought, either).

Also worth checking is some of the stuff Wayne Muromoto has at Furyu.online. See, for example, http://www.furyu.com/onlinearticles/Defs1.html

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Joe
http://ejmas.com

Joseph Svinth
12th June 2000, 21:52
Your best bet is to go to a large research university library. The University of Washington's East Asia Library, for example, has over 250 books on the subject of Okinawa alone, probably a quarter of which are in English. (That doesn't count the thousands of articles.)

Barring that,try visiting a bookstore specializing in Asian books. For a list of stores near you, visit http://sun3.lib.uci.edu/~ltanji/asianv.htm .

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Joe
http://ejmas.com

Gil Gillespie
13th June 2000, 07:15
Thank you for your critical analyses of Nitobe's work. I never saw any of those slants in it,but I will reread it with those perspectives in mind.

This is what I love about this forum: arguements force you to reassess and clarify your views. Maybe I won't change my mind. But based on yuz guys' input I'll check it out again. I'll let ya know. . .

Thanks again, Gil

Joseph Svinth
13th June 2000, 10:18
One more review of Nitobe's book: "Before Dr. Nitobe wrote his specious bit of ingenious special pleading little was heard in Japan itself about this very Bushidō," but the "Japanese is not at all singular in that it is easier for him to pose in the limelight and 'sacrifice his life for the sake of his country,' as every new recruit was diligently taught to say during the [Russo-Japanese] war, than to do good by stealth."

The writer was E.J. Harrison in "War or Peace East of Baikal?" (Yokohama: Kelly & Walsh, 1910), 448-449.

Meanwhile, if you want to compare Nitobe's Bushido to Muscular Christianity, see Mark Girouard, "The Return to Camelot: Chivalry and the English Gentleman" (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1991). Also see Ian Buruma, "Behind the Mask: On Sexual Demons, Sacred Mothers, Transvestites, Gangsters, and Other Japanese Cultural Heroes" (New York: Pantheon Books, 1984), as this seamier perspective is not the one that Nitobe provides.

You also might try http://www.najc.ca/nexus/ , as Nitobe died in British Columbia (there is a memorial on the UBC campus), and I seem to recall there being some mention of all that somewhere in the history section. (See, for instance, http://www.library.ubc.ca/asian/jcrc.html , where a book on pacifism and Christianity in Japan that included an article about Nitobe -- John F. Howes, editor, UBC, 1978; out of print but Amazon.com will search -- is mentioned.) A fun site to visit anyway.

Also visit:

* the Hokkaido University site at http://prelude.let.hokudai.ac.jp/nitobe/home2.htm

and

*http://www.baobab.or.jp/~stranger/mypage/nitobe.htm (the site is about Christianity in Japan, and his Kodansha Encyclopedia entry is reprinted)


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Joe
http://ejmas.com

Gavin Gunavardhana
13th June 2000, 21:55
Hello to all

I am searching for a couple of books that may be of some interest to followers of this thread.

In Robert Twigger's book "Angry White Pyjamas" which is about the Riot Police/Instructors' course in Yoshinkan aikido, he refers to two biographies. One is on Yamaoka(sp?)Tesshu the poet and swordsman and the other is on Gozo Shioda, the Yoshinkan founder.

Does anyone know if these are available in English editions and if they are who publishes them?

Hope you can help

thanks

Gavin

Anthony Chui
14th June 2000, 03:08
"Does anyone know if these are available in English editions and if they are who publishes them?"

From Amazon.com:
search :yamaoka tesshu
1. The Sword of No-Sword
Out of Print--Try our out-of-print search service!
2. The Sword of No-Sword : Life of the Master Warrior Tesshu
by John Stevens.
Out of Print--Try our out-of-print search

search: Gozo Shioda
1. Dynamic Aikido
by Gozo Shioda, Geoffrey Hamilton (Translator). Paperback (October 1977)
Usually ships in 2-3 days

2. Total Aikido : The Master Course
by Gozo Shioda, et al. Hardcover (February 1997)
Usually ships in 24 hours

hope this helps

[This message has been edited by Anthony Chui (edited 06-13-2000).]

Walker
14th June 2000, 19:48
This may be opening a can of worms and sticking sensitive body parts in it, but how about “The Way and the Power” from Lovret. I have found it interesting reading and if I had a wish it would be for more books on this model from others. What do others think of this book? I know Lovret has a bit of taint to him, but what about the information itself?

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-DougWalker

Joseph Svinth
15th June 2000, 12:50
We don't normally get hurt by things we know are dangerous. Instead we get hurt by things we thought were safe. So, while what I have read by Lovret was, in my opinion, either grossly oversimplified or just plain wrong, that doesn't mean you can't learn something from him. For if you go in with your BS meter on full, then you will question everything he says, and whenever you find yourself agreeing with him, if you're honest, you will start questioning yourself, too. And that's always good.



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Joe
http://ejmas.com