Bushido: Truth or Myth

Bushido (Bushi: warrior, Do: way) which can be directly translated into “The Way of the Warrior” has been the infamous code to samurai class in Japan for many centuries. It is considered as a noble way of life among the samurai (warrior) in service to their master. By the commoners, bushido can be simply put as “do or die” principle. It is believed that the samurai is a loyal servant, who always kept pride for his status, and task. Should he ever fail his master, the penalty of death in his own sword (hara-kiri/seppuku) awaits, for a samurai was thought to be unable to bear the shame of failure or defeat.

But under my research on the spiritual basis of bushido, I had found that there is more to it about bushido. The part “death “of bushido needs a more philosophical approach for it to make sense, so it doesn’t sound stupidly as a waste of your life for an errand that is consider unworthy of a human life. A samurai is said to pursue perfection is everything that he does. Because life as a warrior means that death awaits every day, the samurai must do everything in his best so that should he died that day, he would have no regret, because he have lived an unregretful life.

And even further, after I read Musashi (a novel my eiji yoshikawa), my understanding of bushido itself is biased. Musashi is considered as the greatest samurai ever in Japan, yet many things that I found in his experiences and wisdoms are contradictive to the popular opinion about bushido. Musashi considers that life is a precious diamond that should be well kept. A samurai must guard his life as his first priority, for as long as he is still alive, he could still fight or repent for no matter what failure he had done. A samurai should only fight to his death for a matter that is worthy of his life. That is why, Musashi found no shame in fleeing from the battle, he even comes late in his final battle with Sasaki Kojiro, he has no particular tradition or technique in his sword style, he utilize everything in his surrounding to achieve his goal. Freedom of mind and body is the core essence in his teaching. All that he knows is that if he didn’t do it (in a sword fight), then he’ll die. That is why for some narrow minded bushido fan-boy, Musashi is considered not noble, even a cheater.

Now having heard all that, we expect the samurai as noble warrior with a strict code of honor, Like the Jedi perhaps. But the reality about samurai life is far from what we expected. As I read my latest book “Samurai – An Illustrated History”, it is stated that most samurai were killers, superstitious, irrational, and held human life cheap. It all makes sense. My previous reading on Taiko and Shin Heike Monogatary has proven that loyalty was not their best quality. Nobunaga Oda died by betrayal of one of his own retainer during the Sengoku. Ieyashu Tokugawa rise againstToyotomi descendents after Hideyoshi’s death,thus

happened the Edo period. We also know that most samurai are sex addict. Yes, u heard me right, that hentai and JAV idol that you watch are not negative influences of the western world to the Japanese. It is all on them. Taira no Kiyomori has a fascination of molesting young untainted geishas. Toyotomi Hideyoshi has many adolescent concubines which gives the impression of a pedophile. The geisha culture is just a masquerade to make it sounds more civilized and stupidly artistic. During the World War II, bushido is also abused by the Japanese government to brainwashed and control the people. After all, they do need pilots of human missile to blow the Americans. And even now, bushido and samurai culture are abused as money making trademarks, rather than a noble code.

Now am I disappointed? Yes and No. Yes because one more code of honor is happen to be a masquerade. And no because it is to be expected, the latest book only confirmed it and gave the fact that I need to establish a thorough understanding about bushido. It also relieves me, because I once thought that it is possible for a human being to live up to such a perfect code, and a failure to do so while you cling on the ideal is kind of depressing, but, now I know that it doesn’t. After all, humans tend to create rules and codes that they can never fully lived up to. The samurai is not an exception. To make it simple, you must separate samurai and bushido. Samurai tries to live up the bushido code, but few actually success.

And I haven’t stated yet, that spiritually, bushido are actually derived from Zen Buddhism. The teachings within it are not exclusively for the samurai. Since brought by Rinzai Zen master to japan many centuries ago, Zen soon serves well to the need of the warrior. The meditation offers mind stillness and attitude that is needed during the battle. The samurai practice martial arts and Zen meditation simultaneously. Combine the Zen teaching all together with what is relevant for the samurai, thus born Bushido. Vulgarly speaking, perhaps there is no such a thing as bushido. Bushido is just a Zen Buddhism that is adopted, and then applied to the life of the Samurai.