“So, boy. You wish to
serve me?” Silhouetted against the blue-black sky, the horse-mounted samurai
with the horned helmet towered over me like a demon as I knelt in the dirt
before him. I could not see his face but there was no mistaking the authority
in his growling tone, nor the hint of mockery in his question. I tried to speak
and managed only a faint croak. My mouth had gone dry, as parched as a man
dying of thirst. But I had to respond. My fate-and though I didn’t know it
then, the fate of all of Japan-rested on my answer. Raising my head just enough
to brave a glance at the demonic figure, I saw him staring at me, like a hawk
poised to seize a mouse in its talons. When I managed to speak, my voice was
clear and steady, and I drew courage with each syllable. “That’s correct, Lord
Nobunaga,” I said. “I do.” It was a time of carnage and darkness: the Age of
Wars, when the land was torn by bloodshed and the only law was the law of the
sword. A peasant wandered the countryside alone, seeking his fortune, without a
coin in his pocket. He longed to become the epitome of refined manhood-a samurai-but
nothing in the demeanor of this five-foot tall, one-hundred-ten-pound boy could
possibly have foretold the astounding destiny awaiting him. His name was
Hideyoshi, and on that fateful spring evening in the year 1553, the brash young
warlord Nobunaga hired him as a sandal-bearer. Driven by a relentless desire to
transcend his peasant roots, Hideyoshi went on to become Nobunaga’s loyal
protégé and right-hand man. Ultimately he became the supreme ruler of all
Japan-the first peasant ever to rise to the absolute height of power-and
unified a nation torn apart by more than a hundred years of civil strife.
Hideyoshi’s true story has inspired countless novels, plays, movies-even video
games-for more than four centuries. Born the weakling son of a poor farmer at a
time when martial prowess or entry to the priesthood were the only ways for an
ambitious commoner to escape a life of backbreaking farm toil, he rose from
poverty to rule a mighty nation and command hundreds of thousands of samurai
warriors. For generations of men, Hideyoshi became the ultimate underdog hero:
a symbol of the possibility of reinventing oneself as a man and rising, Horatio
Alger fashion, from rags to riches. Hideyoshi was driven by a burning desire to
succeed as a samurai. But he differed from his contemporaries in seeking to
overcome his adversaries peaceably, through negotiation and alliance building
rather than through brute force. Lacking physical strength and fighting skills,
he naturally chose to rely on wits rather than weapons, on strategy over
swords. An unlikely samurai, indeed. Or was he?
A Brief History of the
Samurai
The word samurai
originally meant “one who serves,” and referred to men of noble birth assigned
to guard members of the Imperial Court. This service ethic spawned the roots of
samurai nobility, both social and spiritual. Over time, the nobility had
trouble maintaining centralized control of the nation, and began “outsourcing”
military, administrative, and tax collecting duties to former rivals who acted
like regional governors. As the Imperial Court grew weaker, local governors
grew more powerful. Eventually some evolved into daimyo, or feudal lords who
ruled specific territories independently of the central government. In 1185
Minamoto no Yoritomo, a warlord of the eastern provinces who traced his lineage
back to the imperial family, established the nation’s first military government
and Japan entered its feudal period (1185-1867). The country was essentially
under military rule for nearly 700 years. But the initial stability Minamoto
achieved failed to bring lasting peace. Other regimes came and went, and in
1467 the national military government collapsed, plunging Japan into turmoil.
Thus began the infamous Age of Wars, a bloody century of strife when local
warlords fought to protect their domains and schemed to conquer rivals. By the
time Japan plunged into the turbulent Age of Wars, the term samurai had come to
signify armed government officials, peacekeeping officers, and professional
soldiers: in short, almost anyone who carried a sword and was ready and able to
exercise deadly force. The worst of these medieval Japanese warriors were
little better than street thugs; the best were fiercely loyal to their masters
and true to the unwritten code of chivalrous behavior known today as Bushido
(usually translated as “Precepts of Knighthood” or “Way of the Warrior”).
Virtuous or villainous, the samurai emerged as the colorful central figures of
Japanese history: a romantic archetype akin to Europe’s medieval knights or the
American cowboy of the Wild West. But the samurai changed dramatically after
Hideyoshi pacified Japan. With civil society at peace, their role as
professional fighters disappeared, and they became less preoccupied with
martial training and more concerned with spiritual development, teaching, and
the arts. By 1867, when the public wearing of swords was outlawed and the
warrior class was abolished, they had evolved into what Hideyoshi had
envisioned nearly three centuries earlier: swordless samurai.
Though some scholars
have criticized Nitobe’s work as romanticized yearning for a non-existent age
of chivalry, there’s no question that his work builds on extraordinary
thousand-year-old precepts of manhood that originated in chivalrous behavior on
the part of some, though certainly not all, samurai. What today’s readers may
find most enlightening about Bushido is the emphasis on compassion,
benevolence, and the other non-martial qualities of true manliness. Here are
Bushido’s Eight Virtues as explicated by Nitobe:
Bushido refers not only
to martial rectitude, but to personal rectitude: Rectitude or Justice, is the
strongest virtue of Bushido. A well-known samurai defines it this way:
‘Rectitude is one’s power to decide upon a course of conduct in accordance with
reason, without wavering; to die when to die is right, to strike when to strike
is right.’ Another speaks of it in the following terms: ‘Rectitude is the bone
that gives firmness and stature. Without bones the head cannot rest on top of
the spine, nor hands move nor feet stand. So without Rectitude neither talent
nor learning can make the human frame into a samurai.’
Bushido distinguishes
between bravery and courage: Courage is worthy of being counted among virtues
only if it’s exercised in the cause of Righteousness and Rectitude. In his
Analects, Confucius says: ‘Perceiving what is right and doing it not reveals a
lack of Courage.’ In short, ‘Courage is doing what is right.’
A man invested with the
power to command and the power to kill was expected to demonstrate equally
extraordinary powers of benevolence and mercy: Love, magnanimity, affection for
others, sympathy and pity, are traits of Benevolence, the highest attribute of
the human soul. Both Confucius and Mencius often said the highest requirement
of a ruler of men is Benevolence.
IV. Politeness
Discerning the
difference between obsequiousness and politeness can be difficult for casual
visitors to Japan, but for a true man, courtesy is rooted in benevolence:
Courtesy and good manners have been noticed by every foreign tourist as
distinctive Japanese traits. But Politeness should be the expression of a
benevolent regard for the feelings of others; it’s a poor virtue if it’s
motivated only by a fear of offending good taste. In its highest form Politeness
approaches love.
V. Honesty and
Sincerity
True samurai, according
to author Nitobe, disdained money, believing that “men must grudge money, for
riches hinder wisdom.” Thus children of high-ranking samurai were raised to
believe that talking about money showed poor taste, and that ignorance of the
value of different coins showed good breeding: Bushido encouraged thrift, not
for economical reasons so much as for the exercise of abstinence. Luxury was
thought the greatest menace to manhood, and severe simplicity was required of
the warrior class … the counting machine and abacus were abhorred.
VI. Honor
Though Bushido deals
with the profession of soldiering, it is equally concerned with non-martial
behavior: The sense of Honor, a vivid consciousness of personal dignity and
worth, characterized the samurai. He was born and bred to value the duties and
privileges of his profession. Fear of disgrace hung like a sword over the head
of every samurai … To take offense at slight provocation was ridiculed as
‘short-tempered.’ As the popular adage put it: ‘True patience means bearing the
unbearable.’
VII. Loyalty
Economic reality has
dealt a blow to organizational loyalty around the world. Nonetheless, true men
remain loyal to those to whom they are indebted: Loyalty to a superior was the
most distinctive virtue of the feudal era. Personal fidelity exists among all
sorts of men: a gang of pickpockets swears allegiance to its leader. But only
in the code of chivalrous Honor does Loyalty assume paramount importance.
VIII. Character and
Self-Control
Bushido teaches that
men should behave according to an absolute moral standard, one that transcends
logic. What’s right is right, and what’s wrong is wrong. The difference between
good and bad and between right and wrong are givens, not arguments subject to
discussion or justification, and a man should know the difference. Finally, it
is a man’s obligation to teach his children moral standards through the model
of his own behavior: The first objective of samurai education was to build up
Character. The subtler faculties of prudence, intelligence, and dialectics were
less important. Intellectual superiority was esteemed, but a samurai was
essentially a man of action. No historian would argue that Hideyoshi
personified the Eight Virtues of Bushido throughout his life. Like many great
men, deep faults paralleled his towering gifts. Yet by choosing compassion over
confrontation, and benevolence over belligerence, he demonstrated ageless
qualities of manliness. Today his lessons could not be more timely.
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