The Way of the Samurai

To many people, the word samurai conjures images of menacing masks, long blades, and elaborate armor. However, this classic text by Inazo Nitobe reveals the greater depths of samurai culturethey were not simply warriors but an aristocratic class who practiced literary and military arts in equal measure.Essential to this way of life was the samurai's moral code and the quality of bushido, roughly translated as chivalry. The Way of the Samurai provides an intriguing exploration of bushido and other valued qualities such as rectitude or justice, courage, politeness, veracity, honor, loyalty, and self-control. It also explores the Samurai's more violent traditions, such as the chilling act of hara-kiri or self-immolation.This mixture of chivalric principles with brutal warfare is fascinating. While many aspects of Samurai culture have disappeared, its principles still have resonance in modern Japanese society and around the globe."Know thyself: But self-knowledge does not imply knowledge of the physical part of man, not his anatomy or his psycho-physics; knowledge was to be a moral kind, the introspection of our moral nature." (The Way of the Samurai by Inazo Nitobe)

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