The Soul of Japan, Bushido

If you are ever fascinated by Samurai or Ninja, you definitely should read this book, called “Bushido (武士道)”. This book is not only talking about Samurai but also about how Japanese interprets matters and how they act against it.

Bushido is the book about “The Soul of Japan”. You could know the basis of Japanese soul a (Behavior, Loyalty, Duty, Education, Etiquette etc), and how special country Japanese is from this book. For example, when you give a present for someone, what do you say or do? Probably, you tell the person how nice the present is. However, Japanese people say “Tsumaranai Mono Desuga(つまらないものですが)” which means “Please accept my small gift” which might sound strange to some of you. Japanese people think that no gift is enough for the person who receives it. The gift is like a symbol of feeling toward the person.

The writer of Bushido is Inazo Nitobe (新渡戸稲造) who was painted in Japanese 5000 yen bill before. He was born in 1862 in Morioka prefecture, Northern Japan. He became a Christian in his agricultural school in Hokkaido. He went to Johns Hopkins University in the U.S and Universität Bonn in Germany. In 1891, he got married toMary Elkington who was an American. Inazo eventually became an administrative vice-minister for the United Nations. He wrote Bushido in English during his medical treatment. The book was translated into many languages, and it affected people all over the world.

I recommend this book even to Japanese people. This is interesting to see Japanese culture from the outside. Things we do is normal for us, but sometimes it is very special and even curious when it is compared to other countries. Check out this book, and find out Japanese soul!