What rules were followed by Japanese samurai, and what should their wives do if they were widowed

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

This is just one of many Japanese "-do" which means "way." Bushido is a warrior's path that invariably led to death, and the shortest path. This emphasis on the idea of the sudden end of the path of life permeates the entire philosophy of bushido. At first glance, the idea is eerie and gloomy, but upon closer inspection, even a European will see in it a respect for life and beauty.

How the samurai code came into being

Translated from Japanese, "bushido" is "the way of the warrior." Usually, bushido is understood as a samurai code, although this is not entirely accurate: a warrior is a somewhat broader concept. Representatives of the nobility were called samurai, ranging from large princes to small feudal lords. As early as the 8th century, the struggle for the lands of the Ainu, the indigenous population of Japan, led to an increase in the number of warriors. The ruling class of the samurai with the shogun at the head became in the XII century. Despite the fact that the next three centuries were a relatively peaceful period in Japanese history, every fifth man was a samurai at that time.

Apparently, the set of samurai customs began to emerge as early as the first millennium; it was a system of rules for the behavior of a warrior in the service of the overlord. By the XII century, bushido had already become a reflection of the life philosophy of the samurai - a code of honor, reminiscent of the knightly, European. These were the rules by which the warrior was guided during battles, in the service of the overlord, in his personal life - always and everywhere, until the very last breath, around which, in fact, the whole philosophy was built. It was indifference to life and a peculiar, not typical for the Western worldview, attitude to death that became characteristic features of the samurai.

Bushido did not arise from scratch, its sources were the prescriptions of Buddhism and the Japanese religion - Shinto, as well as the teachings of Confucius and other sages: the Japanese adopted a lot from Chinese culture. There was no single bushido throughout its thousand-year history. But its main purpose - to form the spirit and discipline of a samurai warrior - has been performed by bushido for more than ten centuries.

Samurai Code

At first glance, something similar can be found among medieval knights and Russian warriors - ancient customs that were once rules, and eventually became part of legends and fairy tales. But with the Japanese, everything, as always, is more complicated, and you can't say that bushido is a thing of the past, rather, it remained one and the components of the culture of this country.

For a long time, the principles of bushido were not fixed anywhere, but in the 16th century the first books appeared in which attempts were made to formulate rules for the samurai. The warrior had to devote his life to the master - the feudal lord; during the service, one should forget about home, family - everything that could distract from the performance of duties or even simply tie to life. The samurai was supposed to be ready for battle at any moment. Respect for the owner, devotion to him were manifested not only in the demand to fulfill the order at any cost, there were interesting customs: for example, during sleep, the samurai could not lie down with his feet in the direction of the master.

There are many legends about how far the Japanese warriors went in their desire to fulfill their duty in relation to their master. The custom was ritual suicide following the death of the master. True, Yamamoto Tsunetomo, a samurai whose book collections are considered a warrior's guide, a treatise on bushido, did not follow this tradition after the death of the master, since the deceased master was her opponent. Yamamoto retired to the mountains and became a hermit.

The samurai cultivated the readiness to accept death in himself from childhood. The Japanese distinguished two types of fearlessness, one was associated with natural audacity, recklessness, the other implied a conscious contempt for their death - primarily based on the belief in rebirth after death. Death was supposed to be greeted calmly, with a smile on his face, and in some cases a samurai had to perform hara-kiri - ritual suicide. This is how the warrior acted in the event of dishonor - it could be washed away by his own death or by the murder of the offender. By the way, the ritual itself was also regulated by bushido, no deviations from it were allowed.

Samurai ethics are usually associated with courage and fearlessness in battle and an easy attitude towards death, but its essence is much deeper. It was the consciousness that any moment could be the last that made it possible to achieve that attitude to life that distinguishes a true samurai.

The warrior learned to appreciate every minute, to pay attention to the fact that people in the hustle and bustle do not notice: the beauty of nature, the way it is sung in poetry. The samurai devoted his free time to meditation, the study of sciences, arts, calligraphy, and participation in the tea ceremony. There was even a tradition of writing suicide poems, they were created before committing hara-kiri. The Bushido code originally included contempt for wealth and for money in general, often warriors lived, content only with what the master gave. The best decoration of the samurai's weapons and armor was the footprints obtained during the battle. But over time, this rule became less and less popular.

Bushido instructed the samurai to be impeccably honest, each word had to be thought out before uttering. In any situation, the warrior remained calm, was laconic, his manners were impeccable; all this testified to the strength of spirit and dignity of the samurai.

Women and Bushido

Bushido became a code of conduct that was designed to create the perfect man, but a woman in this paradigm also had a role to play. If the samurai was ordered to selflessly serve the master, then for the samurai's wife her husband became the master. But not only one blind devotion to home became the lot of noble Japanese women. Women from the samurai class could master military skills on their own.

They learned the art of using polearms - spears and naginata. In addition, women mastered the technique of fighting with a small dagger - the kaiken. This type of weapon was carried with them - they were hidden in the folds of their clothes or in their hair. The dagger also became an instrument of ritual female suicide - yes, and the fair sex obeyed the same philosophy.

In the absence of a samurai, his wife could have the responsibility of protecting the house. If the samurai died, the widow could take the path of revenge.

Many stories have survived about female warriors, they were called onna-bugeisya. One of them, Hangaku Gozen, who lived in the XII century, was the daughter of a warrior and fought on an equal basis with men - "fearless as a man and beautiful as a flower."

One of the activities that was supposed to decorate the samurai's leisure time was traditional Japanese tea ceremony.