Recently I’ve been researching 武士道 (bushidō) – the ancient Japanese way of the warrior, mostly to try to figure out if it ever was actually a legit thing, or if it’s a modern invention.
Spoiler alert: it’s a bit of both. You can read my conclusions in my WordPress article here.
Bushidō comes with a handy list of 8 virtues that one can follow to lead one’s best and most noble life. You may not have been born a samurai, but you can still live like one by following this code.
They are available here on my Etsy site. WordPress users get 15% off with this code: WPCODE15 (just enter it when you checkout)
The fourth virtue is “Politeness”, which I have translated as “respect”, for reasons explained below.
These 8 virtues were first mentioned in Nitobe Inazao’s 1899 book “Bushido: the Soul of Japan”.
Nitobe states that the “courtesy and urbanity of manners which has been noticed by every foreign tourist as a marked Japanese trait” is often criticised by foreigners as “absorbing too much of our thought and in so far a folly to observe strict obedience to it.”
He defends his countrymen by asserting that “Politeness will be a great acquisition, if it does no more than impart grace to manners; but its function does not stop here. For propriety, springing as it does from motives of benevolence and modesty, and actuated by tender feelings toward the sensibilities of others, is ever a graceful expression of sympathy.”
Hence, “politeness” is considered a way of showing sympathy and 仁 (jin) compassion (see the previous entry). In modern Western society, this would be termed “respect”, and indeed Nitobe says “Modesty and complaisance, actuated by respect for others’ feelings, are at the root of politeness”. (Italics mine).
Calligraphy by Vicky 