BUSHIDÔ. – The name means “the way of the knights.” Chivalry was held in honor in Japan from primitive times. As early as the Middle Ages, under various national and religious influences, a code of honor and customs of chivalry gradually took shape, more through practice than through the effect of written prescriptions.
Confucianism, Buddhism, and Shintoism contributed above all to the formation of the “way of the knights.” From Confucianism, Shinto took loyalty to superiors and rulers, as well as the corresponding duties arising from the five relationships (gorin), namely: 1) between the ruler and subjects, 2) between parents and children, 3) between husband and wife, 4) between elder and younger brothers, and 5) between friend and friend. To Buddhism, B. owes certain teachings, above all the exercises of inner abstraction (exercises of contemplation, etc., zen). The knights welcomed the idea that life and death form a unity, that death is the fulfillment of life, but not a cruel end by which life is destroyed. In practical life, these teachings led to the Stoic endurance of deprivation and suffering, as well as to heroic contempt for death. Shintoism gave B. its religious conception and its veneration for the emperor and the homeland. The heroism of Christianity, absolute fidelity to God, the high respect for authority, and the necessity that life and teaching correspond to one another also made a profound impression on the knights of the 16th and 17th centuries, and many followed it, having found in Christianity the realization of their ideals.
The special virtues of B. that have been demanded to this day of every Japanese who possesses a sense of nationalism are, above all, absolute fidelity to the emperor, always being ready to serve the people and the homeland, courage, contempt for death, respect and obedience toward superiors, courtesy and decorum, esteem and veneration for the sacred, mercy toward the weak, respect for the enemy, and sobriety.