Bushido: The Soul of Japan

About this book

What did honour require of a samurai? Inazo Nitobe answers through courage, loyalty, self-control, courtesy and the obligation to act rightly even when no one is watching. His portrait of bushido became one of the best-known explanations of Japanese ethics for Western readers.

Written in English at the turn of the twentieth century, the book compares Japanese traditions with European philosophy, religion and chivalry. Nitobe presents an ideal shaped by his own time and perspective, making this both an introduction to influential ideas and a historical document of how Japan was being explained abroad.