[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

not wholly died out; the new, hardly yet born except in spirit; and the transition, passing now through its most
critical throes. While this is very true in most respects, and particularly as regards tangible and concrete
institutions, the statement, as applied to fundamental ethical notions, requires some modification; for Bushido,
the maker and product of Old Japan, is still the guiding principle of the transition and will prove the formative
IS BUSHIDO STILL ALIVE? 41
Bushido, the Soul of Japan
force of the new era.
The great statesmen who steered the ship of our state through the hurricane of the Restoration and the
whirlpool of national rejuvenation, were men who knew no other moral teaching than the Precepts of
Knighthood. Some writers[30] have lately tried to prove that the Christian missionaries contributed an
appreciable quota to the making of New Japan. I would fain render honor to whom honor is due: but this
honor can hardly be accorded to the good missionaries. More fitting it will be to their profession to stick to the
scriptural injunction of preferring one another in honor, than to advance a claim in which they have no proofs
to back them. For myself, I believe that Christian missionaries are doing great things for Japan in the
domain of education, and especially of moral education: only, the mysterious though not the less certain
working of the Spirit is still hidden in divine secrecy. Whatever they do is still of indirect effect. No, as yet
Christian missions have effected but little visible in moulding the character of New Japan. No, it was Bushido,
pure and simple, that urged us on for weal or woe. Open the biographies of the makers of Modern Japan of
Sakuma, of Saigo, of Okubo, of Kido, not to mention the reminiscences of living men such as Ito, Okuma,
Itagaki, etc.: and you will find that it was under the impetus of samuraihood that they thought and wrought.
When Mr. Henry Norman declared, after his study and observation of the Far East,[31] that only the respect in
which Japan differed from other oriental despotisms lay in  the ruling influence among her people of the
strictest, loftiest, and the most punctilious codes of honor that man has ever devised, he touched the main
spring which has made new Japan what she is and which will make her what she is destined to be.
[Footnote 30: Speer; Missions and Politics in Asia, Lecture IV, pp. 189-190; Dennis: Christian Missions and
Social Progress, Vol. I, p. 32, Vol. II, p. 70, etc.]
[Footnote 31: The Far East, p. 375.]
The transformation of Japan is a fact patent to the whole world. In a work of such magnitude various motives
naturally entered; but if one were to name the principal, one would not hesitate to name Bushido. When we
opened the whole country to foreign trade, when we introduced the latest improvements in every department
of life, when we began to study Western politics and sciences, our guiding motive was not the development of
our physical resources and the increase of wealth; much less was it a blind imitation of Western customs. A
close observer of oriental institutions and peoples has written:  We are told every day how Europe has
influenced Japan, and forget that the change in those islands was entirely self-generated, that Europeans did
not teach Japan, but that Japan of herself chose to learn from Europe methods of organization, civil and
military, which have so far proved successful. She imported European mechanical science, as the Turks years
before imported European artillery. That is not exactly influence, continues Mr. Townsend,  unless, indeed,
England is influenced by purchasing tea of China. Where is the European apostle, asks our author,  or
philosopher or statesman or agitator who has re-made Japan? [32] Mr. Townsend has well perceived that the
spring of action which brought about the changes in Japan lay entirely within our own selves; and if he had
only probed into our psychology, his keen powers of observation would easily have convinced him that that
spring was no other than Bushido. The sense of honor which cannot bear being looked down upon as an
inferior power, that was the strongest of motives. Pecuniary or industrial considerations were awakened later
in the process of transformation.
[Footnote 32: Meredith Townsend, Asia and Europe, N.Y., 1900, 28.]
The influence of Bushido is still so palpable that he who runs may read. A glimpse into Japanese life will
make it manifest. Read Hearn, the most eloquent and truthful interpreter of the Japanese mind, and you see the
working of that mind to be an example of the working of Bushido. The universal politeness of the people,
which is the legacy of knightly ways, is too well known to be repeated anew. The physical endurance,
fortitude and bravery that  the little Jap possesses, were sufficiently proved in the China-Japanese war.[33]
 Is there any nation more loyal and patriotic? is a question asked by many; and for the proud answer,  There
IS BUSHIDO STILL ALIVE? 42
Bushido, the Soul of Japan
is not, we must thank the Precepts of Knighthood.
[Footnote 33: Among other works on the subject, read Eastlake and Yamada on Heroic Japan, and Diosy on
The New Far East.]
On the other hand, it is fair to recognize that for the very faults and defects of our character, Bushido is largely [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]