300 THE ETHICS OF JAPAN. 



and Confucianism in their own teachino; on any points ^Yhero they 

 found tlioir own teaching was deficient — that is to say, they did so 

 in practical and moral teacliing. And not only that, we notice even 

 the dictum of Buddhism itself is sometimes modified to suit such 

 purposes. I mentioned above four benevolences spoken of in Bud- 

 dhism as being- ** the father and the mother," " the ruler of the land," 

 " all being," and " the three treasures." I do not know whether this 

 is to be found in the Sanscrit original; I think it is not. It sounds 

 more like a Chinese Buddhistic notion. It is still further modified 

 in an old Japanese book as " heaven and earth," " the ruler of the 

 land," '' the father and the mother,"' and " all beings." And thus for 

 " the three treasures " is substituted '' heaven and earth." This 

 occurs in a passage which is put into the mouth of a famous Shige- 

 mori in a discourse which he made when he severely admonished 

 his father, Taira-no Kiyomori, though with filial tenderness, when 

 (he latter had behaved badly toward his sovereign the Emperor. 

 The passage is to be found in a famous book written in the middle 

 of the fourteenth century by Kitabatake Chikafusa, who was a court 

 noble, a royalist, and a man with much kn.owledge of Buddhism. 



Here I have to speak of Bushido. The term, as well as its general 

 purport, has been of late made widely known in this country: l)ut, as 

 many people wish it, I will say something about it, although it may 

 be only, as Ave say, "adding legs to the picture of a serpent " — I mean 

 it may be quite an unnecessary addition. Bushi literally means a 

 military gentleman or, in more common English, a military man, and 

 " do " literally means a road or way, and in its extended significance, 

 a principle, a teaching, or a doctrine. The term for '" bushi " in old 

 refined Japanese is " mononofu " and the term for " do ".is " niiclii ;" 

 therefore the more refined ancient Japanese name for Bushido was 

 Mononofu-no-Michi. The origin of the "" bushi " is as follows: They 

 Avere originally large or small landlords of the provincial i^arts of 

 Japan, and had their retainers or vassals. At the time when, in the 

 court of the Empire, over refinement, or rather effeminacy, succeeded 

 enlightenment, and nobles Avho usually resided in the capital came to 

 despise military service, those landlords and their retainers began to 

 play military roles under different distinguished leaders. They Avere 

 more prominent in the eastern parts of the country, called IvAvanto, 

 namely, the large plain, in the middle of Avhich modern Tokyo, is sit- 

 uated. With the march of CA'ents, Avhen the goA'erning poAver fell into 

 the hands of the military leaders, these landlords and their retainers 

 began to form an hereditary class, and the system extended to the 

 Avhole country. This is the origin of Daimio and Samurai. I do 

 not say that in the case of later developments of this system all 

 Daimio and Samurai necessarily belonged to the same ancient stock, 



