BUSHIDO. 391 



within the confines of the newly born empire of the 

 East a force that was capable at any moment of 

 astonishing the world. When one ponders upon the 

 innate contempt for death which must be the birth- 

 right of a people accustomed for generations to the 

 strange national institution of hara-kiri (self-immola- 

 tion) ; upon the martial spirit which has for centuries 

 been the essence of their national existence ; and upon 

 the extreme loyalty and love of king and country 

 fostered by the Shintoist belief, — one is bound to 

 realise the potentialities of a force constituted of such 

 material, and welded into shape in accordance with 

 the accepted tenets of the highest modern military 

 science and organisation. 



For whatever opinion may be held of the religion 

 of the country, it cannot be doubted that the hushido, 

 the " Precepts of Knighthood," the philosophy which 

 became an abiding principle of the fighting caste, and 

 finally of the whole people, has exercised a powerful 

 influence upon the history of Japan, and has been 

 a determining force in the moulding of the character 

 of the nation. And hushido is not dead, for the 

 spirit of the Samurai still walks abroad among the 

 people who are their descendants. Rectitude, courage, 

 benevolence, veracity, honour, and loyalty, the principles 

 of a moral code which formed the directing influence 

 in the lives of the military caste for generations, still 

 blossom with their old fragrance among the soldiers 

 of the Mikado to-day. The rectitude of the Japanese 

 soldier of to-day is still " the power of deciding upon a 

 certain course of conduct in accordance with reason, 

 without wavering — to die when it is right to die, to 

 strike when to strike is right ; " ^ the duty of loyalty 

 is still a virtue in comparison with which no life is 



^ Bushido. Inazo Nitob^. 



