BUSHIDO - THE SOUL OF JAPAN BY INAZO NITOBE DECEMBER, 1904 PREFACE
About ten years ago, while spending a few days under the hospitable
roof of the distinguished Belgian jurist, the lamented M. de
Laveleye, our conversation turned, during one of our rambles, to
the subject of religion." Do you mean to say," asked the venerable
professor," that you have no religious instruction in your
schools?" On my replying in the negative he suddenly halted in
astonishment, and in a voice which I shall not easily forget, he
repeated" No religion ! . How do you impart moral education ?" The
question stunned me at the time. I could give no ready answer, for
the moral precepts I learned in my childhood days, were not given
in schools and not until I began to analyze the different elements
that formed my notions of right and wrong, did I find that it was
Bushido that breathed them into my nostrils. The direct inception
of this little book is due to the frequent queries put by my wife
as to the reasons why such and such ideas and customs prevail in
Japan. In my attempts to give satisfactory replies to M. de
Laveleye and to my wife, I found that without understanding
Feudalism and Bushido, the moral ideas of present Japan are a
sealed volume. Taking advantage of enforced idleness on account of
long illness, I put down in the order now presented to the public
some of the answers given in our household conversation. They
consist mainly of what I was taught and told in my youthful days,
when Feudalism was still in force. Between Lafcaclio Hearn and Mrs.
Hugh Fraser on one side and Sir Ernest Satow and Professor
Chamberlain on the other, it is indeed discouraging to write
anything Japanese in English. Theonly advantage I have over them is
that I can assume the attitude of a personal defendant, while these
distin Pronounced Boti-shte-doh'. In putting Japanese words and
names into English, Hepburn's rule is followed, that the vowels
should be used as in European languages, and the consonants as in
English. guished writers are at best solicitors and attorneys. I
have often thought," Had I their gift of language, I would present
the cause of Japan in more eloquent terms!" But one who speaks in a
borrowed tongue should be thankful if he can just make himself
intelligible. All through the discourse I have tried to illustrate
whatever points I have made with parallel examples from European
history and literature, believing that these will aid in bringing
the subject nearer to the comprehension of foreign readers. Should
any of my allusions to religious subjects and to religious workers
be thought slighting, I trust my attitude towards Christianity
itself will not be questioned. It is with ecclesiastical methods
and with the forms which obscure the teachings of Christ, and not
with the teachings themselves, that I have little sympathy. I
believe in the religion taught by Him and handed down to us in the
New Testament, as well as in the law written in the heart. Further,
I believe that God hath made a testament which may be called "old"
with every people and nation, Gentile or Jew, Christian or Heathen.
As to the rest of my theology, I need not impose upon the patience
of the public. In concluding this preface, I wish to express my
thanks to my friend Anna C. Hartshorne for many valuable
suggestions and for the characteristically Japanese design made by
her for the cover of this book. - INAZONITOBE. Malvern, Pa.,
Twelfth Month,
General
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