19/02/2025
It was all just an illusion 😄
Like popular conceptions of European chivalry, bushido is almost completely an invention of the nineteenth century. The historical fiction of a centuries old bushido code was almost entirely the product of two very different men, a Japanese Christian named Nitobe Inazō, and an anti-Christian Japanese philosopher named Inoue Tetsujirō. Nitobe’s work, originally published in English, convinced generations of Western scholars, while Inoue’s writings, which sold millions of copies in Japan, became the foundation of a nationalist cult of militarization and imperialism.
Like popular conceptions of European chivalry, bushido is almost completely an invention of the nineteenth century. The historical fiction of a centuries old...
