21 country in the military way which was closely related to the absolutism. The
Shogun distributed lands to his loyal vassal, called daimyo, and daimyo granted the lands to their warrior, the samurai.
Those samurais were the warrior of Japan lived according to a code, called Bushido. Bushido was very strict because to protect the country and family’s
honor. If a warrior failed in protecting the country or the family, the warrior was expected to perform a suicide. As time gone by, in the end the role of the feudal
and emperor system in Japan, the samurai had gone, Bushido remains until now. Bushido becomes the code ethics and moral of the Japanese.
2.2.2 The Seven Principles of Bushido
According to Inozen Nitobe, Bu-shi-do means Military-Knight-Ways – the ways which fighting nobles should observe in their daily life as well as in their
vocation 205. In other words, Bu-shi-do means the “Precepts of Knighthood”, the nobleness oblige of the warrior class.
In this study, I prefer to use the original term of Bushido. Bushido is the code of moral principles which the Japanese knights were required to observe
206. This code is unwritten. This code consists of a few norms carried out from mouth to mouth or coming from the well-known warrior. Although the code is
unwritten and unuttered, the sanction is very deep and powerful. Moreover, the code will be written deep inside of the heart. There is no exact time and place
which is showing the code is said. That is why the way of teaching Bushido is so
22 unique and circumscribed, creating an additional of mind and character so
unusual. The sources of Bushido are from the Buddhism and Shintoism 210. Both
the sources are complementarily one to another. Buddhism teaches how to be calm and trust to the fate, submission, and life after death. Buddhism believes that
every human being has their own “original sin”. In the other hand, Shinto teaches the patriotism and loyalty. Shinto believes in the goodness and purity of a human
soul. Japanese combine the Buddhism and Shinto called Shinbutsu shugo shin = Shinto,
butsu = Buddha, shugo = syncretism. There is dualism in Japan; they believe Shinto as secular life and Buddha as hereafter life. Those doctrines are
well suited to the samurai who ruled the country. When feudalism came to Japan, naturally the professional class of warriors
came into prominence. The professional class of warriors was well-known as samurai.
A Japanese word Bu-ke or Bu-shi Fighting Knights was also adopted in common use. They were a privilege class, and they are made to fight. Those
samurai must obey the norm of the Bushido which already been taught as their
bases. According to Inozen Nitobe, there are seven principles of Bushido. The
first is rectitude or justice, in Japan well-known as Gi. It defines as a power of resolution or the power of deciding to something upon a certain situation whether
it is good or bad for her or him. According to Inozen Nitobe 220, Gi means The Right Reason. Rectitude is the bone that gives the firmness.
