Budo, wildly know
term that represents the very core of Japanese martial arts , morality , culture and their spirituality. What I am going to write will certainly cause
a lot negative reactions ,but looking at Budo from the perspective of
History as a science and from the perspecetive of Chinese and other Asian
nations , only then this term comes to it’s true meaning . Truth must come
before everything else.
Let’s start with the term “Budo”. It is not , as commonly
believed very old , in fact it came into existence in the early 20th
century and was invented by one person Hiromichi Nishikubo , a representative of Japanese police office . Hiromichi
Nishikubo published in 1914 , series of articles where he debated about common
name for Japanese martial arts and came to conclusion that term”Budo” (martial
way or a path) is much better and more precise than old, outdated term”bujutsu”
(martial technique) .
Term “Budo” according to Hiromichi , is much more suitable
for educational system of Japan and it can help to develop in young generations
loyalty , honor (Japanese idea of honor) and awareness of the need for personal
sacrifice for the emperor .In 1919 Hiromichi
became a headmaster of the biggest
martial condge in Japan ,Bujutsu Senmon Gakko and immediately changes its name
Budo Senmon Gakko . Soon after , books
and magazines , published by government started to use term Budo and names of
martial styles are changing form , for example Kenjutsu to Kendo ect. Ministry
of education officially adopted this doctrine and terminology in 1926 . . In next several years , Ministry of
Education revised and expanded term Budo , forming complete education doctrine
and system around it . In 1931 “Budo’
represents mandatory ideological doctrine taught in Japanese schools .
Budo system , or more precise , gendai budo system ( new
martial system \way\approach that includes djudo, aikido,kendo, iaido, karate do ,kyudo) was
used in the system of public education to develop in young generations blind obedience
and loyalty to the country and the Emperor as well as a feeling of divine
virtue which can be achieved by personal sacrifice and complete disregard of
personal well-being and life its self when it comes to the duty to emperor ,
country and superiors
Japanese schools of that period looked more like military
facilities . Uniforms , military language , extremely humiliating punishments for
even a smallest mistakes , everyday repeating the oath to the emperor and the
country , posters against enemy on every corner as well as every day martial
training made a generations of blindly obedient
people , ready to sacrifice them slefs on the battlefield for the glory of Japan
and the emperor and to to avoid the
shame which their name and their families would bare if they do not do what is
expected. These people with complete
absence of personal responsibility committed probably the worst crimes in the
history of civilization. They were traind to unconditionally fulfill any order from their superiors without any moral,
ethical or human filters .
This militarized system of training was preserved and
without much change presented to western people. Even today it is easy to see
that indoctrination through Japanese Budo is extremely strong . Practitioners of Jpanases martial arts more
than often have completely noncritical
wiev of Japan , Japanese tradition and history . completely disregarding the facts . On the
other hand , generation of instructors who introduced westernes with Japanese martial
arts didn’t know anything ellse . They were indoctrinated through educational
system , military and participation in war operations.
Foundation of Japanese fascism were built at beginning of
Meiji reform in 1868 . In short , idology
of Japanese society from this period is based in following :Japan is the
center of the universe and Japanese emperor is a divine being and direct descendant of the goddess Amaterasu . Japanese gods have
special relation with Japan, therefor Japan is the “chosen” country and Japanese
are “chosen” people and all
institutions of Japan are superior compared to rest of the world .All this is a
foundation of Kodoshugisha (Imperial way \emperor’s way) which divine mission is to bring all nations
under the same roof so the whole
humanity can share and enjoy all the benefits of the rule of Japanese emperor.
All this is deeply rooted in aspects of Japanese society and
way of life and thinking .Same message is spread through Japanese martial arts
. At the end of WWII , out of the fear
from communism , USA political approach
in Japan in the matter of war crimes was discutabile . Many war criminals were not persecuted and
used to suppress communists , Kodama
Yoshio, Sasakawa Ryoichi and Nobusuke Kishi are just few among many.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshio_Kodama
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryoichi_Sasakawa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobusuke_Kishi
Sasakawa financially supported many martial arts
teachers and their schools , in return they participated in anti communist
activities which often included extreme violence . Also , he used them to show
the superiority of Japan all over the
world through practice of martial arts .
Many westerners accepted not only the premise that Japanese
martial arts are superior compared to all others but also many aspects of
Japanese culture . More than everything
concerns the facts that many westerners believe Gendai Budo is a
complete form of religious practice with
divine moral and ethical values that leads toward enlightenment
Without detail analysis of religious doctrine of Zen
Buddhism and its final goals , I would like to mention some specific points
that made Zen inseparable part of Japanese martial arts, or , more precise Zen
and martial arts fused together . Today , almost no one raise a question why
Zen was so popular in Japan among warrior cast during imperial period. In short
,Zen relativise terms of good and evil . War and violence are not contradictory
to Zen practice and are not obstacle to achieving enlightenment .As long as warrior’s actions were not caused
by his own desire (desire is main source of pain in Buddhism and liberation
from desire leads to the enlightenment ) , as long as there is noy emotional
connection to one’s actions there is no obstacles on the path of the enlightenment
. If actions of the warrior were caused by outside circumstances and he reacts
, not by his own will , but was forced to act , no matter what his actions are
, they are not in collision with Zen practice . This way a person can be completely released of
responsibility for his own actions . This kind of Zen Buddhism was incorporated
in Japanese Budo,educational system,
army, making fanatics completely indifferent
for anything and everything , with total absence of empathy .
It is obvious that Zen as well as martial arts were used by
establishment for achieving their military and political goals . Fascist
government of Japan form the beginning of the 20th century had
unconditional support of Zen teachers . This religious and political
indoctrination caused 50 million people killed , mostly woman and children ,
all across Asia from 1895 to 1945.
Naniking Massacre is
good illustration of Japanese actions in
this period .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanking_Massacre
Soon after Nanking Massacre
an article was published “ Zen
Buddhism and its influence on Japanese culture” . Small part of that article is
speaking for its self :” "The sword
is generally associated with killing, and most of us wonder how it can come
into connection with Zen, which is a school of Buddhism teaching the gospel of
love and mercy. The fact is that the art of swordsmanship distinguishes between
the sword that kills and the sword that gives life. The one that is used by a
technician cannot go any further than killing, for he never appeals to the
sword unless he intends to kill. The case is altogether different with the one
who is compelled to lift the sword. For it is really not he but the sword
itself that does the killing. He had no desire to do harm to anybody, but the
enemy appears and makes himself a victim. It is as though the sword performs
automatically its function of justice, which is the function of mercy... When
the sword is expected to play this sort of role in human life, it is no more a
weapon of self-defense or an instrument of killing, and the swordsman turns
into an artist of the first grade, engaged in producing a work of genuine originality."
D. T. Suzuki
We can clearly see how Zen justifies killing .
Some of the most famous and most appreciated Zen teachers,
like Omori Sogen i Yasutani Hakuun, were
ultrantionalists and militarist and they took active role in military operations
during WWII. A man celebrated as the best Zen master of 20th century
Toyama Mitsuru was intelligence officer , opium smuggler and “capo di tutti capi
“ of Japanese organized crime after
WWII.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omori_Sogen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakuun_Yasutani
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C5%8Dyama_Mitsuru
Above presented text
contains facts which every practitioner of Japanese martial arts should be
aware of. The fact is that almost all Japanese masters from the period of
introducing the West to Japanese Budo
were militarily engaged and that they grew and raised in the spirit of the Japanese
superiority and they hated everything that is not Japanese. The spirit of the
Japanese elitism can be seen with practitioners of Japanese system and is
reflected in a completely uncritical attitude and excessive enthusiasm for
everything Japanese, especially about martial and spiritual practices of the
Japanese Budo .As we can see term Budo has more recent origin and has been designed and used by the
Japanese government with very specific objectives.
There is one interesting fact ,all Japanese martial arts masters are descended
from samurai. Being a master of martial arts in Japan requires samurai origin
.Generations of Japanese and Western martial
arts practitioners were and still are deeply
influenced or intoxicated is more accurate term , with stories about samurai,
their moral code, impeccable warrior
skills ect. Two books ,
"Hagakure" work of Tashiro Tsuramotoa and "Bushido, the spirit
of Japan" work of Dr.Nitobe Inazô are actually the source and
the cornerstone of today's image of the samurai. There is no other work before
these two books that talk about samurai and Bushido in such a way. Both books
are essentially fabrication of the authors with no real support in the actual
historical evidence and facts.
Let’s analyze first the work of Dr. Nitobe Inazou (promoter but
not the inventor of the term bushido) .He was a descendant of samurai family
but was also a Quaker (Christian sect originated in England in mid-17th
century) with strong Christian values .Even a superficial analysis of the book
" Bushido, the spirit of Japan "shows that this work is plagiarism of
book written by two influential Englishmen of the time , Charles
Kingsley and Thomas Hughes.They are the creators of something called strong(muscular)
Christianity. They glorified war and sport, boxing and rugby are seen as a way
for the preaching of Christian values and converting young men from the boys
in the correct Christians. Kingsley and Hughes believed and promote patriotism,
honor, courage, dedication, physical fitness, self-control, obedience to
authority, discipline, endurance, humility, loyalty. Plagiarizing the work of
two Englishmen Nitobe, along with co-author Anna Harshorne , wrote the work "Bushido, the spirit of
Japan" which was written specifically for Westerners in order to promote
the Japanese culture. "Bushido, the
spirit of Japan" is a work that represents the samurai as warrior-saints -
who completely correspond to the description of the knights of king Arthur from
the work of Sir Thomas Malory's. While Mallory vision of the Arthurian knights
is taken as an example of fantasy Nitobe’s work is still considered some sort
of "Bible" among practitioners
of Japanese martial arts. This work was later used as a propaganda material among the Japanese themselves
glorifying impeccable warriors of Japan who have become role models for younger
generations.
Second work that
introduces us to the code samurai is Hagakure. First of all it should be noted
that Hagakure is interpretation of thinking of one man, Yamamoto Tsunetomo- which
has been collected and written by his pupil Tashiro Tsuramoto .Before we analyze
Hagakure , we should be aware of certain historical events. Firearms arrived in Japan with the Portuguese in 1543 .Pragmatic
Japanese have realized the strategic
advantage of firearms and adopted it almost immediately .Famous Battle of
Nagashino in 1575 . marked the beginning of the end of the samurai as a warrior
in Japan. Oda Nobunaga ,using firearms, buried behind a palisade with an army
composed of people from the lower social cast (mainly farmers) who were mostly Christian
converts virtually wiped northern cavalry of Takeda Katsuyori .Tokegawa Ieyasu in 1600 in the battle of Sekigahara again showed power
of the firearms and literally obliterated an army loyal to Toyotomi Hideyori. It became clear
that ,regardless of all the combat experience and skills possessed by the
samurai ,they simply have no chance in a fight against people armed with firearms and only 6 months of tactical training.
Since that time standing army was made up mostly of the lower social levels of
the population. The samurai, as the nobility and not having any real authority
nor there was a need for their military engagement began to engage with the administrative work in order to
survive. Shogunate era is the era of peace, and there was no opportunity to gain any combat experience. Samurai class
was under the watchful eye of shoguns who followed their every step and shortly
after the establishment of the shogunate duels were prohibited .Glorified
ritual suicide was actually a consequence of the law introduced in the late
17th century which enable the Shogun to easily and without trial get rid of
political enemies. The law prohibits the assets of the people convicted to the
death penalty can be transferred to
successors and will be taken by the state ,while the property of a man who
killed himself without obstacles conveys to the successors. Thus, the shoguns,
without trial, far from the public eye had the ability to easily get rid of those who are unfit.
Hagakure is a work
made more than 100 years after establishment the Shogunate . For more than a
century there was no war in Japan. Yamamoto Tsunetomo , whose stories were used as a base foundation
for Hagakure , was a samurai who didn’t commit suicide , as the law ,which he
wrote later himself , required , after his feudal lord committed suicide wich
was a result of disagreement with the politics of the Shogun . In order to
avoid persecution he escaped in a Buddhist monastery and became a monk / Later
he became spiritual leader to young samurai from wealthy families . It is
important to note that Yamamoto
Tsunetomo didn’t have any fighting experience besides beheading people conviceted
to the death penalty . What beyond doubt
is taken as the original work that completely true speaks about the life of the samurai is actually a
very free interpretation of a man who lived in peace,with no fighting
experience , escaped death disregarding the law and later as a Buddhist monk, taught younger
generations of ethical and moral values of Buddhism.
Hagakure is more romantic vision of the life of one disappearing social class than it actually has any basis in the the reality .This work can not even pass a superficial
historical analysis. The truth of the samurai warriors before Shogunate is the
same as a truth about all the warriors all over the world. The samurai were brutal
warriors, very skilled in their way of warfare .For thing such as honor, morality and loyalty valid historical sources (not fictionalized
histories and biographies written for a wide audience) should be consulted , and
you can quickly see that betrayal, intrigue, contract killings, changing sides
are nothing unknown to a samurai as it
was case anywhere else in the world . Samurai fought for pay, and they went
where they were better paid..
While it is clear that samurai in the modern war have absolutely no
role, spirit of samurai so magnificently presented and glorified was a great
propaganda tool in creating ways of thinking for young generation in the period
from the late 19th century until 1945 which was actually a period og Japan imperial raising. The real truth is that bushido was formalized during the shogunate era, an era of peace and
prosperity and no there are valid data
about any code of samurai , if such even existed before late 17th
century. While Hagakure and "Bushido, the spirit of Japan" reflect
the samurai as a harmless people full of grandeur and all human qualities, the
truth is that they were cold-blooded killers . The conclusion is obvious, bushido
has nothing to do with the actual medieval samurai but has everything to do
with Japanese imperialism in time from
1895 to 1945. And finally I leave the link that has some interesting details
about the samurai way of life.
http://www.stthomasu.ca/~parkhill/cj01/irepam.htm
