Bushido Importance

The Way of the Warrior

“The warrior guided by the spirit serves humanity, the warrior without, serves the ego” This quote is by Soke Behzad Ahmadi, a martial artist. The quote is describing the importance of bushido. Bushido was the code of honor, discipline, and loyalty that made up the samurai warriors. Bushido was developed from Buddhism in the period in which the shogunates took place. Bushido was created to keep samurai calm and restrict unnecessary violence. It was the basic code of conduct for the samurai warriors. First, bushido was needed to ensure loyalty of the samurai to their Daimyo. Second, bushido has been changed to fit the need of the people of Japan over time. Lastly, bushido has had a great impact on society. Bushido

At first, during the shogunate period, bushido was used only by samurai as guidelines on how to behave, what values to have, and restrictions to avoid them from getting too powerful. According to Tsunetomo Yamamoto, a Japanese Samurai from the mid 1600s, “Bushido is realized in the presence of death. This means choosing death whenever there is a choice between life and death. There is no other reasoning.” During WWII the Japanese government enforced a new form of bushido known as “imperial bushido.” It emphasized the Japanese citizens to have military spirit, honor, self-sacrifice, and unwavering, unquestioning loyalty to the nation. This form of bushido died out after the end of WWII, which resulted in the defeat of Japan. Later in the 1970s, when the Japanese economy began to blow up, another form a bushido was created. This form of bushido emphasized extreme hard work, loyalty to the company that one worked for, and a commitment to quality and precision in their work. Some people actually died by working themselves to death for their companies. Outside of Japan companies began to promote this type of bushido. But when the Japanese economy began to slow down, bushido lost its influence on companies outside of Japan. Bushido then transitioned into meaning how people respond to their economic downturn. Bushido has been modified to complete the needs of the Japanese throughout the