The Samurai

Share thoughts and ideas regarding what can be done to meet contemporary humanity's need for rites of initiation and passage.

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Martin_Weyers
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Post by Martin_Weyers »

Just for better understanding: The name of the author of Zen in the Art of Archery is Herrigel (not Heggerl or Heigerl).

I don't feel competent to decide if Herrigel has understood Zen right or wrong. (Maybe, as an autodidact, without the necessary language skills, he has achieved mastership in something comparable to Zen?)
On 2006-07-08 23:50, Ken O'Neill wrote:
Then Heggerl wrote his Zen and the Art of Archery which, based on his activities with the SS, has been suggested for renaming as Zen and the Art of Machine Gunning Jews in Concentration Camps.
I'm wondering if this is a fair judgement. There are zen masters who were involved in nationalism and suicide bombing, as mentioned before in this thread. I doubt that somebody, who practizes Zen seriously, is automatically saved from becoming a political extremist. We all suffer by our conditioned behaviour (or learned clichés, how Joe Campbell used to refer to it). Herrigel was a product of his time and cultural heritage, like we all are. However, no matter what we think of his book, we should judge the book by the book and not my presumptions about its author's political involvement. Mircea Eliade was sympathyzing with Mussolini. This doesn't mean that his books are infected by fascism.
Works of art are indeed always products of having been in danger, of having gone to the very end in an experience, to where man can go no further. -- Rainer Maria Rilke

Robert G.
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Post by Robert G. »

Galen Amstutz did a piece in the Journal of Japanese Religions some years ago concerning the debilitating and misleading "scholarship" of Suzuki with respect to our general understanding of the real story of Japanese Buddhism with emphasis on its major movement for the past four centuries, Jodoshinshu. Other than Amstutz, the only other Western writer to have comprehend Shin and its role in Japan was Joseph Campbell - he studied at Ryukoku University in 1956, much of that period covered in his posthumous journals under the title Sake and Satori. Joe & myself had the same buddhist mentor.
There's something in Ken's posts (this and others) that I'm not understanding. If Suzuki was such a terrible scholar and Campbell had such a deep insight into the same subject matter, why did Campbell always speak so highly of Suzuki? Is there somewhere where Campbell himself comments on whatever differences he may have had with Suzuki?

ShantiSong
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Post by ShantiSong »

Shamin and All,

Trying to get a timeline of the development of samurai mythology and to be as brief as possible:
Whilst the origins of modern samurai are contentious, it is believed that mounted warriors, archers and foot-soldiers in the sixth century that may have formed a proto-samurai.

Samurai was a term for the military nobility in The word 'samurai' is derived from the Japanese verb 'samorau', meaning 'to serve'.

Zen Buddhism spread among samurai in the 13th century and helped to shape their standards of conduct, particularly overcoming fear of death and killing, but among the general populace Pure Land Buddhism was favored.

In the 14th century, a blacksmith called Masamune developed a two-layer structure of soft and hard steel for use in swords. This structure gave much improved cutting power and endurance, and the production technique led to Japanese swords (katana) being recognized as some of the most potent hand weapons of pre-industrial East Asia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samurai

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The Japanese process of folding the steel as part of the forge process as has been mentioned is similar to other technologies present in the European countries.

The technique for forging the Japanese blades produces blades of excellent quality when well taken care of and there are museum pieces today that have survived hundreds of years and are quite possibly still battle worthy. Although fold forging is an excellent process, it cannot produce blades capable of slicing machine gun barrels in half or cutting through tank armor! Japanese steel is good but it is still only steel, and will behave as such. (Side note: folding the blade only 10 times will produce a blade with more than 1000 layers of steel.)
http://ejmas.com/jwma/articles/2004/jwm ... e_1004.htm

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The Sengoku jidai (warring-states period (1450-1600) was marked by the loosening of samurai culture with people born into other social strata sometimes making names for themselves as warriors and thus becoming de facto samurai. In this turbulent period, bushido ethics became important factors in controlling and maintaining public order.

Myth and reality

Most samurai (during the Edo period (1603-1867)) were bound by a strict code of honor called Bushido and were expected to set an example for those below them. A notable part of the Bushido code is seppuku, which allowed a disgraced samurai to regain his honor by passing into death, where samurai were still beholden to the rules of Bushido. However, the Bushido code was written in peace-time and it may not truly reflect the samurai's character as a warrior. Whilst there are many romanticized characterizations of samurai behavior, studies of Kobudo and traditional Budo indicate that the samurai were as practical on the battlefield as any other warrior.

Despite the Bushido, in practice, samurai could be disloyal and treacherous, cowardly, brave, or overly loyal. Samurai were usually loyal to their immediate superiors, who in turn allied themselves with higher lords. These loyalties to the higher lords often shifted; for example, the high lords allied under Toyotomi Hideyoshi were served by loyal samurai, but the feudal lords under them could shift their support to Tokugawa, taking their samurai with them. There were, however, also notable instances where samurai would be disloyal to their lord or daimyo, when loyalty to the emperor was seen to have supremacy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samurai

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Bushido, then, is the code of moral principles which the samurai were required or instructed to observe. It is not a written code; at best it consists of a few maxims handed down from mouth to mouth or coming from the pen of some well-known warrior or savant. More frequently it is a code unuttered and unwritten, possessing all the more the powerful sanction of veritable deed, and of a law written on the fleshly tablets of the heart. It was founded not on the creation of one brain, however able, or on the life of a single personage, however renowned. It was an organic growth of decades and centuries of military career."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushido

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[Yamaga Soko (1622-1685)] was a Confucian, and applied Confucius's idea of the "superior man" to the samurai class of Japan.

Yamaga wrote a series of works dealing with "the warrior’s creed" (bukyo) and "the way of the samurai" (shido). In this way he described the lofty mission of the warrior class and its attendant obligations, which later became known as the "Way of the Warrior" (bushido). He emphasized that the peaceful arts, letters, and history were essential to the intellectual discipline of the samurai. Yamaga thus symbolizes the historical transformation of the samurai class from a purely military aristocracy to one of increasing political and intellectual leadership. He also drew attention to the need to study and adopt Western weapons and tactics, as introduced by the Dutch.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamaga_Soko

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The 47 Ronin

…47 of them gathered on 14 December 1702 and, after donning the armor and taking up the weapons from the cache, they set out on their revenge on that same snowy night.
http://www.samurai-archives.com/ronin.html

The Revenge of the 47 Ronin continued to spark controversy throughout the Edo Period (1603-1867).

• [Yamamoto Tsunetomo (1659 - 1719) argued] that Ôishi and his men had in fact erred in waiting as long as they had, that in so doing they risked Kira dying (he was, after all, over 60) and their efforts coming to naught.

• The Confucian scholar Sato Naotaka (1650-1719) criticized the ronin for taking action at all, as the shogun's decision to order Asano to commit suicide should have ended the matter there and then. He also shared Tsunetomo's belief that the ronin ought to have committed suicide at the Sengakuji once their deed was done. In giving themselves up to be judged, they appeared to have hoped to receive a light sentence and therefore continue living -a shameful objective, given their crimes. At the same time, Naotaka reserved his harshest words for Kira, whom he called a coward and whose precipitation of the whole affair had led to so many deaths.

• Asami Yasuda (1652-1711) defended the actions of the ronin as being appropriate (if not actually challenging the Bakufu's decisions)
http://www.samurai-archives.com/ronin.html

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[During the Meiji restoration (1866-1869)] the oligarchs also endeavored to abolish the four divisions of society.

…this led to a series of riots from disgruntled samurai. One of the major riots was the one led by Saigo Takamori, the Satsuma rebellion, which eventually turned into a civil war. This rebellion was however put down swiftly by the newly formed imperial army, trained in Western tactics and weapons, even though the core of the new army was the Tokyo Police force, which was formed in great parts of former samurai. This sent a strong message to the dissenting samurai that their time was indeed up. There were fewer subsequent samurai uprisings and the distinction became all but a name as the samurai joined the new society. The ideal of samurai military spirit lived on in romanticized form and was often used as propaganda during the Imperial Japan's early 20th century wars.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiji_Restoration

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The Samurai were essentially hired guns or mercenaries, greatly glorified in the Meiji period as Japan sought to revalorize its past while becoming Europeanized.

Valorizing samurai as "knights" seems misguided…

Ken O’Neil
From what I can gather, the glorification and romanticization of the samurai started in the 17th century and got a big boost during the Meiji period (1868-1912) when the samurai class was dissolved. I would expect a strong mythology at work in a country that within a fifty year period engages in war with China (1894), Russia (1905) and the US (1941).

The myth-making continued after WWII with Kurosawa’s film The Seven Samurai(1956) and can be seen more recently in Hollywood’s The Last Samurai (2003) in which Tom Cruise is shown surviving a battle against machine guns with just his samurai sword and his honor.

It can also be seen in this December 2003 National Geographic article Japan’s way of the Warrior
Their warrior class dominated Japanese history for nearly 700 years from 1185 to 1867, a reign as ruthless and violent—and as culturally rich—as almost anything experienced in ancient Rome or medieval Europe. Old Europe's knights, in fact, may be the samurai's closest historical kin. Like the knights, samurai (the word means "one who serves") formed a military elite, composed of clan leaders or warlords and the loyal soldiers who fought under them.

The samurai and the knight would have recognized each other in battle. They both wore armor, attacked on horseback, fought with swords and lances, besieged castles, and lived by a code of honor. But where the samurai and the knights differed was in their longevity. The Japanese warrior class enjoyed an amazing run of dominance that ended only when American warships sailed into Japan's harbors, exposing the inability of the shogun to defend the country.
http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm ... raphic.com
From this article it sounds as though the mythology of the samurai is still thriving in Japan as well as here in the West.

But to be fair, European medieval knights were not the saintly warriors of legend. Only in our stories and in our minds do they acquire noblesse oblige, the honorable mythology being inversely proportional to the dishonorable reality.

In this respect, the Eastern and Western mind are exactly the same.

Shanti






<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: ShantiSong on 2006-07-13 21:49 ]</font>

Dean Whittle
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Post by Dean Whittle »

Shanti,

I think your one of your final statements about ‘the honorable mythology being inversely proportional to the dishonorable reality’ is very accurate when it comes to the samurai.

Unfortunately I wouldn’t trust what comes off wikipedia without knowing the entry’s source material. As I’ve previously stated both Zen and Bushido have been given an exagerated prominence in Japanese history.

Bushido and the samurai ethos was particularly used in the lead up to WW2 to promote nationalism and self sacrifice in the Japanese population and military. Kurosawa’s films (Seven Samurai, Yojimbo and Sanjuro in particular) are good examples of a nation taking back their history/mythology from nationalist propoganda.

Unfortunately the mythology of the samurai is not thriving in Japan, in fact, it is not uncommon for there to be more Western practitioners studying martial arts in Japan than Japanese practitioners. Modern Japan has embraced Western pursuits, baseball, football (soccer), skateboarding, cinema and pop music over their own traditional past times. It will make for interesting times ahead.

Nevertheless, the mythology of the samurai is what will endure, regardless of it’s historical accuracy. Many kyudo (Japanese archery) practitioners got into the activity as a result of reading Herrigel’s book, only to discover a very different reality. Fortunately many of them continued their study and are now releasing more accurate portrayals of the Art of Archery.

Regards

Dean Whittle<br><BR>Sydney, Australia<br><BR>www.ninjutsuaustralia.com

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Post by ShantiSong »

Dean Whittle,

I don’t exactly ‘trust’ Wikipedia, National Geographic or anything else I find on the Web. I present this information in an attempt to evaluate it. If there is something specifically wrong with the information posted I’d like to know. That’s why I post it – to see how it holds up here in these Forums. I’ve already seen how it holds up at Wikipedia.
…both Zen and Bushido have been given an exaggerated prominence in Japanese history.

- Dean Whittle

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Zen Buddhism spread among samurai in the 13th century and helped to shape their standards of conduct, particularly overcoming fear of death and killing, but among the general populace Pure Land Buddhism was favored.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samurai
The word Zen was only used once in my post. Is this statement incorrect? And since the samurai population is a fraction of the general population I would expect for Zen to be a fraction of the general religion of Japan. The question becomes how prominent Zen was among the warrior class of samurai across their 700 year history.

The references to bushido I posted were found under the Wikipedia subjects of bushido, samurai, and Yamaga Soko who they claimed coined the term, and was not found under Japan or Japanese History.

The National Geographic article I read a few years ago made it sound as though the mythology of the samurai was alive and well in Japan.
In everything from martial arts to tea ceremonies, the storied warriors of Japan remain a potent presence. Many Japanese just can't stop searching for their inner samurai.
http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm ... raphic.com
Kurosawa’s Rashomon (1950) and Ikiru (1952) are two of the best films ever made in any language IMO.

These are the only Kurosawa warrior films I’ve seen:

The Seven Samurai (1954)
Kagemusha aka Shadow Warrior (1980)
Ran (1985)
Bushido and the samurai ethos was particularly used in the lead up to WWII to promote nationalism and self sacrifice in the Japanese population and military. Kurosawa’s films (Seven Samurai, Yojimbo and Sanjuro in particular) are good examples of a nation taking back their history/mythology from nationalist propaganda.

-Dean Whittle
What – specifically – is so different about the values portrayed in The Seven Samurai and the values of the Japanese soldier in the three wars I mentioned. It’s about honor. It’s about duty. It’s about loyalty. It’s about sacrificing your life for a greater cause – just like the 47 ronin. The ethos can be the same whether you operate a sword or an aircraft.

My favorite line from the film Midway comes from the Japanese officer on an aircraft carrier who said, “These American pilots sacrifice themselves like kamikazes.” They knew what myth they were living.

From the essay The Myth of Zen in the Art of Archery:
In his Essays in Zen Buddhism, D. T. Suzuki has succeeded in showing that Japanese culture and Zen are intimately connected and that Japanese art, the spiritual attitude of the samurai, the Japanese way of life, the moral, aesthetic, and to a certain extent even the intellectual life of the Japanese owe their peculiarities to this background of Zen and cannot be properly understood by anybody not acquainted with it. (HERRIGEL 1953, pp. 22–23; 1982, pp. 16–17)

We can divine from the above passages that Herrigel, influenced by D. T. Suzuki and driven by his own “preoccupation with mysticism,” tried as hard as he could to detect Zen elements within Japanese culture.
MythOfZenArchery
And here is what Wiki has to say about D.T. Suzuki:
Despite Suzuki's pioneering efforts, he was sometimes criticized by some, on the grounds that (1) he was not an ordained Zen monk (2) he was not an academic historian working within an academic institution and (3) his conceptions of Zen were often overly inclusive and general.

However, some clearly credible Western scholars, such as Heinrich Dumoulin, have acknowledged some degree of debt to Suzuki's published work, and, most significantly, some of the most important figures of the twentieth century have praised him unreservedly.

Nevertheless, Suzuki's view of Zen Buddhism is certainly his very own; as philosopher Charles A. Moore said: "Suzuki in his later years was not just a reporter of Zen, not just an expositor, but a significant contributor to the development of Zen and to its enrichment."

This is echoed by Nishitani Keiji, who declared: "...in Dr. Suzuki's activities, Buddhism came to posses a forward-moving direction with a frontier spirit...This involved shouldering the task of rethinking, restating and redoing traditional Buddhism to transmit it to Westerners as well as Easterners...To accomplish this task it is necessary to be deeply engrossed in the tradition, and at the same time to grasp the longing and the way of thinking within the hearts of Westerners.

From there, new possibilities should open up in the study of the Buddha Dharma which have yet to be found in Buddhist history...Up to now this new Buddhist path has been blazed almost single-handedly by Dr. Suzuki. He did it on behalf of the whole Buddhist world".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D.T._Suzuki#Bibliography
Ok – I’ll buy it. It's all a historical make-over. We Westerners, and Herrigel, have been bamboozled by a smooth talking con-artist. Or perhaps Herrigel was a smooth talking con-artist as well. I liked his Archery book, when I was a teen-ager.

I see Suzuki and Campbell as sharing the same fate in that there has been a segment of the popular culture that loves their work and a segment of academia that hates it. It’s the result of going from being a studier of myth to a myth-maker. And it seems to me both of these fine gentlemen were outstanding myth makers… - like it – or not.

Shanti




<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: ShantiSong on 2006-07-15 01:15 ]</font>

Martin_Weyers
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Post by Martin_Weyers »

Shanti,

most of the early Western teachers of Eastern wisdom were mixing up much of their own tradition with the few available information of Eastern traditions, including Herrigel, Zimmer, Wilhelm and Campbell.

To all:

We should be grateful for that, and not blame these wonderful teachers for their failures (while not recognizing our own). This is part of the creative process, that does not mind about intellectual discourse!

We are having online conversations here, and hence -- at least in my judgement -- Wikipedia is a proper source for our conversations. Wikipedia articles are, generally, not worse, than articles in the New York Times, which unfortunately are taken serious by most of the people.

Here's what Wikipedia has to say about Eugen Hrrrglwscht - aka Herrschenberg aka Hurriguwungl aka Hurrglitschow aka Herrigel <IMG SRC="/forum/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif"> :
Eugen Herrigel (20 March 1885, near Heidelberg - 1955) was a German philosopher who introduced Zen to large parts of Europe. He used archery in an attempt to further understand Zen. In 1936 he published a 20-page article entitled 'Die Ritterliche Kunst des Bogenschiessens' (The Knightly Art of Archery) in the journal, Zeitshrift für Japanologie, Which later formed the core of his most famous work Zen in the Art of Archery.
Beyond that, I was able to find some information about his enthusiasm for nazism during world war II -- a big mistake, no doubt about that! Let's blame him for that!! However, great men like the wonderful philosopher Martin Heidegger did the same mistake. A slap in the face may be okay; however, I didn't find any evidence, that Herrigel was ever a member of the SS or supported killing Jewish citizens.

Of course I was not able to check all sources which may be of relevance here. I'm not a historian, and my judgement is preliminary. Hence, I would be thankful for posting serious resources of any serious accusations.

Before accusing somebody of being a supporter of concentration camps, one should mention his sources. The United States of America, fortunately, are a constitutional state, and no state of arbitrary rule -- that's why I love this country so much, and I'm sure you will give me evidence.

_________________
"The only one who knows this ounce of words as just a token, is he who has a tongue to tell but must remain unspoken." Moondog

Kunst, Kultur, Fine Arts - Mythologie & Symbole

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Martin_Weyers on 2006-07-14 19:32 ]</font>

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Post by Clemsy »

Martin, I am impressed that you used the plural verb for the United States. The United States 'are' was the usual before the Civil War. Afterwards the U.S. became an 'is', for good or ill.

Personally, I wish we were still a plural.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Cheers,
Clemsy
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Post by Martin_Weyers »

On 2006-07-14 20:20, Clemsy wrote:
The United States 'are' was the usual before the Civil War. Afterwards the U.S. became an 'is', for good or ill.
Didn't know that, Clemsy! However, as an alien, I hope you US-guys will forgive me my oldfashioned wording; And if it should be inspiring for some of you, what more can I hope to achieve?

BTW, the European Union is already an 'is'..., at least in German. But, of course, union is singular, while states is a plural word, and so it can hardly be compared. However, I guess, the way we use these words can be considered as good or bad, dependant on the current situation...

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<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Martin_Weyers on 2006-07-14 21:38 ]</font>

ShantiSong
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Post by ShantiSong »

We is what we is –

Martin, Clemsy, Dean, Ken and All,

I was trying to graciously sidestep Ken O’Neil’s Holocaust metaphor and still address the issue of Herrigel’s and Suzuki’s scholarship. It is interesting how far the popular Western understanding of Japanese Religion has diverged from the actual and historical Japanese practice of Religion. And from what little I have learned so far, Suzuki and Herrigel both have played an important role in this divergence.

However, the Holocaust metaphor is inappropriate. It is an ad hominem argument – although not against Forum rules IMO because it’s ad hominem against an author who died in 1955 and not JCF associate.

For some reason, I’ve always been able to separate a person’s work, from their character or political affiliation. I wouldn’t turn my nose up at Ezra Pound’s poetry because he supported Mussolini and anti-Semitism. I wouldn’t deny Thomas Jefferson’s his genius because he had written some extremely racist remarks concerning African Americans. I wouldn’t judge Martin Heidegger’s philosophy on the basis of his Nazi Party affiliation. And I wouldn’t refuse to buy a Ford automobile because Henry Ford was an extreme anti-Semitic – though I may refuse to buy a Ford for other reasons. (I might buy a Suzuki samurai instead <IMG SRC="/forum/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif"> )
In 1920, a small newspaper in Dearborn, Michigan began publishing a series of articles entitled: The International Jew: The World’s Foremost Problem! The newspaper was owned by the famous automobile manufacturer; Henry Ford. Through a combination of influence, power; and ignorance, he was able to unleash the largest and most damaging campaign against Jews ever waged in the United States.



As early as December 1922, The New York Times carried an article with the headline Berlin Hears Ford is Backing Hitler. At the time, the Berliner Tragblatt had appealed to the American Ambassador in Berlin to investigate rumors of financial support between Ford and the fledging Nazi party.

A New York Times correspondent investigating the matter found the following at Hitler’s Munich headquarters on Cornelius Street: The wall beside his desk is decorated with a large picture of Henry Ford. In the antechamber; there is a large table covered with books, nearly all of which are a translation of a book written and published by Henry Ford.
http://history.hanover.edu/hhr/99/hhr99_2.html
On the other hand, if a person’s work, is influenced by, or promotes racism, that certainly needs to be considered as a part of the overall understanding of their work and its legacy.

Professor Patrick Grim who teaches philosophy at the State University of New York at Stony Brook claims that Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals is filled with anti-Semitism. It is a racist work that was part of, and helped influence the rise of the Nazi anti-Semitic movement in Germany.

Robert C. Solomon Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin has a different take. He says it was Nietzsche’s sister who was the racist and misused her brother’s work to help promote the anti-Semitic movement. She and her racist husband are to blame. Friedrich Nietzsche becomes an innocent victim of the abuse in Solomon’s view.

What ever the truth, the debate is worthwhile, considering the influence Nietzsche had on Germany and Germany on the world.

I see nothing in Herrigel’s little mystical archery book that would in any way influence or promote anti-Semitism. For this reason I think the issue of Herrigel’s Nazi sympathies or affiliation is irrelevant.

But his understanding of Japanese mysticism certainly deserves attention.

Shanti




<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: ShantiSong on 2006-07-15 01:08 ]</font>

Ken O'Neill
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Post by Ken O'Neill »

On 2006-07-12 00:51, Aireal wrote:
I enjoyed reading The Book of Five Rings, and would suggest it as reading material.
Miyamoto Musashi wrote that work. Ironically, the so-called "five rings" are the five elements of Buddhism. They are found in stupa/chorten/pagoda symbolism. The major work on the subject is by Adrian Snodgrass on stupa symbolism.
Ken O'Neill

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Post by kbaettig »

Shamin -
How does one kill another and yet not kill one's present self? Death occurs to both. A person must make a sacrifice to hold a 'sword'. Within the Samurai this theme will always be found. The structure of that theme is built around the Japanese. So I suggest studying some traditional architecture, gardens, pottery, poetry, city & road design...
Social custom is paramount so should be ignored completely.

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Post by Lizpete »

Okay, some of my knowledge in a nut shell: During the Heian Court period (roughly 8-12 century) Samurai were born of the "second sons" if you will of important ruling families in Japan. The heirs and important members went to Kyoto to hang with the Emperor, leaving family members behind in the provinces to watch over their territory. These stewards became adept at fighting, putting down peasant uprisings. (They were sent to deal with the Waiko pirates gaining, I believe, official recongition from the Emperor.)

During this period an aristocratic family, the Fujiwara, "captured" the imperial lineage by making sure daughters of their clan were married the emperor and producing sons of their joint lineage. The Heian Court itself was a highly artistic and you could say decadent one. Power moved away from the court. The Fujiwara family then broke into warring factions and other families emerged.

12 century the Kamakura Shogunate was established. (Kamakura is a lovely area and I urge you to visit.) These were regents that held power for the Emperor, ruling in his stead. During this time a family named the Hojo came to power and they promulgated the Hojo Code as defining the way of the samurai. (Some say that the Samurai must have been a scrappy lot for an official code of conduct to have been made.) The Hojo Code was pratical (and polite) rather than mystical or lyrical.

Several centures, past a couple of different Shogunates, warring provinces etc. 3 warlords emerged to become the unifiers of Japan. The second of these, Hideyoshi, sought to define the classes. Up until this point the Samurai and farmer class merged and intermixed a bit, now to be separated. Hideyoshi disarmed the public, requiring those who were not of samurai class to turn in their swords to government officials. (Somewhere around 1550.)

47 Ronin is an interesting true story, but *very* late in Japanese history regarding the Samurai. It shocked Japan at the time who were asking "What? We've still got people running around like that?"

---
Heian Court period is a fantastic time in Japanese history. The aristocracy reads Chinese poetry and communicates with each other using references to specific poems. Perfume (making) contests are popular. Members build and own houses just to see a specific tree in bloom. (Trees in bloom for like a week or so.) They regard people working in the fields not of their class as subhuman, even though these people work to provide the rice the aristocracy exsists on.

Maybe too much for what you wanted. Haven't used my knowledge of Japanese history in a while and couldn't resist the opportunity.
Last edited by Lizpete on Sun Mar 04, 2007 7:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by Lizpete »

I looked back and realized maybe I didn't respond to your initial post as you had intended, but let me add a little bit more that may help you.

The last of the unifiers was Tokugawa Ieyasu who formed the final Shogunate, the Tokugawa Shogunate. (From a post above an above post this would be the Edo period.) During this period social classes were more defined and rigid. The Buddhist influence rose as he incorporated the temples into government, for example using them to take the census.

Shinto had been a simple mostly animist faith, but the Buddhist had the more formal 'church' like structures. Chinese influence in Japan, of which Buddhism is a part, dates from the 4th century.

Flower arranging and other arts had been around for a long time, perhaps growning in influence as the need for pure martial arts decreased and the nation settled into relative stability.

Also different Buddhist sects had also been armed for a *long* time. (Think China...) And they protested the early reforms of the Meiji government which unsuccessfully tried to break their power a bit, thus setting the stage for "State Shinto" a curious amalgamation...

My knowledge comes from graduate study program with help from the Historical and Geographical Dictionary of Japan, Tuttle Press.
All human wisdom is contained in these words: wait and hope. Alexandre Dumas <br>America: The call that every generation must improve itself. *Member Generation &quot;X&quot;*

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