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Bushido: Way of Total Bullshit

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Re: Bushido: Way of Total Bullshit

#51

Post by twblalock »

cyberferret wrote: post #12

Interesting that the author mentions that the term "Bushido" wasn't really a thing until last century. I was sure I saw the term mentioned in the writing of Miyamoto Musashi, but I assume that might have been a modern translators interpretation. (I read the English version, not the native Japanese one). Also, some of my favourite graphic novels by Stan Sakai, Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima seem to mention the term too…

The use of the word in its modern sense is a modern development. It was used before, but to signify different things. In other words, while the samurai had concepts about the warrior ethos, which they may have called bushido (among other things), the concepts they understood and wrote about were different from the concept of bushido espoused by Nitobe Inazo, who was criticized for being ahistorical by his Japanese contemporaries.

Re: Bushido: Way of Total Bullshit

#52

Post by twblalock »

mcguire wrote: post #42

I haven't read Nitobe, but Yamamoto Tsunetomo's Hagakure mentioned in the article, which was weirdly popular a few years back, is a horrible piece of propaganda written by someone who has about as much contact with war fighters as Nietzsche.

Hagakure was written during the Edo period (1600-1868), during which time there were very few battles fought, and samurai were mainly bureaucrats and government functionaries living on fixed pensions. The book is an attempt to maintain warrior culture in the face of the reality that samurai no longer had any occasion to fight.

Re: Bushido: Way of Total Bullshit

#53

Post by jzelinskie »

I've never read any of their blog posts before now, but Tofugu makes another product called WaniKani, that I've been using daily for 6 months now. It's basically flashcards for Kanji memorization, but it creates a regimen and has great third-party mobile applications that give you reminders to continue making progress. Without it, I definitely wouldn't have the will power to keep studying.

Re: Bushido: Way of Total Bullshit

#54

Post by abalone »

jbooth wrote: post #28
iwontreddit wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> how much of Japan's conduct in WW2 (notably, the fighting until death) can be attributed/blamed to this misinterpretation of samurai history? Japanese soldiers' "fighting to the death" nonsense was myth invented many years after WW2 by allied "historians" to justify the mass murder of japanese soldiers by the allies. It's not that the japanese weren't willing to surrender. It was that the allies ( unfortunately out…

Respectfully, that's a bullshit point of view. For the japanese military in WWII, rape was normal. Butchering civilian populations wholesale was normal. The Americans and British did not play by those rules, even though we did a lot of killing. This was not two equivalent evils. http://foxtalk.tistory.com/98

That doesn't refute the claim that the allies had a "take no prisoners" policy, killing wounded or surrendering enemy. It's plausible that that got reworked into the more palatable "they all died by choice" meme. Does anyone have sources, either way?

Also, regarding "butchering civilian populations wholesale" see [1], [2].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_a...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Tokyo

Re: Bushido: Way of Total Bullshit

#55

Post by feklar »

RockyMcNuts wrote: post #36
iwontreddit wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> how much of Japan's conduct in WW2 (notably, the fighting until death) can be attributed/blamed to this misinterpretation of samurai history? Japanese soldiers' "fighting to the death" nonsense was myth invented many years after WW2 by allied "historians" to justify the mass murder of japanese soldiers by the allies. It's not that the japanese weren't willing to surrender. It was that the allies ( unfortunately out…

My impression is a lot of soldiers and contemporaneous sources said Japanese fought to the death, engaged in suicidal 'banzai charges', killed themselves rather than surrender, and that those few who did surrender thought it was shameful, and had been taught to expect mistreatment from Americans similar to what Japan dished out on e.g. the Bataan Death March. Now it's quite possible that some of that was exaggerated…

The Wikipedia article on Japanese WW2 holdouts is interesting, some held out surrender to the 90s either living in remote regions or joining other fighting groups.

Re: Bushido: Way of Total Bullshit

#56

Post by Apocryphon »

hoodoof wrote: post #35
germinalphrase wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you would recommend as a more practical form of self defense training for those not working in a high-risk environment?

Boxing, kickboxing, wrestling, Krav Maga, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, MMA, Judo.

Systema?

Re: Bushido: Way of Total Bullshit

#57

Post by cyberferret »

titanix2 wrote: post #29

I recently (3 months) started iaidô[1] in my Japanese university club, and one thing that struck me was how few "bullshit" talks we had about the discipline. In contrast, when browsing for clubs in my country, each website was filled with a last a few paragraphs saying how spiritual the art is, how it is all about discovering yourself and the truth of the universe. People of my club are more interested in it because…

I just starting Kendo training here at a local dojo. Our instructor is very adamant and clear at almost all training sessions that the skills we are learning with the bamboo and wooden swords are NOT usable in a self defence or martial capacity at all.

Rather that our studies are for mental focus, fitness and spiritual calmness. These are the exact reasons I took up the study of this art.

In my younger days, I studied Tae Kwon Do for years, but as most other have said here - it has no real practical value in a street fight either, aside from extra fitness, flexibility and general peripheral awareness which may serve as an advantage in a conflict situation.

Re: Bushido: Way of Total Bullshit

#58

Post by optforfon »

(I got through about half the article) I think making the analogy to Christianity and chivalry is simply a way for Nitobe to communicate the way samurai were percieved and it seems a bit dramatic to lay it all at his feet as some kind of grand manipulative agenda.

The Meiji era (and the Taisho era after it) were times of a very bizarre "formalization" of japanese culture. Like other comments mention, things like karate, kendo, ekinaba, art of sword making, etc. etc. were all formalized and unified under one umbrella at this time. Before say "karate" you'd have different schools teaching different martial arts under different names around the country.

I actually don't have a very good grasp on why this happened

Re: Bushido: Way of Total Bullshit

#59

Post by ommunist »

The real bushido of modern Japanese, at least of generation born in 70-ies, is their work ethics. I worked with JICA team for 3 seasons, I never seen people that commited and self-sacrificing to work as these people were. And I hope, I will never see again. Life is so much more than work.

Re: Bushido: Way of Total Bullshit

#60

Post by maxthegeek1 »

hoodoof wrote: post #4

Related but at a tangent - after a lifetime of interest in karate I came to realise that most of the stuff taught at karate is not practical. Katas and karate punches and kicks - most of this better thought of more as dancing or ceremonial. A bit like Tai Chi - except that Tai Chi claims no real world martial value. The myth remains however of karate being great self defence training. Our local karate club is packed…

kyokushin is pretty practical. no katas they just beat the shit of each other.
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