Editing Bushido (section)

=== {{anchor|Heian-Kamakura (794-1333)}}Kamakura period ===
[[File:Koyo-Gunkan-Book-Cover-by-Kosaka-Masanobu-1616.png|thumb|upright|left|[[Koyo Gunkan]] by [[Kosaka Masanobu]] (1616)]]
The first proper Japanese central government was established around the year 700. Japan was ruled by the [[Emperor of Japan|Emperor]] (Tennō) with bureaucratic support of the aristocracy. They gradually lost control of their armed servants, the samurai. By the mid-12th century, the samurai class had seized control. The samurai (bushi) ruled Japan with the [[shogun]] (将軍) as the overlord until the mid 19th century. The shogun was originally the Emperor's military deputy. After the [[Genpei War]] (1180–1185), [[Minamoto no Yoritomo]] usurped power from the civil aristocracy by establishing a military government called the [[bakufu]] situated in [[Kamakura]] since 1192.<ref name="nussbaum459"/> The Emperor and his court became [[figurehead]]s.<ref name="nussbaum459">[[Louis-Frédéric|Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric]]. (2005). [https://books.google.com/books?id=p2QnPijAEmEC&pg=PA459 "''Kamakura-jidai''"] in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 459.</ref><ref>"...not only was the Heian system of '''imperial-aristocratic rule''' still vigorous during the twelfth century, but also it remained the essential framework within which the bakufu, during its lifetime, was obliged to operate. In this sense, the Heian pattern of government survived into the fourteenth century – to be destroyed with the '''Kama-kura bakufu''' rather than by it." Warrior Rule in Japan, page 1. Cambridge University Press.</ref>

[[File:Minamoto_no_Yoritomo.jpg|thumb|upright|Shogun [[Minamoto no Yoritomo]] (1147–1199)]]
The appearance of bushido is linked to that of feudal Japan and the first [[shogun]] at the time of [[Minamoto no Yoritomo]] (1147–1199) in the 12th century. The own moral dimension bushido gradually appears in the warrior culture and landmark in stories and military treaties only from the 14th and 15th century.<ref name="yoritomo" /> Thus is noted a permanence of the modern representation of its antiquity in Japanese culture and its diffusion.

In the 10th and 11th century there was the ''Way of the Man-At-Arms'' (Tsuwamon no michi), and the ''Way of the Bow and Arrows'' (Kyûsen / kyûya no Michi).<ref>{{harvnb|Shin'ichi|Souyri|2017|pp=63–64}}</ref> At the time of the [[Genpei War|Genpei War (1180–1185)]], it was called ''"Way of the Bow and the Horse"'' (弓馬の道, kyūba no michi)<ref name="nippon-bushido" /> because of the major importance of this style of combat for the warriors of the time, and because it was considered a traditional method, that of the oldest samurai heroes, such as [[Prince Shōtoku]], [[Minamoto no Yorimitsu]] and [[Minamoto no Yoshiie]] (Hachimantarō). According to [[Louis Frédéric]], the kyūba no michi appeared around the 10th century as a set of rules and unwritten customs that samurai were expected to comply.<ref>[https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/3186148 ''Encyclopaedia of Asian civilizations'']</ref> There was also ''"Yumiya toru mi no narai"'' (customs for those who draw the bow).<ref name="nippon-bushido" /> This shows there was an emerging sense of ideal warrior behavior that evolved from daily training and warfare experience.<ref name="britannica-groups" />

{{Blockquote|text=Towards the 10th and 11th centuries we began to use expressions such as the way of the man-at-arms (Tsuwamon no michi), the way of the bow and arrows (Kyûsen / kyûya no Michi), the way of the bow and the horse (Kyûba no Michi). These expressions refer to practices which are the ancestors of the way of the warrior (bushidô) but they did not then imply any relation whatsoever to a morality. These were only practices focused on training for real combat and which therefore had to do with the samurai ways of life in the broad sense.<ref>{{harvnb|Shin'ichi|Souyri|2017}}</ref> }}

{{Blockquote|text=The world of warriors which developed […] in the medieval period (12th – 16th century) was […] placed under the domination of the Buddhist religion […]. Buddhism makes the prohibition of killing living beings one of its main principles. […] Faced with death, some samurai thought they had inherited bad karma […] others knew they were doing evil. The Buddhist notion of impermanence (Mujo) tended to express a certain meaning to the fragility of existence, […]. Beliefs in the pure land of Buddha Amida […] allowed some warriors to hope for an Amidist paradise […]. Zen Buddhism with its doctrine of the oneness between life and death was also appreciated by many samurai […]. The world of medieval warriors remained a universe still largely dominated by the supernatural, and the belief in particular, in the tormented souls of warriors fallen in combat (who) returned almost obsessively in the dreams of the living. This idea also ensured the success of the Noh theater.<ref>{{harvnb|Shin'ichi|Souyri|2017|pp=20–21}}</ref> }}

''[[The Tale of the Heike]]'' depicts an idealized story of the [[Genpei War]] (1180–1185) with a struggle between two powerful samurai clans, the [[Minamoto clan|Minamoto]] and the [[Taira clan|Taira]]. Clearly depicted throughout the epic is the ideal of the cultivated warrior.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Flashing Steel: Mastering Eishin-Ryu Swordsmanship, 2nd edition|last1=Shimabukuro|first1=Masayuki|last2=Pellman|first2=Leonard|publisher=Blue Snake Books|year=2007|isbn=9781583941973|location=Berkeley, CA|page=2}}</ref> During the early modern era, these ideals were vigorously pursued in the upper echelons of warrior society and recommended as the proper form of the Japanese man of arms.{{citation needed|date=February 2018}} The influence of Shinto, Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism on bushido's early development instilled among those who live by the code a religious respect for it.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://spice.fsi.stanford.edu/docs/japanese_religions | title=Japanese Religions }}</ref>

Many early literary works of Japan talk of warriors, but the term ''bushidō'' does not appear in text until the Edo period.<ref>"The Zen of Japanese Nationalism," by Robert H. Sharf, in ''Curators of the Buddha'', edited by Donald Lopez, p. 111</ref> The code which would become bushido was conceptualized during the late-[[Kamakura period]] (1185–1333) in Japan.<ref name="kawakami">{{cite journal |last1=Kawakami |first1=Tasuke |title=Bushidō in its Formative Period |journal=The Annals of the Hitotsubashi Academy |date=1952 |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=65–83 |jstor=43751264 }}</ref> Since the days of the [[Kamakura shogunate]], the "way of the warrior" has been an integral part of Japanese culture.<ref name="heilbrunn">Department of Asian Art. "Kamakura and Nanbokucho Periods (1185–1392)." In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–.</ref><ref name="EnciclopediaTreccani" /> Scholars generally regard pre-modern Japan as a "warrior nation" since the medieval period.<ref name="warrior-nation">{{cite news |title=Imperial Japan saw itself as a 'warrior nation' – and the idea lingers today |date=22 December 2017|publisher=The Conversation |access-date=25 August 2019 |url=http://theconversation.com/imperial-japan-saw-itself-as-a-warrior-nation-and-the-idea-lingers-today-87289 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190428112755/http://theconversation.com/imperial-japan-saw-itself-as-a-warrior-nation-and-the-idea-lingers-today-87289 |archive-date=April 28, 2019}}</ref> The samurai were role models for society since medieval times. In accordance with [[Confucianism]], one of their duties was to serve as a role model for society. They balanced their martial arts skills with peaceful accomplishments such as literature, poetry and the [[Japanese tea ceremony|tea ceremony]].<ref>{{cite book | author=Virginia Schomp | title =Japan in the Days of the Samurai (Cultures of the Past) | publisher =Benchmark Books| year =1998| page = 59 | isbn =0761403043 }}</ref> Such as the medieval Japanese proverb ''[[Hana wa sakuragi, hito wa bushi]]'' ({{langx|ja|花は桜木人は武士}}, literally "the [best] blossom is the cherry blossom; the [best] man is the warrior").<ref>{{cite book | editor=Daniel Crump Buchanan| title =Japanese Proverbs and Sayings| url=https://archive.org/details/japaneseproverbs00buch| url-access=registration| publisher =University of Oklahoma Press| year =1965| page =[https://archive.org/details/japaneseproverbs00buch/page/119 119]| isbn =0806110821}}</ref> In 1843 Nakamura said: {{blockquote|Our nation is a nation of arms. The land to the west [China] is a nation of letters. Nations of letters value the pen. Nations of arms value the sword. That's the way it has been from the beginning... Our country and theirs are separated from one another by hundreds of miles, our customs are completely different, the temperaments of our people are dissimilar – so how could we possibly share the same Way? (Nakamura 1843 cited in Watanabe 2012: 285).<ref>Nakamura, M. Shoburon (1843), In Vol. 6 of ''Bushido Zensho'', ed., Inoue Tetsujiro, Saeki Ariyoshi, Ueki Naoichiro, and Kokusho Kankokai, 1998.</ref><ref>Watanabe, H. A History of Japanese Political Thought, 1600–1901. Translated by David Noble. LTCB International Library Trust, International House of Japan, 2012.</ref>}}