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MMW 13 Assignment 1

Bushido originated as a fusion of Shinto, Buddhism, and Confucianism that shaped the values of samurai warriors during the Tokugawa Shogunate in Japan between 1600-1800. However, bushido was later romanticized by samurai in the late 18th century as a justification for their social status and values at a time when their importance was diminishing due to Japan's modernization. Renaissance humanism in Italy cultivated a society interested in classical learning, unlike other parts of Europe focused on religious ideals. Humanism's modernity lies in its ability to be interpreted in two different ways yet still represent a unified ideal, as conceived by early humanists to promote the idea that classical studies build moral

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129 views2 pages

MMW 13 Assignment 1

Bushido originated as a fusion of Shinto, Buddhism, and Confucianism that shaped the values of samurai warriors during the Tokugawa Shogunate in Japan between 1600-1800. However, bushido was later romanticized by samurai in the late 18th century as a justification for their social status and values at a time when their importance was diminishing due to Japan's modernization. Renaissance humanism in Italy cultivated a society interested in classical learning, unlike other parts of Europe focused on religious ideals. Humanism's modernity lies in its ability to be interpreted in two different ways yet still represent a unified ideal, as conceived by early humanists to promote the idea that classical studies build moral

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Larreh Sing
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Topic 1: Bushido - The Samurai Code during the Tokugawa Shogunate(1600s -

1800s) and how it came to shape the values of the warrior class known as samurais.
I would like to examine the effects of this ideology towards Japanese society during
the Tokugawa shogunate, and how this medieval ideal came to be romanticized
during the modern world. Specifically, I hope to argue that bushido is a general term
that fuses the three ideologies of Shinto, Buddhism, and Confucianism into a single
idea.
CD 1: for behavioural guidelines modelled on an idealized view of the battlefield.
According to Yamamoto, the martial nature and readiness to serve gave bushi the
right to have power of life and death over non-samurai, who were innately inferior
(Benesch 7 par 11. )."
CM 1: Bushido was simply used by late 18th century samurais as a means to justify
their position in a society where the importance of the samurai warrior class was
diminishing due to the rapid modernization of Japan. Samurais cited medieval texts
that romanticized Bushido in order to present themselves as superior to the other
social classes, and, in a way, served as a means of escapism during their time. I
believe that bushido acts as an anchor between the medieval and the modern world
of Japan since individuals who longed for the "glory days" of the samurai used
bushido as a tool to remind an indifferent society of their importance. In a nutshell,
bushido was merely the samurai's way of telling society that "Hey! We're still really
important!"
Topic 2: Renaissance Humanism in Italy and how its ideologies cultivated a society
with a desire for "classical" learning which I will juxtapose with the rest of Europe
and its focus on religious ideals, mainly Christianity. Another line of argument that I
might pursue is whether there really was an "awakening," since society has defined
the term Renaissance based on our own standards of a "modern" civilization.
CD 1: "The modernity of humanism lies not simply in its secularizing tendencies, its
alignment with the political status quo, or its revival of classical literatures, but
more basically, as witnessed by Alberti, in the play of ambiguity itself, in the
tensions it created between past and present, continuity and change, and being and
seeming" (Kircher 443).
CM1: Renaissance humanism's modernity is shaped by its ability to be interpreted
as two different ideas, and yet still be fused into one unifying ideal. This
interpretation was conceived by the Renaissance humanists themselves and used it
to promote the idea that studying the classics can promote moral virtue. True to this
claim, different humanists placed varying degrees regarding the effects of the
classics into shaping the modern individual.
Benesch, Oleg. "Before Bushido: Considering Samurai Thought and Identity."
Inventing the Way of the Samurai: Nationalism, Internationalism, and Bushido in
Modern Japan. N.p.: Oxford Scholarship Online, 2014. N. pag. Web. 10 April 2016
Kircher, Timothy. "Renaissance Humanism and Its Discontents." The European
Legacy 20.5 (2015): 435-49. Web. 10 April 2016

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