Bushido: The Soul of Japan

Written in English by Inazo Nitobe — Quaker convert, agricultural economist, undersecretary-general of the League of Nations — and first published in 1900, *Bushido: The Soul of Japan* introduced the warrior ethic of the Japanese samurai to a Western audience for whom 'feudal Japan' was still a recent shock of modernity. Drawing on Confucianism, Buddhism, Shinto, and his own deep reading of Western chivalric and Christian sources, Nitobe traces the seven core virtues — rectitude, courage, benevolence, politeness, sincerity, honor, loyalty — along with chapters on the institutions of seppuku and revenge, the sword, the position of women, and Bushido's silent influence on the manners of all Japanese, samurai or otherwise. Theodore Roosevelt read this book and gave away copies.