Title: Inventing the Way of the Samurai: Nationalism, Internationalism, and Bushidō in Modern Japan
Author: Oleg Benesch
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication Date: 11/11/2014
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 304, 6.1″ x 9.2″
Cover Price: $105.00
Content
Dr. Oleg Benesch is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in East Asian History in the Department of History at the University of York in the United Kingdom, and a Research Associate of the Japan Research Centre at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Unlike my last review on a book about Bushido, or the way of the samurai, Dr. Benesch’s book is thoroughly academic.
The book explores Bushido as an “invented tradition,” drawing on the work done by Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger in their 1983 book The Invention of Tradition. It also integrates the application of that concept to Japanese traditions, including judo and sumo, found in the 1998 book Mirror of Modernity: Invented Traditions of Modern Japan, edited by Stephen Vlastos. Dr. Benesch effectively argues that Bushido is a concrete term dating from the late 19th century and has since been reshaped to fit the needs of various elements in Japanese society.
The book’s contentis reflected in the table of contents. Dr. Benesch examines Bushido’s first explanations in the Meiji Era (1868-1912), and follows with a focus on the “early Bushido Boom” of 1894-1905 and the “late Bushido Boom of 1905-1914.” Japanese success in the Sino-Japanese War and Russo-Japanese War, respectively, drove each “boom.” He continues with the factors that ended the Bushido boom, and explains why Bushido recovered in the Showa era (1926-1989). The book concludes with Bushido’s integration into the pre-World War II Japanese school system, and later as a supposed explanation for Japan’s post-war recovery.
Pros
If you are a scholar, or researcher, or you just appreciate reading martial arts history based on sound evidence and sourced research as I do as the founder of Martial History Team, then you will be amazed by Dr. Benesch’s book. Each chapter is thoroughly sourced with the print and Kindle print replica editions featuring footnotes on each page. Dr. Benesch cites both sides of the debate, giving those who think Bushido dates back to the mythical founding of the Japanese islands their due. The historical documentation shows otherwise, however. Dr. Benesch shows how the concept of Bushido morphed over the years as the needs of the Japanese people evolved.
Cons
If scholarly books don’t interest you, then you’ll not like Dr. Benesch’s work as much as I did. The book has no pictures and the text is written in a direct, academic style. Thankfully, though, the text is free of obscure English terms sometimes found in other scholarly works. Martial artists will not find as much coverage of the martial arts as they might expect. While there is some coverage of judo and sumo, the American sport of baseball probably receives as much attention. Don’t let the high cover price for the hardcover edition cited in this review scare you. There are Kindle and paperback editions available for a third of that price and even the hardcover is sold at a steep discount.
Conclusion
I give this book 5 out of 5 ninja stars. 
I thought it was fascinating to learn that Bushido in some ways was a response to early Meiji Japanese exposure to Christianity and the European feudal traditions of medieval knights and their chivalry. Most significantly, the book that most Westerners and many Japanese rely upon to ostensibly understand Bushido, Inazo Nitobe’s 1900 (English edition) book Bushido: The Soul of Japan, is greatly responsible for inventing this tradition. Nitobe’s book was essentially an invention to convince Europeans that they could relate to the Japanese in a way different from other Asians, particularly the Chinese. Nitobe sought this connection thanks to their supposedly shared history of a knightly class following Bushido-like codes.
Dr. Benesch’s book should provide the lens that you use to interpret and integrate any other references to Bushido. It’s that good, and I wish I had read it earlier!
Note: Oxford University Press provided online access to this book for review.
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