Military and Veterans Studies Commons^™

Bushido, Robert J. Bunker

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

Bushido was originally a code of conduct for the samurai, the warrior class of feudal Japan. The term literally means "the way [do] of the warrior [bushi]." Basic principles of Bushido developed during and in the centuries of warfare before the Kamakura Shogunate (1192-1333). The term came into normal usage during the stable Tokugawa Shogunate (1603-1867), when the samurai were subordinated tot he will of the state and the literary classic Hagakure (1716) was written.