On Japanese Bushido Cultural Psychology

Busido originated from the "Principal and Subordinate Morality" in the Japanese feudal society, having blended with the Confucianism, Zen and Shinto, it has developed into a unique culture which represents the main features of the Japanese culture. And with the 700-years' samurai-governing, it became the core of the Japan national character, which is called " the Yamato Soul"."Loyalty" is the supreme concept in Busido, it originated from Confucianism but changed its original meaning, "loyalty" is the first moral criterion above others, all others morals originate from and subordinate to it. In the history, Japanese samurai put highest value on loyal suicidal, which often happened in the forms of "suicide for repaying an obligation", "suicide for the Giri" and "suicide for the honor". Since the modern Japanese enterprises inherit the "loyalty" from the feudal society and make "loyalty" the modern Japanese spirit, so there exist many suicidal cases concerning Karoshi, Giri and honor.Bushido is not a religion, but Japanese Zen has award the feature of "surmounting death" to it. Japanese Zen prospered in Samurai Society, and so it was also called "religion of Samurai". Japanese Zen believes in " life and death as one" and "one-track mind", these doctrines made Busido become the practice of Zen's death philosophy, and the "Zen thoughts" hidden in the samurai's suicide behaviorstill influence today's Japanese people, especially among the old, this can be seen from the phenomena of "highest suicidal rate " and "sudden-death desire " among the old.The Japanese esthetician Imamichi Tomonobu once said: "Death is the highest theme of esthetics". Japanese like pursuing the beauty of natural harmony, while they pursue this, they also find the unsolved confrontation between nature and human, and the death is the dividing line, so an appreciation of death, "half sorrow, half beauty" emerged, it was called "pathos", Busido accept this appreciation, and even to perform "hara-kiri" to realize this esthetics notion, under this kind of influence, the estheticism suicide behavior is popular in modern Japanese society, which can be easily found in the Japanese artist suicidal cases, showplace suicide cases and "net-pals group suicide" cases.