Sword & Pen.

This is coolbert: As the Sikh guru Gobind Singh was at the same time a warrior and a philosopher both, and not having a contradiction in this regard, in feudal [1600-1865?] Japan, a similar situation existed among the samurai warrior class.

With the ascendancy to the position of Shogun of Tokugawa [circa 1600], a period about two hundred and fifty years of peace existed in Japan. And during this time, a large number of highly trained samurai warriors existed, all the while training for a war that never came. Samurai as a class were required to hone and maintain their martial skills to a high degree, and this they did, receiving a stipend all the time from the government. Without war, however, the samurai did find themselves with a lot of free time on their hands. And in many instances, especially among the higher ranking samurai, but also among the lower levels of the samurai, a patronage of the fine arts of Japan began. This patronage led to a flourishing of existing fine arts, and the creation of new art forms that are popular to this day.

And many of these fine arts have a tradition and ambiance that seems to go against what we in the west regard as the character of the military man.

What fine arts am I talking about here? Well, flower arranging, brush painting, calligraphy, tea ceremony, poetry reading. All these fine arts were highly appreciated by the leading samurai and encouraged by the patronage of same. These are not activities military men in the west would be expected to participate in. In Japan, however, this sort of thing is in keeping with the samurai motto, "sword and pen in harmony". To the Japanese, none of this to them presented a contradiction.


New art forms that were highly appreciated by the samurai also became the rage during this feudal period. I am thinking of the Kabuki theatre and Noh plays. Many of the themes and plays in this area revolve around samurai tradition and ethic and show the samurai as the archetype of the Japanese spirit [yamato].

Japanese Zen Buddhism has both greatly influenced and been influenced by the samurai. The samurai greatly appreciated the meditative aspect of Zen. Such meditative discipline allows for great concentration. Concentration that allows a swordsman to become more adept and proficient. It is not an accident that many of the Zen monasteries had resident martial artists as monks, and regular martial arts training was part of the regimen at such a monastery. Indeed, the entire philosophy of Zen Buddhism highly appealed to the samurai. The philosophy that impermanence is a normal factor of life. And that by looking at nature, such things as the cherry blossom, a blossom that falls to the ground at the height of it's beauty, were translated to mean for the samurai that his lot in life was death, and to face death unflinchingly and acceptingly was a way of life that found consonance with Zen. Read a really interesting web site that describes in detail the correlation between zen and the warrior philosophy of the samurai by clicking here.

The samurai writers Musashi Miyamoto [read about Musashi by clicking here] and Hagakure [click here to read more about the philosophies of Hagakure] wrote distilled versions of the samurai ethic and philosophy. Musashi, along with writing his work, "Book of the Five Rings", was also an accomplished brush painter. A condensed version of the teachings of Musashi can be found by clicking here. More samurai sayings that illustrate the philosophy behind the samurai spirit can be found by clicking here.

These forms of art and disciplines of martial arts training are still around and going strong in modern Japan. The various unarmed martial arts forms so popular in the world today, such as judo, aikido, karate, all have a genesis in feudal Japan. Other martial arts forms such as kendo [swordfighting], and archery are also practiced widely. The latter, archery, is mainly taught as a Zen discipline, with strong philosophical overtones present. To read an intersting article about kendo, click here. Click here to read an interesing web site that deals with the spiritual aspects of Japanese archery.

coolbert.