Foundations for Japanese Views of Honor

This post is mainly going to be a run-down of where Japan's sense of honor and culture stem from, and how that culture has lasted throughout the years. A small update before we get to more this week


In all of East Asia, throughout all time, there has never been a country that has been as militarized as Japan for so long. From the late 12th century all the way up to the 19th Japan had been ruled by the military class of the samurai. This military rule lead to a complex and traditional way of doing things, all based around the honor of the samurai and their rule. Since honor was at the core of the cultural identity of the military class, and the military class ruled Japan, it is obvious that that would permeate into traditional Japanese ways of life, becoming a staple of how they lived, and in some ways are still living today.

One such observer of Japanese culture, Ruth Benedict, labeled Japanese moral behavior as "shame culture", where looking bad is akin to death. Modern day Japan has a word very close to English for honor, Meiyo. This word is closely related to several other words that can be found throughout Japanese history, such as na (name), haji (shame), menboku (face), chijoku(dishonor), iiji (pride), and sekentei (how you look to the world). Na and haji have been especially used for a long time as to describe the two sides of the same coin for Japanese samurai, as na was wanted and haji was avoided. On the topic of the shame culture, modern day Japan now has more words for shaming language than honor, which goes to show how the two sides of the same idea can often ebb and flow, and shows how the honor culture has been "tamed".

It is safe to assume that since honor and shame are so closely related, and that if honor is so important in the life of the average samurai and even possibly in the average person, that the threat of shame and dishonor could be great enough to get someone to conform to things that normally would astound an outsider, in one major case, suicide, be it ritualistic or on their own. This is but a short glance at the history of honor, yet gives a reason for honor culture. But what gives the military honor? That is a question for another day.

Source:

Ikegami, Eiko. The Taming of the Samurai. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 1995. Print