The seventh and, in Nitobe's own account, culminating of the bushido virtues: loyalty, above all to one's lord, which Nitobe holds distinguishes bushido's reading of Confucian duty from the mainland Chinese emphasis on filial piety, since a samurai's loyalty to his lord could override even loyalty to his own family. The Forty-Seven Ronin, the early eighteenth century incident in which a band of retainers avenged their lord's forced suicide and then submitted to their own, is the tradition's most celebrated narrative illustration.
Facts
Origins
Place of OriginJapan; the Forty-Seven Ronin incident is set in Edo, modern Tokyo, and Ako. 1 Origin of the NameJapanese chugi, loyalty or fidelity, the seventh of the seven virtues Inazo Nitobe names in Bushido: The Soul of Japan (1900). 1 Attributed Author / CompilerNamed and defined by Inazo Nitobe in Bushido: The Soul of Japan (1900), who treats the Forty-Seven Ronin incident as loyalty's most celebrated narrative expression. 1 Status
Status Within the TraditionStandard teaching, not formally defined 1 Doctrinal Status DetailThe seventh and culminating virtue in Nitobe's scheme; Nitobe holds bushido's loyalty to one's lord could override the Confucian mainland's own emphasis on filial piety to one's family, a distinction he draws explicitly between Japanese and Chinese practice. 1 Attestation
Meaning in the Attesting SourceLoyalty and fidelity to one's lord, held in Nitobe's account to override even loyalty to one's own family. 1 Disputed
Origin PeriodNitobe's codified scheme dates to 1900; the Forty-Seven Ronin incident he cites as its illustration is independently dated to 1701 through 1703, well before Nitobe's own systematic account, though how far it exemplifies a continuous ethic rather than a celebrated exception remains debated among historians of Japan. 2 Connections
Belongs to Tradition
Bushido, of which this virtue is a part, is already recorded as related-to Shinto; recorded here as its belongs-to-tradition anchor, alongside Bushido's own Zen Buddhist and Confucian influences which this single edge does not claim to exhaust.
In Language
Originates in Language
Source Bushido: The Soul of JapanInazo Nitobe
Related To
Meiyo (Honor), Virtues Both named among Inazo Nitobe's seven bushido virtues.
Source Bushido: The Soul of JapanInazo Nitobe
Sources
1. Bushido: The Soul of Japan
Inazo Nitobe, Leeds and Biddle, 1900Originates in Language: Japanese, Stored language property on this entity, cited to this source: japanese
2. Inventing the Way of the Samurai: Nationalism, Internationalism, and Bushido in Modern Japan
Oleg Benesch, Oxford University Press, 2014
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