Samurai Art Project

           

                             

  

Bushido (Way of Samurai) perspective:

Rectitude/Justice or Righteousness is the strongest virtue of Bushido. 

A well-known samurai defines it this way: ‘Rectitude is one’s power to decide upon a course of conduct in accordance with reason, without wavering; to die when to die is right, to strike when to strike is right.’ Another speaks of it in the following terms: ‘Rectitude is the bone that gives firmness and stature. Without bones the head cannot rest on top of the spine, nor hands move, nor feet stand.

Controversial Questions

  • Can Righteousness and Justice emerge under the circumstance of no proprietary by any Monarch, Kingship, or sovereign state?
  • Does this virtue exist totally free from a pressure of social, economical, and political system by human institutions?
  • Who decide when is a right time to act, what course of actions should be taken and how it should be conducted so that it would be beneficial to all humankind universally?

             

            Biblical Perspective

            義/ Righteousness

            This Japanese kanji character consists of the following two parts which to me implies “Jesus Christ”.

                                                       

             

            Galatians 2:16 “know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.”

            Rom 4:1–6 “What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about— but not before God. What does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works”