日本 '武士道'에 대한 考察 : 죽음의 超克을 中心으로 Especially on Theire Attitude Toward Physical Death = A Study on the Japanese "Busido"

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Bushido, Japanese Kinghtship, is a kind of regulation for behavior imposed on the Japanese Samurai classes, so that the history of this regulation began with the appearance of the Samurai classes. As soon as the Imperial rule of Heian dynasty was practically collapsed by local Samurai, a primitive feudalism appeared with a Samurai boss, Kamakura Dono, as its leader. We can say Bushido is a product of the feudalism and compare it with the knightship in mediaeval Europe. But Japanese Bushido must be ditinguished from European knightship, because it had absorbed many kinds of native faiths, sects of Budhism, especially Zennism.
No one can deny that Zennism affected exclusively the growth of Japanese Bushido.
Zennism came from Chinese Song dynasty during the age of Kamakura Shogunate about the middle of 12th century.
As it treated life and death on the same level, the Samurai of Kamakura who had to abide by death-in-action found in it a queer fascination.
Zennism a faith of willingness, resultingly appealed to Samurai more morally than philosophycally. The always death-in-action-destined Samurai accepted willingly all of the had training that Zennism required; simplicity, straightness, self-defiance, et cetera. These requisitions coincided also with the combater's spirits.
The fact that a great combater was without fail a stuborn ascetic and stoic intimates the relations between Zen and Samurai. No other one has expressed the spirit of Bushido more exactly and pithily than the author of "Hagakure"-an essay written for true Samurai about 1710 AD. -who said "Bushido is found in death"
This strange exhortation covers the basic meaning of Japanese Bushido. The most gruesome way of suicide, Harakiri(cutting up belly with a sharp dagger) is a direct product of Samurai affected by Zennism. In other words, the Harakiri is the most sprended fruit of Bushido. We can not find such a ghastly death except the religious martyrdom that is to be compared with Harakiri.
The age of Tokugawa Shogunate breeded many Confucianists, and they tried to strike out various kinds of chatty rhetorics for adorning Bushido, consequently Bushido was full dreassed outside. But Bushido's inner vitality was beginning to dwindle through long ＆ steady times of peace during Tokukawa Shogunate.
Nevertheless for Samurai who were accustomed to think that the true Samurai must be either killed in battle or kill themselves through Harakiri, to find some proper chance to die Samurai-like death was their final hope.
The Girl, duty or obligation in Japanese, for their master was only a rational pretence to accomplish their purpose. For example, Akao affair(In this affair 46 Samurais who had belonged to Akao clan were sentenced to death through Harakiri because of their vendetta against Kira Yoshinaka who caused their master's death) was also a case of seeking the place to die.
Recentry novelist Mishima Yukio took the same method as Akao Samurais, he also was seeking a proper place for completing his aesthetic death. No one would believe that he had faith that his petit militant squad would defend Japan from foreign aggression. All the things he invented were merely a contrivance for his great death stage.