Bushido
Bushido
!A samurai in [his armor in the 1860s. Hand-colored photograph by Felice Beato](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b5/KobotoSantaro%2CaJapanesemilitarycommanderWellcomeV0037661.jpg/250px-KobotoSantaro%2CaJapanesemilitarycommanderWellcomeV0037661.jpg)
Origin
The concept of a samurai code or codes was developed and refined centuries before the Edo period in the Kamakura period. Such ideas formalized earlier moral values and ethics, most commonly stressing a combination of sincerity, frugality, loyalty, martial arts mastery, honour until death, "bravery", and "loyalty to the samurai's lord." Bushido proper developed between the 16th and 20th centuries, but this was debated by pundits who believed they were building on a legacy dating back to the 10th century.
Origin
The term bushido itself is "rarely attested in pre-modern literature", but a code of honor did exist among the writing elite and historians who were generally disgusted enough at the dishonorable activity of some fighters such as shinobi as to rarely mention them. Ideas of honor that led to bushido developed in response to the longstanding dishonorable behavior of samurai, emerging stealth and espionage techniques, and Zen Buddhist soldier tenets.
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