Skip to main content
  • 362 Accesses

Abstract

Zen Buddhism in particular has become a method of training in perfection, a method of concentration and self-control, a training in efficiency, in aesthetic appreciations, and in creativity. Outside Japan, it is rare to find techniques of mysticism practiced by many without the reward of a religious mystic experience; yet, here in Japan, it is practiced by policemen and soldiers, sportsmen, artists, and businessmen as a superior way of reaching perfection in their chosen way of life. Ancient Buddhism resembles positively in its attempt to shift the center from the worship of God to the service of man. Bushido related to Zen refers not only to martial rectitude, but to personal rectitude: Rectitude or justice 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.” Bushido teaches that men should behave according to an absolute moral standard, one that transcends logic. This chapter analyzes the development of Zen and Bushido, and how they shaped the modern Japanese characters, which have strong connections to the Japanese management ethics.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Akamatsu, T., and P. Yampolsky. 1977. Muromachi Zen and the Gozan System. In Japan in the Muromachi Age, ed. J.W. Hall and T. Toyoda. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bellah, R. 1957. Tokugawa Religion. The Cultural Roots of Modern Japan. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collins, R. 1997. An Asian Route to Capitalism: Religious Economy and the Origins of Self-Transforming Growth in Japan. American Sociological Review 62 (6): 843–865.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Daizen, B. 2006. Zen at War. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dator JA. 1971, The Protestant Ethic in Japan. In Selected Readings in Modern Japanese Society, eds. G.K. Yamamoto and T. Ishida. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dharma Path, collected by Bhikku Bodhi, http://www.maithri.com/dhammapada.

  • Dumoulin, H. 1990. Zen Buddhism: A History. New York: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eberhard, W. 1977. A History of China. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guseynov, A. 1975. Buddhism as an Ethics-centered Worldview in the Symposium with Institute of Philosophy. Moscow: Russian Academy of Sciences.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jacobs, A.J. 2010. Max Weber Was Right About the Preconditions, Just Wrong About Japan: The Japanese Ethic and Its Spirit of Capitalism. The Open Area Studies Journal 3: 12–29.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hall, J.W., K. Nagahara, and K. Yamamura. 1981. Japan Before Tokugawa: Political Consolidation and Economic Growth, 1500 to 1650. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hall, J.W., and T. Toyoda. 1977. Japan in the Muromachi Age. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hanley, S., and K. Yamamura. 1977. Economic and Demographic Change in Preindustrial Japan, 1600–1868. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hanley, S. 1986. Standard of Living in Nineteenth Century Japan: Reply to Yasuba. Journal of Economic History 46: 225–226.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hauser, W. 1974. Economic Institutional Change in Tokugawa Japan: Osaka and the Kinai Cotton Trade. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hiroike, C. 1928. Treatise on Moral Science. Tokyo: Reitaku University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hiroi, Y. 2000. Kea Gaku (A Science of Care). Tokyo: Igaku Shoin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holmes, S., and C. Horioka. 1973. Zen Art for Meditation, Rutland. Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle.

    Google Scholar 

  • Inazo, N. 1899. Bushido, The Soul of Japan. Tokyo: Reitaku University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kitagawa, J. 1987. On Understanding Japanese Religion. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mark, E. 1973. The Pattern of the Chinese Past. London: Methuen.

    Google Scholar 

  • McClain, J.L., and O. Wakita. 1999. The Merchants’ Capital of Early Modern Japan. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McMullin, N. 1984. Buddhism and State in Sixteenth Century Japan. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mizuno, J. 1991. Kea no Ningengaku, A Philosophical Anthropology of Care. Tokyo: Yumiru Shuppan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morris-Suzuki, T. 1994. The Technological Transformation of Japan: From the Seventeenth to the Twenty- first Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morishima, M. 1987. Confucius and Capitalism. New York: UNESCO.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nakamura, H. 1967. Suzuki Shosan and the Spirit of Capitalism in Japanese Buddhism. Moniimenta Nipponica 22: 1–14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nishijima, S. 1986. The Economic and Social History of Former Han. In The Cambridge History of China, vol. 1, The Chin and Han Empires, eds. D. Twitchett and M. Loewe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nishitani, K. 2006. On Buddhism, trans. Seisaku Yamamoto and Robert E. Carter. Albany: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roberts, J.G. 1973. Mitsui: Three Centuries of Japanese Business. New York: Weatherhill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rozman, G. 1991. The East Asian Region. Confucian Heritage and Its Modern Adaptation. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sansom G. 1963a. A History of Japan: 1334–1615. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sansom, G. 1963b. A History of Japan: 1615–1867. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Suzuki, D.T. 1959. Zen and Japanese Culture. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sydney, C.E. 1963. Changes in Japanese Commerce in the Tokugawa Period. Journal of Asian Studies 23: 387–400.

    Google Scholar 

  • Takaya K. 2005. The Jodo Shinshu Sectś Missionary Work in Colonial Korea. In Modern Japanese Buddhism and Pan-Asianism. The 19th World Congress of the International Association for the History of Religions, Tokyo.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tamura, Y. 2001. Japanese Buddhism: A Cultural History. Tokyo: Kosei.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wargo, R. 1990. Japanese Ethics: Beyond Good and Evil. Philosophy East & West 40 (4): 499–509.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weber, M. 1992. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weber, M. 1991. Sociology of Religion. Boston: Beacon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yamamoto, S. 1992. The Spirit of Japanese Capitalism. New York: Madison Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yamamura, K. 1997. The Economic Emergence of Modern Japan. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Yamamura, K. 1989. Zen and the gozan. In The Cambridge History of Japan, vol. 3, Me-dieval Japan, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yamamura, K. 1981. Returns on Unification: Economic Growth in Japan, 1550–1650. In Japan Before Tokygawa, ed. J. Hall, K. Nagahara, and K. Yamamura. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yamamura, K. 1990. The Growth of Commerce in Medieval Japan. In The Cambridge History of Japan, vol. 3, Medieval Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yasuba, Y. 1986. Standard of Living in Japan before Industrialization: From What Level Did Japan Begin. Journal of Economic History 46: 217–224.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dipak Basu .

Appendix

Appendix

Japanese DNA Haplogroup:

There are three main Y-haplogroups in Japan, D, O, and C.

D:

Roughly 40% of Japanese belong to D, but nearly all of it is D1b which is unique to Japanese only. There is no D in China or Korea except in Tibet. But Tibetans are D1a.

The D has very unique mutation called YAP. But there is one another haplogroup that has YAP, which is the haplogroup E. E only exists in the eastern Africa, West Asia, and some parts of Europe. So this could be the Japanese connection with Caucasians.

O:

Up to 30% of the Japanese belong to the haplogroup O, but they are O1b2 (O-47z), which almost exclusively occurs in Japan. Koreans are xO-47, and there is none of this in China.

15–20% of Japanese belong to O2. About 70% of the northern Chinese and 35% of Koreans belong to O2, so that this could well be the Japanese connection with Chinese and Koreans.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Basu, D., Miroshnik, V. (2021). Ethics of Japanese Buddhism, Shintoism, and Confusion Philosophy. In: Ethics, Morality and Business: The Development of Modern Economic Systems, Volume I. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71493-2_7

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71493-2_7

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-71492-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-71493-2

  • eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics