ns
demanding an appeal to force, and spared no pains to develop the
qualities that distinguished them--the qualities of the bushi. Thus,
as we turn the pages of history, we find the ethics of the soldier
developing into a recognized code. His sword becomes an object of
profound veneration from the days of Minamoto Mitsunaka, who summons
a skilled swordsmith to the capital and entrusts to him the task of
forging two blades, which, after seven days of fasting and prayer and
sixty days of tempering, emerge so trenchant that they are thereafter
handed down from generation to generation of the Minamoto as
treasured heirlooms.*

*The swords were named "Knee-cutter" and "Beard-cutter," because when
tested for decapitating criminals, they severed not only the necks
but also the beard and the knees.

That the bushi's word must be sacred and irrevocable is established
by the conduct of Minamoto Yorinobu who, having promised to save the
life of a bandit if the latter restore a child taken as a hostage,
refuses subsequently to inflict any punishment whatever on the
robber. That a bushi must prefer death to surrender is a principle
observed in thousands of cases, and that his family name must be
carefully guarded against every shadow of reproach is proved by his
habit of prefacing a duel on the battle-field with a recitation of
the titles and deeds of his ancestors. To hold to his purpose in
spite of evil report; to rise superior to poverty and hardship; not
to rest until vengeance is exacted for wrong done to a benefactor or
a relation; never to draw his sword except in deadly earnest--these
are all familiar features of the bushi's practice, though the order
and times of their evolution cannot be precisely traced.

Even more characteristic is the quality called fudoshin, or
immobility of heart. That this existed in practice from an early era
cannot be doubted, but its cultivation by a recognized system of
training dates from the beginning of the thirteenth century, when the
introspective tenet (kwanshin-ho) of the Zen sect of Buddhism taught
believers to divest themselves wholly of passion and emotion and to
educate a mind unmoved by its environment, so that, in the storm and
stress of battle, the bushi remains as calm and as self-possessed as
in the quietude of the council chamber or the sacred stillness of the
cloister. The crown of all his qualities was self-respect. He rated
himself too high to descend to petty quarrels, or