I, and I alone, gave the order to fire on the foreigners at Kobe, and again as they tried to escape. For this crime I disembowel myself, and I beg you who are present to do me the honour of witnessing the act.”
– Taki Zenzaburo

Justice, courage, loyalty, self-control: the qualities essential to the Samurai warriors of Japan are those to which we all aspire. In this classic work, originally published as Bushido: The Soul of Japan, Inazo Nitobe explores the moral code of the Japanese warrior class, from the importance of politeness rituals to the ultimate chilling self-sacrifice: hara-kiri or suicide. Nitobe’s engaging text conjures up a world of chivalric principles and brutal warfare – a fading way of life, but one that has resonance in modern Japanese society and around the globe.