The Seven Virtues of Bushido.

According to Inazo Nitobe’s book Bushido, the lives of the samurai warriors were ruled by 7 principles called Bushido.  These 7 rules were Righteousness, Loyalty, Honor, Respect, Honesty, Courage and Consistency.

1. Righteousness (義 gi). Justice is the most important virtue for the samurai. A true samurai does not attack the enemy without an important reason.

2. Loyalty (忠義 chūgi). Loyalty is the 2nd most important thing in life. The samurai should always be loyal to his master. The samurai should also believe his duty to protect his master is the meaning of life.

3. Honor (名誉 meiyo). A life without honor is not a life. If a samurai makes a mistake, he should honor his name by committing suicide. (Example: The story of 47 samurai (the Ako Incident).

4. Respect (礼 rei). A samurai should always respect his enemy. A samurai respects his opponent before and after the fight. Even if a samurai kills his opponent, he is very respectful to the corpse.

5. Honesty ( 誠 sei). A samurai never lies. “Deception” does not exists in the book of a samurai.

6. Courage  (勇 yū). A samurai fights until the end. A samurai is never afraid of anything. He is not afraid of death. A samurai is always brave because he fights for something he believes in.

7. Consistency (誠 makoto ). A samurai never changes the path. He is like a dragonfly, he always moves forward, he never moves back.