Bushido; Ethics -- Japan; Japan -- Civilization; Japan -- Social life and customs; Philosophy, Japanese; Samurai -- History
Of such character was the battle fought on the bank of the Koromo River,
late in the eleventh century. The eastern army routed, its leader,
Sadato, took to flight. When the pursuing general pressed him hard and
called aloud—“It is a disgrace for a warrior to show his back to the
enemy,” Sadato reined his horse; upon this the conquering chief shouted
an impromptu verse—
“Torn into shreds is the warp of the cloth” (_koromo_).
Scarcely had the words escaped his lips when the defeated warrior,
undismayed, completed the couplet—
“Since age has worn its threads by use.”
Yoshiie, whose bow had all the while been bent, suddenly unstrung it and
turned away, leaving his prospective victim to do as he pleased. When
asked the reason of his strange behavior, he replied that he could not
bear to put to shame one who had kept his presence of mind while hotly
pursued by his enemy.
The sorrow which overtook Antony and Octavius at the death of Brutus,
has been the general experience of brave men. Kenshin, who fought for
fourteen years with Shingen, when he heard of the latter’s death, wept
aloud at the loss of “the best of enemies.” It was this same Kenshin who
had set a noble example for all time, in his treatment of Shingen,
whose provinces lay in a mountainous region quite away from the sea, and
who had consequently depended upon the Hōjō provinces of the Tokaido for
salt. The Hōjō prince wishing to weaken him, although not openly at war
with him, had cut off from Shingen all traffic in this important
article. Kenshin, hearing of his enemy’s dilemma and able to obtain his
salt from the coast of his own dominions, wrote Shingen that in his
opinion the Hōjō lord had committed a very mean act, and that although
he (Kenshin) was at war with him (Shingen) he had ordered his subjects
to furnish him with plenty of salt—adding, “I do not fight with salt,
but with the sword,” affording more than a parallel to the words of
Camillus, “We Romans do not fight with gold, but with iron.” Nietzsche
spoke for the samurai heart when he wrote, “You are to be proud of your
enemy; then, the success of your enemy is your success also.” Indeed
valor and honor alike required that we should own as enemies in war only
such as prove worthy of being friends in peace. When valor attains this
height, it becomes akin to
BENEVOLENCE, THE FEELING OF
DISTRESS,
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