Bushido, the Soul of Japan: with 13 full-page colour illustrations from the time of the Samurai.

Born in 1862, Nitobe Inazo was a Japanese polymath (holding five doctorates) and Christian convert who travelled widely in both Europe and America. In 1900, he published his seminal work Bushido, the soul of Japan, an attempt to explain his country to the western mind via the tenets of Japan's warrior caste, the samurai.

Nitobe places Bushido firmly in the western concept of Knighthood, using an eclectic sample of western philosophy and history to draw out similarities in terms of courage, h...