What Nitobe Inazō thinks about Japan
Japanese agronomist, diplomat and writer (1862 to 1933); one of the Under-Secretaries General of the League of Nations from its founding in 1920; author of Bushido: The Soul of Japan.
Nitobe Inazō did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
2 dated positions, 1905, in their own words. Our reading of what Nitobe Inazō has said — not written or endorsed by them.
The line under a date shows how recently it was said: empty within a month, full after three years.
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Our readingChivalry is as native to Japan as the cherry blossom and is still a living moral force there
Their wordsChivalry is a flower no less indigenous to the soil of Japan than its emblem, the cherry blossom; nor is it a dried-up specimen of an antique virtue preserved in the herbarium of our history. It is still a living object of power and beauty among us; and if it assumes no tangible shape or form, it not the less scents the moral atmosphere, and makes us aware that we are still under its potent spell.
↗Bushido, the Soul of Japan (tenth revised edition, 1905)gutenberg.org 2nd of 7 in this piece
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Their wordsUnder the régime of feudalism, which could easily be perverted into militarism, it was to Benevolence that we owed our deliverance from despotism of the worst kind.
↗Bushido, the Soul of Japan (tenth revised edition, 1905)gutenberg.org 3rd of 7 in this piece
The line under a date fills as the words age, a quarter at a time: past a month, six months, a year, and three years. Empty means said within the last month; full, more than three years ago. It says when, not whether it still holds — a change of mind is marked on the claim itself.
Dashed means we only know the words existed by that date; they may be older.