![]() ![]() ![]() Such works generally begin with the premise that the concept or term at stake is lacking in deep historical roots-despite, in most cases, what its proponents and even many critics may suggest. The book's title is apt, in that it can be placed among the recent scholarly trend toward constructing the "genealogy" of a modern concept (such as the nation-state, Hinduism, race, or homosexuality). But then closure on anything related to modern Japanese intellectual history is always a delusion. If the reader comes to this book seeking "closure" on bushidō, she will be disappointed. A line in the conclusion sums this up well: "he reasons behind the adoption of bushidō by most people in Japan as a genetic ideology-an ideology that is adopted by a social group in spite of apparent conflict with their objective interests-are as varied as its definitions and applications" (p. ![]() It is also a work that can be frustrating at times, though this is less because of any limitations on the part of the author or his method than due to the inherent complexity and multivalence of the primary theme: bushidō, the so-called "way of the samurai" (or "way of the warrior"). This is a solid, well-written, and immensely informative piece of scholarship. ![]()
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