Inazo Nitobe

Bushido, the Soul of Japan Inazo Nitobe

Bushido: The Soul of Japan is a book written by Inazo Nitobe exploring the way of the samurai. It was published in 1900. Bushido: The Soul of Japan is, along with Hagakure by Yamamoto Tsunetomo (1659-1719), a study of the way of the samurai. A best-seller in its day, it was read by many influential foreigners, among them President Theodore Roosevelt, President John F. Kennedy and Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of the Boy Scouts. Nitobe originally wrote Bushido: The Soul of Japan in English (1899), in Monterey, California, though according to the book's preface it was written in Malvern, Pennsylvania. The book was not translated into Japanese until it had been popular in the English-speaking world for several years.