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Hana wa sakuragi, hito wa bushi ( Japanese: 花は桜木人は武士, literally "the [best] blossom is the cherry blossom; the [best] man is the warrior") is a Japanese proverb that originated in the medieval period. [1] It is also rendered as "among blossoms the cherry blossom, among men, the warrior" or likewise. The proverb means that as the cherry blossom ( sakura) is considered foremost among flowers, so the warrior ( samurai, usually referred to in Japanese as bushi) was foremost among men. [2] The samurai was also likened to cherry blossom as his life, while glorious, was prone to a sudden end during military service, similar to petals shed by cherry blossoms or camellia. [2]

The association of cherry blossoms with the samurai class was established by the kabuki theater which also popularized the proverb. [3] Such an association began during the mid- Edo period. [3] The proverb's theme is echoed in a poem attributed to the priest Ikkyū in Mottomo no sōshi (1634): "Among men the samurai [is best]; among pillars, cypress wood; among fish, the sea bream; among robes, magenta; and among cherry blossoms, those of Yoshino". [4] The proverb also appears in Kanadehon Chushingura from 1748. Later, the proverb was evoked in the Japanese military as a motivation following the outbreak of World War II. [5]

See also

References

  1. ^ Daniel Crump Buchanan, ed. (1965). Japanese Proverbs and Sayings. University of Oklahoma Press. p.  119. ISBN  0806110821.
  2. ^ a b Catharina Blomberg (2013). The Heart of the Warrior: Origins and Religious Background of the Samurai System in Feudal Japan. Routledge. pp. xi–xii. ISBN  978-1134240265.
  3. ^ a b Sepp Linhart; Sabine Frühstück (1998). The Culture of Japan as Seen through Its Leisure. SUNY Press. p. 223. ISBN  0791437914.
  4. ^ Haruo Shirane (2013). Early Modern Japanese Literature: An Anthology, 1600-1900. Columbia University Press. p. 273. ISBN  978-0231507431.
  5. ^ Bruce Gamble (2014). Invasion Rabaul: The Epic Story of Lark Force, the Forgotten Garrison, January - July 1942. Zenith Press. pp. 73–74. ISBN  978-0760345917.
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