Madison History Club Fall 2024 Public Lecture: “Chivalry, Stoicism, and the Way of the Samurai in Modern Japan”

“Chivalry, Stoicism, and the Way of the Samurai in Modern Japan”

Sarah Thal (UW–Madison, Department of History) The Way of the Samurai (bushido) is often seen as a centuries-old traditional code of Japan’s elite warrior class. However, not only did the idea of a distinct Way of the Samurai only originate around 1600, but proponents also reinvented it in the 1890s and early 1900s, decades after the samurai had ceased to exist as a social group, and when Japan had become a modern, constitutional monarchy. In this talk, we examine how and why many Japanese reimagined and promoted a Way of the Samurai by comparing it to medieval European chivalry and ancient Greek and Roman Stoicism. Professor Sarah Thal is a historian of early modern and modern Japan with particular interest in the interplay of religious, social, and political dynamics. Her research and teaching interests include: Shinto, kami worship, and Japanese religion; the Meiji Restoration; samurai and bushido; local and place-based history; the modernization of the Japanese aristocracy; natural resources and the environment; and historical research methods. Sponsored by: UW–Madison Department of History