On Bushido Code

Recently a great post was discussing the code of the Samurai, Bushido, and I commented on it where the blogger provided me a wonderful pdf document "Samurai Life in Medieval Japan" from the University of Colorado, i.e. www.colorado.edu, site. Some interesting quotes follow with some comments in [brackets] that I felt were interesting in relation to my practice and my system.

Samurai Rules
...

XII. If you have a little leisure, read books. ... . [knowledge is power; learning all we can from all sources is relevant and necessary for a well rounded person and martial artists.]

XV. It is boorish and vile to have no poetic sensibility or skill, ... . [this one also means to me a full understanding of principles/fundamentals and that which can be derived from the studies of the ken-po goku-i and all the ancient classics, etc.]

... First you should become skilled in the essentials, and then practice the standard techniques ... . [since this comes from a Japanese historical source it just goes to show that one MUST become skilled in the essentials. Essentials in my view are the principles/fundamentals of the martial arts. To practice the standard techniques seems to allude to practice of waza, kata, drills, etc. but does not allude to remaining within that area so one could theorize that there is more beyond this level, etc.]
... the “Arts of peace and War, ... ,” ... From of old, the rule has been, “Practice the Arts of Peace on the left hand, and the Arts of War on the right.” Mastery of both is required. [Note: this can also be related to the Isshinryu-no-Megami hand position, i.e. the left hand held down and open in a fashion to indicate peace/peaceful/or art of peace while the right hand in a fist to represent the combative aspects of the system or the practice and study of the arts of war.]

Excerpted from “Hojo Soun’s Twenty-One Articles”

Momoyama Period (1573-1603) is interesting as the Shogun, Hideyoshi Toyotomi, made some major changes, including forcing all non-samurai to give up their weapons ... [I have not verified this yet but this may be around the time the Okinawans were defanged but not necessarily the actions taken by the Okinawan Royalty when disarming its people before the Japanese.]

References
McCullough, Helen (trans.), The Tale of the Heike (Stanford, CA; Stanford University Press, 1990).
Shimizu, Yoshiaki, ed., Japan: The Shaping of Daimyo Culture 1185-1868 (Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1988).
Steenstrup, Carl, “Hoko Soun’s Twenty-One Articles: The Code of Conduct of the Odawara Hojo,” Monumenta Nipponica 29: 30 (Autumn 1974), pp. 283-303.
Suzuki, D. T., Zen and Japanese Culture (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1959, p. 280). Wilson, William Ritchie (trans.), H␣gen Monogatari: Tale of the Disorder in H␣gen (Ithaca,
NH: East Asia Program, Cornell University, 2001). Yoshida Kenk␣, Essays in Idleness, Donald Keene, trans. (New York: Columbia University
Press, 1967).