Loyalty in Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Samurai Discourse

Abstract

Chū, usually translated as loyalty, is supposed to have been the paramount virtue of samurai, inspiring them to the selfless service of their daimyo. Analyzing the understandings of this notion among samurai thinkers of seventeenth and eighteenth century Japan, this article stresses that, far from there being one understanding of chū, many interpretations were competing with each other; it examines the various dynamics that can explain this fragmentation. One, opening the possibility of higher values, was the necessity of justifying the demands of chū. Another was the competition from other moral notions, such as the concern for one's reputation. The problems that chū inevitably encountered in practice—the dilemma of conflicting loyalties, or the rivalry from non moral goods like wealth and power—were also powerful factors. Yet another dynamic was the weakening of the private feudal bonds and the subsequent recognition of the contractual nature of many social relationships. The cumulative effect of those dynamics explains that in the end chū could even become an object of incomprehension or derision. Ultimately chū only survived because it was enlisted to construct a relationship that could withstand any test, being, quite unlike that of samurai and daimyo, purely imaginary and empty: that between the Emperor and his subjects.