Inventing the Way of the Samurai by Oleg Benesch

Such works generally begin with the premise that the concept or term at stake is lacking in deep historical roots-despite, in most cases, what its proponents and even many critics may suggest. The book's title is apt, in that it can be placed among the recent scholarly trend toward constructing the 'genealogy' of a modern concept (such as the nation-state, Hinduism, race, or homosexuality). But then closure on anything related to modern Japanese intellectual history is always a delusion. If the reader comes to this book seeking 'closure' on bushidō, she will be disappointed. A line in the conclusion sums this up well: 'he reasons behind the adoption of bushidō by most people in Japan as a genetic ideology-an ideology that is adopted by a social group in spite of apparent conflict with their objective interests-are as varied as its definitions and applications' (p. It is also a work that can be frustrating at times, though this is less because of any limitations on the part of the author or his method than due to the inherent complexity and multivalence of the primary theme: bushidō, the so-called 'way of the samurai' (or 'way of the warrior'). Oleg is also a co-author of the 2015 book, Civilizing Emotions: Concepts in Nineteenth-Century Asia and Europe, also published by Oxford University Press.This is a solid, well-written, and immensely informative piece of scholarship.

His second monograph, Japan's Castles: Citadels of Modernity in War and Peace, was co-authored with Ran Zwigenberg and published by Cambridge University Press in 2019. Oleg’s first book, Inventing the Way of the Samurai: Nationalism, Internationalism, and Bushido in Modern Japan, was published by Oxford University Press in 2014. He presents his research findings at academic conferences and invited lectures throughout East Asia, Europe, North America, and Australia. His publications and teaching interests cover a variety of fields, including Japanese intellectual, religious, and social history, Chinese intellectual history, as well as the transnational history of modern East Asia.

Oleg Benesch is Professor of East Asian History, specializing in the history of early modern and modern Japan and China. BA (Alaska Fairbanks), MA (Reitaku), PhD (British Columbia)

Inventing the Way of the Samurai by Oleg Benesch