Zen and the Samurai: Rethinking Ties Between Zen and the Warrior

The purpose of this study is to examine the supposed ties between the samurai warrior of Japan and the Zen school of Buddhism. It has been suggested by numerous authors that Zen served as the foundation of warrior training methods and ethical codes. This study suggests that the relationship between warrior and Zen has been overstated, and the image of the Zen warrior was largely a product of intense nationalism that dominated Japanese political and religious institutions during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.