Wa also means "circle" when it is written in a different Chinese character. This leads us to think of the early competitive peoples enclosed in a circle (the isolated lands), who were supposed to have concord by all means to prevent disruptive conflicts. Therefore, the real meaning of wa should be stated as "harmonious cohesion in a circle." In fact, wa in Japan has always meant concord among those in a group. Thus the competitiveness of the Japanese people has become invisible under the highest ethic of the nation.
Almost all books on Japan state that wa, as the principle of human behavior, was derived both from the Buddhist concept of benevolence and from Confucian teachings. Undoubtedly, the culture of Japan was significantly influenced by both Confucian ism and Buddhism. But it is important to note that these two "isms" were later influences on the culture and that the original character of the people was "competitiveness."
It is apparent from history that Confucianism in the fifth century and Buddhism in the sixth century were introduced in Japan to meet the needs of the rulers. The administrators of the nation promulgated the Confucian tradition of obedience to superiors and the Buddhist concept of benevolence, which are ideal ethics for controlling people's emotions and preventing revolt within the community.
By the same token, Christianity would not have been excluded in the Tokugawa era (1603-1867) if the administrators had found some need for this cultural invasion. Initially Christianity did make some inroads. There was a bribery scandal involving two Japanese Christian officials of the Tokugawa Bakufu (shogun's government) and, more seriously, exposure of what seemed to be a plot by certain Japanese Christians to overthrow the Bakufu with the aid of foreign troops. A number of such events combined to make Tokugawa Ieyasu (founder of the Tokugawa Bakufu) increasingly suspicious of Christianity. In 1612 and again the following year, Ieyasu issued edicts prohibiting Christianity. But these were not strictly enforced. Another edict put forward in 1614 ordered all foreign missionaries to gather in Nagasaki and then to leave Japan for good. The Tokugawa government rooted out the faith, and after the seventeenth century Christianity, like Communism in the 1930s, was excluded from the land. In the end, the Tokugawa Bakufu decided to put an end to all further intercourse with foreigners. In addition, the Bakufu decreed that any Japanese who tried to leave the country did so under punishment of death, and that death would be awaiting any Japanese who, having left the country, tried to return. Only the Dutch and some Chinese were permitted to carry on trade with the Japanese, but they were confined to Dejima (a small island in Nagasaki Harbor) and their ships were rationed and strictly controlled.
The closing of the country in the seventeenth century had significant consequences for Japan that are apparent to this day. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Japanese traders and fishermen made their adventurous mark in various parts of Asia. There were small communities of Japanese in the Philippines, Thailand, and elsewhere. But the natural expansion of the energetic Japanese race was terminated by Tokugawa policy. Certainly the story of European colonization in Asia would have taken a very different course if the Tokugawa Bakufu had not forced the Japanese to isolate themselves from the world at the very moment when the Renaissance was in full bloom in Europe. The international influences that did reach Japan, through the Dutch at Dejima, were hardly sufficient to keep the Japanese abreast of the movement of civilization in contemporary Europe. As a result, Japan dropped far behind Europe in scientific and industrial achievements.
The Tokugawa shogunate established a complicated but effective structure of administrative control to forestall any possibility of internal revolt. It was a clever and rigid administration, in which the daimyo (feudal lords; more specifically, "outer" lords) were granted virtual autonomy within their territories but were watched by the Bakufu through its network of agents with close, unwearying vigilance. There is no space to state all phases of the process here. However, one of the main features was a permanent "hostage" system, in which every daimyo was compelled to alternate residences, spending one year in his fief and the following year in the shogunal capital of Edo. When he was in his fief, the daimyo had to leave his wife and family behind him in Edo. Thus any daimyo contemplating rebellion had to make a great effort to get his family away to safety.
To strengthen control in its own domains, the Tokugawa Bakufu prescribed for the common people, as well as for the samurai class, meticulous rules affecting most phases of their daily life, including their dwelling places, their clothing, and especially the principles governing their social intercourse. These rules became the model for the daimyo in the administration of their fiefs. All over Japan, they disseminated the rules of conduct and etiquette laid down by shogunal regulations. For the samurai class in particular, a strict set of disciplines was established according to Confucian teachings. The most exemplary of these was bushido, or the moral code of the bushi (warriors, samurai). Bushido means a Spartan devotion by a warrior class to the arts of battle, a readiness for self-sacrifice, and loyalty to a martial superior. Its origin can be traced back before the Tokugawa era, at least to the twelfth century. But it was during the Tokugawa period that the concept of loyalty as a vital constituent of bushido achieved semireligious status. The most typical expressions of bushido are found in a volume entitled Hagakure, popularly known as Analects of the Nabeshima Clan, written about the year 1716. In this samurai bible we find a famous saying: "Bushido to wa shinu koto to mitsuketari." ("Bushido consists in dying" is the conclusion we have reached.) The correct interpretation of this saying is "Bushido has its foundation in dedicating one's life unconditionally to one's master's service."
In short, bushido was a moral code of self-sacrifice and self-effacement which in the extreme led to self-satisfaction. This clear sense of individual self-sacrifice governed the country in feudal times, because all the shoguns of the Tokugawa line, who were sincere patrons of Buddhist institutions as well, made Confucianism into the orthodox ideology of the state.
Under such rigid social constraints, an individual could have value and identity only by dissolving himself into the social group. Everybody learned to cultivate his individuality in ways that were socially acceptable and to control his emotional expression. Thus thousands of Japanese found true self-expression only through the nature-loving literature, the various forms of art, and other individual pursuits. Since the hierarchical system was rigidly regulated, a person could have individual identity only commensurate with his social status. In other words, a person's value as a citizen increased as his position got closer to the lord and decreased as it got further from the lord. Therefore, it was conceived that a human being achieved the highest virtue by serving his superior, the feudal lord, instead of regarding himself as independent from others. All the feudal virtues contained an element of self-annihilation and unselfishness. One was not to take one's own happiness or unhappiness into consideration.