Bushido Virtue #6 Meiyo - Honor

Politicians and celebrities using the media to downplay the shame of their misdeeds.  Fathers killing their children for choosing a different point of view.  Our culture’s understanding of honor – meiyo in Japanese – is seriously distorted and sullied.  It seems today that if we can get away with something or “sincerely apologize” if we get caught, then it’s ok to do whatever we want.  Our reputation, our family name, our honor doesn’t matter much anymore.  On the other hand, much arrogance and selfishness has been perpetrated in the name of one’s “honor”.  So what is it really?

This is the 6^th virtue of Bushido.  Wikipedia states that honor is “a perceived quality of worthiness and respectability that affects both the social standing and the self-evaluation of an individual or corporate body such as a family, school, regiment or nation”.  The key word is perceived.  From multiple definitions of the word comes the idea that my honor is only as good as what other people see it to be.  But is this what honor means for us in the martial arts?

In “Bushido: The Soul of Japan”, Nitboe explains “A good name—one's reputation, the immortal part of one's self, what remains being bestial—assumed as a matter of course, any infringement upon its integrity was felt as shame, and the sense of shame was one of the earliest to be cherished in juvenile education.”  Here lies the difference.  My honor does not depend on what others think.  It *does* take into consideration what others have taught me.  It *does* heed what my mentors, my fellow karate-ka, and my sensei says.  But ultimately, my own personal honor is judged from within.  And without the previous 5 tenets of Bushido, my judgment will be skewed. 

This is why I am glad I feel ashamed if I do not drop for pushups if I miss cadence during class.

But, what about when I am insulted?  What about when I am accused of something I did not do? Nitobe reminds us that we must temper and balance these outward perceptions of our honor with magnanimity and patience.  Rather than fly into a rage at a perceived insult, we must rely on the previous 5 tenets of Bushido and respond from them. 

This is where it gets tough.  From the beginning, following the tenets of Bushido transforms us from inside out.  Honor is where what is inside us shows itself to the outside world.  What will others see?  Will they become hungry for what we have?  Will they see a life lived so differently than everyone else around them that they ask?  

As said previously, gi points the way for us, yu kicks us in the pants to move, jin keeps us mindful of others on the same journey, rei is how we act toward everyone on the same path (including ourselves) – and makoto keeps us on the path.  Meiyo either repels or draws others to join us on our journey.  Would others want to join you?