ASIA | JAPAN | TRAVEL

Discovering Bushido in a Preserved Samurai Home

Reading Inazō Nitobe’s “The Way of the Samurai” while visiting the Nomura Family Samurai House was a perfect conjunction

Painted screen doors in the Nomura Samurai House. All photos are the property of the author.

One of my favorite activities is mixing literature and sightseeing. Sometimes, the experiment works better than others. Picking up a copy of “” and flicking through its pages while visiting one of Japan's few lasting Samurai houses was one of those times.

During our latest trip to Japan, my family and I stopped in Kanazawa on the way to Kyoto. Not only is Kanazawa a well-preserved depiction of Edo-era Japan, but it is also home to the Nagamachi district, where the Samurai of Kanazawa dwelled. Between the canals and the cobbled alleys, the Nomura Family Samurai House is located and open to the public.

I felt that watching “The Last Samurai” and a few anime on this subject wouldn’t quite prepare me to understand Bushido (not that it is a requirement in any way when visiting the house of a Samurai). Yet, it rang the hollow sound of a missed opportunity.

In a way, Inazō Nitobe wrote his guide to the Samurai’s way with people like me in mind. That is to say, foreigners. Page after page, he refers to the European…