Research Proposal

Chivalry and Bushido which blossomed in the middle ages of Europe and Japan had big influences on people’s life and thought. They not only emphasize the importance of loyalty, kindness and pity but also form the notion of death. This paper will try to explain how chivalry and bushido shape the concept of death and compare chivalry with bushido. It seems that both chivalry and bushido think loyalty faithfulness is more important than life. They demand people to keep their promise even if it means death. Clinchamps’s essay introduces the idea of chivalry (1963). Kaeuper’s study of chivalry presents the relationship between loyalty and death (1999). Soyeshima’s research introduce the essence of bushido (1933). Nitobe’s paper which was named “Bushido” discusses the bushido from the view of Christianity (2000). Seward’s study reveals the Japanese ritual suicide, what we call “hara-kiri” (1969). These sources seem to support my thesis of paper.