Courage

Courage has many meanings if you look it up in the dictionary such as: bravery, valor, guts, fortitude, fearlessness, prowess....All these words mean is used to describe courage and many other words that we use to describe some one who is courageous and he receive them all with pride and joy and that make us wonder why all this joy and happiness that someone feels when he is being described as courageous and what did he do to deserve it and did he deserve it at all?!
Courage is the quality that we describe by it an army leader who confronted a huge army with only few soldiers to defend something dear to them, a person who risked his life to save a child from drowning, a fireman that rushes into the burning house to save its inhabitants from being burned alive, .....And many other situations that we find ourselves saying "Oh how courageous" and for a split of a second we wish that we were in those people places but the biggest question is "will we react as they did in that situation?" I think that by this question we can really define courage.
Some may say that a man with no fear is a courageous man and only when a person fears nothing then we can say that he's got courage, well as charming it may seems it is absolutely WRONG, you may ask why? If you fear nothing then u may do whatever you want, you can lead an army of ten people against a thousand, you can jump into a lava river to save someone,...Etc.
and if those are not courageous then who in the world is? Well the point is you can never have no fear at all and if you do then you are as they say "a man with no fear is a man with no brain"and I don't mean that you should fear for yourself cause fearing death has never prolonged someone's life not even a day long, as they say "cherish your life but don't fear death" so now one may ask "then what is the world should I fear for then if I'm dead then everything ends there is no me anymore " before saying that you should ask yourself one thing have you ever loved and cherished something more than you life if you haven't then believe me you haven't lived not even a single day and that what you should fear for (your loved ones) and here u can define a new perspective for courage from a person saving a live of a dear one to a fireman risking his life for people whom he doesn't know.
So after all that I think it is safe to say that courage is not having no fear at all but rather confronting these fears in order to do what is right and what you believe in so it is to rush into the jaws of death for what you believe in and you should fear no death if for the right cause.

Rectitude

You can define rectitude with many words such as:

• Moral uprightness; righteousness.
• The quality or condition of being correct in judgment.
• The quality of being straight in the moral behavior.

That what we'll get if we looked up this word in the dictionary but what is it really mean and how can we classify a person to have this quality or not?

well let's talk a bit about this virtue, it is one of the most important virtues for the warrior since this virtue defines all other virtues and as one of the greatest samurai said once "Rectitude is the bone that gives firmness and stature. As without bones the head cannot rest on the top of the spine, nor hands move nor feet stand, so without rectitude neither talent nor learning can make of a human frame a samurai. With it the lack of accomplishments is as nothing".

So what does it really mean to be rectitudinous ? A well-known bushi defines it as a power of resolution: "Rectitude is the power of deciding upon a certain course of conduct in accordance with reason, without wavering, to die when it is right to die, to strike when to strike is right."

In simple words it is the ability do define what is right and to do it and stand for it even if the price is the persons own life and from that we understand why it is a virtue defining all virtues.

In Japan back in the old days the the epithet Gishi (a man of rectitude) was considered superior to any name that signified mastery of learning or art so being rectitudinous is not only considered as a posession of a virtue but as an achievement also.

Now we reach the more important question how can we define a Gishi (a man of rectitude) and how to become one, well it is simple in words but believe me it is hard in act. in words I can say that you should put every act in your life to a simple scale whether this act is right or wrong you may say that this is a sentence we tell kids in order to be good children and that for adults it is more complicated than that and that the line between right and wrong is rather vague cause as an adult you'll be in certain situation that will oblige you to lie, deceive, and other stuff for the greater good, well to tell the truth as I was writing that exact previous sentence I was like what is this crap I'm writing how come an intelligent human being is not able to differentiate between what is right and what is wrong, that is just absurd to even think of, the strange thing is that we forbid our children from doing or even thinking of these things and why is that? the answer is simpler than you think it is just that we want them to stay pure while in our custody and after that they may got corrupted as they like and that is the story of us all so why do we need to get corrupted the answer for that is cause we choose to be and don't tell me "we have to in order to be able to live in this world" and such crap, it is simply what you choose to be not what the world want you to be so the moment of truth is whenever you decide that it is enough of the lying, deceiving... and it is time to be a Gishi (a man of rectitude) and believe me there is no loss in that not so ever so be true to your self and that is what matters.

Bushido

Bushido meaning "way of the warrior," is a Japanese code of conduct and a way of life, loosely analogous to the European concept of chivalry, Bushido is the code of moral principles which the samurai were required or instructed to observe.
Bushido expanded and formalized the earlier code of the samurai, and stressed frugality, loyalty, mastery of martial arts, and honor to the death. Under the Bushido ideal, if a samurai failed to uphold his honor he could regain it by performing seppuku (ritual suicide).

So here come the question what is that thing that require the samurai to kill them-self if they have to and why are they obliged to live by it if it require them to kill them-self in certain situations since anyone sane enough will say this is not a way of life if it get you to kill your-self for it and what is it for you if you live by that code? I can't say that the answer for that is simple to undersatnd so the answer for this question is in one word it is "FAITH" I don't want to go through a religious stuff ( shinto or Buddhist) I just want to make my point that they believed in that this way of life is how a true warrior should liveand die.
Here are Seven virtues associated with bushido:

Gi – Rectitude
Yū – Courage
Jin – Benevolence
Rei – Respect
Shin– Honesty
Meiyo – Honor
Chū – Loyalty

Others that are sometimes added to these:

Kō - Filial piety
Chi - Wisdom
Tei - Care for the aged

well it is very obvious that these virtues are pretty impressive even for a saint so now it is more clear why the samurai believed in Bushido since it represent everything that a samurai should be endowed with so to hold these qualities and defend them is more important than life it-self for the samurai because these qualities define the samurai and without them they are nothing more than ordinary brawlers with no ethics and principles so in reality by defending these virtues the samurai defend their isism and who they are and isn't that indeed something worthy to give your life for...

I'll end my post by the word of the great Samurai Torii Mototada when he chose to stay behind in his master (Tokugawa Ieyasu) castle to provid him more time to escape.
" It is not the Way of the Warrior to be shamed and avoid death even under circumstances that are not particularly important.....For myself, I am resolved to make a stand within the castle and to die a quick death. It would not take much trouble to break through a part of their numbers and escape, no matter how many tens of thousands of horsemen approached for the attack or by how many columns we were surrounded. But that is not the true meaning of being a warrior, and it would be difficult to account as loyalty. Rather, I will stand off the forces of the entire country here, and...die a resplendent death"

Ken Shin

It might be a weird word for some of you so I'll explane a little it is a Japanese word and it is formed of two syllables the first (Ken) which means a sword or blade and the second (shin) it means true (these words can come in other meanings) so these two word together means "True sword" and that doesn't mean that this sword is true and there is a fake sowrd no not like that but it means the true representation or meaning of the sword and when a person is called "Ken shin" it means "Sword's Saint".

Some might say Oh God no not another samurai freak that will talk and talk about how the samurai is great and strong and such crap while he is only a lazy ass kid who wish to be a samurai one day spending no effort, well half that is true I wish to be a samurai one day and to tell the truth I wish to be a "Ken shin" but that doesn't mean that I'll go buy a sword and go down the street and slash people and bring some heads home it is not about that no not at all it is about the essence of being a samurai and how to perform that in our daily life so I'm going to talk about the true samurai and the way of learning from the way of the samurai what will be beneficial in our way of life.

and now we arrive to the big question "why samurai?" and that is an important question really why not Medieval knights, Arabian knights, Mongol warriors....and many others, well to tell the truth I like Japanese every thing but aside from that it makes no difference because the honorable warrior will have the same ethics anywhere so you've never seen or heard of a decent warrior killing a child, a woman or an old man and we've never seen or heard about a honorable back stabbing warrior. Also in fighting technique there is no martial art that say that if your opponent's upper gard is invincible you should keep trying the same place, they all say (and believe me I know about that) that you should make a diversion to trick him so in essence there is no difference between them and as I said I like Japan and it is my descision so I say I'll deal with the SAMURAI.

My first time (don't get me wrong)

Hi this is my first post ever so I hope that you'll like it and if not then what can I say since it is my first post then I better be polite and keep my moth shut.

I like to think that this post is dedicated to someone that is not me but if there is something that I've learned from all these years for living as human then let's say that not everything that you want is what you'll get and that not everything that I say is true (hey but don't think that I'm a big fat lair-at least not fat-) well I think we'll see about that.

what you should expect of this blog-spot that it will provide you with the following stuff:

• Historical informations about some great people.
• General and particular informations about various matial arts.
• Some wisdom from the mouth of great Kyubai ( and most of it will be stupid)
• I'll bore you with some of my great adventures in the Kyubai dream land.

Well I guess it will be a normal blog with some focus on Martial art and some dull remarks from the mouth of certified psycho so I hope you'll enjoy it and

"YOU DON"T NEED TO GO ANYWARE ELSE YOU NEED TO STAY ON THIS BLOG"

and now since you've read this sentence you won'y be able to navigate away from my blog because I'm sure of my talents as a Jedi HA HA HA

have a nice time sitting infront of your PC waiting for someone to free you.....