Japanese honor and the ideals of Bushido are based on an entirely selfless mindset. Absolutely every thought and action is carried out thinking only of others and never one's self. To most of us in the west and especially to young people, selflessness of that degree is a foreign concept. It requires sacrifices that we are not willing to make. That's not to say we are not capable of selfless behaviours, but their version is quite extreme. In this story's case, you see everyone acting selflessly. One way of being selfless is to not impose your feeling or beliefs on another. This is why no one opposed Kuroe's choice to take responsibility and blame for both Azuma's state and the loss of his arm. He felt it was a matter of honor. He believed that he had done something to Azuma with his actions that warranted Azuma's reaction of cutting his arm off. If anyone had opposed his choice of taking responsibility and blame, they would have been behaving dishonorably by imposing their thoughts and feelings on Kuroe.
In today's world these ideals are lost. Though there are a great many positive changes that have come about through the loss of these ideals, there are also many difficulties that have come from their loss as well. Courtesy and manners have been tossed aside and the idea of taking responsibility for one's own actions has given way to blaming everyone and everything but one's self. I often wonder if it was a good trade.
You explained that beautifully, thank you.
^yep that's about it
My apologies to both you and Mayumi for not responding to you sooner. I was without the ability to connect to this site for several months. Please accept my deepest apologies.
Also, please accept my thanks for your lovely compliment. I deeply admire the selfless values of the samurai. Only because, at one time, I was a very selfish person and it nearly cost me everything I hold most dear. I had to make some big changes to who I was as a person and the way I did this was to look to those who truly understood selflessness. I'm still selfish about some things, like determining one's own happiness and I am likely the least filial child on the planet. LOL Otherwise, I try to live in service to those I love ( provided it does not infringe on my own happiness in life LOL).
Again, thank you for the compliment and I hope you can forgive my delayed response.
I've been seeing you lots here ^^ And don't worry about your delayed response (≧∀≦) I hope your life is filled with happiness and grace instead of regrets~
Thank you, once again and I wish the same for you in return. I hope that you have not witnessed any of my less than admirable moments. LOL It feels like I have been on here forever, but if I gave up yaoi, I don't know what I would do with myself!
I haven’t been on my self for a long stretch of time, but there’s no need for apologies, I know we all have lives beyond this site. I’m glad you are back, your view and opinions are very insightful and honest. Please continue to share them.
Thank you so much. That is very sweet of you to say. I hope that, in the future, we can find some interesting topics to discuss together. I would enjoy that very much.
overall it was a good storyline and it ended well... but I feel like Kuroe was blamed for everything that happened and I didn't like that... no one seemed to acknowledge the fact that ole boy cut off his arm... except ole boy, even Kuroe didn't think to blame him, without knowing abt the rape... to me that didn't make any sense... the person you love initiate contact, and you end up losing an arm for doing absolutely nothing wrong on your part, then everyone around you seem to be more concerned for that person, including yourself... I don't get it, Kuroe showed no concern for the fact that he lost an arm, and that it was by someone he loved... I just wish the arthur addressed that, and showed Kuroe feelings about that night... but especially didn't place all fault with Kuroe when he def wasn't at fault...