Books about The Bushido

[Ivaden]

I've always been somewhat interested in the Samurai life-style, particularly Bushido, but never really looked into it too much. I was wondering if anyone had read any of the following books and would recommend which, if any of the listed, would be a good starting book? Or if there is one or two that I haven't found, feel free to tell me.

Bushido: The Way of the Samurai, by Tsunetomo Yamamoto
Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai, by Tsunetomo Yamamoto
Bushido, the Soul of Japan, by Inazo Nitobé
Book of Five Rings, by Miyamoto Musashi

The description I read of the first book says it is the first English translation of the Hagakure, but still I wasn't sure if they were different reads.

[Tomiko]

Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai, by Tsunetomo Yamamoto

I haven't looked into the others, but I have this one and I like it. Seems like a good starter too since the "lessons"(?) in each chapter are short so you can read a couple at a time, or alot at once.

[Gangzilla]

Main thing in the Bushido is killing each other with no reason, thats what they call the way of samurai

btw you know that all assassins was homosexual? i mean for real they was, homosexuality thats like a part of being assassin

[Stilgar]

Another thing about books like Hagakure and the Five Rings are that they were largely written in the decades after the samurai were basically relegated to being a useless caste, after the Meiji Restoration. Samurai of that time weren't the warriors that they were during their heyday, who were contrary to popular belief, not 100% honor-bound, but warriors much like any other.

Most of the ideas of Bushido sprung up later as stylizations of warrior life invented and stressed by samurai who started martial arts schools for something to do, since they mostly weren't out fighting anymore. They still had their place in society, and still had their government stipend, they had just lost much of their purpose.