忠诚对武士意味着什么？

National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, preparation office for the Museum of the Imperial Collections, “Illustrated Account of the Mongol Invasions, Volume 2, Sections 5–8,” English interpretation prepared in 2023 and published through the Japan Tourism Agency's multilingual database. The account identifies Suenaga, Takefusa, the appeal for a witness, and the names in the image. It describes Suenaga's commission as likely. This essay uses that curatorial reading, not a newly established transcription of the entire scroll. https://www.mlit.go.jp/tagengo-db/R5-00737.html ; https://www.mlit.go.jp/tagengo-db/common/001782482.pdf

Agency for Cultural Affairs, Cultural Heritage Online, “Takezaki Suenaga's Letter of Donation and Regulations (Two Documents),” 1293 and 1314. The catalogue records his entry into the rewarded holding in 1276, the donation of revenues, and the later regulations; it does not establish that the grant was first made in that year. This Tōfuku-ji is the local temple associated with Suenaga, not the famous Kyoto temple of the same romanized name. The catalogue explanation, rather than an independent reading of both manuscripts, supplies these details. https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/201153

“Selected Documents of the Kamakura Bakufu,” Columbia University, Asia for Educators, translated by Jeffrey P. Mass in The Kamakura Bakufu: A Study in Documents (Stanford University Press, 1976), pp. 40, 49, and 158. Documents 14 and 24 supply the 1187 stewardship confirmation and the 1215 widow's appointment. The orders are evidence of specified rights and obligations, not proof of uniform enforcement or unrestricted ownership. https://afe.easia.columbia.edu/ps/japan/kamakura_bakufu.pdf

Nagano City, Sanada Treasures Museum, “The Sanada Family.” The division in 1600, exile, Nobushige's death at Osaka, and Nobuyuki's move to Matsushiro in 1622. The essay does not infer a prearranged family survival pact from these outcomes. https://www.sanadahoumotsukan.com/en/sanadake.php

Ueda City, “History of Ueda Castle,” especially the aftermath of the second battle of Ueda and Nobuyuki's succession. The account supports the family division and the transfer of the Ueda domain within the Tokugawa settlement. https://www.city.ueda.nagano.jp/site/uedajo/123940.html

Imagawa Ryōshun, “The Imagawa Letter,” dated 1412, selected articles in Columbia University, Asia for Educators. Translation from Carl Steenstrup, “The Imagawa Letter: A Muromachi Warrior's Code of Conduct Which Became a Tokugawa Schoolbook,” Monumenta Nipponica 28, no. 3 (1973), pp. 299–315. The articles concerning arbitrary judgment, exploitation, refusal of advice, and a lord's self-examination are paraphrased. They remain prescriptive accusations, not independently verified descriptions of the recipient's conduct. https://afe.easia.columbia.edu/ps/japan/imagawa.pdf

Yamaga Sokō, “The Way of the Samurai,” selected passages from Shidō, Columbia University, Asia for Educators, from Sources of Japanese Tradition, second edition, vol. 2 (Columbia University Press, 2005), pp. 192–194. Used for Sokō's question about the warrior's contribution and his proposed moral and social duties. The text's hierarchical justification of samurai status is identified as its author's argument. https://afe.easia.columbia.edu/ps/japan/soko_samurai.pdf

Olivier Ansart, “Loyalty in Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Samurai Discourse,” Japanese Studies 27, no. 2 (2007), pp. 139–154, DOI 10.1080/10371390701494150. The publicly available abstract supports the statement that samurai discourse contained competing understandings of loyalty. The complete article was not consulted, and no broader conclusion about the motives of all warriors is attributed to it here. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10371390701494150

Akō City, “Brief Chronology of the Akō Retainers,” entries for 1701–03. Supports the sequence, including attempts at family restoration. The raid occurred in Genroku 15's twelfth month, corresponding to early 1703 Gregorian. The city's chronology does not resolve the original quarrel's motives. https://www.city.ako.lg.jp/kensetsu/kankou/samurai/nenpyo2.html

Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Hagakure, translated by William Scott Wilson (Kodansha International, 1992), pp. 29–30, excerpted under “The Story of the Forty-Seven Rōnin according to the Hagakure,” Columbia University, Asia for Educators. The passage criticizes delay and subordinates the chance of success to immediate resolve. The same page identifies the 1748 theatrical adaptation. Its introductory generalizations about modern Japanese group behavior and its dramatic account of Asano's provocation are not adopted. https://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/japan_1450_47ronin.htm

Nitobe Inazō, Bushido: The Soul of Japan, preface and “The Duty of Loyalty,” in the expanded English edition reproduced by Project Gutenberg. The preface is dated December 1899; the National Diet Library records the Philadelphia edition of 1900. “Around 1900” avoids treating these bibliographic dates as identical events. The English text is used as evidence of Nitobe's interpretation and audience, not as an authoritative summary of all premodern warrior behavior. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/12096/pg12096-images.html ; https://ndlsearch.ndl.go.jp/books/R100000002-I000000524989

Oleg Benesch, Inventing the Way of the Samurai: Nationalism, Internationalism, and Bushidō in Modern Japan (Oxford University Press, 2014), publicly available book abstract and chapter abstracts for “Before Bushidō” and “First Explanations of Japan and Japanese Ethics.” Used for the late nineteenth-century development of modern bushidō discourse, its foreign comparisons, and the distinction from earlier, more particular warrior ethics. The complete book was not consulted. https://academic.oup.com/book/1394 ; https://academic.oup.com/book/1394/chapter-abstract/140715119 ; https://academic.oup.com/book/1394/chapter-abstract/140715821