Journal Article

The Transnational Samurai

Michele MONSERRATI

2026

Overview

This article explores the reception and appropriation of the Japanese samurai in Italian nationalist and Fascist discourse from the early twentieth century to the far-right movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Through a close examination of figures such as Luigi Barzini Sr., Shimoi Harukichi, Giuseppe Tucci, and Julius Evola, it analyzes how the ethical code of bushido, popularized in Europe through Inazō Nitobe’s Bushido: The Soul of Japan, was interpreted by Italian writers through the lens of Classical Roman ideals of honorable death, civic duty, and heroic virtue. The article emphasizes an Italian tendency to read Japanese martial traditions not as radically other, but as culturally and ethically resonant with national ideals, and identifies two competing yet interconnected interpretations of the samurai that circulated in Italy during the Fascist era: a Shinto-inflected view aligned with sacrificial patriotism, and a Zen-oriented reading centered on spiritual detachment and aristocratic self-overcoming. The article also traces the afterlife of bushido in postwar Italy, showing how Evola’s Zen-oriented version resurfaced in neofascist subcultures during the 1970s. By presenting two alternative interpretations of the samurai, Shinto and Zen, it shows that the transnational samurai became a flexible symbol in twentieth century Italy’s political imagination.

• Publisher: International Research Center for Japanese Studies