or is a Japanese language term for the cultural values and characteristics of the Japanese people. The phrase was coined in the Heian period to describe the indigenous Japanese 'spirit' or cultural values as opposed to cultural values of foreign nations such as those identified through contact with Tang dynasty China. Later, a qualitative contrast between Japanese and Chinese spirit was elicited from the term. Edo period writers and samurai used it to augment and support the Bushido concept of honor and valor. English translations of Yamato-damashii include the "Japanese spirit", "Japanese soul", "Yamato spirit", and "The Soul of Old Japan". Lafcadio Hearn mentions the latter in connection with Shinto. For this national type of moral character was invented the name Yamato-damashi (or Yamato-gokoro), — the Soul of Yamato (or Heart of Yamato), — the appellation of the old province of Yamato, seat of the early emperors, being figuratively used for the entire country. We might correctly, though less literally, interpret the expression Yamato-damashi as "The Soul of Old Japan". (1904:177)
Etymology
Originally Yamato-damashii did not bear the bellicose weight or ideological timbre that it later assumed in pre-war modern Japan. It first occurs in the section of The Tale of Genji (Chapter 21), as a native virtue that flourishes best, not as a contrast to foreign civilization but, rather precisely, when it is grounded on a solid basis in Chinese learning. Thus we read:
Each man, according to Motoori Norinaga (who wrote a Commentary of The Tale of Genji ), has at his birth a "true heart" a "magokoro" (the term magokokoro is itself almost an onomatopoeia since kokoro, the heart, expresses these "beats of the heart") whose ancient Japanese literature is the most faithful expression. This sentiment expresses the Yamato gokoro (大和心, "Japanese heart") as opposed to the Kara gokoro ("superficial level of consciousness cluttered with masculine things, intellectually astute but full of pretension").
Lexicology
Yamato-damashii "Japan, Japanese" compounds Yamato (大和, "great harmony") with damashii, which is the voiced rendaku pronunciation of tamashii (魂 "spirit; soul"). Both these kanji (Chinese characters used in Japan) readings Yamato (大和) and damashii (魂) are native Japanese kun'yomi, while the Wakon (和魂 "Japanese spirit") reading is Sinitic on'yomi borrowed from Chinese Héhún (和魂).
Yamato is historically the second of three common Japanese endonyms (or autonyms) for 'Japan; Japanese'. Wa (倭 or 和) is Japan's oldest endonym and derives from the Han dynasty Chinese exonym Wō 倭 "Japan, Japanese". This character 倭, which graphically combines the 亻 "human, person" radical and a wěi 委 "bend" phonetic, was usually pronounced wēi in Classical Chinese compounds like wēichí 倭遲 "winding, circuitous", but scholars have interpreted Wō 倭 "Japanese" as connoting either "submissive; docile" or "short; dwarf". In the 8th century, Japanese scribes replaced the pejorative Chinese character 倭 for Wa "Japan" with Wa 和 "harmony; peace". Yamato (大和, "great harmony") is the oldest native name for "Japan". Daiwa and Taiwa (borrowed from Chinese dàhé 大和) are on'yomi readings. This name Yamato (大和) originally referred to "Yamato Province", around present-day Nara Prefecture, where Emperor Jimmu legendarily founded Japan. Common words with this prefix include Yamato-jidai (大和時代 "Yamato period", 250-710 CE), Yamato-minzoku (大和民族 "Yamato people; Japanese race"), and Yamato-e (大和絵 "traditional Japanese-style paintings"). In current Japanese usage, Wa 倭 is an archaic variant Chinese character for Wa 和, Yamato is a literary and historical term, and Nihon is the usual name for "Japan; Japanese".
Tamashii or tama (魂 "soul; spirit; ghost" or 霊 "spirit; soul") is Japanese kun'yomi, while kon or gon is Chinese on'yomi (from hún 魂). The Shinto-influenced semantics of Japanese tama/tamashii exceed customary English concepts of "spirit", "soul", or "ghost", besides the human soul, it also includes diverse spiritual forces found in nature. Roy Andrew Miller suggests that German Geist or French élan are better translations than English spirit or soul: But finally we must conclude that nothing in any commonly used European language, including English, really does justice to Japanese tama. The spirit, soul, Geist, or élan to which the Japanese term has reference, whether it is the tama of Yamato-damashii or the tama of kotodama, is a vital and active entity that plays no part in any usual Western-language imagery or expression. We have no such word, and we make use of no imagery capitalizing upon the concepts that it employs; but the Japanese have, and they do. (1982:131)