Yamato damashii refers to the essential and inexplicable nature of being Japanese that is at the core of beliefs in Japan's uniqueness. The term appears in several contexts, most of them of nationalistic origin, and had its greatest impact...

Yamato-damashii (大和魂, Yamato-damashii? "the Japanese spirit") is a historically and culturally loaded word in the Japanese language. The phrase was coined in the Heian period for an indigenous 'spirit' which was shown to best light when polished...