Hagakure
Encyclopedia
Samurai
is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
Yamamoto Tsunetomo
Yamamoto Tsunetomo
, also read Yamamoto Jōchō was a samurai of the Saga Domain in Hizen Province under his lord Nabeshima Mitsushige. For thirty years Yamamoto devoted his life to the service of his lord and clan...
, former retainer to Nabeshima Mitsushige
Nabeshima Mitsushige
was a Japanese daimyo of the early Edo period. Famed for his forbidding of junshi, the form of traditional suicide whereby a retainer followed his lord in death. It was because of this dislike for junshi that one of his favorite retainers Yamamoto Tsunetomo would go on after his death to pen the...
, the third ruler of what is now the Saga prefecture
Saga Prefecture
is located in the northwest part of the island of Kyūshū, Japan. It touches both the Sea of Japan and the Ariake Sea. The western part of the prefecture is a region famous for producing ceramics and porcelain, particularly the towns of Karatsu, Imari, and Arita...
in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. Tsuramoto Tashiro
Tsuramoto Tashiro
was a young samurai who visited an aging recluse Yamamoto Tsunetomo on March 5, 1710 and remained fascinated by the older samurai of the Saga domain...
compiled these commentaries from his conversations with Tsunetomo from 1709 to 1716; however, it was not published until many years afterwards. Hagakure is also known as The Book of the Samurai, Analects of Nabeshima or Hagakure Analects.
Content
The book records Tsunetomo's views on bushidoBushido
, meaning "Way of the Warrior-Knight", is a Japanese word which is used to describe a uniquely Japanese code of conduct and a way of the samurai life, loosely analogous to the concept of chivalry. It originates from the samurai moral code and stresses frugality, loyalty, martial arts mastery, and...
, the warrior code of the samurai
Samurai
is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
. Hagakure is sometimes said to assert that bushido is really the "Way of Dying
Death
Death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include old age, predation, malnutrition, disease, and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury....
" or living as though one was already dead, and that a samurai must be willing to die at any moment in order to be true to his lord. His saying "the way of the warrior is death" was a summation of the willingness to sacrifice that bushido codified.
Historical context
After his master died, Tsunetomo himself was forbidden to perform junshiJunshi
, refers to the medieval Japanese act of vassals committing seppuku upon the death of their lord...
, a retainer's ritual suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
, by an edict of the Tokugawa Shogunate
Tokugawa shogunate
The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the and the , was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city, Edo, which is now called Tokyo, after the name was...
combined with his master's disapproval of the tradition. Hagakure may have been written partially in an effort to outline the role of the samurai in a more peaceful society. Several sections refer to the "old days", and imply a dangerous weakening of the samurai class since that time.
The Hagakure was written approximately one hundred years after the start of the Tokugawa era
Edo period
The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....
, a time of relative peace. With no major campaigns to fight, the samurai were transforming from a warrior to an administrative class. His work represents one approach to the problem of maintaining military preparedness and a proper military mindset in a time when neither has much practical application.
Editions
- The Art of the Samurai: Yamamoto Tsunetomo's Hagakure, Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Translated by Barry D. Steben, Duncan Baird, September 2008, ISBN 1-84483-720-3
- Hagakure, The Way of the Samurai, Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Translated by Takao Mukoh, Angkor Verlag, 2000 (Reprint) ISBN 3-8311-1530-3
- Hagakure, The Book of the Samurai, Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Translated by William Scott Wilson, Kondansha International Ltd., 1979, ISBN 4-7700-1106-7 (Partial translation)
- Bushido, The Way of the Samurai, Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Translated by Justin F. Stone and Minoru Tanaka, Square One Publishers, 2003, ISBN 0-7570-0026-6
Further reading
Hagakure Nyūmon The Way of the Samurai: Yukio MishimaYukio Mishima
was the pen name of , a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor and film director, also remembered for his ritual suicide by seppuku after a failed coup d'état...
on Hagakure in modern life 1967 Translated by Kathryn Sparling, 1977, ISBN 0-465-09089-3
- On Hagakure, by celebrated Japanese novelist Yukio MishimaYukio Mishimawas the pen name of , a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor and film director, also remembered for his ritual suicide by seppuku after a failed coup d'état...
. - The Code of the Samurai: A Modern Translation of the Bushido Shoshinshu of Taira Shigesuke by Thomas Cleary.
- Hagakure: Spirit of Bushido, by Hideo Koga and Stacey B. Day. Hagakure Society, Saga, Japan, 1993. (University of Kyushu Press, Fukuoka, Japan). ISBN 4-87378-359-3 C1012.
- The Wisdom of Hagakure: Way of the Samurai of Saga Domain, by Stacey B. Day and Kiyoshi Inokuchi. Hagakure Society, Saga, Japan, 1994. (University of Kyushu Press, Fukuoka, Japan). ISBN 4-87378-389-5.
- Moudrost Samuraju: Zivotni Stezka Samuraje Z Kraje Saga, by Stacey B. Day and Kijosi Inokuci. (Prelozila Marketa Cukrova). Trigon, Praha, CZ, 1998. ISBN 80-86159-11-6.
- The 33 Strategies of War, by Robert Greene. The Viking Press, New York, 2006. ISBN 0-670-03457-6.