Hagakure

The Book of the Samurai

Author: Yamamoto Tsunetomo and William Scott Wilson

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Description

English translation of the eighteenth-century Japanese text that delves into the samurai mind.

Hagakure is a must-have for serious martial artists or fans of samurai and the bushido code.

Hagakure Kikigaki, is a practical and spiritual guide for a warrior, drawn from a collection of commentaries by the clerk Yamamoto Tsunetomo, former retainer to Nabeshima Mitsushige (July 10, 1632 - July 2, 1700), the third ruler of what is now Saga Prefecture in Japan. Tashiro Tsuramoto compiled these commentaries from his conversations with Tsunetomo from 1709 to 1716; however, it was not published until many years afterwards.

The book grapples with the dilemma of maintaining a warrior class in the absence of war and reflects the author's nostalgia for a world that had disappeared before he was born. Hagakure was largely forgotten for two centuries after its composition, but it came to be viewed as the definitive guide of the armed forces of the Empire of Japan during the Pacific War.

Hagakure is also known as The Book of the Samurai, Analects of Nabeshima or Hagakure Analects.

About the Author

Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Buddhist monastic name Yamamoto Jōchō (June 11, 1659 - November 30, 1719), was a samurai of the Saga Domain in Hizen Province under his lord Nabeshima Mitsushige. He became a Zen Buddhist priest and relayed his experiences, memories, lessons, ideas, and aphorisms to the samurai Tashiro Tsuramoto, who compiled them under the title Hagakure.