Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hagakure (Kyūjitai: 葉隱; Shinjitai: 葉隠; meaning Hidden by the Leaves or hidden
leaves), or Hagakure Kikigaki (葉隠聞書?) is a practical and spiritual guide for
a warrior, drawn from a collection of commentaries by the samurai Yamamoto
Tsunetomo, former retainer to Nabeshima Mitsushige, the third ruler of what is
now Saga prefecture in Japan. Tsuramoto Tashiro 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.
Contents
The book records Tsunetomo's views on bushido, the warrior code of the samurai.
Hagakure is sometimes said to assert that bushido is really the "Way of Dying"
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 junshi, a
retainer's ritual suicide, by an edict of the Tokugawa Shogunate 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, 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)
Hagakure, The manga edition, Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Translated by William Scott
Wilson, a comic book/manga version, adapted by Sean Michael Wilson and Chie
Kutsuwada, Kondansha International Ltd., 2011.
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
Popular culture
The book features in the 1999 film Ghost Dog, as the titular character's guide
to life.