1 of 51 Hagakure: The Book of The Samurai

Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai
Yamamoto Tsunetomo
1 of 51
Hagakure: From the 1st Chapter
Although it stands to reason that a samurai should be mindful of the Way of the Samurai, it would seem
that we are all negligent !onse"uently, if someone were to ask, #What is the true meaning of the Way of
the Samurai$# the %erson who would be able to answer %rom%tly is rare This is be&ause it has not been
established in one's mind beforehand (rom this, one's unmindfulness of the Way &an be known
)egligen&e is an e*treme thing
The Way of the Samurai is found in death When it &omes to either+or, there is only the "ui&k &hoi&e of
death ,t is not %arti&ularly diffi&ult Be determined and ad-an&e To say that dying without rea&hing
one's aim is to die a dog's death is the fri-olous way of so%histi&ates When %ressed with the &hoi&e of life
or death, it is not ne&essary to gain one's aim
We all want to li-e And in large %art we make our logi& a&&ording to what we like But not ha-ing
attained our aim and &ontinuing to li-e is &owardi&e This is a thin dangerous line To die without gaming
one's aim is a dog's death and fanati&ism But there is no shame in this This is the substan&e of the Way
of the Samurai ,f by setting one's heart right e-ery morning and e-ening, one is able to li-e as though
his body were already dead, he %ains freedom in the Way His whole life will be without blame, and he
will su&&eed in his &alling
A man is a good retainer to the e*tent that he earnestly %la&es im%ortan&e in his master This is the
highest sort of retainer ,f one is born into a %rominent family that goes ba&k for generations, it is
suffi&ient to dee%ly &onsider the matter of obligation to one's an&estors, to lay down one's body and
mind, and to earnestly esteem one's master ,t is further good fortune if, more than this, one has wisdom
and talent and &an use them a%%ro%riately But e-en a %erson who is good for nothing and e*&eedingly
&lumsy will be a reliable retainer if only he has the determination to think earnestly of his master Ha-ing
only wisdom and talent is the lowest tier of usefulness
A&&ording to their nature, there are both %eo%le who ha-e "ui&k intelligen&e, and those who must
withdraw and take time to think things o-er .ooking into this thoroughly, if one thinks selflessly and
adheres to the four -ows of the )abeshima samurai, sur%rising wisdom will o&&ur regardless of the high
or low %oints of one's nature'
/eo%le think that they &an &lear u% %rofound matters if they &onsider them dee%ly, but they e*er&ise
%er-erse thoughts and &ome to no good be&ause they do their refle&ting with only self0interest at the
&enter
,t is diffi&ult for a fool's habits to &hange to selflessness ,n &onfronting a matter, howe-er, if at first you
lea-e it alone, fi* the four -ows in your heart, e*&lude self0interest, and make an effort, you will not go
far from your mark
Be&ause we do most things relying only on our own saga&ity we be&ome self0interested, turn our ba&ks
on reason, and things do not turn out well As seen by other %eo%le this is sordid, weak, narrow and
ineffi&ient When one is not &a%able of true intelligen&e, it is good to &onsult with someone of good sense
An ad-isor will fulfill the Way when he makes a de&ision by selfless and frank intelligen&e be&ause he is
not %ersonally in-ol-ed This way of doing things will &ertainly be seen by others as being strongly
rooted ,t is, for e*am%le, like a large tree with many roots 1ne man's intelligen&e is like a tree that has
been sim%ly stu&k in the ground
We learn about the sayings and deeds of the men of old in order to entrust oursel-es to their wisdom and
%re-ent selfishness When we throw off our own bias, follow the sayings of the an&ients, and &onfer with
other %eo%le, matters should go well and without misha% .ord 2atsushige borrowed from the wisdom of
.ord )aoshige This is mentioned in the 1hanashikikigaki We should be grateful for his &on&ern
3oreo-er, there was a &ertain man who engaged a number of his younger brothers as retainers, and
whene-er he -isited 4do or the 2amigata area, he would ha-e them a&&om%any him As he &onsulted
with them e-eryday on both %ri-ate and %ubli& matters, it is said that he was without misha%
Sagara 2yuma was &om%letely at one with his master and ser-ed him as though his own body were
already dead He was one man in a thousand
1n&e there was an im%ortant meeting at 3aster Sakyo's 3i5ugae 6illa, and it was &ommanded that
2yuma was to &ommit se%%uku At that time in 1saki there was a teahouse on the third floor of the
suburban residen&e of 3aster Taku )ut 2yuma rented this, and gathering together all the good0for0
nothings in Saga he %ut on a %u%%et show, o%erating one of the %u%%ets himself, &arousing and drinking
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all day and night Thus, o-erlooking 3aster Sakyo's -illa, he &arried on and &aused a great disturban&e
,n instigating this disaster he gallantly thought only of his master and was resol-ed to &ommitting
sui&ide
Being a retainer is nothing other than hem% a su%%orter of one's lord, entrusting matters of good and e-il
to him, and renoun&ing self0interest ,f there are but two or three men of this ty%e, the fief will be se&ure
,f one looks at the world when affairs are going smoothly, there ar& many who go about %utting in their
a%%earan&e, being useful by their wisdom, dis&rimination and artfulness Howe-er, if the lord should
retire or go into se&lusion, there are many who will "ui&kly turn their ba&ks on him and ingratiate
themsel-es to the man of the day Su&h a thing is un%leasant e-en to think about 3en of high %osition,
low %osition, dee% wisdom and artfulness all feel that they are the ones who are working righteously, but
when it &omes to the %oint of throwing away one's life for his lord, all get weak in the knees This is
rather disgra&eful The fa&t that a useless %erson often be&omes a mat&hless warrior at su&h times is
be&ause he has already gi-en u% his life and has be&ome one with his lord At the time of 3itsushige's
death there was an e*am%le of this His one resol-ed attendant was , alone The others followed in my
wake Always the %retentious, self0asserting notables turn their ba&ks on the man 8ust as his eyes are
&losing in death
.oyalty is said to be im%ortant in the %ledge between lord and retainer Though it may seem
unobtainable, it is right before your eyes ,f you on&e set yourself to it, you will be&ome a su%erb retainer
at that -ery moment
To gi-e a %erson one's o%inion and &orre&t his faults is an im%ortant thing ,t is &om%assionate and &omes
first in matters of ser-i&e But the way of doing this is e*tremely diffi&ult To dis&o-er the good and bad
%oints of a %erson is an easy thing, and to gi-e an o%inion &on&erning them is easy, too (or the most
%art, %eo%le think that they are being kind by saying the things that others find distasteful or diffi&ult to
say But if it is not re&ei-ed well, they think that there is nothing more to be done This is &om%letely
worthless ,t is the same as brining shame to a %erson by slandering him ,t is nothing more than getting
it off one's &hest
To gi-e a %erson an o%inion one must first 8udge well whether that %erson is of the dis%osition to re&ei-e
it or not 1ne must be&ome &lose with him and make sure that he &ontinually trusts one's word
A%%roa&hing sub8e&ts that are dear to him, seek the best way to s%eak and to be well understood 9udge
the o&&asion, and determine whether it is better by letter or at the time of lea-e0taking /raise his good
%oints and use e-ery de-i&e to en&ourage him, %erha%s by talking about one's own faults without
tou&hing on his, but so that they will o&&ur to him Ha-e him re&ei-e this in the way that a man would
drink water when his throat is dry, and it will be an o%inion that will &orre&t faults
This is e*tremely diffi&ult ,f a %erson s fault is a habit of some years %rior, by and large it won't be
remedied , ha-e had this e*%erien&e myself To be intimate with alt one's &omrades, &orre&ting ea&h
other's faults, and being of one mind to be of use to the master is the great &om%assion of a retainer By
bringing shame to a %erson, bow &ould one e*%e&t to make him a better man$
,t is bad taste to yawn in front of %eo%le When one une*%e&tedly has to yawn, if he rubs his forehead in
an u%ward dire&tion , the sensation will sto% ,f that does not work, he &an li&k his li%s while kee%ing his
mouth &losed, or sim%ly hide it with his hand or his slee-e in su&h a way that no one will know what he is
doing ,t is the same with snee5ing 1ne will a%%ear foolish There are other things besides these about
whi&h a %erson should use &are and training
When a &ertain %erson was saying that %resent matters of e&onomy should be detailed, someone re%lied
that this is not good at all
,t is a fa&t that ash will not li-e where the water is too &lear But if there is du&kweed or something, the
fish will hide under its shadow and thri-e Thus, the lower &lasses will li-e in tran"uillity if &ertain matters
are a bit o-erlooked or left unheard This fa&t should be understood with regard to %eo%le's &ondu&t
1n&e when .ord 3itsushige was a little boy and was su%%osed to re&ite from a &o%ybook for the %riest
2aion, he &alled the other &hildren and a&olytes and said, #/lease &ome here and listen ,t's diffi&ult to
read if there are hardly any %eo%le listening# The %riest was im%ressed and said to the a&olytes, #That's
the s%irit in whi&h to do e-erything#
4-ery morning one should first do re-eren&e to his master and %arents and then to his %atron deities and
guardian Buddhas ,f he will only make his master first in im%ortan&e, his %arents will re8oi&e and the
gods and Buddhas will gi-e their assent (or a warrior there is nothing other than thinking of his master
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,f one &reates this resolution within himself, he will always be mindful of the master's %erson and will not
de%art from him e-en for a moment
3oreo-er, a woman should &onsider her husband first, 8ust as he &onsiders his master first
A&&ording to a &ertain %erson, a number of years ago 3atsuguma 2yoan told this story :
,n the %ra&ti&e of medi&ine there is a differentiation of treatment a&&ording to the Yin and Yang of men
and women There is also a differen&e in %ulse ,n the last fifty years, howe-er, men's %ulse has be&ome
the same as women's )oti&ing this, in the treatment of eye disease , a%%lied women's treatment to men
and found it suitable When , obser-ed the a%%li&ation of men's treatment to men, there was no result
Thus , knew that men's s%irit had weakened and that they had be&ome the same as women, and the end
of the world had &ome Sin&e , witnessed this with &ertainty, , ke%t it a se&ret
When looking at the men of today with this in mind, those who &ould be thought to ha-e a woman's %ulse
are many indeed, and those who seem like real men few Be&ause of this, if one were to make a little
effort, he would be able to take the u%%er hand "uite easily That there are few men who ar& able to &ut
well in beheadings is further %roof that men's &ourage has waned And when one &omes to s%eak of
kaishaku, it has be&ome an age of men who are %rudent and &le-er at making e*&uses (orty or fifty
years ago, when su&h things as matanuki were &onsidered manly, a man wouldn't show an uns&arred
thigh to his fellows, so he would %ier&e it himself
All of man's work is a bloody business That fa&t, today, is &onsidered foolish, affairs are finished &le-erly
with words alone, and 8obs that re"uire effort are a-oided , would like young men to ha-e some
understanding of this
The %riest Tannen used to say, ''/eo%le &ome to no understanding be&ause %riests tea&h only the do&trine
of ')o 3ind' What is &alled ')o 3ind' is a mind that is %ure and la&ks &om%li&ation ' This is interesting
.ord Sanenori said, #,n the midst of a single breath, where %er-ersity &annot be held , is the Way '' ,f so,
then the Way is one But there is no one who &an understand this &larity at first /urity is something that
&annot be attained e*&e%t by %iling effort u%on effort
There is nothing that we should be "uite so grateful for as the last line of the %oem that goes, #When
your own heart asks# ,t &an %robably be thought of in the same way as the )embutsu, and %re-iously it
was on the li%s of many %eo%le
;e&ently, %eo%le who are &alled #&le-er# adorn themsel-es with su%erfi&ial wisdom and only de&ei-e
others (or this reason they are inferior to dull0wilted folk A dull0 wilted %erson is dire&t ,f one looks
dee%ly into his heart with the abo-e %hrase, there will be no hidden %la&es ,t is a good e*aminer 1ne
should be of the mind that, meeting this e*aminer, he will not be embarrassed
The word gen means #illusion# or #a%%arition# ,n ,ndia, a man who uses &on8ury is &alled a gen8utsushi
<#a master of illusion te&hni"ue#= 4-erything in this world is but a marionette show Thus we use the
word gen
To hate in8usti&e and stand on righteousness is a diffi&ult thing (urthermore, to think that being
righteous is the best one &an do and to do one's utmost to be righteous will, on the &ontrary, brig many
mistakes The Way is in a higher %la&e then righteousness This is -ery diffi&ult to dis&o-er, but it is the
highest wisdom When seen from this stand%oint, things like righteousness are rather shallow ,f one
does not understand this on his own, it &annot be known There is a method of getting to this Way,
howe-er, e-en if one &annot dis&o-er it by himself This is found in &onsultation with others 4-en a
%erson who has not attained this Way sees others front the side ,t is like the saying from the game of
go: #He who sees from the side has eight eyes# The saying, #Thought by thought we see our own
mistakes,# also means that the highest Way is in dis&ussion with others .istening to the old stories and
reading books are for the %ur%ose of sloughing off one's own dis&rimination and atta&hing oneself to that
of the an&ients
A &ertain swordsman in his de&lining years said the following:
,n one's life there are le-els in the %ursuit of study ,n the lowest le-el, a %erson studies but nothing
&omes of it, and he feels that both he and others are unskillful At this %oint he is worthless ,n the
middle le-el he is still useless but is aware of his own insuffi&ien&ies and &an also see the insuffi&ien&ies
of others ,n a higher le-el he has %ride &on&erning his own ability, re8oi&es in %raise from others, and
laments the la&k of ability in his fellows This man has worth ,n the highest le-el a man has the look of
knowing nothing
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These are the le-els in general? But there is one trans&ending le-el, and this is the most e*&ellent of all
This %erson is aware of the endlessness of entering dee%ly into a &ertain Way arid ne-er thinks of himself
as ha-ing finished He truly knows his own insuffi&ien&ies and ne-er in his whole life thinks that he has
su&&eeded He has no thoughts of %ride but with self0abasement knows the Way to the end ,t is said that
3aster Yagyu on&e remarked, #, do not know the way to defeat others, but the way to defeat myself ''
Throughout your life ad-an&e daily, be&oming more skillful than yesterday, more skillful than today This
is ne-er0ending
Among the ma*ims on .ord )aoshige's wall there was this one: ''3atters of' great &on&ern should be
treated lightly'' 3aster lttei &ommented, #3atters of small &on&ern should be treated seriously# Among
one's affairs there should not be more than two or three matters of what one &ould &all great &on&ern ,f
these are deliberated u%on during ordinary times, they &an be understood Thinking about things
%re-iously and then handling them lightly when the time &omes is what this is all about To fa&e an e-ent
anew sol-e it lightly is diffi&ult if you are not resol-ed beforehand, and there will always be un&ertainty in
hitting your mark Howe-er, if the foundation is laid %re-iously, you &an think of the saying, #3atters of
great &on&ern should be treated lightly,# as your own basis for a&tion
A &ertain %erson s%ent se-eral years of ser-i&e in 1saka and then returned home When he made his
a%%earan&e at the lo&al bureau, e-eryone was %ut out and he was made a laughingsto&k be&ause he
s%oke in the 2amigata diale&t Seen in this light, when one s%ends a long time in ado or the 2amigata
area, he had better use his nati-e diale&t e-en more than usual
When in a more so%histi&ated area it is natural that one s dis%osition be affe&ted by different styles But
it is -ulgar and foolish to look down u%on the ways of one's own distri&t as being boorish, or to be e-en a
bit o%en to the %ersuasion of the other %la&e's ways and to think about gi-ing u% one's own That one's
own distri&t is unso%histi&ated and un%olished is a great treasure ,mitating another style is sim%ly a
sham
A &ertain man said to the %riest Shungaku, #The .otus Sutra Se&t's &hara&ter is not good be&ause it's so
fearsome# Shungaku re%lied, #,t is by reason of its fearsome &hara&ter that it is the .otus Sutra Se&t ,f
its &hara&ter were not so, it would be a different se&t altogether# This is reasonable
At the time when there was a &oun&il &on&erning the %romotion of a &ertain man, the &oun&il members
were at the %oint of de&iding that %romotion was useless be&ause of the fa&t that the man had %re-iously
been in-ol-ed in a drunken brawl But someone said, #,f we were to &ast aside e-ery man who had made
a mistake on&e, useful men &ould %rob0 ably not be &ome by A man who makes a mistake on&e will be
&onsiderably more %rudent and useful be&ause of his re%entan&e , feet that he should be %romoted''
Someone else then asked, #Will you ?guarantee him$# The man re%lied, #1f &ourse , will#
The others asked, #By what will you guarantee him$#
And he re%lied, #, &an guarentee him by the fa&t that he is a man who has erred on&e A man who bas
ne-er on&e erred is dangerous# This said, the man was %romoted
At the time of a deliberation &on&erning &riminals, )akane 2a5uma %ro%osed making the %unishment one
degree lighter than what would be a%%ro%riate This is a treasury of wisdom that only he was the
%ossessor of At that time, though there were se-eral men in attendan&e, if it had not been for 2a5uma
alone, no one would ha-e o%ened his mouth (or this reason he is &alled 3aster !ommen&ement and
3aster Twenty0fi-e @ays
A &ertain %erson was brought to shame be&ause he did not take re-enge The way of re-enge lies in
sim%ly for&ing one's way into a %la&e and being &ut down There is no shame in this By thinking that you
must &om%lete the 8ob you will run out of time By &onsidering things like how many men the enemy has,
time %iles u%? in the end you will gi-e u% )o matter if the enemy has thousands of men, there is
fulfillment in sim%ly standing them off and being determined to &ut them all down, starting from one end
You will finish the greater %art of it
!on&erning the night assault of .ord Asano's ronin, the fa&t that they did not &ommit se%%uku at the
Sengaku8i was an error, for there was a long delay between the time their lord was stru&k down and the
time when they stru&k down the enemy ,f .ord 2ira had died of illness within that %eriod, it would ha-e
been e*tremely regrettable Be&ause the men of the 2amigata area ha-e a -ery &le-er sort of wisdom,
they do well at %raiseworthy a&ts but &annot do things indis&riminately, as was done in the )agasaki
fight
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Although all things are not to be 8udged in this manner, , mention it in the in-estigation of the Way of the
Samurai When the time &omes, there is no moment for reasoning And if you ha-e not done your
in"uiring beforehand , there is most often shame ;eading books and listening to %eo%le's talk are for the
%ur%ose of %rior resolution
Abo-e all, the Way of the Samurai should be in being aware that you do not know what is going to
ha%%en ne*t, and in "uerying e-ery item day and night 6i&tory and defeat are matters of the tem%orary
for&e of &ir&umstan&es The way of a-oiding shame is different ,t is sim%ly in death
4-en if it seems &ertain that you will lose, retaliate )either wisdom nor te&hni"ue has a %la&e in this A
real man does not think of -i&tory or defeat He %lunges re&klessly towards an irrational death By doing
this, you will awaken from your dreams
There are two things that will blemish a retainer, and these are ri&hes and honor ,f one but remains in
strained &ir&umstan&es, he will not be marred
1n&e there was a &ertain man who was -ery &le-er, but it was his &hara&ter to always see the negati-e
%oints of his 8obs ,n su&h a way, one will be useless ,f one does not get it into his head from the -ery
beginning that the world is full of unseemly situations, for the most %art his demeanor will be %oor and
he will not be belie-ed by others And if one is not belie-ed by others, no matter how good a %erson he
may be, he will not ha-e the essen&e of a good %erson This &an also be &onsidered as a blemish
There was a man who said, #Su&h and su&h a %erson has a -iolent dis%osition, but this is what , said right
to his fa&e This was an unbe&oming thing to say, and it was said sim%ly be&ause he wanted to be
known as a rough fellow ,t was rather low, and it &an be seen that he was still rather immature ,t is
be&ause a samurai has &orre&t manners that he is admired S%eaking of other %eo%le in this way is no
different from an e*&hange between low &lass s%earmen ,t is -ulgar
,t is not good to settle into a set of o%inions ,t is a mistake to %ut forth effort and obtain some
understanding and then sto% at that At first %utting forth great effort to be sure that you ha-e gras%ed
the bastes, then %ra&ti&ing so that they may &ome to fruition is something that will ne-er sto% for your
whole lifetime @o not rely on following the degree of understanding that you ha-e dis&o-ered, but sim%ly
think, #This is not enough#
1ne should sear&h throughout his whole life how best to follow the Way And he should study, setting his
mind to work without %utting things off Within this is the Way
These are from the re&orded sayings of Yamamoto 9in'0emon:
,f you &an understand one affair, you will understand eight
An affe&ted laugh shows la&k of self0res%e&t in a man and lewdness in a woman
Whether s%eaking formally or informally, one should look his listener in the eye A %olite greeting is done
at the beginning and finished S%eaking with down&ast eyes is &arelessness
,t is &arelessness to go about with one's hands inside the slits in the sides of his hakama
After reading books and the like, it is best to burn them or throw them away ,t is said that reading books
is the work of the ,m%erial !ourt, but the work of the House of )akano is found in military -alor, gras%ing
the staff of oak
A samurai with no grou% and no horse is not a samurai at all
A kusemono is a man to rely u%on
,t is said that one should rise at four in the morning, bathe and arrange his hair daily, eat when the sun
&omes u%, and retire when it be&omes dark
A samurai will use a tooth%i&k e-en though he has not eaten ,nside the skin of a dog, outside the hide of
a tiger
How should a %erson res%ond when he is asked, #As a human being, what is essential in terms of %ur%ose
and dis&i%line$# (irst, let us say, #,t is to be&ome of the mind that is right now %ure and la&king
&om%li&ations# /eo%le in general all seem to be de8e&ted When one has a %ure and un&om%li&ated mind,
his e*%ression will be li-ely When one is attending to matters, there is one thing that &omes forth from
his heart That is, in terms of one's lord, loyalty? in terms of one's %arents, filial %iety? in martial affairs,
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bra-ery ? and a%art from that, something that &an be used by all the world
This is -ery diffi&ult to dis&o-er 1n&e dis&o-ered, it is again diffi&ult to kee% in &onstant effe&t There is
nothing outside the thought of the immediate moment
4-ery morning, the samurai of fifty or si*ty years ago would bathe, sha-e their foreheads, %ut lotion in
their hair, &ut their fingernails and toenails rubbing them with %umi&e and then with wood sorrel, and
without fail %ay attention to their %ersonal a%%earan&e ,t goes without saying that their armor in
general was ke%t free from rust, that it was dusted, shined, and arranged
Although it seems that taking s%e&ial &are of one's a%%earan&e is similar to showiness, it is nothing akin
to elegan&e 4-en if you are aware that you may be stru&k down today and are firmly resol-ed to an
ine-itable death, if you are slain with an unseemly a%%earan&e, you will show your la&k of %re-ious
resol-e, will be des%ised by your enemy, and will a%%ear un&lean (or this reason it is said that both old
and young should take &are of their a%%earan&e
Although you say that this is troublesome and time0&onsuming, a samurai's work is in su&h things ,t is
neither busy0 work nor time0&onsuming ,n &onstantly hardening one's resolution to die in battle,
deliberately be&oming as one already dead, and working at one's 8ob and dealing with military affairs,
there should be no shame But when the time &omes, a %erson will be shamed if he is not &ons&ious of
these things e-en in his dreams, and rather %asses his days in self0 interest and self0indulgen&e And if
he thinks that this is not shameful, and feels that nothing else matters as long as he is &omfortable, then
his dissi%ate and dis&ourteous a&tions will be re%eatedly regrettable
The %erson without %re-ious resolution to ine-itable death makes &ertain that his death will be in bad
form But if one is resol-ed to death beforehand, in what way &an he be des%i&able$ 1ne should be
es%e&ially diligent in this &on0 &ern
(urthermore, during the last thirty years &ustoms ha-e &hanged? now when young samurai 8eer together,
if there is not 8ust talk about money matters, loss and gain, se&rets, &lothing styles or matters of se*,
there is no reason to gather together at all !ustoms are going to %ie&es 1ne &an say that formerly when
a man rea&hed the age of twenty or thirty, he did not &arry des%i&able things in his heart, and thus
neither did su&h words a%%ear ,f an elder unwittingly said something of that sort, he thought of it as a
sort of in8ury This new &ustom %robably a%%ears be&ause %eo%le atta&h im%ortan&e to being beautiful
before so&iety and to household finan&es What things a %erson should be able to a&&om%lish if he had no
haughtiness &on&erning his %la&e in so&ietyB
,t is a wret&hed thing that the young men of today are so &ontri-ing and so %roud of their material
%ossessions 3en with &ontri-ing hearts are la&king in duty .a&king in duty, they will ha-e no self0
res%e&t
A&&ording to 3aster lttei, e-en a %oor %enman will be&ome substantial in the art of &alligra%hy if he
studies by imitating a good model and %uts forth effort A retainer should be able to be&ome substantial
too, if he takes a good retainer as his model
Today, howe-er, there are no models of good retainers ,n light of this, it would be good to make a
model and to learn from that To do this, one should look at many %eo%le and &hoose from ea&h %erson
his best %oint only (or e*am%le, one %erson for %oliteness, one for bra-ery, one for the %ro%er way of
s%eaking, one for &orre&t &ondu&t and one for steadiness of mind Thus will the model be made
An a%%renti&e will not be u% to his tea&her's good %oints in the world of the arts either but will re&ei-e
and imitate only his bad ones This is worthless There are %eo%le who are good at manners but ha-e no
u%rightness ,n imitating someone like this, one is likely to ignore the %oliteness and imitate only the la&k
of u%rightness ,f one %er&ei-es a %erson's good %oints, he will ha-e a model tea&her for anything
When deli-ering something like an im%ortant letter or other written materials, gras% it firmly in your hand
as you go and do not release it on&e, but hand it o-er dire&tly to the re&i%ient
A retainer is a man who remains &onsistently undistra&ted twenty0four hours a day, whether he is in the
%resen&e of his master or in %ubli& ,f one is &areless during his rest %eriod, the %ubli& will see him as
being only &areless
;egardless of &lass, a %erson who does something beyond his so&ial standing will at some %oint &ommit
mean or &owardly a&ts ,n the lower &lasses there are e-en %eo%le who will run away 1ne should be
&areful with menials and the like
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There are many %eo%le who, by being atta&hed to a martial art and taking a%%renti&es, belie-e that they
ha-e arri-ed at the full stature of a warrior But it is a regrettable thing to %ut forth mu&h effort and in
the end be&ome an #artist# ,n artisti& te&hni"ue it is good to learn to the e*tent that you will not be
la&king ,n general, a %erson who is -ersatile in many things is &onsidered to be -ulgar and to ha-e only a
broad knowledge of matters of im%ortan&e
When something is said to you by the master, whether it is for your good or bad fortune, to withdraw in
silen&e shows %er%le*ity You should ha-e some a%%ro%riate res%onse ,t is im%ortant to ha-e resolution
beforehand
3oreo-er, if at the time that you are asked to %erform some fun&tion you ha-e dee% ha%%iness or great
%ride, it will show e*a&tly as that on your fa&e This has been seen in many %eo%le and is rather
unbe&oming But another ty%e of %erson knows his own defe&ts and thinks, #,'m a &lumsy %erson but ,'-e
been asked to do this thing anyway )ow how am , going to go about it$ , &an see that this is going to be
mu&h trouble and &ause for &on&ern# Though these words are ne-er said, they will a%%ear on the
surfa&e This shows modesty
By in&onsisten&y and fri-olity we stray from the Way and show oursel-es to be beginners ,n this we do
mu&h harm
.earning is a good thing, but more often it leads to mistakes ,t is like the admonition of the %riest
2onan ,t is worthwhile 8ust looking at the deeds of a&&om%lished %ersons for the %ur%ose of knowing our
own insuffi&ien&ies But often this does not ha%%en (or the most %art, we admire our own o%inions and
be&ome fond of arguing
.ast year at a great &onferen&e there was a &ertain man who e*%lained his dissenting o%inion and said
that he was resol-ed to kill the &onferen&e leader if it was not a&&e%ted His motion was %assed After the
%ro&edures were o-er the man said, #Their assent &ame "ui&kly , think that they are too weak and
unreliable to be &ounselors to the master#
When an offi&ial %la&e is e*tremely busy and someone &omes in thoughtlessly with some business or
other, often there are %eo%le who will treat him &oldly and be&ome angry This is not good at all At su&h
times, the eti"uette of a samurai is to &alm himself and deal with the %erson in a good manner To treat
a %erson harshly is the way of middle &lass la&keys
A&&ording to the situation, there are times when you must rely on a %erson for something or other ,f this
is done re%eatedly, it be&omes a matter of im%ortuning that %erson and &an be rather rude ,f there is
something that must be done, it is better not to rely on others
There is something to be learned from a rainstorm When meeting with a sudden shower, you try not to
%et wet and run "ui&kly along the road But doing su&h things as %assing under the ea-es of houses, you
still get wet When you are resol-ed from the beginning, you will not be %er%le*ed, though you still get
the same soaking This understanding e*tends to e-erything
,n !hina there was on&e a man who liked %i&tures of dragons, and his &lothing and furnishings were all
designed a&&ordingly His dee% affe&tion for dragons was brought to the attention of the dragon god, and
one day a real dragon a%%eared before his window ,t is said that he died of fright He was %robably a
man who always s%oke big words but a&ted differently when fa&ing the real thing
There was a &ertain %erson who was a master of the s%ear When he was dying, he &alled his best
dis&i%le and s%oke his last in8un&tions :
, ha-e %assed on to you all the se&ret te&hni"ues of this s&hool, and there is nothing left to say ,f you
think of taking on a dis&i%le yourself, then you should %ra&ti&e diligently with the bamboo sword e-ery
day Su%eriority is not 8ust a matter of se&ret te&hni"ues
Also, in the instru&tions of a renga tea&her, it was said that the day before the %oetry meeting one should
&alm his mind and look at a &olle&tion of %oems This is &on&entration on one affair All %rofessions
should be done with &on&en0 tration
Although the 3ean is the standard for all things, in military affairs a man must always stri-e to outstri%
others A&&ording to ar&hery instru&tions the right and left hands are su%%osed to be le-el, but the right
hand has a tenden&y to go higher They will be&ome le-el if one will lower the right hand a bit when
shooting ,n the stories of the elder warriors it is said that on the battlefield if one wills himself to outstri%
warriors of a&&om%lishment, and day and night ho%es to strike down a %owerful enemy, he will grow
indefatigable and fier&e of heart and will manifest &ourage 1ne should use this %rin&i%le in e-eryday
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affairs too
There is a way of bringing u% the &hild of a samurai (rom the time of infan&y one should en&ourage
bra-ery and a-oid tri-ially frightening or teasing the &hild ,f a %erson is affe&ted by &owardi&e as a &hild,
it remains a lifetime s&ar ,t is a mistake for %arents to thoughtlessly make their &hildren dread lightning,
or to ha-e them not go into dark %la&es, or to tell them frightening things in order to sto% them from
&rying
(urthermore, a &hild will be&ome timid if he is s&olded se-erely
1ne should not allow bad habits to form After a bad habit is ingrained, although you admonish the &hild
he will not im%ro-e As for su&h things as %ro%er s%eaking and good manners, gradually make the &hild
aware of them .et him not know a-ari&e 1ther than that, if he is of a normal nature, he should de-elo%
well by the way he is brought u%
3oreo-er, the &hild of %arents who ha-e a bad relationshi% will be unfilial This is natural 4-en the birds
and beasts are affe&ted by what they are used to seeing and hearing from the time they are born Also,
the relationshi% between father and &hild may deteriorate be&ause of a mother's foolishness A mother
lo-es her &hild abo-e all things, and will be %artial to the &hild that is &orre&ted by his father ,f she
be&omes the &hild's ally, there will be dis&ord between father and son Be&ause of the shallowness of her
mind, a woman sees the &hild as her su%%ort in old age
You will be tri%%ed u% by %eo%le when your resolution is la* 3oreo-er, if at a meeting you are distra&ted
while an0 other %erson is s%eaking, by your &arelessness you may think that he is of your o%inion and you
will follow along saying, #1f &ourse, of &ourse,# e-en though he is saying something that is &ontrary to
your own feelings, and others will think that you are in agreement with him Be&ause of this, you should
ne-er be distra&ted e-en for an instant when meeting with others
When you are listening to a story or being s%oken to, you should be mindful not to be tri%%ed u% ? and if
there is something that you do not agree with, to s%eak your mind, to show your o%%onent his error, and
to gra%%le with the situation 4-en in unim%ortant affairs mistakes &ome from little things 1ne should be
mindful of this 3oreo-er, it is better not to be&ome a&"uainted with men about whom you ha-e formerly
had some doubts )o matter what you do, they will be %eo%le by whom you will be tri%%ed u% or taken
in, To be &ertain of this fa&t you must ha-e mu&h e*%erien&e
The saying, #The arts aid the body,# is for samurai of other regions (or samurai of the )abeshima &lan
the arts bring ruin to the body ,n all &ases, the %erson who %ra&ti&es an art is an artist, not a samurai,
and one should ha-e the intention of being &alled a samurai
When one has the &on-i&tion that e-en the slightest artful ability is harmful to the samurai, all the arts
be&ome useful to him 1ne should understand this sort of thing
1rdinarily, looking into the mirror and grooming oneself is suffi&ient for the u%kee% of one's %ersonal
a%%earan&e This is -ery im%ortant 3ost %eo%le's %ersonal a%%earan&e is %oor be&ause they do not look
into the mirror well enough
Training to s%eak %ro%erly &an be done by &orre&ting one's s%ee&h when at home
/ra&ti&e in letter writing goes to the e*tent of taking &are in e-en one0line letters
,t is good if all the abo-e &ontain a "uiet strength 3oreo-er, a&&ording to what the %riest ;yo5an heard
when he was in the 2amgala area, when one is writing a letter, he should think that the re&i%ient will
make it into a hanging s&roll
,t is said that one should not hesitate to &orre&t himself when he has made a mistake ,f he &orre&ts
himself without the least bit of delay, his mistakes will "ui&kly disa%%ear But when he tries to &o-er u% a
mistake, it will be&ome all the more unbe&oming and %ainful When words that one should not use sli%
out, if one will s%eak his mind "ui&kly and &learly, those words will ha-e no effe&t and he will not be
obstru&ted by worry ,f there is, howe-er, someone who blames a %erson for su&h a thing, one should be
%re%ared to say something like, #, ha-e e*%lained the reason for my &areless s%ee&h There is nothing
else to be done if you will not listen to reason Sin&e , said it unwittingly, it should be the same as if you
didn't hear it )o one &an e-ade blame# And one should ne-er talk about %eo%le or se&ret matters
(urthermore, one should only s%eak a&&ording to how he 8udges his listener's feelings
The %ro%er manner of &alligra%hy is nothing other than not being &areless, but in this way one's writing
will sim%ly be sluggish and stiff 1ne should go beyond this and de%art from the norm This %rin&i%le
E of 51
a%%lies to all things
,t is said, #When you would see into a %erson's heart, be&ome ill# When you are si&k or in diffi&ulties,
many of those who were friendly or &lose to you in daily life will be&ome &owards Whene-er anyone is in
unha%%y &ir&umstan&es, you should abo-e all in"uire after them by -isiting or sending some gift And you
should ne-er in your whole life be negligent toward someone from whom you ha-e re&ei-ed a fa-or
By su&h things the &onsideration of others &an be seen ,n this world the %eo%le who will rely on others
when they are in diffi&ulties and afterwards not gi-e them a thought are many
You &annot tell whether a %erson is good or bad by his -i&issitudes in life Food and bad fortune are
matters of fate Food and bad a&tions are 3an's Way ;etribution of good and e-il is taught sim%ly as a
moral lesson
Be&ause of some business, 3orooka Hikoemon was &alled u%on to swear before the gods &on&erning the
truth of a &ertain matter But he said, #A samurai's word is harder than metal Sin&e , ha-e im%ressed
this fa&t u%on myself, what more &an the gods and Buddhas do$# and the swearing was &an&elled This
ha%%ened when he was twenty0si*
3aster lttei said, #Whate-er one %rays for will be granted .ong ago there were no matsutake mushrooms
in our %ro-in&e Some men who saw them in the 2amigata area %rayed that they might grow here, and
nowadays they are growing all o-er 2itagama ,n the future , would like to ha-e 9a%anese &y%ress grow
in our %ro-in&e As this is something that e-eryone desires, , %redi&t it for the future This being so,
e-eryone should %ray for it#
When something out of the ordinary ha%%ens, it is ridi&ulous to say that it is a mystery or a %ortent of
something to &ome 4&li%ses of the sun and moon, &omets, &louds that flutter like flags, snow in the fifth
month, lightning in the twelfth month, and so on, are all things that o&&ur e-ery fifty or one hundred
years They o&&ur a&&ording to the e-olution of Yin and Yang The fa&t that the sun rises in the east and
sets in the west would be a mystery, too, if it were not an e-eryday o&&urren&e ,t is not dissimilar
(urthermore, the fa&t that something bad always ha%%ens in the world when strange %henomena o&&ur is
due to %eo%le seeing something like fluttering &louds and thinking that something is going to ha%%en The
mystery is &reated in their minds, and by waiting for the disaster, it is from their -ery minds that it
o&&urs The o&&urren&e of mysteries is always by word of mouth
!al&ulating %eo%le are &ontem%tible The reason for this is that &al&ulation deals with loss and %ain, and
the loss and gain mind ne-er sto%s @eath is &onsidered loss and life is &onsidered gain Thus, death is
something that su&h a %erson does not &are for, and he is &ontem%tible
(urthermore, s&holars and their like are men who with wit and s%ee&h hide their own true &owardi&e and
greed /eo%le often mis8udge this
.ord )aoshige said, #The Way of the Samurai is in des%erateness Ten men or more &annot kill su&h a
man !ommon sense will not a&&om%lish great things Sim%ly be&ome insane and des%erate'
#,n the Way of the Samurai, if one uses dis&rimination, he will fall behind 1ne needs neither loyalty nor
de-otion, but sim%ly to be&ome des%erate in the Way .oyalty and de-otion are of themsel-es within
des%eration#
The saying of Shida 2i&hinosuke, #When there is a &hoi&e of either li-ing or dying, as long as there
remains nothing behind to blemish one's re%utation, it is better to li-e,# is a %arado* He also said,
#When there is a &hoi&e of either going or not going, it is better not to go# A &orollary to this would he,
#When there is a &hoi&e of either eating or not eating, it is better not to eat When there is a &hoi&e of
either dying or not dying, it is better to die''
When meeting &alamities or diffi&ult situations, it is not enough to sim%ly say that one is not at all
flustered When meeting diffi&ult situations, one should dash forward bra-ely and with 8oy ,t is the
&rossing of a single barrier and is like the saying, #The more the water, the higher the boat#
,t is s%iritless to think that you &annot attain to that whi&h you ha-e seen and heard the masters attain
The masters are men You are also a man ,f you think that you will be inferior in doing something, you
will be on that road -ery soon 3aster lttei said , #!onfu&ius was a sage be&ause he had the will to
be&ome a s&holar when he was fifteen years old He was not a sage be&ause he studied later on# This is
the same as the Buddhist ma*im, #(irst intention, then enlightenment''
A warrior should be &areful in all things and should dislike to be the least bit worsted Abo-e all, if he is
1G of 51
not &areful in his &hoi&e of words he may say things like, #,'m a &oward,# or #At that time ,'d %robably
run,# or #How frightening,# or #How %ainful# These are words that should not be said e-en in 8est, on a
whim, or when talking in one's slee% ,f a %erson with understanding hears su&h things, he will see to the
bottom of the s%eaker's heart This is something that should be &arefully thought about beforehand
When one's own attitude on &ourage is fi*ed in his heart, and when his resolution is de-oid of doubt, then
when the time &omes he will of ne&essity be able to &hoose the right mo-e This will be manifested by
one's &ondu&t and s%ee&h a&&ording to the o&&asion 1ne's word is es%e&ially im%ortant ,t is not for
e*%osing the de%ths of one's heart This is something that %eo%le will know by one's e-eryday affairs
After , took u% the attitude of a retainer, , ne-er sat slo%%ily whether at home or in some other %la&e
)either did , s%eak, but if there was something that &ould not be done %ro%erly without words, , made an
effort to settle things by %utting ten words into one Yama5aki 2urando was like this
,t is said that e-en after one's head has been &ut off, he &an still %erform some fun&tion This fa&t &an be
known from the e*am%les of )itta Yoshisada and 1no @oken How shall one man be inferior to another$
3itani 9okyu said, #4-en if a man be si&k to death, he &an bear u% for two or three days ''
,n the words of the an&ients, one should make his de&isions within the s%a&e of se-en breaths .ord
Takanobu said, #,f dis&rimination is long, it will s%oil # .ord )aoshige said, #When matters are done
leisurely, se-en out of ten will turn out badly A warrior is a %erson who does things "ui&kly''
When your mind is going hither and thither, dis&rimination will ne-er be brought to a &on&lusion With an
intense, fresh and undelaying s%irit, one will make his 8udgments within the s%a&e of se-en breaths ,t is
a matter of being determined and ha-ing the s%irit to break right through to the other side
,n admonishing the master, if one is not of the %ro%er rank to do so, it shows great loyalty to ha-e
someone who is of that rank s%eak and ha-e the master &orre&t his mistakes To be on a footing to do
this one must be on &ordial terms with e-eryone ,f one does this for his own sake, it is sim%ly flattery
1ne does this, rather, in his &on&ern to su%%ort the &lan on his own
,f one will do it, it &an be done
Bad relations between retired and %resent rulers, father and son, and elder and younger brothers de-elo%
from selfish moti-es The %roof of this is that there are no su&h bad rela0 tions between master and
retainer
,t is unthinkable to be disturbed at something like being ordered to be&ome a ronin /eo%le at the time of
.ord 2atsushige used to say, '',f one has not been a ronin at least se-en times, he will not be a true
retainer Se-en times down, eight times u%#
3en like )arutomi Hyogo ha-e been ronin se-en times 1ne should understand that it is something like
being a self0 righting doll The master is also a%t to gi-e su&h orders as a test
,llnesses and the like be&ome serious be&ause of one's feelings , was born when my father was se-enty0
one years old and was hen&e a rather si&kly &hild But be&ause , ha-e had the great desire to be of use
e-en in old age, when the &han&e &ame , im%ro-ed my health and ha-en't been si&k sin&e And , ha-e
abstained from se* and ha-e &onsistently taken mo*a &autery There are things that , feel ha-e definitely
had effe&t
There is a saying that e-en though one burns u% a mamushi se-en times, it will return ea&h time to its
original form This is my great ho%e , ha-e always been obsessed with one idea: to be able to reali5e my
heart's desire, whi&h is that, though , am born se-en times, ea&h time , will be reborn as a retainer of my
&lan
Yamamoto 9in'emon on&e said that it is best for a samurai to ha-e good retainers 3ilitary affairs are not
matters for one %erson alone, regardless of how useful he tries to be 3oney is something that one &an
borrow from %eo%le, but a good man &annot suddenly be &ome by 1ne should sustain a man kindly and
well from the first And in ha-ing retainers it will not do to nourish oneself alone ,f you di-ide what you
ha-e and feed your lower ranks, you will be able to hold good men
A %erson with a bit of wisdom is one who will &riti&i5e the times This is the basis of disaster A %erson
who is dis&reet in s%eaking will be useful during the good times and will a-oid %unishment during the
bad
Being su%erior to others is nothing other than ha-ing %eo%le talk about your affairs and listening to their
11 of 51
o%inions The general run of %eo%le settle for their own o%inions and thus ne-er e*&el Ha-ing a
dis&ussion with a %erson is one ste% in e*&elling him, A &ertain %erson dis&ussed with me the written
materials at the &lan offi&e He is better than someone like me in writing and resear&hing ,n seeking
&orre&tion from others, you e*&el them
,t is bad when one thing be&omes two 1ne should not look for anything else in the Way of the Samurai
,t is the same for anything that is &alled a Way Therefore, it is in&onsistent to hear something of the Way
of !onfu&ius or the Way of the Buddha, and say that this is the Way of the Samurai ,f one understands
things in this manner, he should be able to hear about all Ways and be more and more in a&&ord with his
own
(or a samurai, a sim%le word is im%ortant no matter where he may be By 8ust one single word martial
-alor &an be made a%%arent ,n %ea&eful times words show one's bra-ery ,n troubled times, too, one
knows that by a single word his strength or &owardi&e &an be seen This single word is the flower of one's
heart ,t is not something said sim%ly with one's mouth
A warrior should not say something fainthearted e-en &asually He should set his mind to this
beforehand 4-en in trifling matters the de%ths of one's heart &an be seen
)o matter what it is, there is nothing that &annot be done ,f one manifests the determination, he &an
mo-e hea-en and earth as he %leases But be&ause man is %lu&kless, he &annot set his mind to it 3o-ing
hea-en and earth without %utting forth effort is sim%ly a matter of &on&entration
A %erson who is said to be %rofi&ient at the arts is like a fool Be&ause of his foolishness in &on&erning
himself with 8ust one thing, he thinks of nothing else and thus be&omes %rofi&ient He is a worthless
%erson
Hntil the age of forty it is best to gather strength ,t is a%%ro%riate to ha-e settled &lown by the age of
fifty
When dis&ussing things with someone, it is best to s%eak a%%ro%riately about whate-er the sub8e&t may
be )o matter how good what you are saying might be, it will dam%en the &on-ersation if it is irrele-ant
When someone is gi-ing you his o%inion, you should re&ei-e it with dee% gratitude e-en though it is
worthless ,f you don't, he will not tell you the things that he has seen and heard about you again ,t is
best to both gi-e and re&ei-e o%inions in a friendly way
There is a saying that great genius matures late ,f something is not brought to fruition o-er a %eriod of
twenty to thirty years, it will not be of great merit When a retainer is of a mind to do his work hurriedly,
he will intrude u%on the work of others and will be said to be young but able He will be&ome o-er0
enthusiasti& and will be &onsidered rather rude He will %ut on the airs of someone who has done great
works, will be&ome a flatterer and insin&ere, and will be talked about behind his ba&k ,n the %ursuit of
one's de-elo%ment, if he does not make great effort and is not su%%orted by others in his ad-an&ement in
the world, he will be of no use
When one is in-ol-ed in the affairs of a warrior su&h as being a kaishaku or making an arrest within one's
own &lan or grou%, %eo%le will noti&e when the time &omes if he has resol-ed beforehand that no one &an
take his %la&e 1ne should always take the attitude of standing abo-e others in martial -alor, always feel
that he is inferior to no one, and always &ulti-ate his &ourage
When on the battlefield, if you try not to let others take the lead and ha-e the sole intention of breaking
into the enemy lines, then you will not fall behind others, your mind will be&ome fier&e, and you will
manifest martial -alor This fa&t has been %assed down by the elders (urthermore, if you are slain in
battle, you should be resol-ed to ha-e your &or%se fa&ing the enemy
,f e-eryone were in a&&ord and left things to /ro-iden&e, their hearts would be at ease ,f they are not in
a&&ord, though they would do a&ts of righteousness, they la&k loyalty To be at odds with one's
&om%anions, to be %rone to miss e-en infre"uent meetings, to s%eak only &antankerous words000a1 &ome
from a shallow foolishness of mind But thinking of the moment of truth, e-en though it be un%leasant,
one should fi* it in his mind to meet %eo%le &ordially at all times and without distra&tion, and in a way in
whi&h one will not seem bored 3oreo-er, in this world of un&ertainties one is not e-en sure of the
%resent ,t would be worthless to die while being thought ill of by %eo%le .ies and insin&erity are
unbe&oming This is be&ause they are for self0%rofit
Though it is not %rofitable to ha-e others lead the way, or not to be "uarrelsome, or not to be la&king in
manners, or to be humble, if one will do things for the benefit of others and meet e-en those whom he
17 of 51
has met often before in a first0time manner, he will ha-e no bad relationshi%s 3anners between husband
and wife are not different from this ,f one is as dis&reet in the end as he is in the beginning, there should
be no dis&ord
There is a &ertain %riest who is said to be able to get e-erything a&&om%lished by means of his
&le-erness There is not a monk in 8a%an today who &an o%%ose him This is not the least bit strange
There is sim%ly no one who sees through to the foundation of things
Senility is when one goes about doing only that towards whi&h he is most in&lined 1ne is able to
su%%ress and hide this while his -igor is still strong, but when he weakens, the essential strong %oints of
his nature a%%ear and are a shame to him This manifests itself in se-eral forms, but there is not a man
who does not get senile by the time he rea&hes si*ty And when one thinks that he will not be senile, he
is already so, ,t &an be thought that 3aster lttei had a senility of argumentation As if to show that he
alone &ould su%%ort the House of )abeshima, he went about with a senile a%%earan&e to %rominent
%eo%le's houses and &hatted amiably with them At the time, e-erybody thought that it was reasonable,
but thinking about it now, it was senility (or myself, with that good e*am%le and the feeling that dotage
was o-ertaking me, , de&lined to %arti&i%ate at the tem%le on the thirteenth anni-ersary of .ord
3itsushige's death, and , ha-e de&ided to stay more and more indoors 1ne must get a &lear -iew of
what lies ahead
,f one is but se&ure at the foundation, he will not be %ained by de%arture from minor details or affairs
that are &ontrary to e*%e&tation But in the end, the details of a matter are im%ortant The right and
wrong of one's way of doing things are found in tri-ial matters
A&&ording to a story at the ;yutai8i, there was a master of the Book of !hanges in the 2amigata area who
said that e-en if a man is a %riest, it is useless to gi-e him rank while he is under the a%e of forty This is
be&ause he will make many mistakes !onfu&ius was not the only man to be&ome un%er%le*ed after
rea&hing the age of forty H%on rea&hing the age of forty, both wise and foolish ha-e gone through an
a%%ro%riate amount of e*%erien&e and will no longer be %er%le*ed
!on&erning martial -alor, merit lies more in dying for one's master than in striking down the enemy This
&an be understood from the de-otion of Sate Tsugunobu
When , was young, , ke%t a #@airy of ;egret# and tried to re&ord my mistakes day by day, but there was
ne-er a day when , didn't ha-e twenty or thirty entries As there was no end to it, , ga-e u% 4-en today,
when , think about the day's affairs after going to bed, there is ne-er a day when , do not make some
blunder in s%eaking or in some a&ti-ity .i-ing without mistakes is truly im%ossible But this is something
that %eo%le who li-e by &le-erness ha-e no in&lination to think about
When reading something aloud, it is best to read from the belly ;eading from one's mouth, one's -oi&e
will not endure This is )akano Shikibu's tea&hing
@uring ha%%y times, %ride and e*tra-agan&e are dangerous ,f one is not %rudent in ordinary times, he
will not be able to &at&h u% A %erson who ad-an&es during good times will falter during the bad
3aster lttei said, #,n &alligra%hy it is %rogress when the %a%er, brush and ink are in harmony# Yet they
are so wont to be dis8ointedB
The master took a book from its bo* When he o%ened it there was the smell of drying &lo-ebuds
What is &alled generosity is really &om%assion ,n the Shin'ei it is written, #Seen from the eye of
&om%assion, there is no one to be disliked 1ne who has sinned is to be %itied all the more# There is no
limit to the breadth and de%th of one's heart There is room enough for all That we still worshi% the
sages of the three an&ient kingdoms is be&ause their &om%assion rea&hes us yet today
Whate-er you do should be done for the sake of your master and %arents, the %eo%le in general, and for
%osterity This is great &om%assion The wisdom and &ourage that &ome from &om%assion are real
wisdom and &ourage When one %unishes or stri-es with the heart of &om%assion, what he does will be
limitless in strength and &orre&tness @oing something for one's own sake is shallow and mean and turns
into e-il , understood the matters of wisdom and &ourage some time ago , am 8ust now beginning to
understand the matter of &om%assion
.ord ,eyasu said, #The foundation for ruling the &ountry in %ea&e is &om%assion, for when one thinks of
the %eo%le as being his &hildren, the %eo%le will think of him as their %arent# 3oreo-er, &an't it be
thought that the names #grou% %arent# and #grou% &hild# <ie, grou% leader and member= are so &alled
be&ause they are atta&hed to ea&h other by the harmonious hearts of a %arent0&hild relationshi% $
1: of 51
1ne &an understand that .ord )aoshige's %hrase, #A faultfinder will &ome to be %unished by others,#
&ame from his &om%assion His saying, #/rin&i%le is beyond reason,# should also be &onsidered
&om%assion He enthusiasti&ally stated that we should taste the ine*haustible
The %riest Tannen said, #A &le-er retainer will not ad-an&e Howe-er, there are no &ases of stu%id %eo%le
&oming u% in the world either#
This was )akano Shikibu's o%inion
When one is young, he &an often bring on shame for a lifetime by homose*ual a&ts To ha-e no
understanding of this is dangerous As there is no one to inform young men of this matter, , &an gi-e its
general outline
1ne should understand that a woman is faithful to only one husband 1ur feelings go to one %erson for
one lifetime ,f this is not so, it is the same as sodomy or %rostitution This is shame for a warrior ,hara
Saikaku has written a famous line that goes, #An adoles&ent without an older lo-er is the same as a
woman with no husband# But this sort of %erson is ridi&ulous
A young man should test an older man for at least fi-e years, and if he is assured of that %erson's
intentions, then he too should re"uest the relationshi% A fi&kle %erson will not enter dee%ly into a
relationshi% and later will abandon his lo-er
,f they &an assist and de-ote their li-es to ea&h other, then their nature &an be as&ertained But if one
%artner is &rooked, the other should say that there are hindran&es to the relationshi% and se-er it with
firmness ,f the first should ask what those hindran&es are, then one should res%ond that he will ne-er in
his life say ,f he should &ontinue to %ush the matter, one should get angry ? if he &ontinues to %ush e-en
further, &ut him down
(urthermore, the older man should as&ertain the younger's real moti-es in the aforementioned way ,f
the younger man &an de-ote himself and %et into the situation for fi-e or si* years, then it will not be
unsuitable
Abo-e all, one should not di-ide one's way into two 1ne should stri-e in the Way of the Samurai
Hoshino ;yotetsu was the %rogenitor of homose*uality in our %ro-in&e, and although it &an be said that
his dis&i%les were many, he instru&ted ea&h one indi-idually 4dayoshi Saburo5aemon was a man who
understood the foundation of homose*uality 1n&e, when a&&om%anying his master to ado, ;yotetsu
asked Saburo5aemon, #What ha-e you understood of homose*uality$#
Saburo5aemon re%lied, #,t is something both %leasant and un%leasant''
;yotetsu was %leased and said, #You ha-e taken great %ains for some time to be able to say su&h a
thing''
Some years later there was a %erson who asked Saburo5aemen the meaning of the abo-e He re%lied,
#To lay down one's life for another is the basi& %rin&i%le of homose*uality ,f it is not so, it be&omes a
matter of shame Howe-er, then you ha-e nothing left to lay down for your master ,t is therefore
understood to be something both %leasant and un%leasant''
3aster lttei said, ' ',f one were to say what it is to do good, in a single word it would be to endure
suffering )ot enduring is bad without e*&e%tion#
Hntil one rea&hes the a%e of forty it is better to %ut off wisdom and dis&rimination and e*&el in -itality
A&&ording to the %erson and the rank, though a %erson has %assed the age of forty, if he has no -itality,
he will %et no res%onse from others
;e&ently, a &ertain %erson on his way to 4do sent home a detailed letter from the first night's inn Though
he was a %erson who negle&ted su&h things when he was busy, he e*&elled other %eo%le in being as
attenti-e as this
,n the 8udgment of the elders, a samurai's obstina&y should be e*&essi-e A thing done with moderation
may later be 8udged to be insuffi&ient , ha-e heard that when one thinks he has gone too far, he will not
ha-e erred This sort of rule should not be forgotten
When one has made a de&ision to kill a %erson, e-en if it will be -ery diffi&ult to su&&eed by ad-an&ing
straight ahead, it will not do to think about going at it in a long roundabout way 1ne's heart may
sla&ken, he may miss his &han&e, and by and large there will be no su&&ess The Way of the Samurai is
1> of 51
one of immedia&y, and it is best to dash in headlong When a &ertain man was going to the sutra
readings at the 9issoin in 2awakami, one of his %ages got drunk on the ferryboat and began to %ester one
of the sailors When they landed on the other side, as the %age had drawn his sword, the sailor took a
%ole and stru&k him on the head At that time the other sailors all ran u% together &arrying oars and were
at the %oint of striking the %age down Howe-er, as the master %assed by with an air of not knowing what
was ha%%ening, one of the other %ages ran ba&k and a%ologi5ed to the sailors Then, %a&ifying his
&omrade, he a&&om%anied him home That night the %age who had been drunk learned that his sword
was being taken away from him
)ow, first of all, it was an insuffi&ien&y on the master's %art not to ha-e re%ro-ed and %a&ified the
drunken %age while they were on the boat (urthermore, e-en though his %age had a&ted unreasonably,
after he had been stru&k on the head there was no reason for an a%ology The master should ha-e
a%%roa&hed the sailor and the drunken %age in an a%ologeti& manner and &ut them both down !ertainly
he was a s%iritless master
The resolution of the men of former times was dee% Those between the ages of thirteen and si*ty went
to the front lines (or this reason men of ad-an&ed years hid their age
(or serious affairs that bear dire&tly on oneself, if one does not take &are of things by making his own
8udgment his foundation and breaking through headlong, matters will not be brought to a &lose ,n
&onferring with %eo%le about matters of im%ortan&e, there may be many &ases when your affair is
thought lightly of, or when %eo%le will not s%eak of the real &ir&umstan&es At su&h times one must use
his own 8udgment At any rate, it is suffi&ient to be&ome a fanati& and &hoose to throw away one's life At
su&h a time, if one thinks about doing things well, &onfusion will soon arise and he will blunder ,n many
&ases one's downfall may be brought about by an ally who is trying to do something for one's benefit, or
one may be killed by his friend's kindness ,t is the same as when one re"uests %ermission to be&ome a
monk
.ord )aoshige said, #An an&estor's good or e-il &an be determined by the &ondu&t of his des&endants '' A
des&endant should a&t in a way that will manifest the good in his an&estor and not the bad This is filial
%iety
,t is a wret&hed thing that one's family lineage be thrown into &onfusion with an ado%tion based on
money alone Su&h a thing is immoral from the beginning, but it is e*treme wi&kedness to be thus
immoral with the e*&use that without doing so one will be unable to afford e-en today's ri&e
When )akano Shogen &ommitted se%%uku, the members of his grou% gathered at 1ki Hyobu's %la&e and
said -arious bad things about him Hyobu said, #1ne does not s%eak bad things about a %erson after his
death And es%e&ially sin&e a %erson who has re&ei-ed some &ensure is to be %itied, it is the obligation of
a samurai to s%eak something good of him, no matter how little There is no doubt that in twenty years
Shogen will ha-e the re%utation of a faithful retainer# These were truly the words of a seasoned man
To %la&e one's armor out s%lendidly is a fine dis&i%line, but it is suffi&ient if it is sim%ly all a&&ounted for
(ukabori ,nosuke 's armor is a good e*am%le 3en of high rank and with many retainers will also need
su&h things as money to set aside for &am%aign use ,t is said that 1kabe 2unai made bags e"ualing the
number of men in his ?grou%, affi*ed a name to ea&h, and %ut in the a%%ro%riate amount of money for a
&am%aign This sort of dis&i%line is %rofound As for men of low rank, if they &annot make the %ro%er
%re%aration at the time, they should rely on assistan&e from their grou% leader To this e*tent, it is
ne&essary for the grou% leader to be on intimate terms with his men beforehand As for men who are
under the master's dire&tion, and es%e&ially for those who are with him dire&tly, it is better to be without
%re%aration money At the time of the summer maneu-ers at 1saka, a &ertain %erson brought along
twel-e monme of refined sil-er and went off with 3aster Taku Iusho This, of &ourse, would ha-e been
fine if he had sim%ly ridden off early , think that it is better to dis%ense with su&h &are
,n &arefully s&rutini5ing the affairs of the %ast, we find that there are many different o%inions about them,
and that there are some things that are "uite un&lear ,t is better to regard su&h things as unknowable
.ord Sanenori on&e said, #As for the things that we don't understand, there ere ways of understanding
them (urthermore, there are some things we understand 8ust naturally, and again some that we &an't
understand no matter how hard we try This is interesting#
This is -ery %rofound ,t is natural that one &annot understand dee% and hidden things Those things that
are easily understood are rather shallow
15 of 51
Hagakure: From the 2nd Chapter
,t is said that mu&h sake, self0%ride and lu*ury are to be a-oided by a samurai, There is no &ause for
an*iety when you are unha%%y, but when you be&ome a little elated, these three things be&ome
dangerous .ook at the human &ondition ,t is unseemly for a %erson to be&ome %rideful and e*tra-agant
when things are going well Therefore, it is better to ha-e some unha%%iness while one is still young, for
if a %erson does not e*%erien&e some bitterness, his dis%osition will not settle down A %erson who
be&omes fatigued when unha%%y is useless
3eeting with %eo%le should be a matter of "ui&kly gras%ing their tem%erament and rea&ting a%%ro%riately
to this %erson and that 4s%e&ially with an e*tremely argumentati-e %erson, after yielding &onsiderably
one should argue him down with su%erior logi&, but without sounding harsh, and in a fashion that will
allow no resentment to be left afterwards This is a fun&tion of both the heart and words This was an
o%inion gi-en by a %riest &on&erning %ersonal en&ounters
@reams are truthful manifestations When , o&&asionally ha-e dreams of dying in battle or &ommitting
se%%uku, if , bra&e myself with &ourage, my frame of mind within the dream gradually &hanges
This &on&erns the dream , had on the night of the twenty0 se-enth day of the fifth month
,f one were to say in a word what the &ondition of being a samurai is, its basis lies first in seriously
de-oting one's body and soul to his master And if one is asked what to do beyond this, it would be to fit
oneself inwardly with intelligen&e, humanity and &ourage' The &ombining of these three -irtues may
seem unobtainable to the ordinary %erson, but it is easy ,ntelligen&e is nothing more than dis&ussing
things with others .imitless wisdom &omes from this Humanity is something done for the sake of others,
sim%ly &om%aring oneself with them and %utting them in the fore !ourage is gritting one' s teeth ? it is
sim%ly doing that and %ushing ahead, %aying no attention to the &ir&umstan&es Anything that seems
abo-e these three is not ne&essary to be known
As for outward as%e&ts, there are %ersonal a%%earan&e, one's way of s%eaking and &alligra%hy And as all
of these are daily matters, they im%ro-e by &onstant %ra&ti&e Basi&ally, one should %er&ei-e their nature
to be one of "uiet strength ,f one has a&&om%lished all these things, then he should ha-e a knowledge of
our area's history and &ustoms After that he may study the -arious arts as re&reation ,f you think it
o-er, being a retainer is sim%le And these days, if you obser-e %eo%le who are e-en a bit useful, you will
see that they ha-e a&&om%lished these three outward as%e&ts
A &ertain %riest said that if one thoughtlessly &rosses a ri-er of unknown de%ths and shallows, he will die
in its &urrents without e-er rea&hing the other side or finishing his business This is the same as when
one is indis&riminately eager in being a retainer without understanding the &ustoms of the times or the
likes and dislikes of the master and, as a result, is of no use and brings ruin u%on himself To try to enter
the good gra&es of the master is unbe&oming 1ne should &onsider first ste%%ing ba&k and getting some
understanding of the de%ths and shallows and then work without doing anything the master dislikes
,f you atta&h a number of bags of &lo-es to your body, you will not be affe&ted by in&lemen&y or &olds
Some years ago )akano 2a5uma returned to this %ro-in&e as a messenger by horse in the dead of
winter, and though he was an old man, he was not the least bit in %ain ,t is said that that was be&ause of
his ha-ing used &lo-es (urthermore, drinking a de&o&tion of the fe&es from a da%%led horse is the way to
sto% bleeding from an in8ury re&ei-ed by falling off a horse
A faultless %erson is one who withdraws from affairs This must be done with strength
There is surely nothing other than the single %ur%ose of the %resent moment A man's whole life is a
su&&ession of moment after moment ,f one fully understands the %resent moment, there will be nothing
else to do, and nothing else to %ursue .i-e being true to the single %ur%ose of the moment
4-eryone lets the %resent moment sli% by, then looks for it as though he thought it were somewhere
else )o one seems to ha-e noti&ed this fa&t But gras%ing this firmly, one must %ile e*%erien&e u%on
e*%erien&e And on&e one has &ome to this understanding he will be a different %erson from that %oint
on, though he may not always bear it in mind
When one understands this settling into single0mindedness well, his affairs will thin out .oyalty is also
&ontained within this single0mindedness
,t is said that what is &alled #the s%irit of an a%e' ' is seine0 thing to whi&h one &annot return That this
s%irit gradually dissi%ates is due to the world's &oming to an end ,n the same way, a single year does not
ha-e 8ust s%ring or summer A single day, too, is the same
1A of 51
(or this reason, although one would like to &hange today's world ba&k to the s%irit of one hundred years
or more ago, it &annot be done Thus it is im%ortant to make the best out of e-ery generation This is the
mistake of %eo%le who are atta&hed to %ast generations They ha-e no understanding of this %oint
1n the other hand, %eo%le who only know the dis%osition of the %resent day and dislike the ways of the
%ast are too la*
Be true to the thought of the moment and a-oid distra&tion 1ther than &ontinuing to e*ert yourself,
enter into nothing else, but go to the e*tent of li-ing single thought by single thought
The bra-e men of old times were for the most %art rowdies As they were of the dis%osition to be out
running amu&k, their -itality was strong and they were bra-e When , had doubts about this and asked,
Tsunetomo said, #,t is understandable that sin&e their -itality was strong they were generally rough and
went about running amu&k These days rowdiness is none*istent be&ause man's -itality has weakened
6itality has fallen behind, but man's &hara&ter has im%ro-ed 6alor is yet a different thing Although men
ha-e be&ome gentle these days be&ause of the la&k of -itality, this does not mean that they are inferior
in being &ra5y to die That has nothing to do with -itality#
!on&erning the military ta&ti&s of .ord )aoshige, Hshida Shoemon said that it was &hara&teristi& of his
retainers to fa&e a situation with no %re-ious knowledge of what was to ha%%en, and for him to freely
bring e-erything to a finish by a single word When he was at the %oint of %assing from this world, he
said nothing, e-en when his &hief retainers &ame to see him
1n&e .ord ,eyasu gamed nothing in a battle, but in a later 8udgment it was said, #,eyasu is a general of
great &ourage 1f his retainers who died in battle, not one of them died with his ba&k turned They all
died fa&ing the enemy lines# Sin&e a warrior' s daily frame of mind is manifested e-en after death, it is
something that &an bring shame to him
As Yasuda Hkyo said about offering u% the last wine &u%, only the end of things is im%ortant 1ne's whole
life should be like this When guests are lea-ing, the mood of being relu&tant to say farewell is essential
,f this mood is la&king, one will a%%ear bored and the day and e-ening's &on-ersation will disa%%ear ,n
all dealings with %eo%le it is essential to ha-e a fresh a%%roa&h 1ne should &onstantly gi-e the
im%ression that he is doing something e*&e%tional ,t is said that this is %ossible with but a little
understanding
1ur bodies are gi-en life from the midst of nothingness 4*isting where there is nothing is the meaning of
the %hrase, #(orm is em%tiness# That all things are %ro-ided for by nothingness is the meaning of the
%hrase, #4m%tiness is form#' 1ne should not think that these are two se%arate things
Hesugi 2enshin said, #, ne-er knew about winning from beginning to end, but only about not being
behind in a situation# This is interesting A retainer will be dumbfounded if he is behind in a situation ,n
ea&h and e-ery instan&e one's fun&tion or res%onsi-eness will not be shallow if he is not behind
1ne should be wary of talking on end about su&h sub8e&ts as learning, morality or folklore in front of
elders or %eo%le of rank ,t is disagreeable to listen to
,n the 2amigata area they ha-e a sort of tiered lun&h bo* they use for a single day when flower -iewing
H%on returning, they throw them away, tram%ling them underfoot As might be e*%e&ted, this is one of
my re&olle&tions of the &a%ital <2yoto= The end is im%ortant in all things
While walking along the road together, Tsunetomo said, #,s not man like a well0o%erated %u%%et$ ,t is a
%ie&e of de*terous workmanshi% that he &an run, 8um%, lea%, and e-en talk though there are no strings
atta&hed Will we not be guests at ne*t year's Ben (esti-al$ This world is -anity indeed /eo%le always
forget this#
,t was on&e said to one of the young lords that #right now'' is ''at that time, '' and ''at that time'' is ''right
now'' 1ne will miss the o&&asion if he thinks that these two are different (or e*am%le, if one were &alled
before the master to e*%lain something right away, he would most likely be %er%le*ed This is %roof that
he understands the two to be different ,f, howe-er, a %erson makes #right now# and #at that time# one,
though he will ne-er be an ad-isor to the master, still he is a retainer, and in order to be able to say
something &learly, whether it be in front of the master, the elders or e-en the shogun at 4do !astle, it
should be %ra&ti&ed beforehand in the &orner of one's bedroom
All things are like this A&&ordingly, one should in"uire into things &arefully ,t is the same for martial
training as for offi&ial business When one attem%ts to &on&entrate things in this manner, won't daily
negligen&e and today's la&k of resol-e be understood$
1C of 51
4-en though one has made some blunder in go-ernmental work, it &an %robably be e*&used by %leading
&lumsiness or ine*%erien&e But what kind of e*&use may be gi-en for the failure of the men who were
in-ol-ed in this re&ent une*%e&ted e-ent$# 3aster 9in'emon always used to say, #,t is enough if a warrior
is sim%ly a stalwart,# and this is 8ust su&h a &ase ,f one felt that su&h a failure were a mortifi&ation, it
would be the least he &ould do to &ut o%en his stoma&h, rather than li-e on in shame with a burning in his
breast and the feeling that he had no %la&e to go, and, as his lu&k as a warrior had run out, he was no
longer able to fun&tion "ui&kly and had been gi-en a bad name But if one regretted losing his life and
reasoned that he should li-e be&ause su&h a death would be useless, then for the ne*t fi-e, ten or twenty
years of his life, he would be %ointed at from behind and &o-ered with shame After his death his &or%se
would be smeared with disgra&e, his guiltless des&endants would re&ei-e his dishonor for ha-ing been
born in his line, his an&estors' name would be dragged down, and all the members of his family would be
blemished Su&h &ir&umstan&es are truly regrettable
,f one has no earnest daily intention, does not &onsider what it is to be a warrior e-en in his dreams, and
li-es through the day idly, he &an be said to be worthy of %unishment
/resumably it &an be said that a man who has been &ut down was la&king in ability and had run out of
lu&k as a warrior The man who &ut him down, &om%elled by una-oidable &ir&umstan&es and feeling that
there was nothing else to be done, also %ut his life on the line, and thus there should be no e-iden&e of
&owardi&e Being short0tem%ered is ina%%ro%riate, but it &annot be said that two men who fa&e ea&h
other are &owards ,n this re&ent e-ent, howe-er, the men who li-ed and &o-ered themsel-es with shame
were not true warriors
1ne should e-ery day think o-er and make an effort to im%lant in his mind the saying, #At that time is
right now# ,t is said that it is strange indeed that anyone is able to %ass through life by one means or
another in negligen&e Thus, the Way of the Samurai is, morning after morning, the %ra&ti&e of death,
&onsidering whether it will be here or be there, imagining the most sightly way of dying, and %utting
one's mind firmly in death Although this may be a most diffi&ult thing, if one will do it, it &an be done
There is nothing that one should su%%ose &annot be done
3oreo-er, the influen&e of words is im%ortant in military affairs ,t would ha-e been best for sto%%ing the
man in this re&ent e-ent, too When the situation is too mu&h, one may either &ut the man down, or, if
the man is es&a%ing, yell something like, #@on't run , 1nly &owards run B# and thus, a&&ording to what
the situation demands, a&hie-e one's goals by the influen&e of words There was a &ertain man who was
said to be good at 8udging men's dis%ositions and formerly had e-eryone's attention, and he was able to
handle su&h &ases This is %roof that #right now# is no different from #when the time &omes# The %osition
of yoko5a no yari is another e*am%le of this J ,t is something that should be made one's aim
beforehand
The things to be dee%ly &onsidered beforehand are many ,f there is someone who has killed a man in the
lord's mansion and has managed to es&a%e, as one does not know whether he may still be swinging his
sword and ad-an&ing toward the room ne*t to the lord's, he should &ut the man down ,ndeed, one may
be blamed later in an in-estigation as a &onfederate of the killer, or as someone who had a grudge
against him But at that time one should think only of &utting the man down and not anti&i%ate later
blame
4-en if one's head were to be suddenly &ut off, he should be able to do one more a&tion with &ertainty
The last moments of )itta Yoshisada are %roof of this Had his s%irit been weak, he would ha-e fallen the
moment his head was se-ered ;e&ently, there is the e*am%le of 1no @oken These a&tions o&&urred
be&ause of sim%le determination With martial -alor, if one be&omes like a re-engeful ghost and shows
great determination, though his head is &ut off, he should not die
Whether %eo%le be of high or low birth, ri&h or %oor, old or young, enlightened or &onfused, they are all
alike in that they will one day die ,t is not that we don't know that we are going to die, but we gras% at
straws While knowing that we will die someday, we think that all the others will die before us and that
we will be the last to go @eath seems a long way oft
,s this not shallow thinking$ ,t is worthless and is only a 8oke within a dream ,t will not do to think in
su&h a way and be negligent insofar as death is always at one's door, one should make suffi&ient effort
and a&t "ui&kly
,t is good to &arry some %owdered rouge in one's slee-e ,t may ha%%en that when one is sobering u% or
waking from slee%, his &om%le*ion may be %oor At su&h a time it is good to take out and a%%ly some
%owdered rouge
1D of 51
There are times when a %erson gets &arried away and talks on without thinking mu&h But this &an be
seen by obser-ers when one's mind is fli%%ant and la&king truth After su&h an o&&asion it is best to &ome
fa&e to fa&e with the truth and e*%ress it The truth will then be arri-ed at in one's own heart too 4-en
when greeting someone lightly, one should &onsider the &ir&umstan&es and after deliberation s%eak in a
way that will not in8ure the man's feelings
(urthermore, if there is a %erson who is &riti&i5ing the Way of the Samurai or one's own %ro-in&e, one
should s%eak with him se-erely, without the least bit of &eremony 1ne must be resol-ed in ad-an&e
Although a %erson who e*&els in an art regards others as &om%etitors, last year Hyodo Sa&hu ga-e u% the
title of 3aster of ;enga to Yamagu&hi Sho&hin A %raiseworthy a&t
The %riest Tannen used to hang u% wind0bells but said, #,t's not be&ause , like the sound , hang them in
order to know the wind &onditions in the e-ent of fire, for that is the only worry in ha-ing a large tem%le#
When the wind blew, he himself walked about at night Throughout his whole life the fire in his bra5ier
was ne-er out, and he always %ut a %a%er lantern and lighter by his %illow He said, ' '/eo%le are flustered
during an emergen&y, and there is no one to "ui&kly strike a light#
,f one makes a distin&tion between %ubli& %la&es and one's slee%ing "uarters, or between being on the
battlefield and on the tatami, when the moment &omes there will not be time for making amends There
is only the matter of &onstant awareness ,f it were not for men who demonstrate -alor on the tatami,
one &ould not find them on the battlefield either
Bra-ery and &owardi&e are not things that &an be &on8e&tured in times of %ea&e They are in different
&ategories
Though it may be said that the gods dislike im%urity, if one thinks a bit, he will see that he has not been
negligent in his daily worshi% Thus, one's %re-ious faithfulness has been e*a&tly for the sake of %raying
for good fortune in su&h times as when one is barbed in blood and &limbing o-er the dead At su&h a
time, if it is a god that turns ba&k when one is defiled, then one should know &learly that %raying is
ineffe&ti-e and should worshi% regardless of defilement
At times of great trouble or disaster, one word will suffi&e At times of ha%%iness, too, one word will be
enough And when meeting or talking with others, one word will do 1ne should think well and then
s%eak This is &lear and firm, and one should learn it with no doubts ,t is a matter of %utting forth one's
whole effort and ha-ing the &orre&t attitude %re-iously This is -ery diffi&ult to e*%lain but is something
that e-eryone should work on in his heart ,f a %erson has not learned this in his heart, it is not likely that
he will understand it
Human life is truly a short affair ,t is better to li-e doing the things that you like ,t is foolish to li-e
within this dream of a world seeing un%leasantness and doing only things that you do not like But it is
im%ortant ne-er to tell this to young %eo%le as it is something that would be harmful if in&orre&tly
understood
/ersonally, , like to slee% And , intend to a%%ro%riately &onfine myself more and more to my li-ing
"uarters and %ass my life away slee%ing
, had a dream on the night of the twenty0eighth day of the twelfth month in the third year of Shotoku
The &ontent of the dream &hanged gradually to the e*tent that , strengthened my will The &ondition of a
%erson is re-ealed by his dreams ,t would be good to make &om%anions of your dreams and to %ut forth
effort
Shame and re%entan&e are like u%setting a %ot of water When a &ertain friend of mine listened to the
way that a man who had stolen his sword ornament &onfessed, he felt &om%assion ,f one will re&tify his
mistakes, their tra&es will soon disa%%ear
A&&ording to what the Buddhist %riest 2aion said, a %erson be&omes more and more %rideful if he gains a
little understanding be&ause he thinks he knows his own limits and weak %oints Howe-er, it is a diffi&ult
thing to truly know one's own limits and weak %oints
At a glan&e, e-ery indi-idual's own measure of dignity is manifested 8ust as it is There is dignity in
%ersonal a%%earan&e There is dignity in a &alm as%e&t There is dignity in a %au&ity of words There is
dignity in flawlessness of manners There is dignity in solemn beha-ior And there is dignity in dee%
insight and a &lear %ers%e&ti-e
1E of 51
These are all refle&ted on the surfa&e But in the end, their foundation is sim%li&ity of thought and
tautness of s%irit
!o-etousness, anger and foolishness are things to sort out well When bad things ha%%en in the world, if
you look at them &om%arati-ely, they are not unrelated to these three things .ooking &om%arati-ely at
the good things, you will see that they are not e*&luded from wisdom, humanity and bra-ery
This is a&&ording to what )akano 2a5uma Toshiaki said There are %eo%le who feel that using old utensils
for the Tea !eremony is &oarse, and that it is better to use new, &lean utensils There are also %eo%le
who are wont to use old materials be&ause of their la&k of gaudiness Both are mistaken 1ld utensils,
although they are things that are used by the humble, are also used by the higher &lasses be&ause of
their -alue Their -alue is re-ered
A retainer is 8ust like this A %erson rises from the humble to the higher &lasses be&ause he has -alue At
the same time, to feel that a %erson of no family &annot do the same work as one of higher family, or
that a man who has heretofore been only a foot soldier should not be allowed to be&ome a leader, is
entirely wrong thinking As for a %erson who has risen from the humble, his -alue should be %ri5ed and
es%e&ially res%e&ted, e-en more than that of a %erson who was born into his &lass
3y father 9in'emon said that when he was young he was taken from time to time to the entran&e of the
!hinese settlement in order to be e*%osed to the atmos%here of the &ity and to be&ome used to %eo%le
(rom the time he was fi-e years old he was sent as family re%resentati-e to -arious %eo%le's homes, and
in order to make him strong he was made to %ut on a warrior's straw sandals and -isit the tem%les of his
an&estors from the time he was se-en
,t is said that one will not be able to do great works if he does not beha-e with some reser-e towards his
master, the &hief retainers and elders What is done &asually and freely will not work out well ,t is a
matter of attitude
,t is unfitting that one be ignorant of the history and origins of his &lan and its retainers But there are
times when e*tensi-e knowledge be&omes a hindran&e 1ne should use dis&retion 2nowing the
&ir&umstan&es &an be an obstru&tion in e-eryday affairs, too 1ne should use dis&retion
,t is written that the %riest Shungaku said, #,n 8ust refusing to retreat from something one gains the
strength of two men# This is interesting Something that is not done at that time and at that %la&e will
remain unfinished for a lifetime At a time when it is diffi&ult to &om%lete matters with the strength of a
single man, one will bring it to a &on&lusion with the strength of two ,f one thinks about it later, he will
be negligent all his life
#Stam% "ui&kly and %ass through a wall of iron# is another interesting %hrase To "ui&kly break in and
stam% through dire&tly is the first ste% of &elerity ,n &onne&tion with this, Hideyoshi &an be thought of as
the only man who has gras%ed solidly the &han&e of a lifetime sin&e the &reation of 9a%an
/eo%le who talk on and on about matters of little im%ortan&e %robably ha-e some &om%laint in the ba&k
of their mind But in order to be ambiguous and to hide this they re%eat what they are sa-ing o-er and
o-er To hear something like this &auses doubt to arise in one's breast
1ne should be &areful and not say things that are likely to &ause trouble at the time When some
diffi&ulty arises in this world, %eo%le get e*&ited, and before one knows it the matter is on e-eryone's
li%s This is useless ,f worse &omes to worse, you may be&ome the sub8e&t of gossi%, or at least you will
ha-e made enemies by saying somethin% unne&essary and will ha-e &reated ill will ,t is said that at su&h
a time it is better to stay at home and think of %oetry
To tall& about other %eo%le's affairs is a great mistake To %raise them, too, is unfttting ,n any e-ent, it
is best to know your own ability well, to %ut forth effort in your endea-ors, and to be dis&reet in s%ee&h
The heart of a -irtuous %erson has settled down and he does not rush about at things A %erson of little
merit is not at %ea&e but walks about making trouble and is in &onfli&t with all
,t is a good -iew%oint to see the world as a dream When you ha-e something like a nightmare, you will
wake u% and tell yourself that it was only a dream ,t is said that the world we li-e in is not a bit different
from this
/eo%le with intelligen&e will use it to fashion things both true and false and will try to %ush through
whate-er they want with their &le-er reasoning This is in8ury from intelligen&e )othing you do will ha-e
effe&t if you do not use truth
7G of 51
,n affairs like law suits or e-en in arguments, by losing "ui&kly one will lose in fine fashion ,t is like sumo
<wrestling= ,f one thinks only of winning, a sordid -i&tory will be worse than a defeat (or the most %art,
it be&omes a s"ualid defeat
(eeling dee%ly the differen&e between oneself and others, bearing ill will and falling out with %eo%le00
these things &ome from a heart that la&ks &om%assion ,f one wra%s u% e-erything with a heart of
&om%assion, there will be no &oming into &onfli&t with %eo%le
A %erson who knows but a little will %ut on an air of knowled%e This is a matter of ine*%erien&e When
someone knows something well, it will not be seen in his manner This %erson is genteel
When going some%la&e for a talk or something similar, it is best to let the %erson know ahead of time,
and then go To go without knowing whether the other %arty is busy, or when he has some %arti&ular
an*iety, is awkward There is nothing that sur%asses not going where you ha-e not been in-ited Food
friends are rare 4-en if someone is in-ited somewhere, he should use understanding ,t is diffi&ult to feel
dee%ly the sensiti-ities of %eo%le other than those who go out only rarely (ias&os at %leasure gatherings
are numerous
Howe-er, you should not be brus"ue towards a %erson who has &ome to -isit, e-en if you are busy
,t is bad to &arry e-en a good thing too far 4-en &on&erning things su&h as Buddhism, Buddhist sermons,
and moral lessons, talking too mu&h will bring harm
The late 9in'emon said that it is better not to bring u% daughters They are a blemish to the family name
and a shame to the %arents The eldest daughter is s%e&ial, but it is better to disregard the others
The %riest 2eiho related that .ord Aki on&e said that martial -alor is a matter of be&oming a fanati& ,
thought that this was sur%risingly in a&&ord with my own resol-e and thereafter be&ame more and more
e*treme in my fanati&ism
The late )akano 2a5uma said that the original %ur%ose of the Tea !eremony is to &leanse the si* senses
(or the eyes there are the hanging s&roll and flower arrangement (or the nose there is the in&ense (or
the ears there is the sound of the hot water (or the mouth there is the taste of the tea And for the
hands and feet there is the &orre&tness of term When the fi-e senses ha-e thus been &leansed, the mind
will of itself be %urified The Tea !eremony will &leanse the mind when the mind is &logged u% , do not
de%art from the heart of the Tea !eremony for twenty0four hours a day, yet this is absolutely not a
matter of tasteful li-ing 3oreo-er, the tea utensils are something that should be in a&&ord with one's
so&ial %osition
,n the %oem, #Hnder the dee% snows in the last -illage+ .ast night numerous bran&hes of %lum
blossomed,# the o%ulen&e of the %hrase #numerous bran&hes# was &hanged to #a single bran&h# ,t is said
that this #single bran&h# &ontains true tran"uillity
When intimate friends, allies, or %eo%le who are indebted to you ha-e done some wrong, you should
se&retly re%rimand them and inter-ene between them and so&iety in a good manner You should erase a
%erson's bad re%utation and %raise him as a mat&hless ally and one man in a thousand ,f you wilt thus
re%rimand a %erson in %ri-ate and with good understanding, his blemish will heal and he will be&ome
good ,f you %raise a %erson, %eo%le's hearts will &hange and an ill re%utation will go away of itself ,t is
im%ortant to ha-e the single %ur%ose of handling all things with &om%assion and doing things well
A &ertain %erson said the following
There are two kinds of dis%ositions, inward and outward, and a %erson who is la&king in one or the other
is worthless ,t is, for e*am%le, like the blade of a sword, whi&h one should shar%en well and then %ut in
its s&abbard, %eriodi&ally taking it out and knitting one's eyebrows as in an atta&k, wi%ing f the blade, and
then %la&ing it in its s&abbard again
,f a %erson has his sword out all the time, he is habitually swinging a naked blade ? %eo%le
will not a%%roa&h him and he will ha-e no allies
,f a sword is always sheathed, it will be&ome rusty, the blade will dull, and %eo%le will think
as mu&h of its owner
1ne &annot a&&om%lish things sim%ly with &le-erness 1ne must take a broad -iew ,t will not do to make
rash 8udgments &on&erning good and e-il Howe-er, one should not be sluggish ,t is said that one is not
truly a samurai if he does not make his de&isions "ui&kly and break right through to &om%letion
71 of 51
1n&e, when a grou% of fi-e or si* %ages were tra-eling to the &a%ital together in the same boat, it
ha%%ened that their boat stru&k a regular shi% late at night (i-e or si* seamen from the shi% lea%t
aboard and loudly demanded that the %ages gi-e u% their boat's an&hor, in a&&ord with the seaman's
&ode Hearing this, the %ages ran forward yelling, #The seaman's &ode is something for %eo%le like youB
@o you think that we samurai are going to let you take e"ui%ment from a boat &arrying warriors$ We will
&ut you down and throw you into the sea to the last man B# With that, all the seamen fled ba&k to their
own shi%
At su&h a time, one must a&t like a samurai (or trifling o&&asions it is better to a&&om%lish things sim%ly
by yelling By making something more signifi&ant than it really is and missing one's &han&e, an affair will
not be brought to a &lose and will be no a&&om%lishment at all
A &ertain %erson who &ame u% with a &ash shortage when &losing out an a&&ount book sent a letter to his
se&tion leader saying, #,t is regrettable to ha-e to &ommit se%%uku o-er a matter of money As you are
my se&tion leader, %lease send some funds# Sin&e this was reasonable, the balan&e was %ro-ided and
the matter was &losed ,t is said that e-en wrongdoings &an be managed without dete&tion
By being im%atient, matters are damaged and great works &annot be done ,f one &onsiders something
not to be a matter of time, it will be done sur%risingly "ui&kly Times &hange Think about the world
fifteen years from now ,t should be rather different, but if one were to look into a book of %ro%he&ies, ,
imagine that it would not be that different ,n the %assing fifteen years, not one of the useful men of
today will be left And e-en if men who are young now &ome forth, %robably less than half will make it
Worth gradually wanes (or e*am%le, if there were a shortage of gold, sil-er would be&ome treasure, and
if there were a shortage of sil-er, &o%%er would be -alued With &hanging times and the waning of men's
&a%a&ities, one would be of suitable worth e-en if he %ut forth only slight effort Something like fifteen
years is the s%a&e of a dream ,f a man but takes &are of his health, in the end he will ha-e a&&om%lished
his %ur%ose and will be a -aluable %erson !ertainly in a %eriod when masters are many, one must %ut
forth &onsiderable effort But at the time when the world is sliding into a de&line, to e*&el is easy
To %ut forth great effort in &orre&ting a %erson's bad habits is the way it should be done 1ne should be
like the digger was% ,t is said that e-en with an ado%ted &hild, if you tea&h him &ontinually so that he will
resemble you, he surely will
,f your strength is only that whi&h &omes from -itality, your words and %ersonal &ondu&t will a%%ear to be
in a&&ord with the Way, and you will be %raised by others But when you "uestion yourself about this,
there will be nothing to be said The last line of the %oem that goes, #When your own heart asks,# is the
se&ret %rin&i%le of all the arts ,t is said that it is a good &ensor
When you are listening to the stories of a&&om%lished men and the like, you should listen with dee%
sin&erity, e-en if it's something about whi&h you already know ,f in listening to the same thing ten or
twenty times it ha%%ens that you &ome to an une*%e&ted understanding, that moment will be -ery
s%e&ial Within the tedious talk of old folks are their meritorious deeds
77 of 51
Hagakure: From the 3rd Chapter
.ord )aoshige on&e said, #There is nothing felt "uite so dee%ly as giri There are times when someone
like a &ousin dies and it is not a matter of shedding tears But we may hear of someone who li-ed fifty or
a hundred years ago, of whom we know nothing and who has no family ties with us whatsoe-er, and yet
from a sense giri shed tears#
When .ord )aoshige was %assing by a %la&e &alled !hiriku, someone said to him, ' ',n this %la&e there
li-es a man who is o-er ninety years old Sin&e this man is so fortunate, why don't you sto% and see
him$# )aoshige heard this and said, #How &ould anyone be more %itiful than this man$ How many of his
&hildren and grand&hildren do you su%%ose he has seen fall before his -ery eyes$ Where is the good
fortune in that$#
,t seems that he did not sto% to see the man
When .ord )aoshige was s%eaking to his grandson, .ord 3otoshige, he said, #)o matter whether one be
of high or low rank, a family line is something that will de&line when its trine has &ome ,f one tries to
kee% it from going to ruin at that time, it will ha-e an unsightly finish ,f one thinks that the time has
&ome, it is best to let it go down with good gra&e @oing so, he may e-en &ause it to be maintained#
,t is said that 3otoshige's younger brother heard this from him
7: of 51
Hagakure: From the 4th Chapter
When )abeshima Tadanao was fifteen years old, a manser-ant in the kit&hen &ommitted some rude a&t
and a foot soldier was about to beat him, but in the end the ser-ant &ut the soldier down The &lan elders
deemed the death senten&e a%%ro%riate, saying that the man had in the first %la&e erred in matters
&on&erning the ranks of men, and that he had also shed the blood of his o%%onent Tadanao heard this
and said, #Whi&h is worse, to err in matters &on&erning the ranks of men or to stray from the Way of the
Samurai $''
The elders were unable to answer Then Tadanao said, #, ha-e read that when the &rime itself is un&lear,
the %unishment should be light /ut him in &onfinement for a while#
1n&e, when .ord 2atsushige was hunting at Shiroishi, he shot a large boar 4-eryone &ame running u% to
see it and said, #Well, well You ha-e brought down an un&ommonly large one B# Suddenly the boar got
u% and dashed into their midst All of them fled in &onfusion, but )abeshima 3atabet drew his sword and
finished it off At that %oint .ord 2atsushige &o-ered his fa&e with his slee-e and said, #,t sure is dusty#
This was %resumably be&ause he did not want to see the s%e&ta&le of his flustered men
When .ord 2atsushige was young, he was instru&ted by his father, .ord )aoshige, #(or %ra&ti&e in
&utting, e*e&ute some men who ha-e been &ondemned to death# Thus, in the %la&e that is now within
the western gate, ten men were lined u%, and 2atsushige &ontinued to de&a%itate one after another until
he had e*e&uted nine of them When he &ame to the tenth, he saw that the man was young and healthy
and said, #,'m tired of &utting now ,'ll s%are this man's life# And the man's life was sa-ed
.ord 2atsushige always used to say that there are four kinds of retainers They are the #"ui&k, then
la%%ing,# the #lagging, then "ui&k,# the #&ontinually "ui&k,# and the ''&ontinually lagging''
The #&ontinually "ui&k# are men who when gi-en orders will undertake their e*e&ution "ui&kly and settle
the matter well (uku&hi 2i&hi5aemon and the like resemble this ty%e
The #lagging, then "ui&k# are men who, though la&king in understanding when gi-en orders, %re%are
"ui&kly and bring the matter to a &on&lusion , su%%ose that )akano 2a5uma and men similar are like
this
The #"ui&k, then lagging# are men who when gi-en orders seem to be going to settle things but in their
%re%aration take time and %ro&rastinate There are many %eo%le like this
1ther than these, one &ould say that the rest are ''&ontinually lagging#
7> of 51
When .ord Takanobu was at the Battle of Bungo, a messenger &ame from the enemy &am% bearing sake
and food Takanobu wanted to %artake of this "ui&kly, but the men at his side sto%%ed him, saying,
#/resents from the enemy are likely to be %oisoned This is not something that a general should eat#
Takanobu heard them out and then said, #4-en if it is %oisoned, how mu&h of an effe&t would that ha-e
on things$ !all the messenger hereB# He then broke o%en the barrel right in front of the messenger,
drank three large &u%s of sake, offered the messenger one too, ga-e him a re%ly, and sent him ba&k to
his &am%
Takagi Akifusa turned against the ;yu5o8i &lan, a%%ealed to 3aeda ,yo no kami ,esada, and was sheltered
by him Akifusa was a warrior of mat&hless -alor and was an a&&om%lished and agile swordsman His
retainers were ,nga5aemon and (udo5aemon, stalwarts in no way inferior, and they left Akifusa's side
neither day nor night Thus it ha%%ened that a re"uest was sent from .ord Takanobu to ,esada to kill
Akifusa At one %oint, when Akifusa was seated on the -eranda ha-ing ,nga5aemon wash his feet, ,esada
&ame running u% behind him and stru&k off his head, Before his head fell, Akifusa drew out his short
sword and turned to strike, but &ut off ,nga5aemon's head The two heads fell into the wash basin
together Akifusa's head then rose into the midst of those %resent This was the sort of magi& te&hni"ue
that he &onsistently had
The %riest Tannen used to say in his daily talks that : A monk &annot fulfill the Buddhist Way if he does
not manifest &om%assion without and %ersistently store u% &ourage within And if a warrior does not
manifest &ourage on the outside and hold enough &om%assion within his heart to burst his &hest, he
&annot be&ome a retainer Therefore, the monk %ursues &ourage with the warrior as his model, and the
warrior %ursues the &om%assion of the monk
, tra-eled about for many years and met men of wisdom but ne-er found the means to the %ursuit of
knowledge Therefore, whene-er , heard of a man of &ourage in one %la&e or another, , would go and
look for him regardless of the hardshi%s on the way , ha-e learned &learly that these stories of the Way
of the Samurai ha-e been an aid on the road to Buddhism )ow a warrior with his armor will rush into the
enemy &am%, making that armor his strength @o you su%%ose that a monk with a single rosary &an dash
into the midst of s%ears and long swords, armed with only meekness and &om%assion$ ,f he does not
ha-e great &ourage, he will do no dashing at all As %roof of this, the %riest offering the in&ense at a great
Buddhist memorial ser-i&e may tremble, and this is be&ause he has no &ourage
Things like ki&king a man ba&k from the dead, or %ulling all li-ing &reatures out of hell, are all matters of
&ourage )e-ertheless, monks of re&ent times all entertain false ideas and desire to be&ome laudably
gentle ? there are none who &om%lete the Way (urthermore, among warriors there are some &owards
who ad-an&e Buddhism These are regrettable matters ,t is a great mistake for a young samurai to learn
about Buddhism The reason is that he will see things in two ways A %erson who does not set himself in
8ust one dire&tion will be of no -alue at all ,t is fine for retired old men to learn about Buddhism as a
di-ersion, but if a warrior makes loyalty and filial %iety one load, and &ourage and &om%assion another,
and &arries these twenty0four hours a day until his shoulders wear out, he will be a samurai
,n one's morning and e-ening worshi%, and as one goes about his day, he had best re&ite the name of his
master ,t is not a bit different from the Buddha's names and holy words (urthermore, one should be in
harmony with his family gods These are matters of the strength of one's fate !om%assion is like a
mother who nurtures one's fate 4*am%les of the ruin of mer&iless warriors who were bra-e alone are
&ons%i&uous in both %ast and %resent
There was a &ertain %oint in the &on-ersation when a retainer of .ord )abeshima )aohiro said, #There are
no men here u%on whom the master &an truly rely Although , am &onsistently useless, , am the only one
who would throw away his life for you#
,t is said that .ord )aohiro got outrageously angry, saying, #Among our retainers there is not a one who
holds his life in regretB You are talking arrogan&eB# and he was at the %oint of striking him when the man
was %ulled away by others who were there
1n&e when 3aster Tanesada, the founder of the !hina family, was &oming by sea to the island of
Shikoku, a strong wind began blowing and the boat was damaged The boat was sa-ed from sinking by
abalone gathering together and &o-ering o-er the damaged se&tions (rom that time on none of the
!hina family nor any of its retainers ate abalone ,f one of them mistakenly ate one, it is said that his
body was &o-ered with boils in the sha%e of abalone
75 of 51
At the fall of the &astle at Arima, on the twenty0eighth day in the -i&inity of the inmost &itadel, 3itsuse
Fender sat down on a le-ee between the fields When )akano Shintohi %assed by and asked the reason
for this, 3itsuse re%lied, #, ha-e abdominal %ains and &an't go a ste% farther , ha-e sent the members of
my grou% ahead, so %lease take &ommand# This situation was re%orted by the o-erseer, %ronoun&ed to
be a &ase of &owardi&e, and 3itsuse was ordered to &ommit se%%uku
.ong ago, abdominal %ains were &alled #&owardi&e grass# This is be&ause they &ome suddenly and render
a %erson immobile
At the time of .ord )abeshima )aohiro's death, .ord 3itsushige forbade )aohiro 's retainers the %ra&ti&e
of tsuifuku His messenger went to )aohiro's mansion and made the de&laration, but those who re&ei-ed
this news &ould in no way agree to it (rom their midst ,shimaru Hneme Klater &alled Sei5aemonL s%oke
from the lowest seat, #,t is im%ro%er for me as a younger %erson to s%eak out, but , think that what .ord
2atsushige has said is reasonable As a %erson who re&ei-ed the master's &are when , was young, , had
whole0 heartedly de&ided on tsuifuku But hearing .ord 2atsushige's di&tum and being &on-in&ed of his
reasoning, no matter what the others may do, , am gi-ing u% the idea of tsuifuku and will ser-e the
master's su&&essor# Hearing this, the others all followed suit
1n&e .ord 3asaie was %laying shogi with .ord Hideyoshi and there were a number of daimyo wat&hing
When it &ame time to withdraw, although .ord 3asaie &ould stand, his feet were numb and he &ould not
walk He made his withdrawal &rawling away, &ausing e-eryone to laugh Be&ause .ord 3asaie was big
and obese he was not ordinarily able to be on his knees After this e-ent he thought it would not be
fitting to he in attendan&e anymore and began refusing su&h duties
)akano Hemonnosuke Tadaaki was killed on the twelfth day of the eighth month in the si*th year of
4iroku, at the time of the fight between 3aster Foto and 3aster Hirai of Suko on the island of 2abashima
in the 2ishima distri&t When Hemonnosuke was lea-ing for the front lines, he emgra&ed his son Shikibu
Klater &alled 9in'emonL in the garden and, although Shikibu was -ery young, said, #When you grow u%,
win honor in the Way of the SamuraiB#
4-en when the &hildren in his family were -ery young, Yamamoto 9in'emon would draw near to them and
say, #Frow u% to be a great stalwart, and be of good use to your master# He said, #,t is good to breathe
these things into their ears e-en when they are too young to understand#
When 1gawa Toshikiyo's legitimate son Sahei 2iyo8i died as a youth, there was one young retainer who
gallo%ed u% to the tem%le and &ommitted se%%uku
When Taku )agato no kami Yasuyori %assed away, 2ola Yataemon said that he had been unable to re%ay
the master's kindness and &ommitted se%%uku
7A of 51
)arutomi Hyogo said, #What is &alled winning is defeaing one's allies @efeating one's allies is defeating
oneself, and defeating oneself is -igorously o-er&oming one's own body
#,t is as though a man were in the midst of ten thousand allies but not a one were following him ,f one
hasn't %re-iously mastered his mind and body, he will not defeat the enemy''
@uring the Shimabara ;ebellion, his armor being still at the en&am%ment, Shugyo 4&hi5en no kami
Tanenao %arti&i%ated in the fight dressed only in hakama and haori ,t is said that he died in battle in this
attire
At the time of the atta&k on the &astle at Shimabara, Ta5aki Feki was wearing -ery res%lendent armor
.ord 2atsushige was not %leased by this, and after that e-ery time he saw something showy he would
say, #That's 8ust like Feki's armor''
,n the light of this story, military armor and e"ui%ment that are showy &an be seen as being weak and
ha-ing no strength By them one &an see through the wearer's heart
When )abeshima wi5en no kami Tadanao died, his attendant 45oe 2inbei took his remains and had them
&onse&rated at 3t 2ola Then, &onfining himself in a hermitage, he &ar-ed a statue of his master and
another of himself doing re-eren&e before the master 1n the first anni-ersary of Tadanao's death, he
returned to his home and &ommitted tsuifuku .ater the statue was taken from 3t 2oya and was %la&ed
at the 2oden8i
,n the generation of .ord 3itsushige, 1ishi 2osuke was at first a foot soldier ser-ing at the side of his
master Whene-er .ord 3itsushige was making the tri% for his alternate0 year residen&e in 4do, 2osuke
would make the rounds around the slee%ing "uarters of his master, and if he thought a &ertain area to be
inse&ure, he would s%read a straw mat and %ass through the night awake by himself ,n rainy weather he
would sim%ly wear a bamboo hat and an oil%a%er rain&oat and would stand wat&h while being %elted by
the rain ,t is said that to the end he ne-er s%ent a single night in negligen&e
When 1ishi 2osuke was an u&hitonin, a mysterious %erson sneaked into the area of the maids' &hambers
late at night' There was a great &ommotion from u%stairs to down and men and women of all ranks were
running about? only 2osuke was not to be seen While the senior ladies0in0 waiting were sear&hing about,
2osuke yanked his sword from its s&abbard and waited "uietly in the room ne*t to the master's
bed&hamber As all was in &onfusion, he had felt a%%rehension for the master and was there to %rote&t
him Be&ause of this it was said that his -iew%oint was "uite different
The man who had sneaked in was )arutomi 2i&hibei He and his a&&om%li&e Hamada ,&hi5aemon were
&ondemned to death for adultery
1n&e when .ord 2atsushige was hunting at )ishime, for some reason he got -ery angry He drew his
sword from his obi, s&abbard and all, and began beating Soe8ima Ienno8o with it, but his hand sli%%ed
and his sword fell into a ra-ine Ienno8o, in order to stay with the sword, fumbled down into the ra-ine
and %i&ked it u% This done, he stu&k the sword in his la%el, &rawled u% the %re&i%i&e, and 8ust as he was,
offered the sword to his master ,n terms of "ui&k0 mindedness and reser-e this was mat&hless resour&e
1n&e when 3aster Sane Hkyo was &rossing o-er the Takao ;i-er, the bridge was being re%aired and
there was one large %iling that &ould not be %ulled u% 3aster Hkyo dismounted, gras%ed the %iling
firmly, %a-e a shout, and began to %ull it u% There was a tremendous sound, and although he was able
to %ull it u% to his own height, it would go no further and thereu%on sank After he returned home he
be&ame si&k and suddenly died
At the time of the funeral at the tem%le in 9obaru, when the funeral %ro&ession &rossed the Takao Bridge,
the &or%se lea%t from the &asket and fell into the ri-er A si*teen0year0 old a&olyte from the Shufuku8i
immediately 8um%ed into the ri-er and took hold of the dead body 4-eryone then ran down into the ri-er
and %ulled u% the &or%se The head monk was -ery im%ressed and instru&ted the other a&olytes to be
guided by this young man ,t is said that he later be&ame a -ery famous monk
Yamamoto 2i&hi5aemon was ordered by his father 9in'0emon to &ut down a dog at the age of fi-e, and at
the age of fifteen he was made to e*e&ute a &riminal 4-eryone, by the time they were fourteen or
fifteen, was ordered to do a beheading without fail When .ord 2atsushige was young, he was ordered by
.ord )aoshige to %ra&ti&e killing with a sword ,t is said that at that time he was made to &ut down more
than ten men su&&essi-ely
7C of 51
A long time ago this %ra&ti&e was followed, es%e&ially in the u%%er &lasses, but today e-en the &hildren of
the lower &lasses %erform no e*e&utions, and this is e*treme negligen&e To say that one &an do without
this sort of thing, or that there is no merit in killing a &ondemned man, or that it is a &rime, or that it is
defiling, is to make e*&uses ,n short, &an it not be thought that be&ause a %erson's martial -alor is weak,
his attitude is only that of trimming his nails and being attra&ti-e$
,f one in-estigates into the s%irit of a man who finds these things disagreeable, one sees that this %erson
gi-es himself o-er to &le-erness and e*&use making not to kill be&ause he feels unner-ed But )aoshige
made it his orders e*a&tly be&ause this is something that must be done
.ast year , went to the 2ase 4*e&ution Frounds to try my hand at beheading, and , found it to be an
e*tremely good feeling To think that it is unner-ing is a sym%tom of &owardi&e
Among the %ageboys in forelo&ks in .ord 3itsushige's retinue, one Tomoda Sho5aemon was in
attendan&e A rather wanton fellow, he fell in lo-e with a leading a&tor of the theater by the name of
Tamon Sho5aemon and &hanged both his name and his &rest to that of the a&tor !om%letely abandoning
himself to this affair, he s%ent e-erything he had and lost all his &lothing and furnishings And at length,
when he had e*hausted all his means, he stole 3awatari ;okubei's sword and had a s%earman take it to
a %awnsho%
The s%earman, howe-er, s%oke u% about this matter, and in the in-estigation both he and Sho5aemon
were &ondemned to death The in-estigator was Yamamoto Foro5aemon When he read the re%ort, he
s%oke in a loud -oi&e and said, #The man who a&&uses the defendant is S%earman so0and0 so ''
3itsushige res%onded "ui&kly, #/ut him to death#
When it &ame time to announ&e his fate to Sho5aemon, Foro5aemon &ame in and said, #There is now
nothing left to be done for you /re%are yourself for your %la&e of death ''
Sho5aemon settled himself and said, #6ery well , understand what you ha-e said and am grateful for
your words# @ue to somebody's tri&kery, howe-er, while a kaishaku was introdu&ed to Sho5aemon, it
was arranged that a foot soldier, )ao5uka ;okuuemon, was to ste% from the side and de&a%itate him
;e%airing to the e*e&ution grounds, where the kaishaku stood o%%osite him, Sho5aemon saluted him with
e*treme &alm But 8ust then, seeing )ao5uka drawing his sword, he 8um%ed u% and said, #Who are you$
,'ll ne-er let you &ut off my headB# (rom that %oint on his %ea&e of mind was shattered and he showed
terrible &owardi&e (inally he was brought to the ground, stret&hed out, and de&a%itated
Foro5aemon later said se&retly, ' ',f he hadn't been de&ei-0 ed, he would ha-e %robably met his death
well#
)oda 2i5aemon said about the fun&tion of kaishaku, #When a man who has &ome to his %la&e of death
loses his wits and is &rawling about, it is likely seine damage will be done when it &omes time to %erform
kaishak At su&h a time first wait a bit and by some means gather your strength Then if you &ut by
standing firm and not missing the &han&e, you will do well#
,n the generation of .ord 2atsushige there were retainers who, regardless of high or low rank, were
re"uested to work before the master from the time they were young When Shiba 2i5aemon was doing
su&h ser-i&e, on&e the master was &li%%ing his nails and said, #Throw these away# 2i5aemon held them
in his hand but did not stand u%, and the master said, #What's the matter$# 2i5aemon said, #There's one
missing'' The master said, ' 'Here it is,'' and banded o-er the one that he had hidden
Sawabe Hei5aemon was ordered to &ommit se%%uku on the ele-enth day of the ele-enth month in the
se&ond year of Tenna As this be&ame known to him on the night of the tenth, he sent a re"uest to
Yamamoto Fonno8o <Tsunetomo= to be kaishaku The following is a &o%y of Yamamoto's re%ly
KTsunetomo was twenty0four years old at this timeL
, am in a&&ord with your resolution and a&&e%t your re"uest for me to fun&tion as kaishaku , instin&ti-ely
felt that , should de&line, but as this is to take %la&e tomorrow there is no time for making e*&uses and ,
will undertake the 8ob The fa&t that you ha-e &hosen me from among many %eo%le is a great %ersonal
satisfa&tion to me /lease set your mind at ease &on&erning all that must follow Although it is now late at
night, , will &ome to your house to talk o-er the %arti&ulars
When Hei5aemon saw this re%ly, it is said that he remarked, #This is a mat&hless letter#
(rom ages %ast it has been &onsidered ill0omened by samurai to be re"uested as kaishaku The reason
7D of 51
for this is that one %ains no fame e-en if the 8ob is well done And if by &han&e one should blunder, it
be&omes a lifetime disgra&e
1n&e when Tanaka Yahei was attending to affairs in 4do, one of his menials was rather insolent and Yahei
s&olded him se-erely .ate that night Yahei heard the noise of someone &oming u% the stairs He felt this
to be sus%i&ious and "uietly got u% With short sword in hand he asked who was there, and it turned out
to be the menial whom he had s&olded %re-iously, se&retly holding a short sword Yahei lea%t down and
with a single stroke &ut the man down , heard many %eo%le later state that he had had good lu&k
A &ertain 3aster Tokuhisa was born "uite different from other %eo%le and looked to be a bit moroni&
1n&e, a guest was in-ited and mudfish salad was ser-ed At that time e-eryone said, #3aster Tokuhisa's
mudfish salad,# and laughed .ater when he was in attendan&e and a &ertain %erson made fun of him by
"uoting the abo-e remark, Tokuhisa %ulled out his sword and &ut the man down This e-ent was
in-estigated and it was stated to .ord )aoshige, #Se%%uku is re&ommended be&ause this was a matter of
rashness within the %ala&e#
When .ord )aoshige heard this, he said, ' 'To be made fun of and remain silent is &owardi&e There is no
reason to o-erlook this fa&t be&ause one is within the %ala&e A man who makes fun of %eo%le is himself a
fool ,t was his own fault for being &ut down#
1n&e when )akano 3okunosuke bearded a small boat on the Sumida ;i-er to en8oy the &oolness, a rogue
got in too and &ommitted all manner of rude a&ts When 3okunosuke saw that the rogue was relie-ing
himself o-er the side of the boat, he &ut the man's head off and it fell into the ri-er So that %eo%le would
not noti&e this, he "ui&kly &o-ered the body with -arious things He then said to the boatman, #This
matter should not be&ome known ;ow u% to the u%%er rea&hes of the ri-er and bury the &or%se , shall
naturally %ay you well#
The boatman did as he was told, but in the lagoon where the body was buried 3okunosuke &ut off the
head of the boatman and returned dire&tly ,t is said that this fa&t ne-er be&ame known %ubli&ly At that
time there was also one young homose*ual male %rostitute riding in the boat 3ekunosuke said, #That
fellow was a man too ,t is best to learn how to &ut a man while one is still young,# and so the man &ut
the &or%se on&e Be&ause of that the young man said nothing later on
,t is said that e-ery time 1ki Hyobu's grou% gathered and after all their affairs were finished he would
say, #Young men should dis&i%line themsel-es rigorously in intention and &ourage This will be
a&&om%lished if only &ourage is fi*ed in one's heart ,f one's sword is broken, he will strike with his hands
,f his hands are &ut off, he will %ress the enemy down with his shoulders ,f his shoulders are &ut away,
he will bite through ten or fifteen enemy ne&ks with his teeth !ourage is su&h a thing#
Shida 2i&hinosuke said, #At first it is an o%%ressi-e thing to run until one is breathless But it is an
e*traordinarily good feeling when one is standing around after the running 3ore than that, it is e-en
better to sit down 3ore than that, it is e-en better to lie down And more than that, to %ut down a %illow
and slee% soundly is e-en better A man's whole life should be like this To e*ert oneself to a great e*tent
when one is young and then to slee% when he is old or at the %oint of death is the way it should be But
to first slee% and then e*ert oneself To e*ert oneself to the end, and to end one's whole life in toil is
regrettable# Shimomura ;okurouemon told this story
A saying of 2i&hinosuke's that is similar to this is, #A man's life should be as toilsome as %ossible#
When Heno ;ihei was o-erseer of a&&ounting in 4do, he had a young assistant whom he treated in a -ery
intimate way 1n the first night of the eighth month he went drinking with Hashimoto Taemon, an
o-erseer of foot soldiers, and got so drunk that he lost good sense He a&&om%anied his young assistant
ba&k home, babbling on in a drunken manner, and when they arri-ed there, ;ihei said that he was going
to &ut the assistant down The assistant %ushed away the ti% of ;ihei's s&abbard They gra%%led and both
fell into the gutter with the assistant on to% %ushing ;ihei down At this time, ;ihei's ser-ant ran u% and
asked, #,s 3aster ;ihei on the to% or on the bottom$#
When ;ihei re%lied, '','m on the bottom B'' the ser-ant stabbed the assistant on&e The assistant got u%
and, as his wound was light, ran away
When the affair was brought under in-estigation, ;ihei was %ut into &onfinement at the )aekiyama %rison
and was &ondemned to &a%ital %unishment by beheading Before this, when he was %ositioned in 4do and
li-ing in a rented house in the mer&hants' distri&t, a ser-ant had o%%osed him and he had &ut him down
But he had a&ted in a good way at that time, and %eo%le said that he had a&ted like a man This time,
howe-er, his a&tions were outrageous and were &ertainly unne&essary
7E of 51
,f one thinks about this well from beginning to end, to get so drunk as to draw one's sword is both
&owardi&e and la&k of resol-e ;ihei's ser-ant was a man from Taku, but his name is not remembered
Though he was a member of the lower &lasses, he was a bra-e man ,t is said that Taemon &ommitted
sui&ide during the in-estigation
,n the twelfth se&tion of the fifth &ha%ter of the ;yoankyo there is this story :
,n the /ro-in&e of wi5en there was a &ertain man from Take who, although he had &ontra&ted small%o*,
was &onsidering 8oining the for&es atta&king the &astle at Shimabara His %arents earnestly tried to get
him to desist, saying, #With su&h a gra-e illness, e-en if you should get there, how &ould you be of any
use$#
He re%lied, #,t would be to my satisfa&tion to die on the way After ha-ing re&ei-ed the warm
bene-olen&e of the master, should , tell myself that , will be of no use to him now$# And he left for the
front Although it was winter &am% and the &old was e*treme, he did not %ay any attention to his health,
and neither %ut on many layers of &lothing nor took off his armor day or night 3oreo-er, he did not
a-oid un&leanliness, and in the end re&o-ered "ui&kly and was able to fulfill his loyalty &om%letely So to
the &ontrary of what you would e*%e&t, it &annot be said that one is to des%ise un&leanliness
When the tea&her, Su5uki Sho5o, heard this, he said, #Was it not a &leansing a&t to throw away his life for
his master$ (or a man who will &ut of his life for the sake of righteousness, there is no need to &all u%on
the god of small%o* All the gods of hea-en will %rote&t him #
.ord 2atsushige said, #Whether a man of Hi5en holds death in regret or not is not a matter of &on&ern
What , worry about is that %eo%le will not take to heart the &ommand to kee% the rules of manners and
eti"uette &orre&tly , am afraid that the entire &lan, our relati-es and elders, out of too mu&h
earnestness, will feel that the &ommand to kee% &orre&t eti"uette is an e*aggeration H% to now there
ha-e e*isted men who were used to these things, and e-en if eti"uette was slightly wrong, they &ould
remember the &orre&t way, and the matter was settled , ha-e gi-en this &ommand be&ause %eo%le are
negligent in affairs of this sort#
@uring the Fenroku %eriod there was a samurai of low rank from the /ro-in&e of ,se by the name of
Su5uki ;okubei He was ill with a se-ere fe-er, and his &ons&iousness be&ame dim At that time a &ertain
male nurse was une*%e&tedly stri&ken with greed and was about to o%en u% the inkbo* and steal the
money that was ke%t in it 9ust then the si&k man suddenly stirred, took the sword from the base of his
%illow, and in a sudden atta&k &ut the man down with one blow With that, the si&k man fell ba&k and
died By this a&t, ;okubei seemed to be a man of %rin&i%led dis%osition
, heard this story in 4do, but later when , was ser-ing in the same %ro-in&e with a @r )agatsuka, who
was also from the /ro-in&e of ,se, , asked him about it, and indeed he knew the story and said that it
was true
:G of 51
1n the night of the thirteenth day of the ninth month in the fourth year of Teikyo, there was a grou% of
ten )o a&tors moon0-iewing at the house of )akayama 3osuke, a foot soldier, in Sayanomoto Beginning
with )aotsuka 2an5aemon they all began to make fun of the foot soldier Araki 2yo5aemen be&ause he
was so short Araki be&ame angry, killed 2an5aemon with his sword, and then began striking at the
others
Though he suffered a se-ered hand, 3atsumoto ;oku5aemon &ame down into the garden, sei5ed Araki
from behind with his other hand, and said, #As for the likes of you, ,'ll twist your head off with one handB#
Frabbing away Araki's sword, he %ushed him to the doorsill and %ressed him down with his knee, but as
he sei5ed him by the ne&k he be&ame faint and was "ui&kly o-er%owered
Araki "ui&kly s%rang ba&k and again began to strike at those around him, but now 3aster Hayata Klater
known as 9iro5aemonL met him with a s%ear ,n the end he was o-er%owered by a number of men
(ollowing this, Araki was made to &ommit se%%uku, and the others who were in-ol-ed were all made
ronin on a&&ount of their indis&retion, but Hayata was later %ardoned
As Tsunetomo does not remember this story &learly, one should ask around about it
Some years ago there was a sutra reading at the 9issoin in 2awakami (i-e or si* men from 2on'yama&hi
and the area of Tashiro had gone to the ser-i&e, and on their way home %assed some time drinking
Among them was one of 2i5uka 2yu5aemon's retainers who, ha-ing some reason for doing so, turned
down his &om%anions' in-itation to 8oin them and returned borne before nightfall The others, howe-er,
later %ot into a fight with some men and &ut them all down
2yu5aemon's retainer heard of this late that night and went "ui&kly to his &om%anions' "uarters He
listened to the details and then said, #,n the end , su%%ose you will ha-e to submit a statement When
you do, you should say that , was there also and assisted in &utting down those men When , return, ,
will say as mu&h to 2yu5aemon Sin&e a fight is a matter in-ol-ing all &on&erned, , should meet the same
death senten&e as you And that is my dee%est desire The reason is that e-en if , were to e*%lain to my
master that , had returned home early, he would ne-er a&&e%t it as the truth 2yu5aemon has always
been a se-ere man, and e-en if , were &leared by the in-estigators, he would %robably ha-e me e*e&uted
as a &oward right before his eyes ,n su&h a &ase, dying with the bad re%utation of ha-ing run away from
a %la&e would be e*tremely regretful
#Sin&e the fate of dying is the same, , would like to die being blamed for ha-ing killed a man ,f you are
not in agreement with this, , will &ut my stoma&h o%en right here''
Ha-ing no alternati-e, his &om%anions s%oke as he had re"uested /resently, during the in"uiry, although
the &ir&umstan&es were e*%lained in the abo-e manner, it be&ame known that the retainer had returned
home early All the in-estigators were im%ressed and in fa&t %raised the man
This matter was transmitted to me only in outline, so , will look into the details at a later date
1n&e when )abeshima Aki no kami Shigetake was halfway through his meal, a guest suddenly &ame to
see him and he left his tray 8ust as it was .ater, a &ertain retainer of his sat down at the tray and began
eating the fried fish that was on it 9ust then .ord Aki &ame ba&k and saw him, and the man be&ame
flustered and ran off .ord Aki yelled out, #What a low0life sla-e you are to eat something that someone
else has been eatingB# and sat down and finished what was left
This is one of 9in'emon's stories ,t is said that this retainer was one of those who &ommitted tsuifuku for
the master
Yamamoto 9in'emon always said to his retainers, #Fo ahead and gamble and lie A %erson who will not
tell you se-en lies within a hundred yards is useless as a man # .ong ago %eo%le s%oke in this fashion
be&ause they were only &on&erned with a man's attitude towards military matters and &onsidered that a
man who was #&orre&t# would ne-er do great works They also ignored the mis&ondu&t of men and
dismissed su&h matters by saying, #They do good works, too''
3en like Sagara 2yoma also e*&used retainers who had &ommitted theft and adultery and trained them
gradually He said, #,f it weren't for su&h %ersons, we would ha-e no useful men at all#
,kumo 1ribe said, #,f a retainer will 8ust think about what he is to do for the day at hand, he will be able
to do anything ,f it is a single day's work, one should be able to %ut u% with it Tomorrow, too, is but a
single day#
:1 of 51
At the time when .ord )abeshima Tsunashige had still not taken o-er as heir, he was &on-erted by the
Ien %riest 2urotakiyama !hoon and learned Buddhism from him Sin&e he had had an enlightenment, the
%riest was going to &onfer the seal u%on him, and this be&ame known throughout the mansion At that
time Yamamoto Foro5aemon had been ordered to be both Tsunashige's attendant and o-erseer When
he heard of this, he knew that it absolutely would not do and %lanned to make a re"uest to !hoon, and if
he did not assent, kill him He went to the %riest's house in 4do and entered? the %riest, thinking that he
was someone on a %ilgrimage, met him in a dignified manner
Foro5aemon drew near him and said, ' ', ha-e some se&ret thing to tell you dire&tly /lease send out your
attendant %riests
#,t is said that you will soon award Tsunashige the seal be&ause of his &le-erness in Buddhism )ow as
you are from Hi5en, you should know in large %art the &ustoms of the ;yu5o8i and )abeshima &lans 1ur
&ountry is ruled with harmony between high and low be&ause, unlike others, it has had &ontinuous heirs
for su&&essi-e generations There has ne-er been the taking of a Buddhist seal by the daimyo for ages
%ast ,f you %resent the seal now, Tsunashige will %robably think of himself as enlightened and regard
what his retainers say as so mu&h dirt A great man will be&ome -ain Absolutely do not gi-e this award
,f you do not agree to this, , too am resol-ed This he said with determination
The %riest's &olor &hanged, but he said, #Well, well You ha-e trustworthy intentions, and , see that you
under0 stand the affairs of your &lan well You are a loyal retainer #
But Foro5aemon said, #)oB , understand that %loy , didn't &ome here to be %raised Without adding
anything else, let me hear &learly whether you %lan to &an&el the seal or not''
!hoon said, #What you say is reasonable , will definitely not award the seal#
Foro5aemon made sure of this and returned Tsunetomo heard this story dire&tly from Foro5aemon
A grou% of eight samurai all took the same road for some merrymaking Two of them, 2omori 4i8un and
1tsubo 9in'0emon, went into a teahouse in front of the 2annon tem%le at Asakusa, got into an argument
with the male em%loyees there, and were soundly beaten This &ould be heard by the others, who were in
an e*&ursion boat, and 3ute ;okuemen said, #We should go ba&k and take re-enge# Yoshii Yoi&hiemon
and 45oe 9inbei both agreed to this
The others, howe-er, dissuaded them, saying, #This will &ause trouble for the &lan,# and they all returned
home When they arri-ed at the mansion, ;okuemon again said, ''We should definitely take re-engeB'' but
the others disuaded him Although they sustained hea-y wounds on their arms and legs, 4i8ian and
9in'emon &ut the teahouse men down, and those who had returned were taken to task by the master
,n due &ourse some thought was gi-en to the details of this e-ent 1ne %erson said, #By waiting to ?get
the agreement of others, a matter like taking re-enge will ne-er be brought to a &on&lusion 1ne should
ha-e the resolution to go alone and e-en to be &ut down A %erson who s%eaks -ehemently about taking
re-enge but does nothing about it is a hy%o&rite !le-er %eo%le, by using their mouths alone, are taking
&are of their re%utations for a later date But a real stalwart is a man who will go out se&retly, saying
nothing, and die ,t is not ne&essary to a&hie-e one's aim ? one is a stalwart in being &ut down Su&h a
%erson will most likely a&hie-e his %ur0 %ose''
l&hiyuken was a low &lass ser-ant in the kit&hen of .ord Takanobu Be&ause of some grudge he had o-er
a matter of wrestling, he &ut down se-en or eight men and was hen&e ordered to &ommit sui&ide But
when .ord Takanobu heard of this he %ardoned the man and said, #,n these strife0torn times of our
&ountry, bra-e men are im%ortant This man would seem to be a man of bra-ery# !onse"uently, at the
time of the a&tion around the H8i ;i-er, .ord Takanobu took ,&hiyuken along, and the latter earned
unri-aled fame, ad-an&ing dee% into the lead and %lundering the enemy e-ery time
At the battle of Takagi, ,&hiyuken went so far into the enemy lines that .ord Takanobu felt regret and
&alled him ba&k Sin&e the -anguard had been unable to ad-an&e, only by "ui&kly dashing out was he
able to grab ,&hiyuken by the slee-e of his armor At that time ,&hiyuken's head had suffered many
wounds, but he had sto%%ed them u% with %reen lea-es whi&h he bound with a thin towel
1n the first &lay of the atta&k on Hara !aste, Tsuruta Yashi&hibei went as a messenger from .ord
3imasaka to 1ki Hyobu, but as he was deli-ering the message, he was shot through the %el-i& region by
a bullet fired from the &astle and instantly fell on his fa&e He got u% again and deli-ered the rest of the
message, was felled a se&ond time, and died Yashi&hibei's body was &arried ba&k by Taira !hihyoei
When !hihyoei was returning to Hyobu's &am%, he too was stru&k by a rifle ball and died
:7 of 51
@ense was born in Taku , and the members of his family li-ing at this time were his elder brother 9irbei,
his younger brother and his mother Around the ninth month @enko's mother took 9irobei's son with her
to hear a sermon When it was time to go home, the &hild, as he was %utting on his straw sandals,
a&&identally ste%%ed on the foot of the man ne*t to him The man rebuked the &hild, and in the end they
%ot into a -ehement argument and the man unsheathed his short sword and killed him 9irobei's mother
was dumb stru&k She &lung to the man, and he killed her too Ha-ing done this, the man returned to his
house
This man's name was Forouemon, and he was the son of a ronin by the name of )aka8ima 3oan His
younger brother was the mountain as&eti&, !hu5obo 3oan was an ad-isor to 3aster 3imasaka, and
Forouemon had been gi-en a sti%end also
When the &ir&umstan&es be&ame known at 9irobei's home, his younger brother set out for Forouemon's
%la&e (inding that the door was lo&ked from within and that no one would &ome out, he disguised his
-oi&e, %retending to be a -isitor When the door was o%ened, he shouted his real name and &rossed
swords with his enemy Both men fumbled into the rubbish hea%, but in the end Forouemon was killed
At this %oint, !hu5obo dashed in and &ut down 9irobei's younger brother
Hearing of this in&ident, @ense went immediately to 9irobei's %la&e and said, #1f our enemies only one
has been killed, while we ha-e lost three This is e*tremely regret0 table, so why don't you strike at
!hu5obo$# 9irobei, howe-er, would not &om%ly
@enko felt that this was indeed shameful, and although a Buddhist %riest, he de&ided on striking at the
enemy of his mother, younger brother and ne%hew He knew, ne-ertheless, that sin&e he was sim%ly an
ordinary %riest, there was likely to be a re%risal from 3aster 3imasaka and therefore worked hard, finally
gaining eminen&e as the &hief %riest of the ;yuun8i He then went to the sword maker ,yono8o and asked
him to make both a long and a short sword, offered to be his a%%renti&e, and was e-en allowed to take
%art in the work
By the twenty0third day of the ninth month of the follow0 ing year, he was ready to make his de%arture
By &han&e a guest had &ome at this time Fi-ing orders for food to be ser-ed, @enko se&retly sli%%ed out
of the &hief %riest's head"uarters disguised as a layman He then went to taku and, u%on asking about
!hu5obo, learned that he was with a large grou% of %eo%le who had gathered to wat&h the moonrise, and
that therefore nothing mu&h &ould be done Hnwilling to let time %ile u%, he felt that it would be fulfilling
his basi& desire to strike at the father, 3oan Foing to 3oan's house, he for&ed his way into the slee%ing
&hambers, announ&ed his name, and when the man began to get u%, stabbed and killed him When the
%eo%le of the neighborhood &ame running and surrounded him, he e*%lained the situation, threw away
both long and short swords, and returned home )ews of this %re&eded him to Saga, and a good number
of @enko's %arishioners &ame out "ui&kly and a&&om%anied him on his return
3aster 3imasaka was "uite outraged, but as @enko was the &hief %riest of a )abeshima &lan tem%le,
there was nothing to be done (inally, through the offi&es of )abeshima Toneri, he sent word to Tannen,
the &hief %riest of the 2oden8i, saying, #When a %riest has killed a man, he should be gi-en a senten&e of
death# Tannen's re%ly was, #The %unishment for one within the religion will be in a&&ordan&e with the
feelings of the 2oden8i 2indly do not interfere#
3aster 3imasaka be&ame e-en angrier and asked, #What sort of %unishment will this be$# Tannen
re%lied, #Although it is %rofitless for you to know, you are for&ing the "uestion, so , will gi-e you an
answer The <Buddhist= .aw is that an a%ostate %riest is de%ri-ed of his robes and dri-en out#
@enko's robes were taken from him at the 2oden8i, and when he was to be dri-en out, some no-i&es %ut
on their long and short swords, and a great number of %arishioners &ame to %rote&t him, a&&om%anying
him as far as Todoroki 1n the road a number of men who looked like hunters a%%eared and asked if the
%arty had &ome from Taku Thereafter @enko li-ed in !hiku5en, was well re&ei-ed by all, and was on
friendly terms with samurai as well This story was widely &ir&ulated, and it is said that he was treated
kindly e-erywhere
Horie San'emon's misdeed was robbing the )abeshima warehouse in 4do of its money and fleeing to
another %ro- in&e He was &aught and &onfessed Thus it was %ro noun&ed , ''Be&ause this is a gra-e
&rime he should be tortured to death, # and )akano @aigaku was ordered to be the offi&ial who -erified
the e*e&ution At first all the hairs on his body were burner off and his fingernails were %ulled out His
tendons were then &ut, he was bored with drills and sub 8e&ted to -arious other tortures Throughout, he
did not flin&h on&e, nor did his fa&e &hange &olor ,n the end his ba&k was s%lit, he was boiled in soy
sau&e, and his body was bent ba&k in two
:: of 51
1n&e when (uku&hi ;okurouemon was lea-ing the &astle, the %alan"uin of what a%%eared to be a rather
u%%er &lass woman was %assing in front of 3aster Taku's mansion, and a man who was standing there
made the %ro%er salutation A halberd &arrier who was with the %alan"uin %ro&ession, howe-er, said to
the man, #You didn't bow low enough,# and stru&k him on the head with the handle of his halberd When
the man wi%ed his head, he found that he was bleeding ,n 8ust that &ondition he stood u% and said, #You
ha-e &ommitted an outrageous a&t, e-en though , was &ourteous A regrettable %ie&e of lu&k# So saying,
he &ut the halberd &arrier down with a single blow The %alan"uin &ontinued on to where-er it was going,
but ;okurouemon unsheathed his s%ear, stood before the man, and said #/ut away your sword Within
the &astle grounds it is forbidden to go about holding a naked blade'' The man said, #What ha%%ened
now was una-oidable, and , was &om%elled by the &ir&umstan&es !ertainly you &ould see that this was
so Although , would like to sheathe my sword, it is diffi&ult to do so due to the tone of your words ,t is
un%leasant, but , shall be glad to a&&e%t your &hallenge''
;okurouemon immediately threw down his s%ear and said &ourteously, #What you ha-e said is
reasonable 3y name is (uku&hi ;okurouemon , will bear witness that your &ondu&t was "uite admirable
3oreo-er, , will ba&k you u% e-en if it means forfeiting my life )ow %ut away your sword''
#With %leasure,# the man said, and sheathed his sword 1n being asked where he was from, the man
re%lied that he was a retainer of Taku )agato no kami Yasuyori Therefore ;okurouemon a&&om%anied
him and e*%lained the &ir&umstan&es 2nowing that the woman in the %alan"uin was the wife of a
nobleman, howe-er, .ord )agato ordered his retainer to &ommit se%%uku
;okurouemon &ame forward and said, #Be&ause , ha-e gi-en the %romise of a samurai, if this man is
ordered to &ommit se%%uku, then , will &ommit se%%uku first#
,t is said that the affair was thus finished without misha%
.ord Shima sent a messenger to his father, .ord Aki, saying, #, would like to make a %ilgrimage to the
Atago Shrine in 2yoto# .ord Aki asked, #(or what reason$# and the messenger re%lied, #Sin&e Atago is
the %od of ar&hery, my intentions are for the sake of fortune in war# .ord Aki be&ame angry and
answered #That is absolutely worthlessB Should the -anguard of the )abeshimas be making re"uests to
Atago$ ,f the in&arnation of Atago were fighting on the enemy's side, the -anguard should be e"ual to
&utting him neatly in two#
@ohaku li-ed in 2urotsu&hibaru His son was named Forobei 1n&e when Forobei was &arrying a load of
ri&e, a ronin of 3aster 2umashiro Sakyo's by the name of ,wamura 2yunai was &oming from the other
dire&tion There was a grudge between the two of them from some former in&ident, and now Forobei
stru&k 2yunai with his load of ri&e, started an argument, beat him and %ushed him into a dit&h, and then
returned home 2yunai yelled some threat at Forobei and returned to his home where he related this
e-ent to his older brother Fen'emon The two of them then went off' to Forobei's to take re-enge
When they got there the door was o%en 8ust a bit, and Forobei was waiting behind it with drawn sword
)ot knowing this, Fen'emon entered and Forobei stru&k at him with a swee% from the side ha-ing
re&ei-ed a dee% wound, Fen'emon used his sword as a staff and hobbled ba&k outside Then 2yunai
rushed in and stru&k at @ohaku's son0in0law 2atsuemon, who was sitting by the hearth His sword
glan&ed off the %ot hanger, and he &ut off half of 2atsuemen's fa&e @ohaku, together with his wife,
grabbed the sword away from 2yunai
2yunai a%ologi5ed and said, #, ha-e already a&hie-ed my %ur%ose /lease gi-e me ba&k my sword and ,
will a&&om%any my brother home But when @ohaku banded it ba&k to him, 2yunai &ut him on&e in the
ba&k and se-ered his ne&k halfway through He then &rossed swords with Forobei again and both went
outside and fought an e-en mat&h until he &ut off Forobei's arm
At this %oint 2yunai, who also suffered many wounds, shouldered his elder brother Fen'emon and
returned home Fen'emon, howe-er, died on the way ba&k
Forobei's wounds were numerous Although he sto%%ed the bleeding, he died on a&&ount of drinking
some water @ohaku's wife suffered some se-ered fingers @ohaku's wound was a se-ered ne&k bone,
and sin&e only his throat remained inta&t, his head hung down in front )ow boosting his head u% with his
own hands, @ohaku went off to the surgeon 's
The surgeon s treatment was like this: (irst he rubbed a mi*ture of %ine resin and oil on @ohaku's 8aw
and bound it in ramie He then atta&hed a ro%e to the to% of his head and tied it to a beam, sewed the
o%en wound shut, and buried his body in ri&e so that he would not be able to mo-e
@ohaku ne-er lost &ons&iousness nor did he &hange from his e-eryday attitude, nor did he e-en drink
:> of 51
ginseng ,t is said that only on the third day when there was a hemorrhage did he use a little medi&inal
stimulant ,n the end the bones mended, and he re&o-ered without in&ident
When .ord 3itsushige &ontra&ted small%o* at Shimonoseki, ,kushima Sakuan ga-e him some medi&ine ,t
was an e*&e%tionally hea-y &ase of small%o*, and his attendants both high and low were rather tense
Suddenly his s&abs turned bla&k The men who were nursing him lost heart and se&retly informed
Sakuan, who &ame immediately He said, #Well, this is something to be thankful for The s&abs are
healing He should soon make a &om%lete re&o-ery with no &om%li&ations , gi-e you my guarantee#
The %eo%le who were at .ord 3itsushige's side heard this and thought, #Sakuan looks a little deranged
This has be&ome all the more ho%eless #
Sakuan then set folding s&reens around, &ame out after a while, and fed .ord 3itsushige one %a&ket of
medi&ine 6ery "ui&kly the %atient's s&abs healed, and he made a &om%lete re&o-ery Sakuan later
&onfided to someone, #, ga-e the master that one %a&ket of medi&ine resol-ed that, as , was undertaking
this treatment alone, if he did not re&o-er , would "ui&kly &ut o%en my stoma&h and die with him''
When )akano Takumi was dying, his whole house garthered and he said, #You should understand that
there are three &onditions to the resolution of a retainer They are the &ondition of the master's will, the
&ondition of -itality, and the &ondition of one's death''
1n&e when a number of men had gathered on the %latform of the inner &itadel of the &astle, a &ertain
man said to H&hida Shouemon, #,t is said that you are a tea&her of the sword, but 8udging by your
e-eryday attitude, your tea&hing must be -ery wild indeed ,f you were re"uested to %erform kaishaku, ,
&an imagine that instead of &utting the ne&k you'd %robably &ut the to% of the man's head ''
Shouemon re8oined, #Su&h is not the &ase @raw a little ink s%ot on your own ne&k, and ,'ll show you that
, &an &ut without being off by a hair#
)agayama ;okuro5aemon was going down the Tokaido and was at Hamamatsu As he %assed by an inn,
a beggar fa&ed his %alan"uin and said, #, am a ronin from 4&higo , am short of money and in diffi&ulties
We are both warriors /lease hel% me out#
;okuro5aemon got angry and said, #,t is a dis&ourtesy to mention that we are both warriors ,f , were in
your state of affairs, ,'d &ut my stoma&h o%en ;ather than being out of money for the road and e*%osing
yourself to shame, &ut your stoma&h o%en right where you areB'' ,t is said that the beggar mo-ed off
,n 3akigu&hi Yohei's life he was kaishaku for many men When a &ertain 2anahara was to &ommit
se%%uku, Yohei &onsented to be kaishaku 2anahara thrust the sword into his belly, but at the %oint of
%ulling it a&ross he was unable to go further Yohei a%%roa&hed his side, yelled #4iB# and stam%ed his
foot (rom this im%etus, 2anahara was able to %ull his sword straight a&ross his belly After finishing the
kaishaku, it is said that Yohei shed tears and said, #4-en though he was formerly a good friend of mine
# This is a story of 3aster Sukeemon's
At the time of a &ertain %erson's se%%uku, when the kaishaku a &ut off his head, a little bit of skin was left
hanging and the head was not entirely se%arated from the body The offi&ial obser-er said, #There's some
left# The kaishaku got angry, took hold of the head, and &utting it &om%letely off, held it abo-e eye le-el
and said , ''Take a lookB'' ,t is said that it was rather &hilling This is a story of 3aster Sukeemon's
,n the %ra&ti&e of %ast times , there were instan&es when the head flew off' ,t was said that it is best to
&ut lea-ing a little skin remaining so that it doesn't fly oft in the dire&tion of the -erifying offi&ials
Howe-er, at %resent it is best to &ut &lean through
A man who had &ut off fifty heads on&e said, #A&&ording to the head, there are &ases when e-en the trunk
of a body will bring some rea&tion to you !utting off 8ust three heads, at first there is no rea&tion and
you &an &ut well But when you %et to four or fi-e, you feel "uite a bit of rea&tion At any rate , sin&e this
is a -ery im%ortant matter, if one always %lans on bringing the head to the ground there should be no
mistakes#
When .ord )abeshima Tsunashige was a &hild, ,wamura 2uranosuke was ordered to the %osition of elder
1n one o&&asion 2uranosuke saw that there were gold &oins before the young Tsunashige and asked the
attending retainer, #(or what reason ha-e you brought these out before the young master$# The
attendant re%lied, #The master 8ust now heard that a gift had been brought for him He said that he had
not yet seen it, so , brought it out for him '' 2uranosuke s&olded the man se-erely, saying, #To %la&e
su&h base things before a %erson of im%ortan&e is the e*tremity of &areless ness You may also &onsider
them something not to be %ut before the lord's son Attending retainers should hen&eforth be -ery
:5 of 51
mindful of this#
Another time, when .ord Tsunashige was about twenty years old, he on&e went to the mansion at
)aekiyama for some di-ersion As the %arty neared the mansion, he asked for a walking sti&k His sandal
&arrier, 3iura 9ibu5aemon, fashioned a sti&k and was about to gi-e it to the young lord 2uranosake saw
this, "ui&kly took the sti&k from 9ibu5aemon, and s&olded him se-erely, saying, ' 'Will you make our
im%ortant young lord a sluggard $ 4-en if he should ask for a sti&k , it should not be gi-en to him This is
&arelessness on the %art of the attending retainer#
9ibu5aernon was later %romoted to the rank of teakiyari, and Tsunetomo heard this story dire&tly from
him
:A of 51
When Shimomura Shoun was on ser-i&e at the &astle, .ord )aoshige said, #How wonderful it is that
2atsushige is so -igorous and %owerful for his age ,n wrestling with his %eers he e-en beat those who
are older than he is#
Shoun re%lied, #4-en though ,'m an old man, ,'ll bet ,'m best at seated wrestling# So saying, he 8erked
u% 2atsushige and threw him so for&efully that it hurt He then said, #To be %rideful about your strength
while your mettle is not yet established is likely to bring you shame in the midst of %eo%le You are
weaker than you look'' Then he withdrew
At the time when 3atsuda Yohei was an intimate friend of ,shii 9inku's, there de-elo%ed some bad
feeling's between the former and )o5oe 9inbei Yohei sent word to 9inbei saying, #/lease &ome and , will
settle this matter on&e and for all# Then he and 9inku set out together and, &oming to the Yamabushi
mansion at 2ihara, they &rossed the only bridge there was and destroyed it Talking o-er the
&ir&umstan&es of the dis&ord, they e*amined them from all sides and found no reason to fight But when
they de&ided to turn around and go home, there was, of &ourse, no bridge
While they were looking for an a%%ro%riate way of &rossing the moat, the men whom the two had
&hallenged &ould be seen a%%roa&hing stealthily Yohei and 9inku saw this and said, #We ha-e %assed the
%oint of no return, and may as well fight rather than be disgra&ed at a later date # The battle lasted for
some time Seriously wounded, Yohei fell down between two fields 9inbei also re&ei-ed a dee% wound,
and with blood flowing into his eyes was unable to find Yohei While 9inbei thus sear&hed about blindly,
Yohei was able to hold him off from his %rone %osition and in the end &ut him down But when he
attem%ted to deli-er the finishing blow, ha-ing no strength left in his hand, he %ier&ed 9inbei's ne&k by
%ushing the sword with his foot
At this %oint, friends arri-ed and a&&om%anied Yohei ba&k After his wounds healed he was ordered to
&ommit se%%uku At that time he &alled his friend 9inku, and they drank a farewell &u% together
1kubo Toemon of Shioda ran a winesho% for )abeshima 2enmotsu .ord 1kura, the son of )abeshima
2ai no kami, was a &ri%%le and &onfined indoors in a %la&e &alled 3ine He harbored wrestlers and liked
rowdies The wrestlers would often go to nearby -illages and &ause disturban&es 1ne time they went to
Toemon's %la&e, drank sake and talked unreasonably, bringing Toemon into an argument He met them
with a halberd, but as there were two of them he was &ut down
His son, 2annosuke, was fifteen years old and was in the midst of studies at the 9o5ei8i when he was
informed of the in&ident Fallo%ing off, he took a short sword about si*teen in&hes in length, 8oined
&ombat with the two big men, and in a short time finished them both off Although 2annosuke re&ei-ed
thirteen wounds, he re&o-ered .ater he was &alled @oko and is said to ha-e be&ome -ery ade%t at
massage
,t is said that Tokunaga 2i&hi5aemon re%eatedly &om0 %lained, #,'-e grown so old that now, e-en if there
were to be a battle, , wouldn't be able to do anything Still, , would like to die by gallo%ing into the midst
of the enemy and being stru&k down and killed ,t would be a shame to do nothing more than to die in
one's bed#
,t is said that the %riest Fyo8aku heard this when he was an a&olyte Fyo8aku's master was the %riest
Yemen, who was 2i&hi5aemon's youngest &hild
When Sagara 2yuma was re"uested to be&ome a &hief retainer, he said to )abeshima Hei5aemon, #(or
some reason , ha-e been in&reasingly well treated by the master and now ha-e been re"uested to take a
high rank )ot ha-ing a good retainer, my affairs are liable to be in disorder ,t is my re"uest that you
gi-e me your retainer, Takase 9ibusaemon# Hei5aemon listened to him and &onsented, saying, #,t is -ery
gratifying that you ha-e ke%t an eye on my retainer , will therefore do as you ask#
But when he related this to 9ibusaemon, the latter said, #, should re%ly dire&tly to 3aster 2yuma# He
then went to 2yuma's %la&e and talked with him 9ibusaemon told 2yuma, #, know it is a great honor that
you ha-e thought well of me and ha-e made this re"uest But a retainer is a %erson who &annot &hange
masters As you are of high rank, if , were to be&ome your retainer my life would be re%lete, but that
re%leteness would be a -e*ation to me Be&ause Her 5aemon is of low rank and is hard %ressed, we li-e
by eating &hea% ri&e gruel Yet that is sweet enough /lease think this o-er''
2yuma was e*tremely im%ressed
A &ertain man went of somewhere and on returning home late at night, found that a strange man had
:C of 51
sli%%ed into the house and was &ommitting adultery with his wife He thereu%on killed the man He then
broke down a wall and %ro%%ed u% a bale of ri&e, and by this arrangement submitted to the authorities
that he had killed a thief Thus it went without misha% After some time had %assed he di-or&ed his wife
and the affair was finished
When a &ertain %erson returned home from some %la&e or other, he found his wife &ommitting adultery
with a retainer in the bedroom When he drew near the two, his retainer fled through the kit&hen He
then went into the bedroom and slew his wife
!alling the maidser-ant, he e*%lained what had ha%%ened and said, #Be&ause this would bring shame to
the &hildren, it should be &o-ered u% as death by illness and , will need &onsiderable hel% ,f you think
that this is too mu&h for you, , may as well kill you too for your %art in this serious &rime''
She re%lied, #,f you will s%are my life, , will go on as if , don't know anything # She rearranged the room
and set out the &or%se in its night&lothes Then, after sending a man to the do&tor's %la&e two or three
times saying that there was a sudden illness, they sent a last messenger saying that it was too late and
there was no longer any need to &ome The wife's un&le was &alled in and told about the illness, and he
was &on-in&ed The entire affair was %assed oft as death by illness, and to the end no one knew the
truth At a later date the retainer was dismissed This affair ha%%ened in 4do
At )ew Year's in the third year of 2ei&ho at a %la&e in 2orea &alled Yolsan, when the armies of the 3ing
a%%eared by the hundreds of thousands, the 9a%anese troo%s were ama5ed and wat&hed with bated
breath .ord )aoshige said, #Well, well That's a great number of men B , wonder how many hundreds of
thousands there are$''
9in'emon said, #,n 9a%an, for something that's numberless we say 'as many as the hairs on a three0year0
old &alf' This would &ertainly li-e u% to the number of hairs on a three0year0old &alfB# ,t is said that
e-erybody laughed and regained their s%irits
.ater, .ord 2atsushige was hunting at 3, Shiroishi and told )akano 3atabei about this ' '4*&e%t for your
father who s%oke in su&h a way, there was no one who said e-en a word ''
)akano 9in'emon &onstantly said, #A %erson who ser-es when treated kindly by the master is not a
retainer But one who ser-es when the master is being heartless and unreasonable is a retainer You
should understand this %rin&i%le well ''
When Yamamoto 9in'emon was eighty years old, he be0 &ame ill At one %oint, he seemed to be on the
-erge of groaning, and someone said to him, #You'll feel better if you groan Fo ahead J' But he re%lied,
#Su&h is not the &ase The name of Yamamoto 9in'emon is known by e-eryone, and , ha-e shown u% well
throughout a whole lifetime To let %eo%le hear my groaning -oi&e in my last moments would ne-er do#
,t is said that he did not let out a groan to the -ery end
A &ertain son of 3ori 3onbei got into a fight and returned home wounded Asked by 3onbei, #What did
you do to your o%%onent$# his son re%lied, #, &ut him down#
When 3onbei asked, #@id you deli-er the &ou% de gra&e$# his son re%lied, #,ndeed , did#'
Then 3onbei said, #You ha-e &ertainly done well, and there is nothing to regret )ow, e-en if you fled you
would ha-e to &ommit se%%uku anyway When your mood im%ro-es, &ommit se%%uku, and rather than
die by another's hand, you &an die by your father's # And soon after he %erformed kaishaku for his son
A man in the same grou% as Aiura Fen5aemon &ommitted some nefarious deed, and so the grou% leader
ga-e him a note, &ondemning him to death, whi&h was to be taken to Fen5aemon's %la&e Fen5aemon
%erused the note and then said to the man, #,t says here that , should kill you, so , will do away with you
on the eastern bank /re-iously you ha-e %ra&ti&ed su&h things as swordsmanshi% )ow fight with all
you'-e got#
The man re%lied, #, will do as you say,# and with Fen5aemon alone a&&om%anying him, they left the
house They had gone about twenty yards along the edge of the moat when a retainer of Fen5aernon's
yelled out, #Hey, HeyB# from the other side As Fen5aemon was turning around, the &ondemned man
atta&ked him with his sword Fen5aemon du&ked ba&kwards, drew his sword, and &ut the man down He
then returned home
He %ut the &lothes he had been wearing at that time into a &hest and lo&ked them u%, ne-er showing
them to anyone for the rest of his life After he died the &lothes were e*amined, and it was seen that they
were rent This was told by his son, Fen5aemon
:D of 51
1kubo @oko is said to ha-e remarked :
4-eryone says that no masters of the arts will a%%ear as the world &omes to an end This is something
that , &annot &laim to understand /lants su&h as %eonies, a5aleas and &amellias will be able to %rodu&e
beautiful flowers, end of the world or not ,f men would gi-e some thought to this fa&t, they would
understand And if %eo%le took noti&e of the masters of e-en these times, they would be able to say that
there are masters in the -arious arts But %eo%le be&ome imbued with the idea that the world has &ome
to an end and no longer %ut forth any effort This is a shame There is no fault in the times
While (ukahori 3agoroku was still li-ing as a de%endent se&ond son, he on&e went hunting at (ukahori,
and his retainer, mistaking him for a wild boar in the darkness of the undergrowth, fired the rifle,
wounding him in the knee and &ausing him to fall from a great height The retainer, greatly u%set,
stri%%ed himself to the waist and was about to &ommit se%%uku 3agoroku said, #You &an &ut your
stoma&h o%en later , don't feel well, so bring me some water to drink# The retainer ran about and
obtained some water for his master to drink and in the %ro&ess &almed down After that the retainer was
again about to &ommit se%%uku, but 3agoroku for&ibly sto%%ed him H%on returning they &he&ked in with
the man on guard, and 3agoroku asked his father, 2an5aemen, to forgi-e the retainer
2an5aemon said to the retainer, #,t was an une*%e&ted mistake, so do not be worried There is no need
for reser-ation !ontinue with your work''
A man by the name of Takagi got into an argument with three farmers in the neighborhood, was soundly
beaten out in the fields, and returned home His wife said to him, #Ha-en't you forgotten about the
matter of death$# #@efinitely notB# he re%lied
His wife then retorted, #At any rate, a man dies only on&e 1f the -arious ways of dying 0dying of disease,
being &ut down in battle, se%%uku or being beheaded00to die ignominiously would be a shame,# and went
outside She soon returned, &arefully %ut the two &hildren to bed, %re%ared some tor&hes, dressed herself
for battle after nightfall, and then said, #When , went out to sur-ey the s&ene a bit earlier, it seemed that
the three men went into one %la&e for a dis&ussion )ow is the right time .et's go "ui&klyB# So saying,
they went out with the husband in the lead, burning tor&hes and wearing short swords They broke into
their o%%onents' %la&e and dis%ersed them, both husband and wife slashing about and killing two of the
men and wounding the other The husband was later ordered to &ommit se%%uku
:E of 51
There was a &ertain retainer of ,keda Shingen's who started an argument with a man, gra%%led him to
the ground, thrashed him soundly, and tram%led on him until his &om%anions ran u% and %ulled them
a%art The elders &onferred o-er this and said, #The man who was tram%led should be %unished# Shingen
heard this and said, #A fight is something that goes to the finish A man who forgets the Way of the
Samurai and does not use his sword will be forsaken by the gods and Buddhas As an e*am%le to
subse"uent retainers, both men should be &ru&ified# The men who had %ulled them a%art were banished
,n Yui Shosetsu's military instru&tions, #The Way of the Three Hltimates,# there is a %assage on the
&hara&ter of karma' He re&ei-ed an oral tea&hing of about eighteen &ha%ters &on&erning the Freater
Bra-ery and the .esser Bra-ery He neither wrote them down nor &ommitted them to memory but rather
forgot them &om%letely Then, in fa&ing real situations, he a&ted on im%ulse and the things that he had
learned be&ame wisdom of his own This is the &hara&ter of karma
When fa&ed with a &risis, if one %uts some s%ittle on his earlobe and e*hales dee%ly through his nose, he
will o-er&ome anything at hand This is a se&ret matter (urthermore, when e*%erien&ing a rush of blood
to the head, if one %uts s%ittle on the u%%er %art of one's ear, it will soon go away
T5u !h'an was on the %oint of death when someone asked him how to go-ern the &ountry He re%lied:
There is nothing that sur%asses ruling with bene-olen&e Howe-er, to %ut into %ra&ti&e enough bene-olent
go-erning to rule the &ountry is diffi&ult To do this lukewarmly will result in negle&t ,f go-erning with
bene-olen&e is diffi&ult, then it is best to go-ern stri&tly To go-ern stri&tly means to be stri&t before
things ha-e arisen, and to do things in su&h a way that e-il will not arise To be stri&t after the e-il has
arisen is like laying a snare There are few %eo%le who will make mistakes with fire after ha-ing on&e
been burned 1f %eo%le who regard water lightly, many ha-e been drowned
A &ertain man said, #, know the sha%es of ;eason and of Woman# When asked about this, he re%lied,
#;eason is four0&ornered and will not mo-e e-en in an e*treme situation Woman is round 1ne &an say
that she does not distinguish between good and e-il or right and wrong and tum0 bles into any %la&e at
all#
The basi& meaning of eti"uette is to be "ui&k at both the beginning and end and tran"uil in the middle
3itani !hi5aemon heard this and said, #That's 8ust like being a kaishaku
(ukae Angen a&&om%anied an a&"uaintan&e of his to the %riest Tesshu of 1saka, and at first said %ri-ately
to the %riest, #This man as%ires to study Buddhism and ho%es to re&ei-e your tea&hing He is a man of
rather high determination''
Soon after the inter-iew the %riest said, #Angen is a man who does harm to others He said that this man
is a good man, but wherein is his goodness$ There was no goodness -isible to Tesshu's eyes ,t is not a
good idea to %raise %eo%le &arelessly When %raised, both wise and foolish be&ome %rideful To %raise is
to do harm#
When Hotta 2aga no kami 3asamori was a %age to the shogun, he was so headstrong that the shogun
wished to test what was at the bottom of his heart To do this, the shogun heated a %air of tongs and
%la&ed them in the hearth 3asamori's &ustom was to go to the other side of the hearth, take the tongs,
and greet the master This time, when he unsus%e&tingly %i&ked u% the tongs, his hands were
immediately turned As he did obeisan&e in his usual manner, howe-er, the shogun "ui&kly %ot u% and
took the tongs from him
A &ertain %erson said, #When a &astle is being surrendered, as long as there are one or two men within it
who are determined to hold on, the defending for&es will not be of one a&&ord, and in the end no one will
hold the &astle #,n the taking of the &astle, if when the man who is to re&ei-e it a%%roa&hes and the one
or two men who are determined to hold on to it lightly fire on him from the shadows, the man will be
alarmed and the battle will be on ,n su&h a &ase, e-en though it is unwillingly done, the &astle will ha-e
to be stormed This is &alled being for&ed to besiege a &astle by those besieged#
The Buddhist %riest ;yo5an wrote down some generalities &on&erning Takanobu's battles A &ertain %riest
saw this and &riti&i5ed him, saying, #,t is ina%%ro%riate for a %riest to write about a military &ommander
)o matter how su&&essful his writing style may be, sin&e he is not a&"uainted with military things, he is
liable to be mistaken in understanding a famous general's mind ,t is irre-erent to %ass on
mis&on&e%tions &on&erning a famous general to later generations#
A &ertain %erson said,
>G of 51
#,n the Saint's mausoleum there is a %oem that goes :
,f in one's heart
He follows the %ath of sin&erity,
Though he does not %ray
Will not the gods %rote&t him$
What is this %ath of sin&erity$#
A man answered him by saying,
#You seem to like %oetry , will answer you with a %oem
As e-erything in this world is but a shame,
@eath is the only sin&erity
,t is said that be&oming as a dead man in one's daily li-ing is the following of the %ath of sin&erity#
,f you &ut a fa&e lengthwise, urinate on it, and tram%le on it with straw sandals, it is said that the skin will
&ome off This was heard by the %riest Fyo8aku when he was in 2yoto ,t is information to be treasured
1ne of 3atsudaira Sagami no kami's retainers went to 2yoto on a matter of debt &olle&tion and took u%
lodgings by renting li-ing "uarters in a townhouse 1ne day while standing out front wat&hing the %eo%le
go by, he heard a %asser0by say, #They say that .ord 3atsudaira's men are in-ol-ed in a fight right now#
The retainer thought, #How worrisome that some of my &om%anions are in-ol-ed in a fight There are
some men to relie-e those at 4do staying here /erha%s these are the men in-ol-ed# He asked the
%asser0by of the lo&ation, but when he arri-ed out of breath, his &om%anions had already been &ut down
and their ad-er0 saries were at the %oint of deli-ering the &ou% de gra&e He "ui&kly let out a yell, &ut the
two men down, and returned to his lodgings
This matter was made known to an offi&ial of the shogunate, and the man was &alled u% before him and
"uestioned #You ga-e assistan&e in your &om%anions' fight and thus disregarded the go-ernment's
ordinan&e This is true beyond a doubt, isn't it$#
The man re%lied, #, am from the &ountry, and it is diffi&ult for me to understand e-erything that Your
Honor is saying Would you %lease re%eat that$#
The offi&ial got angry and said, #,s there something wrong with your ears$ @idn't you abet a fight,
&ommit bloodshed, disregard the go-ernment's ordinan&e, and break the law$#
The man then re%lied, #, ha-e at length understood what you are saying Although you say that , ha-e
broken the law and disregarded the go-ernment's ordinan&e, , ha-e by no means done so The reason for
this is that all li-ing things -alue their li-es, and this goes without saying for human beings ,, es%e&ially,
-alue my life Howe-er, , thought that to hear a rumor that one's friends are in-ol-ed in a fight and to
%retend not to hear this is not to %reser-e the Way of the Samurai , so , ran to the %la&e of a&tion To
shamelessly return home after seeing my friends stru&k down would surely ha-e lengthened my life, but
this too would be disregarding the Way ,n obser-ing the Way, one will throw away his own %re&ious life
Thus, in order to %reser-e the Way of the Samurai and not to disregard the Samurai 1rdinan&es, , "ui&kly
threw away my life at that %la&e , beg that you e*e&ute me immediately#
The offi&ial was -ery im%ressed and later dismissed the matter, &ommuni&ating to .ord 3atsudaira, #You
ha-e a -ery able samurai in your ser-i&e /lease treasure him#
This is among the sayings of the %riest Banker #)ot to borrow the strength of another, nor to rely on
one's own strength ? to &ut off %ast and future thoughts, and not to li-e within the e-eryday mind
then the Freat Way is right before one's eyes#
.ord Soma's family genealogy, &alled the !hiken marokashi, was the best in 9a%an 1ne year when his
mansion suddenly &aught fire and was burning to the ground, .ord Soma said, #, feel no regret about the
house and all its furnishings, e-en if they burn to the -ery last %ie&e, be&ause they are things that &an be
re%la&ed later on , only regret that , was unable to take out the genealogy, whi&h is my family's most
%re&ious treasure#
There was one samurai among those attending him who said, #, will go in and take it out#
.ord Soma and the others all laughed and said, #The house is already engulfed in flames How are you
going to take it out$#
)ow this man had ne-er been lo"ua&ious, nor had he been %arti&ularly useful, but being a man who did
things from beginning to end, he was engaged as an attendant At this %oint he said, #, ha-e ne-er been
>1 of 51
of use to my master be&ause ,'m so &areless, but , ha-e li-ed resol-ed that someday my life should be of
use to him This seems to be that time'' And he lea%t into the flames
After the fire had been e*tinguished the master said, ''.ook for his remains What a %ityB''
.ooking e-erywhere, they found his burnt &or%se in the garden ad8a&ent to the li-ing "uarters When they
turned it o-er, blood flowed out of the stoma&h The man had &ut o%en his stoma&h and %la&ed the
genealogy inside and it was not damaged at all (rom this time on it was &alled the #Blood Fenealogy'
A&&ording to a &ertain %erson's story, #,n the tradition of the , !hing, it is a mistake to think that it is
something for di-ination ,ts essen&e is non0di-ination This &an be seen by the ta&t that the !hinese
&hara&ter ',' is read as '&hange' Although one di-ines good fortune, if he does e-il it will be&ome bad
fortune And although he di-ines bad fortune, if he does good it will be&ome good fortune
#!onfu&ius' saying, 'By setting myself to the task for many years and in the end learning &hange <,=, ,
should make no big mistakes,' is not a matter of learning the , !hing ,t means by studying the essen&e
of &hange and &ondu&ting oneself for many years in the Way of Food, one should make no mistakes#
Hirano Fonbei was one of the 3en of Se-en S%ears who ad-an&ed straight u% the hill at the battle of
Shi5ugadake At a later date he was in-ited to be&ome one of .ord ,eyasu's hatamoto 1n&e he was being
entertained at 3aster Hosekawa's The master said, #3aster Fonbei's bra-ery is not a hidden matter in
9a%an ,t is truly a shame that su&h a man of bra-ery has been %la&ed in a low rank su&h as you are in
now This must be &ontrary to your wishes ,f you were to be&ome a retainer of mine, , would gi-e you
half the domain ''
Fi-ing no answer at all, Fonbei suddenly %ot u% from his seat, went out to the -eranda, stood fa&ing the
house, and urinated Then he said, #,f , were the master's retainer, it would ne-er do to urinate from
here#
When the %riest @aiyu from Sanshu was making a si&k &all at a &ertain %la&e, he was told, #The man has
8ust now died# @aiyu said, #Su&h a thing shouldn't ha-e ha%%ened at this time @idn't this o&&ur from
insuffi&ient treatment$ What a shameB''
)ow the do&tor ha%%ened to be there at that time and heard what was said from the other side of the
sho8i He got e*traordinarily angry and &ame out and said, #, heard Your ;e-eren&e say that the man
died from insuffi&ient treatment Sin&e , am a rather bungling do&tor, this is %robably true , ha-e heard
that a %riest embodies the %ower of the Buddhist .aw .et me see you bring this dead man ba&k to life,
for without su&h e-iden&e Buddhism is worthless#
@aiyu was %ut out by this, but he felt that it would be un0 %ardonable for a %riest to %ut a blemish on
Buddhism, so he said, #, will indeed show you how to bring his life ba&k by %rayer (leas' wait a moment
, must go %re%are myself,# and returned to the tem%le Soon he &ame ba&k and sat in meditation ne*t to
the &or%se /retty soon the dead man began to breathe and then &om%letely re-i-ed ,t is said that he
li-ed on for another half a year As this was something told dire&tly to the %riest Tannen, there is nothing
mistaken about it
When telling of the way he %rayed, @aiyu said, #This is something not %ra&ti&ed in our se&t, so , didn't
know of any way of %rayer , sim%ly set my heart for the sake of the Buddhist .aw, returned to the
tem%le, shar%ened a short sword that had been gi-en as an offering to the tem%le, and %ut it in my robe
Then , fa&ed the dead man and %rayed, ',f the strength of the Buddhist .aw e*ists, &ome ba&k to life
immediately ' Sin&e , was thus &ommitted , if he hadn't &ome ba&k to life, , was resol-ed to the %oint of
&utting o%en my stoma&h and dying embra&ing the &or%se#
When Yamamoto Foro5aemon went to the %riest Tetsugyu in 4do wanting to hear something about
Buddhism, Tetsugyo said, #Buddhism gets rid of the dis&riminating mind ,t is nothing more than this ,
&an gi-e you an illustration in terms of the warrior The !hinese &hara&ter for ''&owardi&e'' is made by
adding the &hara&ter for #meaning# to the &hara&ter radi&al for #mind# )ow #meaning# is #dis&rimination,
# and when a man atta&hes dis&rimination to his true mind, he be&omes a &oward ,n the Way of the
Samurai &an a man be &ourageous when dis&rimination arises$ , su%%ose you &an get the idea from this#
A&&ording to what one of the elders said, taking an enemy on the battlefield is like a hawk taking a bird
4-en though it enters into the midst of a thousand of them, it gi-es no attention to any bird other than
the one that it has first marked
3oreo-er, what is &alled a te5uke no kubi is a head that one has taken after ha-ing made the de&laration,
#, will take that warrior wearing su&h and su&h armor#
>7 of 51
,n the 2iyogunkan one %erson said, #When fa&ing the enemy, , feel as if , ha-e 8ust entered darkness
Be&ause of this , get hea-ily wounded Although you ha-e fought with many famous men, you ha-e ne-er
been wounded Why is that$#
The other man answered, #When , ha-e fa&ed the enemy, of &ourse it is like being in the dark But if at
that time , tran"uili5e my mind, it be&omes like a night lit by a %ale moon ,f , begin my atta&k from that
%oint, , feel as though , will not be wounded # This is the situation at the moment of truth
A rifle ball hitting the water will ri&o&het ,t is said that if one marks it with a knife or dents it with his
teeth, it will %ass through the water 3oreo-er, when the master is hunting or some su&h thing, if one
marks the ball with a sign, it will &ome in handy in &ase of a misha%
When 3aster 1wari, 3aster 2it and 3aster 3ite were around the age of ten, one day .ord ,eyasu was
with them in the garden and kno&ked down a big was%s' nest A great number of was%s flew out, and
3aster 1wari and 3aster 2it were frightened and ran away But 3aster 3ite %i&ked off the was%s that
were on his fa&e, threw them away one by one, and did not run away
Another time, when .ord ,eyasu was roasting a great number of &hestnuts in a large hearth, he in-ited
the boys to 8oin him When the &hestnuts got suffi&iently hot, they all started to %o% out at on&e Two of
the boys were frightened and mo-ed away 3aster 3ite, howe-er, not the least bit frightened, %i&ked u%
the ones that had %o%%ed out and threw them ba&k into the hearth
,n order to study medi&ine 4gu&hi Than went to old Yoshida l&hian's %la&e in the Ban&ho area of 4do At
that time, there was in the neighborhood a tea&her of swordsmanshi%, to whom he used to go for training
from time to time There was a ronin %u%il there who one day &ame u% to toan and said as a %arting
remark, #, am now going to reali5e a long&herished ambition, one , ha-e had for many years , am
informing you of this be&ause you ha-e always been friendly to me# Then he walked away Than felt
uneasy about this, and when he followed him, he &ould see a man wearing a braided hat &oming from the
o%%osite dire&tion
)ow the sword tea&her was about eight or ten yards ahead of the ronin, and in %assing by the man with
the hat he soundly stru&k the man's s&abbard with his own When the man looked around, the ronin
kno&ked off' the man's hat and announ&ed in a loud -oi&e that his %ur%ose was re-enge With the man's
attention being distra&ted by the &onfusion, he was easily &ut down A tremendous amount of
&ongratulations &ame from the nearby mansions and townhouses ,t is said that they e-en brought out
money for him This was a fa-orite story of Toan's
1n&e when the %riest Hngo of 3atsushima was %assing through the mountains at night, he was set u%on
by mountain bandits Hngo said, #, am a man of this area, not a %ilgrim , ha-e no money at all, but you
&an ha-e these &lothes if you like /lease s%are my life#
The bandits said, #Well, our efforts ha-e been in -ain We don't need anything like &lothes,# and %assed
on They had gone about two hundred yards when Hngo turned ba&k and &alled to them, #, ha-e broken
the &ommandment against lying ,n my &onfusion , forgot that , had one %ie&e of sil-er in my moneybag
, am truly regretful , said that , had nothing at all , ha-e it here now, so %lease take it# The mountain
bandits were dee%ly im%ressed, &ut off their hair right there, and be&ame his dis&i%les
,n 4do four or fi-e hatamoto gathered together one night for a game of go At one %oint one of them got
u% to go to the toilet, and while he was gone an argument broke out 1ne man was &ut down, the lights
were e*tinguished, and the %la&e was in an u%roar When the man &ame running ba&k, he yelled,
#4-erybody &alm down , This is really o-er nothing at all /ut the lam%s ba&k on and let me handle this''
After the lam%s had been relighted and e-eryone had &almed down, the man suddenly stru&k off the head
of the other man in-ol-ed in the argument He then said, #3y lu&k as a samurai ha-ing run out, , was not
%resent at the fight ,f this were seen as &owardi&e, , would be ordered to &ommit se%%uku 4-en if that
didn't ha%%en, , would ha-e no e*&use if it were said that , had fled to the toilet, and , would still ha-e no
re&ourse other than se%%uku , ha-e done this thing be&ause , thought , would die ha-ing &ut down an
ad-ersary rather than die ha-ing shamed myself alone# When the shogun heard of this matter, he
%raised the man
1n&e a grou% of ten blind masseuses were tra-eling together in the mountains, and when they began to
%ass along the to% of a %re&i%i&e, they all be&ame -ery &autious, their legs shook, and they were in
general stru&k with terror 9ust then the leading man stumbled and fell of the &liff Those that were left all
wailed, #Ahh, ahh , How %iteousB# But the masseuse who had fallen -eiled u% from below, #@on't be
afraid Although , fell, it was nothing , am now rather at ease Before falling , ke%t thinking 'What will ,
do if , fall$' and there was no end to my an*iety But now ,'-e settled down ,f the rest of you want to be
>: of 51
at ease, fall "ui&klyB''
Ho8o Awa no kami on&e gathered together his dis&i%les in the martial arts and &alled in a %hysiognomist,
who was %o%ular in 4do at the time, to ha-e him determine whether they were bra-e men or &owards He
had them see the man one by one, telling them, #,f he determines 'bra-ery,' you should stri-e all the
more ,f it is '&owardi&e,' you should stri-e by throwing away your life ,t's something that you're born
with, so there's no shame in it#
Hirose @en5aemon was then about twel-e or thirteen years old When he sat down in front of the
%hysiognomist, he said in a bristling -oi&e , ''if you read &owardi&e in me, ,'ll &ut you down with a single
blow B#
When there is something to be said, it is better if it is said right away ,f it is said later, it will sound like
an e*&use 3oreo-er, it is o&&asionally good to really o-erwhelm your o%%onent Also, in addition to
ha-ing s%oken suffi&iently it is the highest sort of -i&tory to tea&h your o%%onent some0 thing that will be
to his benefit This is in a&&ordan&e with the Way
The %riest ;yoi said : The samurai of old were mortified by the idea of dying in bed ? they ho%ed only to
die on the battlefield A %riest, too, will be unable to fulfill the Way unless he is of this dis%osition The
man who shuts himself away and a-oids the &om%any of men is a &oward 1nly e-il thoughts allow one to
imagine that something good &an be done by shutting oneself away (or e-en if one does some good
thing by shutting himself away, he will be unable to kee% the way o%en for future generations by
%romulgating the &lan traditions
Takeda Shingen's retainer, Amari Bi5en no kami, was killed in a&tion and his son, To5o, at the age of
eighteen took o-er his father's %osition as an armed horseman atta&hed to a general 1n&e a &ertain man
in his grou% re&ei-ed a dee% wound, and sin&e the blood would not &lot, To5o ordered him to drink the
fe&es of a red0haired horse mi*ed with water The wounded man said, #.ife is dear to me How &an ,
drink horse fe&es$' To5o heard this and said, #What an admirably bra-e warrior B What you say is
reasonable Howe-er, the basi& meaning of loyalty re"uires us to %reser-e our li-es and gain -i&tory for
our master on the battlefield Well, then, ,'ll drink some for you'' Then he drank some himself and
banded o-er the &u% to the man who took the medi&ine gratefully and re&o-ered
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,n the #)otes on 3artial .aws# it is written that:
The %hrase, ''Win first, fight later, '' &an be summed u% in the two words, #Win beforehand# The
resour&efulness of times of %ea&e is the military %re%aration for times of war With fi-e hundred allies one
&an defeat an enemy for&e of ten thousand
When ad-an&ing on the enemy's &astle and then %ulling ba&k, do not retreat by the main
road, but rather by the side roads
1ne should lay one's dead and wounded allies fa&e down in the dire&tion of the enemy
,t is a matter of &ourse that a warrior's attitude should be to be in the -anguard during an atta&k and in
the rear during a retreat ,n a%%roa&hing for the atta&k he does not forget to wait for the right moment
,n waiting for the right moment he ne-er forgets the atta&k
A helmet is usually thought to be -ery hea-y, but when one is atta&king a &astle or something similar,
and arrows, bullets, large ro&ks, great %ie&es of wood and the like are &orning down, it will not seem the
least bit so
1n&e when 3aster Yagyu was before the shogun on some business, a number of bamboo swords fell from
the &eiling He "ui&kly &las%ed his hands abo-e his head and was not stru&k
Again, at a &ertain time when he was summoned, the shogun was waiting behind &o-er with a bamboo
sword ready to strike him 3aster Yagyu &alled out in a loud -oi&e, #This is for your own dis&i%line @on't
look B# As the shogun turned around, 3aster Yagyu ste%%ed u% and took the sword out of his hand
A %erson who does not want to be stru&k by the enemy s arrows will ha-e no di-ine %rote&tion (or a man
who does not wish to be hit by the arrows of a &ommon soldier, but rather by those of a warrior of fame,
there will be the %rote&tion for whi&h he has asked
Wind0bells are things that are used during &am%aigns in order to know the dire&tion of the wind (or
night atta&ks, fire &an be set windward while the atta&k &an be &arried out from the o%%osite dire&tion
Your allies should be mindful of this also 1ne should always hang wind0bells in order to know the
dire&tion of the wind
.ord Aki de&lared that he would not ha-e his des&endants learn military ta&ti&s He said, #1n the
battlefield, on&e dis&retion starts it &annot be sto%%ed 1ne will not break through to the enemy with
dis&retion ,ndis&retion is most im%ortant when in front of the tiger's den Therefore, if one were informed
of military ta&ti&s, he would ha-e many doubts, and there will be no end to the matter 3y des&endants
will not %ra&ti&e military ta&ti&s'
A&&ording to .ord )aoshige's words:
There is something to whi&h e-ery young samurai should %ay attention @uring times of %ea&e when
listening to stories of battle, one should ne-er say, #,n fa&ing su&h a situation, what would a %erson do$#
Su&h words are out of the "uestion How will a man who has doubts e-en in his own room a&hie-e
anything on the battlefield$ There is a saying that goes, #)o matter what the &ir&umstan&es might be,
one should be of the mind to win 1ne should be holding the first s%ear to strike# 4-en though you ha-e
%ut your life on the line, there is nothing to be done when the situation doesn't go as %lanned
Takeda Shingen on&e said, #,f there was a man who &ould kill .ord ,eyasu, , would gi-e him a handsome
reward# Hearing this, a boy of thirteen entered into the ser-i&e of .ord ,eyasu and one night when he
saw that ,eyasu had retired, took a stab at his bedding .ord ,eyasu was a&tually in the ne*t room
silently reading a sutra, but he "ui&kly grabbed the boy
When the in-estigation was held, the boy related the fa&ts honestly, and .ord ,eyasu said, #You seemed
to be an e*&ellent young man, so , em%loyed you on friendly terms )ow, howe-er, , am e-en more
im%ressed by you# He then sent the lad ba&k to Shingen
1ne night some samurai from 2aratsu gathered together and were %laying go 3aster 2itabatake was
wat&hing the game, and when he offered a suggestion, one man atta&ked him with a sword After the
%eo%le around them had sto%%ed the man, 3aster 2itabatake %in&hed out the light of the &andle and
said, #,t was nothing more than my own indis&retion, and , a%ologi5e The sword hit the go &ase? , was
not the least bit wounded#
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Then the &andle was relighted, but when the man &ame to re&on&iliate and offer him a sake &u%,
2itabatake &ut the man's head off with one blow /resently he said, #3y thigh ha-ing been &ut through, it
was diffi&ult to offer any resistan&e, but by binding my leg with my &oat and su%%orting myself with the
go board, , ha-e done this thing# Ha-ing said this, he e*%ired
There is nothing so %ainful as regret We would all like to be without it Howe-er, when we are -ery
ha%%y and be&ome elated, or when we habitually 8um% into something thoughtlessly, later we are
distraught, and it is for the most %art be&ause we did not think ahead and are now regretful !ertainly we
should try not to be&ome de8e&ted, and when -ery ha%%y should &alm our minds
These are tea&hings of Yamamoto 9in'emon:
Singlemindedness is all0%owerful
Tether e-en a roasted &hi&ken
!ontinue to s%ur a running horse
A man who will &riti&i5e you o%enly &arries no &onni-an&e
A man e*ists for a generation, but his name lasts to the end of time
3oney is a thing that will be there when asked for A good man is not so easily found
Walk with a real man one hundred yards and he'll tell you at least se-en lies
To ask when you already know is %oliteness To ask when you don't know is the rule
Wra% your intentions in needles of %ine
1ne should not o%en his mouth wide or yawn in front of another @o this behind your fan or
slee-e
A straw hat or helmet should be worn tilled toward the front
,t is a %rin&i%le of the art of war that one should sim%ly lay down his life and strike ,f one's
o%%onent also does the same, it is an e-en mat&h @efeating one's o%%onent is then a matter of
faith and destiny
1ne should not show his slee%ing "uarters to other %eo%le The times of dee% slee% and dawning
are -ery im%ortant 1ne should be mindful of this This is from a story by )agahama lnosuke
When one de%arts for the front, he should &arry ri&e in a bag His underwear should be made
from the skin of a badger This way he will not ha-e li&e ,n a long &am%aign, li&e are
troublesome
When meeting with the enemy, there is a way to determine his strength ,f he has his head &ast
down, he will a%%ear bla&k and is strong ,f he is looking u%ward, he will a%%ear white and is
weak This is from a story by )atsume Toneri
,f a warrior is not unatta&hed to life and death, he will be of no use whatsoe-er The saying that
#All abilities &ome from one mind# sounds as though it has to do with sentient matters, but it is in
fa&t a matter of being unatta&hed to life and death With su&h non0atta&hment one &an
a&&om%lish any feat 3artial arts and the like are related to this insofar as they &an lead to the
Way
To &alm one's mind, one swallows his sali-a This is a se&ret matter When one be&omes angry, it
is the same /utting s%ittle on one's forehead is also good ,n the Yoshida s&hool of ar&hery,
swallowing one's s%ittle is the se&ret %rin&i%le of the art
A &ertain general said, #(or soldiers other than offi&ers, if they would test their armor, they should test
only the front (urthermore, while ornamentation on armor is unne&essary, one should be -ery &areful
about the a%%earan&e of his helmet ,t is something that a&&om%anies his head to the enemy's &am%#
)akano 9in'emon said, #.earning su&h things as military ta&ti&s is useless ,f one does not strike out by
sim%ly &losing his eyes and rushing into the enemy, e-en if it is only one ste%, he will be of no use# This
>A of 51
was also the o%inion of ,yanaga Sasuke
,n )atsume Toneri's #3ilitary Stories# it is written: #.ook at the soldiers of re&ent times B 4-en in long
battles there are hardly one or two o&&asions when blood is washed with blood 1ne should not be
negligent# Toneri was a ronin from the 2amigata area
To ha-e e*e&ution grounds in a %la&e where tra-elers &ome and go is useless The e*e&utions in 4do and
the 2amigala area are meant to be an e*am%le for the whole &ountry But the e*e&utions in one %ro-in&e
are only for an e*am%le in that %ro-in&e ,f &rimes are many, it is a %ro-in&e's shame How would this
look to other %ro-in&es$
With the %assing of time, the &riminal will forget the reason for his &rime ? it is best to e*e&ute him on
the s%ot
3atsudaira ,5u no kami said to 3aster 3i5uno 2enmotsu, #You're su&h a useful %erson, it's a shame that
you're so short''
2enmotsu re%lied, #That's true Sometimes things in this world don't go the way we would like )ow if ,
were to &ut off your head and atta&h it to the bottom of my feet, , would be taller But that's something
that &ouldn't be done#
A &ertain %erson was %assing by the town of Yae when suddenly his stoma&h began to hurt He sto%%ed
at a house on a side street and asked to use the toilet There was only a young woman there, but she
took him to the ba&k and showed him where it was 9ust as he was taking off his hakama and going into
the toilet, the woman's husband &ame home and a&&used them both of adultery ,n the end, it be&ame a
%ubli& matter
.ord )aoshige heard the &ase and said, #4-en if this is not a matter of adultery, it is the same as adultery
to take off one's hakama without hesitation in a %la&e where there is an una&&om%anied woman, and in
the woman's &ase to allow someone to disrobe while her husband is absent from home ''
,t is said that they were both &ondemned to death for this a&t
,n assessing the enemy's &astle there is a saying that goes, #Smoke and mist are like looking at a s%ring
mountain After the rain is like -iewing a &lear day# There is weakness in %erfe&t &larity
Among the words s%oken by great generals, there are some that were said offhandedly 1ne should not
re&ei-e these words in the same manner, howe-er
/eo%le who ha-e an intelligent a%%earan&e will not be outstanding e-en if they do something good, and if
they do something normal, %eo%le will think them la&king But if a %erson who is thought of as ha-ing a
gentle dis%osition does e-en a slightly good thing, he will be %raised by %eo%le
1n the fourteenth day of the se-enth month in the third year of Shotoku, there were some &ooks in the
midst of %re%arations for the Ben (esti-al in the outer &itadel of the &astle 1ne of them, Hara
9uro5aemon, unsheathed his sword and &ut off the head of Sagara Fen5aemon 3awatari ;okuuemon,
Aiura Tarobei, 2ola 2inbei and 2akihara ;iemen all ran away in &onfusion When 9uro5aemon sighted
2inbei and started &hasing him, the latter fled to the foot soldiers' gathering area There, the daimyo's
%alan"uin attendant, Tanaka Takeuemon, stood against 9uro5aemon and took away his still drawn sword
,shirnaru San'emon &hased 9uro5aemon, and when they &ame to the foot soldiers' area, assisted
Takeuemon
The %unishment was gi-en on the twenty0ninth day of the ele-enth month in the same year 9uro5aemon
was bound with ro%e and beheaded ;okuuemon, Tarobei, 2inbei and ;iemon were banished, and
San'emon was ordered to retire Takeuemon was rewarded with three %ie&es of sil-er
,t was later said that Takeuemon had been slow to a&t, for he had not bound the man at that time
Among Takeda Shingen's retainers there were men of mat&hless &ourage, but when 2atsuyori was killed
in the fight at Tenmoku5an, they all fled Tsu&hiya So5o, a warrior who had been in disfa-or for many
years, &ame out alone, howe-er, and said, #, wonder where all the men are who s%oke so bra-ely e-ery
day$ , shall return the master's fa-ors to me# And he fell alone in battle
The essentials of s%eaking are in not s%eaking at all ,f you think that you &an finish something without
s%eaking, finish it without saying a single word ,f there is something that &annot be a&&om%lished
without s%eaking, one should s%eak with few words, in a way that will a&&ord well with reason
>C of 51
To o%en one's mouth indis&riminately brings shame, and there are many times when %eo%le will turn
their ba&ks on su&h a %erson
A de-otee of the )embutsu re&ites the Buddha's name with e-ery in&oming and outgoing breath in order
ne-er to forget the Buddha A retainer, too, should be 8ust like this in thinking of his master )ot to
forget one's master is the most fundamental thing for a retainer
3en who did well at the time of their death were men of real bra-ery There are many e*am%les of su&h
But %eo%le who talk in an a&&om%lished fashion e-ery day yet are agitated at the time of their death &an
be known not to ha-e true bra-ery
,n the se&ret %rin&i%les of Yagyu Ta8ima no kami 3unenori there is the saying, #There are no military
ta&ti&s for a man of great strength# As %roof of this, there was on&e a &ertain -assal of the shogun who
&ame to 3aster Yagyu and asked to be&ome a dis&i%le 3aster Yagyu said, #You seem to be a man who is
-ery a&&om%lished in some s&hool of martial art .et us make the master0dis&i%le &ontra&t after , learn
the name of the s&hool#
But the man re%lied, #, ha-e ne-er %ra&ti&ed one of the martial arts#
3aster Yagyu said, #Ha-e you &ome to make s%ort of Ta8ima no kami $ ,s my %er&e%tion amiss in
thinking that you are a tea&her to the shogun$# But the man swore to it and 3aster Yagyu then asked,
#That being so, do you not ha-e some dee% &on-i&tion$#
The man re%lied, #When , was a &hild, , on&e be&ame suddenly aware that a warrior is a man who does
not hold his life in regret Sin&e , ha-e held that in my heart for many years, it has be&ome a dee%
&on-i&tion, and today , ne-er think about death 1ther than that , ha-e no s%e&ial &on-i&tion''
3aster Yagyu was dee%ly im%ressed and said, #3y %er&e%tions were not the least bit awry The dee%est
%rin&i%le of my military ta&ti&s is 8ust that one thing .i% until now , among all the many hundreds of
dis&i%les , ha-e had, there is not one who is li&ensed in this dee%est %rin&i%le ,t is not ne&essary for you
to take u% the wooden sword , will initiate you right now'' And it is said that he %rom%tly banded him
the &ertified s&roll
This is a story of 3uragawa Soden's
3editation on ine-itable death should be %erformed daily 4-ery day when one's body and mind are at
%ea&e, one should meditate u%on being ri%%ed a%art by arrows, rifles, s%ears and swords, being &arried
away by surging wa-es, being thrown into the midst of a great fire, being stru&k by lightning, being
shaken to death by a great earth"uake, falling from thousand0foot &liffs, dying of disease or &ommitting
se%%uku at the death of one's master And e-ery day without fail one should &onsider himself as dead
There is a saying of the elders' that goes, #Ste% from under the ea-es and you're a dead man .ea-e the
gate and the enemy is waiting# This is not a matter of being &areful ,t is to &onsider oneself as dead
beforehand
/eo%le will be&ome your enemies if you be&ome eminent too "ui&kly in life, and you will be ineffe&tual
;ising slowly in the world, %eo%le will be your allies and your ha%%iness will he assured
,n the long run, whether you are fast or slow, as long as you ha-e %eo%le's understanding there will be
no danger ,t is said that fortune that is urged u%on you from others is the most effe&ti-e
The warriors of old &ulti-ated musta&hes, for as %roof that a man had been slain in battle, his ears and
nose would be &ut off and brought to the enemy's &am% So that there would be no mistake as to
whether the %erson was a man or a woman, the musta&he was also &ut off with the nose At su&h a time
the head was thrown away if it had no musta&he, for it might be mistaken for that of a woman
Therefore, growing a musta&he was one of the dis&i%lines of a samurai so that his head would not be
thrown away u%on his death Tsunetomo said, #,f one washes his fa&e with water e-ery morning, if he is
slain his &om%le*ion will not &hange #
The word #%erson of the north# &omes from a tradition of the &orre&t way of u%bringing A &ou%le will %ut
their %illows in the west, and the man, lying on the south side, will fa&e the north, while the woman, lying
on the north side, will fa&e the south
,n bringing u% a boy, one should first en&ourage a sense of -alor (rom the time he is young the &hild
should liken his %arents to the master, and learn e-eryday %oliteness and eti"uette, the ser-ing of other
%eo%le, the ways of s%ee&h, forbearan&e and e-en the &orre&t way of walking down the street The elders
>D of 51
were taught in the same fashion When he does not %ut effort into things, he should be s&olded and made
to go the entire day without eating This is also one of the dis&i%lines of a retainer
As for a girl, it is most im%ortant to tea&h her &hastity from the time she is a &hild She should not be in
the &omany of a man at a distan&e of less than si* feet, nor should she meet them eye to eye, nor should
she re&ei-e things from them dire&tly from hand to hand )either should she go sight0seeing or take tri%s
to tem%les A woman who has been brought u% stri&tly and has endured suffering at her own borne will
suffer no ennui after she is married
,n dealing with younger &hildren one should use rewards and %unishments ,f one is la* in being sure that
they do as they are told, young &hildren will be&ome self0interested and will later be in-ol-ed in
wrongdoings ,t is something about whi&h one should be -ery &areful
>E of 51
Hagakure: Late Night d!e "a!k
As a retainer of the )abeshima &lan, one should ha-e the intention of studying our %ro-in&e's history and
traditions, but %ro-in&ial studies are made light of nowadays The basi& reason for this study is to
understand the foundation of our &lan, and to know that the &lan's forefathers established its %er%etuity
by means of their suffering and &om%assion The fa&t that our &lan has %er%etually &ontinued in an
unri-aled manner u% to this -ery day is due to the humanity and martial -alor of 3aster ;yu5o8i ,ekane,
the &harity and faith of 3aster )abeshima 2iyohisa, and the a%%earan&e of .ord ;yu5o8i Takanobu and
.ord )abeshima )aoshige and their might
, am at a &om%lete loss when it &omes to understanding why %eo%le of this generation ha-e forgotten
these things and res%e&t the Buddhas of other %la&es )either the Shakyamuni Buddha, nor !onfu&ius,
nor 2usunoki, nor Shingen were e-er retainers of the ;yu5o8is or the )abeshimas? hen&e it &annot be
said that they are in harmony with our &lan's &ustoms ,n times of war or in times of %ea&e it would be
suffi&ient if both the u%%er and lower &lasses would worshi% our an&estors and study their tea&hings 1ne
worshi%s the head of whate-er &lan or dis&i%line to whi&h he belongs 1utside learning for retainers of our
&lan is worthless 1ne may think that it is fine to study other dis&i%lines as a di-ersion after his %ro-in&ial
studies are re%lete Yet if a %erson has a good understanding of %ro-in&ial studies, he will see that there
is nothing la&king in them
Today, if someone from another &lan were to ask about the origin of the ;yu5o8is and the )abeshimas, or
why the fief was transferred from the former to the latter, or if they were to ask something like, #, ha-e
heard that the ;yu5o8is and the )abeshimas are the greatest in 2yushu for deeds of martial -alor, but
&an you tell me some of the %arti&ulars$# , su%%ose that the man with no knowledge of %ro-in&ial studies
would not be able to answer a word
(or a retainer there should be nothing other than doing his own 8ob (or the most %art %eo%le dislike their
own 8obs, find those of others more interesting, &ause misunderstanding, and bring on utter disasters
Food models of men who %erformed their duty in their work are .ord )aoshige and .ord 2atsushige The
retainers of those times all %erformed their duties (rom the u%%er &lasses, men who would be of good
use were sear&hed out, while from the lower &lasses men desired to be useful The minds of the two
&lasses were of mutual a&&ord , and the strength of the &lan was se&ure
,n all our generations of masters there has ne-er been a bad or foolish one, and in the end there has
ne-er been one who ranked se&ond or third among the daimyo of 9a%an ,t is truly a wonderful &lan? this
is due to the faith of its founders 3oreo-er, they did not send the &lan's retainers to other %ro-in&es nor
did they in-ite men from other %ro-in&es in 3en who were made ronin were ke%t within the %ro-in&e, as
were the des&endants of those who were made to &ommit se%%uku The wonder of being born into a &lan
with su&h a dee% %ledge between master and ser-ant is an ine*%ressible blessing, %assed down through
the a%es, for both farmer and townsman This goes without saying for the retainer
The foundation of a )abeshima samurai should be in knowing this fa&t? in being dee%ly resol-ed to return
this blessing by being useful ? in ser-ing more and more selflessly when treated kindly by the master ? in
knowing that being made a ronin or being ordered to &ommit se%%uku are also forms of ser-i&e ? and in
aiming to be mindful of the &lan fore-er, whether one is banished dee% in the mountains or buried under
the earth Although it is unfitting for someone like me to say this, in dying it is my ho%e not to be&ome a
Buddha ;ather, my will is %ermeated with the resolution to hel% manage the affairs of the %ro-in&e,
though , be reborn as a )abeshima samurai se-en times 1ne needs neither -itality nor talent ,n a word,
it is a matter of ha-ing the will to shoulder the &lan by oneself
How &an one human being be inferior to another$ ,n all matters of dis&i%line, one will be useless unless
he has great %ride Hnless one is determined to mo-e the &lan by himself, all his dis&i%line will &ome to
naught Although, like a tea kettle, it is easy for one's enthusiasm to &ool, there is a way to kee% this
from ha%%ening 3y own -ows are the following:
)e-er to be outdone in the Way of the Samurai
To be of good use to the master
To be filial to my %arents
To manifest great &om%assion, and to a&t for the sake of 3an
,f one dedi&ates these four -ows to the gods and Buddhas e-ery morning, he will ha-e the strength of
two men and will ne-er sli% ba&kward 1ne must edge forward like the in&hworrn, bit by bit The gods
5G of 51
and Buddhas, too, first started with a -ow
51 of 51

1 of 51 Hagakure: The Book of The Samurai

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