Travel to Asia

Hagakure: The Book of the Samauri

Format: Paperback
Author: Tsunetomo Yamamoto
ReleaseDate: 15 March, 1992
Publisher: Kodansha International
Rating:

Understanding the words of Musashi Sensei
It is a must read for those who are studying the way of the samurai. This is a very interesting book about samurai culture. On the other hand, care must be taken to understand the figurative meaning of some parts of the book. That is to say, this was a transcription of Musashi Sensei wods by Tsunetomo Yamamoto and sometimes reflect the things were done then. Some passages such as those regarding women and harakiri are good examples of that. They express the prejudice towards women and the way that honor was preserved back then. It should not be seen as a bible of samurai culture, but as a nice picture of how this culture managed to keep some of its most important values such as respect, politeness, honor, courage, some of which are clearly lacking in our culture nowadays.
As previously stated, a must read.

Bad advice from a bad era of Japanese history
"
I believe the era in which Tsunetomo wrote (early 1700s) was rather less interesting than the transitional period between Momoyama and Edo eras when Musashi lived. I was expecting something more like Miyamoto Musashi's "Book of Five Rings. It is essentially a manual of manners and morals for employees who would die for their boss. Lots of yammer about the righteousness of cutting your intestines out for no clear reason, and keeping neat, squeaky clean and ready for death. As I understand things, during this period you were a lot more likely to cut out your own intestines than die in combat. I suppose I would take inspiration from such a thing if I were a "sararyman," a bodyguard, low ranking soldier in peacetime, or some such self-loathing type, but meanwhile it really isn't for me. Perhaps it is the book for someone else; Tsunetomo's era has more in common with our own than Musashi's does; he was a bureaucrat -chances are, you're more of a bureaucrat than you are a Samurai.

On the other hand, the book did develop an appreciation for the concept of badger skin underpants.

Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai
" - the first sentence of the book reflects on the days of Bushido. "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. . .
I found the first chapter extremely useful and intriguing. However as the book went on (first chapter was the longest one) I couldn't as well keep my interest up.
Still it does not matter as one would rarely discover as much philosophy stocked up as in this first chapter.

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