View source for Hagakure

{{Short description|Guide for samurai life by Yamamoto Tsunetomo}}
{{Italic title}}
[[File:Nabeshima-Secretary-Hagakure-The-Analects-Bushido-Book.png|thumb|Prohibited book of Nabeshima, Hagakure The Analects (abridged). 1939 edition.]]
[[Image:Hagakure.jpg|thumb|upright|Cover of ''The Book of the Samurai'']]
'''''Hagakure''''' ([[Kyūjitai]]: {{nihongo2|葉隱}}; [[Shinjitai]]: {{nihongo2|葉隠}}; {{ipa|ja|haɡakɯɾe|ipa}}; meaning ''Hidden by the Leaves'' or ''Hidden Leaves''),<ref>{{cite book|first=Tsunetomo|last=Yamamoto|others=Wilson, William Scott (trans.)|title=Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai|publisher=Stackpole Books|year=2002|isbn=978-4-7700-2916-4|page=[https://archive.org/details/hagakure00yama/page/15 15]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/hagakure00yama/page/15}}</ref> or {{Nihongo|'''''Hagakure Kikigaki'''''|葉隠聞書}}, is a practical and spiritual guide for a warrior, drawn from a collection of commentaries by the clerk [[Yamamoto Tsunetomo]], former retainer to [[Nabeshima Mitsushige]] (July 10, 1632 – July 2, 1700), the third ruler of what is now [[Saga Prefecture]] in [[Japan]]. {{illm|Tashiro Tsuramoto|ja|田代陣基}} compiled these commentaries from his conversations with Tsunetomo from 1709 to 1716; however, it was not published until many years afterwards. ''Hagakure'' is also known as ''The Book of the Samurai'', ''Analects of Nabeshima'' or ''Hagakure Analects''.

==Content==
{{See also|Bushido}}
The book records Yamamoto's views on [[bushido]], the [[warrior code]] of the [[samurai]]. 

''Hagakure'' is sometimes said to assert that bushido is really the "Way of [[Death|Dying]]" or living as though one was already dead, and that a samurai must be willing to die at any moment in order to be true to his lady/lord. His saying "the way of the warrior is death" was a summation of the willingness to sacrifice that ''bushido'' codified.<ref>Meirion and Susie Harries, ''Soldiers of the Sun: The Rise and Fall of the Imperial Japanese Army'' p. 7 {{ISBN|0-394-56935-0}}</ref> 

''Hagakure''{{'}}s text is occasionally misinterpreted as meaning that bushido is a code of death. However, the true meaning is that by having a constant awareness of death, people can achieve a transcendent state of freedom, whereby "it is possible to perfectly fulfill one's calling as a warrior."<ref name="nippon-bushido">{{cite web |website=Nippon.com |title=Bushidō: An Ethical and Spiritual Foundation in Japan |date=June 12, 2019 |author=Kasaya Kazuhiko |url=https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-topics/g00665/bushido-an-ethical-and-spiritual-foundation-in-japan.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191108042249/https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-topics/g00665/bushido-an-ethical-and-spiritual-foundation-in-japan.html |archive-date=8 November 2019}}</ref>

==Historical context==
After the [[Tokugawa shogunate]] suppressed the [[Shimabara Rebellion]] in 1638, Japan experienced no warfare for about two centuries. Private feuding and dueling between samurai was also suppressed. 

Yamamoto Tsunetomo was born in 1659, after the end of officially sanctioned samurai fighting. He had no personal combat experience and when he was employed, he worked as a scribe. 

By the late 1600s and early 1700s, samurai faced the dilemma of maintaining a warrior class in the absence of war, and ''Hagakure'' reflects this uncertainty. Written late in the author's life, the book also reflects his nostalgia for a world that had disappeared before his birth.<ref name="ravina-audio">{{cite book|author=Mark J. Ravina|title=Understanding Japan: A Cultural History|publisher=The Great Courses. Smithsonian Institution|year=2015|pages=6:34:30–6:44:10}}</ref><ref name="ravina-notes">{{cite book|author=Mark J. Ravina|title=Understanding Japan: A Cultural History. Course Guidebook|publisher=The Great Courses. Smithsonian Institution|year=2015|pages=94–95}}</ref>

==Reception==
''Hagakure'' was largely forgotten for two centuries. The first modern edition appeared in 1900, and it did not receive much attention during the first decades of the century. ''Hagakure'' came to be viewed as a definitive book of the samurai for the armed forces of the [[Empire of Japan]] only during the Pacific War. 

According to [[Mark Ravina]]<ref name="ravina-audio" /><ref name="ravina-notes" />, <blockquote>Rather than an account of samurai tradition, this work serves as an example of what the Japanese army thought Japanese soldiers should believe about samurai practice.</blockquote>In the [[post-war era]], the nationalist author and poet, [[Yukio Mishima]], was inspired by ''Hagakure'' and wrote his own book in praise of the work.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Varley|first=Paul|title=Japanese Culture|publisher=University of Hawai'i Press|year=2000|isbn=978-0-8248-2292-7|location=Honolulu|pages=212|language=English}}</ref> Quotations from ''Hagakure'' are used as a narrative device in the 1999 American gangster film ''[[Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai]]''.

== Translations==

* ''Hagakure, The Way of the Samurai'', Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Translated by Takao Mukoh, Angkor Verlag, 2000 (Reprint), {{ISBN|3-8311-1530-3}}
* ''Bushido, The Way of the Samurai'', Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Translated by Justin F. Stone and Minoru Tanaka, [[Square One Publishers]], 2003, {{ISBN|0-7570-0026-6}}
* ''The Art of the Samurai: Yamamoto Tsunetomo's Hagakure'', Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Translated by Barry D. Steben, Duncan Baird, September 2008, {{ISBN|1-84483-720-3}} (Partial translation)
* ''Hagakure, The manga edition'', Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Translated by [[William Scott Wilson]], a comic book/manga version, adapted by Sean Michael Wilson and Chie Kutsuwada, Kondansha International Ltd., 2011. 
* ''Hagakure: The Secret Wisdom of the Samurai'', Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Translated by Alexander Bennett, Tuttle Publishing, 2014, {{ISBN|978-4-8053-1198-1}} (Complete translation of Books 1-2, partial translation of books 3-11)
* ''Hagakure: The Way of the Samurai'', Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Translated by Jake Ganor, Imperium Press, 2024, {{ISBN|978-1-9231-0423-5}} (Complete verse translation of Books 1-2, partial translation of books 3-11)

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{Refbegin|}}
* ''[https://www.amazon.com/Inventing-Way-Samurai-Nationalism-Internationalism/dp/0198754256/ Inventing the Way of the Samurai: Nationalism, Internationalism, and Bushido in Modern Japan],'' by Oleg Benesch. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. {{ISBN|0198706626}}, {{ISBN|9780198706625}}.
* {{nihongo2|葉隠入門}} ''Hagakure Nyūmon The Way of the Samurai: [[Yukio Mishima]] on Hagakure in modern life'' 1967 Translated by Kathryn Sparling, 1977, {{ISBN|0-465-09089-3}}.
* ''On Hagakure'', by Japanese novelist [[Yukio Mishima]].
* ''The Code of the Samurai: A Modern Translation of the Bushido Shoshinshu of Taira Shigesuke'' by Thomas Cleary, [[Tuttle Publishing]], 1999. {{ISBN|978-0804831901}}.
* ''Hagakure: Spirit of Bushido'', by Hideo Koga and Stacey B. Day. Hagakure Society, Saga, Japan, 1993. (University of Kyushu Press, Fukuoka, Japan). {{ISBN|4-87378-359-3}} C1012.
* ''The Wisdom of Hagakure: Way of the Samurai of Saga Domain'', by Stacey B. Day and Kiyoshi Inokuchi. Hagakure Society, Saga, Japan, 1994. (University of Kyushu Press, Fukuoka, Japan). {{ISBN|4-87378-389-5}}.
* ''Moudrost Samuraju: Zivotni Stezka Samuraje Z Kraje Saga'', by Stacey B. Day and Kijosi Inokuci. (Prelozila Marketa Cukrova). Trigon, Praha, CZ, 1998. {{ISBN|80-86159-11-6}}.
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote|Yamamoto Tsunetomo}}
* [http://www.hyoho.com/Hagakure1.html ''Hagakure Kikigaki : Orated Aphorisms of Yamamoto Jocho'']
* [http://www.dl.saga-u.ac.jp/OgiNabesima/haga.htm 佐賀大学電子図書館 小城鍋島文庫]
* [http://themathesontrust.org/library/hagakure-book-of-the-samurai “In the Shade of the Leaves”, a revised selection]

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[[Category:Concepts in Japanese aesthetics]]
[[Category:Japanese books]]
[[Category:Conservatism in Japan]]
[[Category:Ethics books]]
[[Category:Samurai]]
[[Category:Warrior code]]
[[Category:Codes of conduct]]
[[Category:Edo-period works]]
[[Category:Japanese philosophy books]]