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

Early life and education

Yamamoto Tsunetomo was born 11 June 1659 to Yamamoto Jin'emon, then aged 71, and a woman whose maiden name was Maeda. He was the last born to the family, and regarded by his father as a superfluous addition who was intended to be given away to a salt merchant. For most of his childhood, Tsunetomo was sickly and claimed doctors told him he would not live past twenty years old. Despite his fragile health, he was employed at age 9 to be a page for Nabeshima Mitsushige. Tsunetomo's skills in literature led Mitsushige to have him study under noted man of letters Kuranaga Rihei. The last major influence in Tsunetomo's education was his nephew Yamamoto Gorōzaemon, who was older than Tsunetomo and helped him get a position as a scribe in Edo and then in the imperial capital Kyoto in 1686. In 1687, Gorōzaemon took responsibility for a large destructive fire, leading to him and Tsunetomo both resigning from their positions. Tsunetomo returned to work for Mitsushige.

Buddhist priesthood

In 1695, Mitsushige retired due to ill health, and tasked Tsunetomo with finding a copy of a book of secret poetry instructions called Kokindenju. Tsunetomo obtained a copy in Kyoto and on 1 May 1700, presented it to Mitsushige, who died two weeks later.

The Hagakure was not widely known during the years following Tsunetomo's death, but by the 1930s it had become one of the most famous representatives of bushido taught in Japan. In 2011 a manga/comic book version was published Hagakure: The Manga Edition, translated by William Scott Wilson, adapted by Sean Michael Wilson and Chie Kutsuwada (Kodansha International Ltd., 2011).

Tsunetomo believed that becoming one with death in one's thoughts, even in life, was the highest attainment of purity and focus. He felt that a resolution to die gives rise to a higher state of life, infused with beauty and grace beyond the reach of those concerned with self-preservation. Some viewed him as a man of immediate action due to some of his quotes, and in the Hagakure he criticized the carefully planned Akō vendetta of the Forty-seven rōnin (a major event in his lifetime) for its delayed response, stating that if Lord Kira, the rōnin's enemy, had died of illness during that time, it would have been "extremely regrettable".

Legacy

During Japan's militarist years in the 1930s and 1940s, soldiers hailed Hagakure as a key text for proper samurai behaviour.

The Hagakure was the book that the character Ghost Dog reads and lives his life by in the movie Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai.

See also

  • Fukuzawa Yukichi
  • Nakae Chōmin
  • Natsume Sōseki
  • Nitobe Inazō
  • Susumu Nishibe
  • Tsuneari Fukuda
  • Yukio Mishima

Footnotes

References

  • Hagakure Kikigaki : Orated Aphorisms of Yamamoto Jocho
  • Hagakure! (Selected topics from Hagakure)
  • Zen and the Art of Divebombing, or The Dark Side of the Tao by Kelley L. Ross, Ph.D.