Hagakure

Musui’s Story The Bushido code can be witnessed in Musui’s Story, which is an autobiography of Tokugawa Samurai. This autobiography documents the life of Katsu Kokichi, who was a samurai in Japan’s late Tokugawa period. This story gives excellent examples of how Katsu Kokichi broke and disrespected the Bushido code along with disrespecting himself from early childhood till his death. Some of the behavior that Kokichi did to disrespect the Bushido code was lying, cheating, and stealing. For example, when Kokichi was young, he admits that he took from his mother. Kokichi explains, “My mother would put away sweets and cakes that people would give us. I would steal them” (Katsu, 32). This admission by Kokichi is an apparent volition of the Bushido code. Nevertheless, one could say that taking not only broke one of the Bushido code principles but a majority of the Bushido’s codes. Further on into Kokichi’s autobiography there is evidence of more violations of the Bushido code. As a young adult, Kokichi had a moment when he lost control. He notes, “I got into another fight…with some boys from Mae-Cho. I got struck with large rocks and bamboo poles. My hair had fallen lose all over my face, and I was sobbing. I took out my short sword and slashed left and right. But I knew I was beaten and decided then and there to commit hara-kiri” (Katsu, 88). This quote shows that as a young adult Kokichi managed to get into a scrimmage with some other young boys and lost a…

The bushido as a code of ethics may has fade away, but the its power will lives on. In the Bushido: The Soul of Japan, the last two chapters discussed about the the bushido in the context of morden japan and the future of bushido. In the chapter “Is Bushido alive?” , the author believes that although the bushido as a code of ethics is dead the effect is still there deep-rooted in the morden-day Japanese society. "We are told every day how Europe has influenced Japan, and forget that the change…

Yamamoto Tsunetomo’s Hagakure and Takuan Soho’s The Unfettered Mind both reflect on the visions of warrior values based on Buddhist connections of the ways of the samurai. However, the Hagakure and The Unfettered Mind mention different Buddhist connections that are important to the samurai. For example, Yamamoto Tsunetomo’s Hagakure discusses the meaning of death of the samurai and the importance of samurai masters, while Takuan Soho’s The Unfettered Mind discusses the importance of the…

The speaker in the Hagakure is Yamamoto Tsunetomo. He was born in 1659, and was a samurai of the Saga Domain in Hizen Province under the lord Nabeshima Mitsushige. He spent thirty years devoting his life to his clan and lord. When Yamamoto’s lord died in 1700, he didn’t choose to follow his lord in death in a practice called junshi, because his lord didn’t like the practice. After having a few arguments with his lord’s successor, Yamamoto repudiated the world and left to go live in the…

In its opening section, titled “Idle Talk in the Dead of Night”, it describes how the average samurai has been repressed to a mere peasant on the street . The rest of the book, through a series of vignettes, describes how the samurai should truly act. In particular, Hagakure describes what it means to be honorable by articulating what the meaning of life and death is. Death was preferable to life. One particular vignette capitulates Tsunetomo’s vision of the honorable samurai in death when he…

The concept of Kamikaze attack is applied from an ethical philosophy of Japanese feudalism called Bushido code, literally translates into the way of the warrior. The code controls the behavior and protocol of the military guards of the shogun known as Samurai. The book of the samurai, Hagakure, written by Yamamoto Tsunetomo claimed that Bushido code is frequently been compared to the code of chivalry of the European knights with the similar aim to provide a code of honor and rules for living for…

held a significant influence on the strategies the Japanese used in World War II. Nationalists and militarists alike looked to the past for inspiration. By delving into myths about the Japanese emperor being directly descended from the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu Omikami, they exhorted the people to restore a past spiritual purity that was lost. The Japanese were to treat the Emperor as a living deity and to see war as an act that could purify themselves, the nation, and the rest of the world. The…