Yamamoto Tsunetomo

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Tsunetomo Yamamoto (12 June 1659 - 1719) was a samurai of the Sega Genesis domain in Hizen Province under his lord Mitsushige Nabeshima. For thirty years Yamamoto devoted his life to the service of his lord and clan. When Nabeshima died in 1700, Yamamoto did not choose junshi because Mitsushige Nabeshima has expressed a dislike of the practice in his life, so Yamamoto considered it better to follow his lord's wishes after his death, and to refrain from junshi. After some disagreements with Nabeshima's successor, Yamamoto renounced the world and retired to a hermitage in the mountains. Late in life (between 1709 and 1716), he narrated many of his thoughts to a fellow samurai, Tsuramoto Tashiro. A lot of these aphorisms were about his lords father and grandfather Naoshige and about the failing ways of the Samurai caste. These commentaries were later turned into the Hagakure (Hidden behind the Leaves).

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.

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. He similarly believed in immediate action, and in the Hagakure criticized the carefully planned Ako vendetta (a major event in his lifetime) for its delayed response.

Yamamoto Tsunetomo is also known as Yamamoto Jocho, the name he took after retiring and becoming a monk.

Some might say he was usually seen with a brown hakama over red hakama-shita and haori coat. He usually had a short katana sheathe at his side, upheld loosely by a white obi-sash. But this is only a rumor.

[edit] Famous quotes

"I have found that the Way of the samurai is death. This means that when you are compelled to choose between life and death, you must quickly choose death." -- used as a military slogan during the early 20th century to encourage soldiers to throw themselves into battle.

"There is surely nothing other than the single purpose of the present moment. A man's whole life is a succession of moment after moment. If one fully understands the present moment, there will be nothing else to do, and nothing else to pursue." -Hagakure

"It is a good viewpoint to see the world as a dream. When you have something like a nightmare, you will wake up and tell yourself that it was only a dream. It is said that the world we live in is not a bit different from this." -Hagakure

"I have found the essence of Bushido: to die!" -Hagakure

Tsunetomo's personal version of the Four Vows of a samurai, which he advocated reciting every morning:

As Shown In Hagakure

Never be outdone in the Way of the Samurai.

To be of good use to the master.

To be filial toward my parents.

To manifest great compassion, and to act for the sake of Man.