A foremost scholar of samurai texts approaches this martial arts classic as a meditation on the Zen concept of “death of the ego”—offering a fresh translation unlike any other.
Discover what it takes to be a samurai with the 18th-century martial arts treatise that delves into minds of legendary Japanese warriors.
Living and dying with bravery and honor is at the heart of Hagakure, a series of texts written by an eighteenth-century samurai, Yamamoto Tsunetomo. It is a window into the samurai mind, illuminating the concept of bushido—the Way of the Warrior—which dictated how samurai were expected to behave, conduct themselves, live, and die. While Hagakure was for many years a secret text known only to the warrior vassals of the Nabeshima clan to which the author belonged, it later came to be recognized as a classic exposition of samurai thought.
The original Hagakure consists
