Hagakure

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Yamamoto Tsunetomo. Hagakure

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HAGAKURE IN CONTEXT

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Tsuramoto was born in 1678, and his scholastic talents were recognized from a young age. He was appointed as a copyist for Nabeshima Tsunashige when he was 19, and continued in this role with the fourth lord of the Nabeshima clan, Yoshishige. He was relieved of duty for some unknown transgression in 1709. Despairing, Tsuramoto visited Jōchō at his hermitage in Kurotsuchibaru in the third month of the following year. Deciding to live close to Jōchō, Tsuramoto visited often, and wrote down the stories relayed to him over a period of seven years. The first copy of Hagakure was completed on the tenth day of the ninth month, 1716.

The original manuscript of Hagakure has long since been lost, but important handwritten copies made during the Tokugawa period include the “Kōhaku-bon,” transcribed by Kamohara Kōhaku, who was five years Tsuramoto’s junior, as well as the “Kashima-bon,” and “Koyama-bon” (“Yamamoto-bon” and “Gojō-bon”)—in addition to subsequent copies of these copies, which total around 40. Each copy contains slight differences, and exist in varying degrees of completeness. This translation is based on the Kōhaku version, as this is generally considered to be the closest to the original.

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