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Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai
by: Yamamoto Tsunetomo

List Price: £6.99

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Used Price: £1.00
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Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 355
EAN: 9784770026125
ISBN: 4770026129
Label: Kodansha Europe
Manufacturer: Kodansha Europe
Number Of Pages: 180
Publication Date: April 03, 2000
Publisher: Kodansha Europe
Studio: Kodansha Europe
Sales Rank: 16269

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Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Good book, well worth a look
This book is a must have for any serious martial artist. Bushido is unfortunately a term which is widely used but in the main part, very poorly understood. Even the modern understanding of Bushido is somewhat lacking, leading people to believe that the samurai were so honourable that they could do no wrong. This simply isn't the case. The samurai were human beings like everyone else and the passages in this book show this nicely. There are many lessons to be learned and applied to everyday life in the Hagakure and any person wanting to follow the way of the samurai should definitely read this book.
On a different note, this is something that REALLY irritates me so I must point it out: hiri kiri is a bastardisation originating from America. ... Read More:

Rating:

- A Strange and Fascinating Little Book
It is very diffcult to define Hagakure, it's strange and fascinating, yet also rather repugnant in some of its views. Written in the early 18th century, it is a series of anecdotes written by Yamamoto Tsunetomo, a samurai of the Nabeshima clan who became a Buddhist monk followning his master's death. The Tokugawa Shogunate of the time had outlawed the suicide of a reatiner on a Daimyo's death, leaving Yamamoto with no option but live in a hermitage in Kyushu province.

Hagakure has often been seen as a manual for the samurai classes, yet this is slightly misleading. Yamamoto lived during the Edo period, an era of peace and stability that followed the long period of civil wars that had broken Japan in the 16th century. Yamamoto was therefore ... Read More:

Rating:

- Ignore the cheesy title...
If one had to choose a single text to be stranded on an island with, then you could find no better work than this. The more I read this book the higher up my 'ranking' it goes, to the point where it has toppled Mencius:Mencius (D.C.Lau translation) of the top spot and pushed Confucius:The Analects (D.C.Lau translation) into third place. Congratulations HA GA KU RE!
I appreciate that the title 'The Book of the Samurai' is fairly cheesy, and riding on the back of Tom's 'Last Samurai' (a highly admirable film, incidentally) one is inclined to feel that there is some wobbly 'Samurai Bandwagon' rolling into town and the party had best be avoided, but not so. HA GA KU RE (hidden by the leaves) is a work of immense beauty and wisdom, a rare breed indeed. ... Read More:

Rating:

- 'Zen Flesh, Zen bones' for those with a dark side !
Buy the 2000/2001 reprint edition of the paperback as it has
included the illustrations and calligraphy, etc that are in the
hardback version. The cover is very slightly different too, the
Samurai symbol is bigger and nearer the bottom of the cover.

Anyway, I really like this book. If you like pearls of Oriental
wisdom buy this, if it's too disturbing, buy Zen flesh, Zen bones!

You can pick up Hagakure for ten seconds at any time and read a
two or three line segment which might shock you, make you laugh
or even give you one of those 'enlightened/profound' feelings.

For martial artists, sift through it, there's LOADS of very
good advice.

Rating:

- Some nice quotes, but generally just wacky.
Anyone interested in Japanese feudalism and the arts
risen from it, not to mention WWII should read this
book, or at least read it on-line as it's available
in it's entirety on several sites.
Those who have seen the film Ghost Dog will have already
'read' the best quotes from the book, as there are some
delightfully quirky quotes in there.
Personally what I find most distasteful about hagakure
is that it is negatively Confucian. The Samurai's be all
and end-all is to serve and die. Not so glamorous !
Also an over-obsession with ritual suicide throughout.
Remember the author was a retired member of the Samurai
class, not a warrior. His only killings were performing
executions. This book is ... Read More:

Books : Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai