Hagakure 葉隠

Le code du samouraï

La Hagakure est un recueil de pensées écrit au début du XVIIIème siècle par un samouraï reclus du clan Nabeshima, Tsunetomo Yamamoto. Ce dernier y expose sa conception du bushidô, la "voie du guerrier", qui restera anonyme jusqu'à l'époque Meiji (1868-1912), pendant laquelle elle deviendra alors au contraire très en vogue.

The Warrior Committed to Peace

 

Tsunetomo Yamamoto was a samurai from the Nabeshima clan, who settled in Hizen (lands straddling present-day Saga and Nagasaki prefectures). After the death of his master, and faced with the impossibility decreed by the Tokugawa for vassals to perform seppuku to follow their suzerain to the grave, Tsunetomo Yamamoto became a monk and retired to a hut. It was in this withdrawal, that he exchanged several years with a scribe (1709 - 1716), that he created the Hagakure, literally "in the shade of the leaves".

 

Une statue de samouraï à Sendai.

A samurai statue in Sendai.

jnto

A theorization of the way of the warrior

 

The Hagakure originally consisted of 11 volumes, but only the first two are devoted to the theorizing of bushidô ("the way of the warrior"), the others dealing with the Nabeshima clan and the history of the province. In these first two volumes, Tsunetomo Yamamoto defends an ethic where fidelity to the suzerain and the acceptance of self-sacrifice, even in death, take precedence.

The samurai must thus think of himself as a man already dead, and accept the latter without flinching. He must be able to act quickly, without dwelling on his thoughts, and to enjoy the "paradise that is life" every minute, like Horace's carpe diem ("gather life").  

He must also make a great deal of his appearance, by being clean, and neat, so as not to leave behind him a neglected body if he were to die unexpectedly. The samurai must also always remain in control of himself and his words.

 

Musashi Miyamoto, the archetypal samurai

Wikipedia

A repercussion in pre-war Japan

 

The Hagakure was discovered during the Meiji Restoration and became very popular in Japan at the beginning of the 20th century. It became one of the bedside books of the Japanese during the militarist era of the 1930s, and as a result, was discredited after the war.

However, it continued to exert a certain fascination on Japanese people such as Mishima, who produced a commentary on it, as well as on foreigners who are interested in bushidô.

Yukio Mishima

Wikipedia

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