Hagakure
by Yamamoto Tsunetomo
An eighteenth-century samurai's reflections on loyalty, death, decisiveness and conduct, compiled by a younger retainer. It is fragmentary, often strange, sometimes brutal, and contains memorable counsel on acting without hesitation and keeping death in mind. Read it as a document of its culture, not a manual.
Read it if…
you want a primary source on bushido with all its strangeness intact.
Skip it if…
you want applicable advice; much is specific to feudal service.
Three things you will actually use
- Decide in seven breaths; hesitation is the enemy.
- Keep death in view; it clarifies.
- Service and duty organize a life, for better and worse.
Do this first
Read the passages on decision and death and sit with their discomfort.
Our verdict
Strange, fragmentary, memorable.
Compare with other Character books
The Practicing Stoic
Ward Farnsworth · Character
Scholarly, clear and genuinely practical; the Stoicism book to own.
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