Yamamoto Tsunetomo
Samurai and Zen priest
Yamamoto Tsunetomo (1659 to 1719) was a samurai of the Saga Domain in Japan. His spoken reflections were compiled into Hagakure.
1 summary 11 min of listening
Japanese Born 1659 in Saga Died 1719
About Yamamoto Tsunetomo
Yamamoto Tsunetomo was born on 11 June 1659 and died on 30 November 1719. For thirty years he served his lord Nabeshima Mitsushige as a Saga Domain samurai in Hizen Province. When his lord died in 1700, he did not follow him in death (junshi), since his lord had disliked the custom. After disagreements with the next lord, he left worldly life and settled in a mountain hermitage, later becoming a Zen Buddhist priest known by the name Yamamoto Jōchō. Between 1709 and 1716, he shared his thoughts, memories and aphorisms with a fellow samurai, Tashiro Tsuramoto, who compiled them. The result was Hagakure (a title that can mean In the Shadow of Leaves or Hidden Leaves), published in 1716. The book was little known in the years after his death, yet by the 1930s it ranked among the most famous expressions of bushido taught in Japan. Tsunetomo held that keeping death in mind, even while alive, was the highest form of purity and focus. In Hagakure he also criticized the Akō vendetta of the Forty-seven rōnin for its delayed response.