Hagakure

A book of instruction from the mid-Edo period, a book of training for samurai. Its correct name is "Hagakure Kikigaki," also known as "Nabeshima Rongo." One particularly famous line in the book is, "Bushido is the way of the samurai, which means to die." Based on a talk by Yamamoto Jinemon Tsunetomo (1659-1719), a retainer of the Nabeshima clan of Hizen (Saga), about the way of life of a samurai, his disciple Tashiro Nobumoto added and organized excerpts from the words and deeds of successive feudal lords and Sengoku samurai, and compiled them into a book over a period of about seven years. Tsunetomo was summoned to be a page to the feudal lord Mitsushige, and progressed to writing letters, but upon Mitsushige's death in 1700 (Genroku 13), he became a monk to replace the oibara. However, he was deeply distressed by the rapid loss of the dignity of the Nabeshima samurai since the Genroku period, and finally began writing this story in 1710 (Hoei 7). From the perspective of Confucian theory of shido, Tsunetomo's work is permeated with an extreme martial ideology, and so it was treated as a banned and strange book even within the feudal domain, and was forbidden to be made public. From the mid-Meiji period onwards, it was rediscovered and became widely read by the general public.

[Ichiro Watanabe]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

江戸中期の教訓書、武士の修養書。正しくは『葉隠聞書(はがくれききがき)』、別名『鍋島(なべしま)論語』。書中の「武士道(ぶしどう)と云(いう)は、死ぬ事と見付(みつけ)たり」という一句はとくに有名。肥前（佐賀）鍋島氏の家臣山本神右衛門常朝(じんえもんつねとも)（1659―1719）が武士の生きざまについて語った談話をベースに、門人の田代陳基(たしろのぶもと)が歴代藩主や戦国武士たちの言行録や聞き書きから採録したものを加えて整理し、前後7年をかけて書冊にまとめたもの。常朝は、藩主光茂の御側(おそば)小姓に召され、御書物役に進んだが、1700年（元禄13）光茂の死にあい、追腹(おいばら)にかわるものとして出家した。しかし、元禄(げんろく)以降の鍋島武士の御国(おくに)ぶりが急速に失われていく現状をみて深く慨嘆し、1710年（宝永7）ついにこの物語を始めたという。儒教的な士道論からみれば、極端というべき尚武思想に貫かれているので、藩中でも禁書・奇書の取り扱いを受け、公開を禁じられた。明治中期以降、再認識され、広く一般にも読まれるようになった。

［渡邉一郎］

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