Yamamoto Tsunetomo

Tsunetomo Yamamoto (12 June 1659 - 1719) was a samurai of the Saga domain in Hizen Province under his lord Mitsushige Nabeshima. For thirty years Yamamoto devoted his life to the service of his lord and clan. When Nabeshima died in 1700, Yamamoto did not commit tsuifuku because Mitsushige Nabeshima has expressed a dislike of the practice in his life, so Yamamoto considered it better to follow his lord's wishes after his death, and to refrain from tsuifuku. After some disagreements with Nabeshima's successor, Yamamoto renounced the world and retired to a hermitage in the mountains. Late in life (between 1709 and 1716), he narrated many of his thoughts to a fellow samurai, Tsuramoto Tashiro. These commentaries were later turned into the Hagakure (Hidden behind the Leaves).

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The Hagakure was not widely known during the years following Tsunetomo's death, but by the 1930s it had become one of the most famous representatives of bushido taught in Japan.

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Tsunetomo believed that becoming one with death in one's thoughts, even in life, was the highest attainment of purity and focus. He felt that a resolution to die gives rise to a higher state of life, infused with beauty and grace beyond the reach of those concerned with self-preservation. He similarly believed in immediate action, and in the Hagakure criticized the carefully planned Ako vendetta (a major event in his lifetime) for its delayed response.

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Yamamoto Tsunetomo is also known as Yamamoto Jocho, the name he took after retiring and becoming a monk.

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Some might say he was usually seen with a brown hakama over red hakama-shita and haori coat. He usually had a short katana sheathe at his side, upheld loosely by an white obi-sash. But this is only a rumor.

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