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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
Very entertaining read. The book offers great insight on the importantness of correct beheading techniques and also perfumed hair routines. I now know to look for a husband who can do both and has a mustache.
Would read again.
Would read again.
This book goes way back...like approximately the year 1709 back. As such, it has some proverbial wisdom and some really dated crazy stuff.
The book involves sayings from Tsunetomo who was a Samurai to a Lord who looked down on the practice of Seppuku (disemboweling yourself with a sword) and therefore forbid his warriors to do so upon his death. This led to Tsunetomo becoming a monk and spewing his good ole days story to anyone who would listen.
These stories in Hagakure mainly involve who Seppuku'ed who. Living with honor and not fearing death is a central theme. There are some nuggets of wisdom about living a good life, but there's also some hate speech against women and talk of how best to behead a man. All advice may not be applicable to your life, but do what you will with it. For my part, my rating is on its usefulness to present day and readability (very easy).
#3StarRead
The book involves sayings from Tsunetomo who was a Samurai to a Lord who looked down on the practice of Seppuku (disemboweling yourself with a sword) and therefore forbid his warriors to do so upon his death. This led to Tsunetomo becoming a monk and spewing his good ole days story to anyone who would listen.
These stories in Hagakure mainly involve who Seppuku'ed who. Living with honor and not fearing death is a central theme. There are some nuggets of wisdom about living a good life, but there's also some hate speech against women and talk of how best to behead a man. All advice may not be applicable to your life, but do what you will with it. For my part, my rating is on its usefulness to present day and readability (very easy).
#3StarRead
%10 actual helpful advice, %90 stories of men being slain for no good reason
informative
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
tense
medium-paced
fast-paced
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
An absolute classic! You have to abstract some lessons for the Japanese swordsmen of the past but you can really learn something for the present.
If you learn one thing from this book, it is that advice is cheap.
2 parts Eastern philosophy (1 part specifically Confucian piety), 2 parts toxic masculinity. To sum up the whole of the book very briefly: because piety many people committed seppuku, also don't yawn in public.
The first third of this book was fairly interesting, but by the end, it has devolved into descriptions of random acts of barbarism. Servants committing suicide over petty failures, arbitrary executions, spontaneous killigs fueled by nothing but a hurt ego, page after page. No context to them, no system behind them, and on a few occassions I didnt even know what lesson the author wanted me to learn. Most of the ones I did understand were about death-worship, how to be subservient to your master, and how to be liked by your peers.
Granted, this book had considerable humorous value. A man whose spinal cord was severed in battle put his head back in place with his hands, was treated with oil and resin, and recovered completely. An incident with a kaishakunin who, upon hearing a comment on his skills at beheading, lost his temper, ripped off the head of the corpse of someone who had just committed seppuku and held it up in the air was described as "rather chilling". There's a page dedicated to explaining why cowardice is the only reason why one wouldn't want to behead a criminal, and a description of how one can flay a decapitated head, by - among other things - urinating on it. The latter is seen by the author as "information to be treasured".
This level of brutality and disregard for life seems to me to be well beyond what was usual at the time. The feuds and territorial wars common in Europe, especially some centuries earlier, were far more civilized than what Hagakure preaches and praises. As the book did have some interesting bits, and as the writing style itself wasn't unpleasant, I'll still rate it with two stars instead of one, despite the immorality and blandness of its philosophy.
Granted, this book had considerable humorous value. A man whose spinal cord was severed in battle put his head back in place with his hands, was treated with oil and resin, and recovered completely. An incident with a kaishakunin who, upon hearing a comment on his skills at beheading, lost his temper, ripped off the head of the corpse of someone who had just committed seppuku and held it up in the air was described as "rather chilling". There's a page dedicated to explaining why cowardice is the only reason why one wouldn't want to behead a criminal, and a description of how one can flay a decapitated head, by - among other things - urinating on it. The latter is seen by the author as "information to be treasured".
This level of brutality and disregard for life seems to me to be well beyond what was usual at the time. The feuds and territorial wars common in Europe, especially some centuries earlier, were far more civilized than what Hagakure preaches and praises. As the book did have some interesting bits, and as the writing style itself wasn't unpleasant, I'll still rate it with two stars instead of one, despite the immorality and blandness of its philosophy.