Reviews - Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai

113 reviews for:

Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai

This review is for the manga adaptation by Sean Michael Wilson and Chie Kutsuwada.

Having not read the original, it's hard for me to judge this book, but taken on its own it seems to paint a rather screwed up picture of bushido. Not that there weren't some seriously screwed up elements to the samurai code.

The main thing this book left me with is a desire to read the full text to see if there are subtleties that I'm missing. After that I should be able to come back and update this review.

Update: I've now read a translation of the Hagakure by Alexander Bennett, and I have to say that this manga version seems to really distort the original by focusing so much on the most violent entries. The majority of the original deals with more mundane matters, but the manga picks out all the most violent anecdotes while ignoring those that actually make up the bulk of the original work.

fulminataxii's review against another edition

4.0

An excellent look into the mind of a mid 17th Century samurai as to how he viewed the way of Bushido. It really helped bring together some of the concepts of Bushido that I've read about elsewhere, although I don't think it would be a good introduction to those concepts.

As a source of philosophy for modern life, I think it needs to be treated very carefully. There are some really good bits of insight, but nothing that you couldn't get from just about anyone who has managed to live four of five decades and had a bit of time to ponder things. Mixed in with that insight is some absolute horseshit (literally in the case of a recommended treatment for wounds).

Recommended for anyone who has done prior reading on the history of Japan, but not as an introductory text.