I
've had a fascination with the Hagakure for more than 15 years now. It's hard to say what makes this work so appealing to so many people (mostly men). While there are certain virtues of masculine conduct that seem familiar to us, and that we might therefore be drawn to, the book also heavily deals with extremely alien conceptions of what it means to succeed as a samurai, which to modern man seem not only difficult to implement, but actively abhorrent. To seek to throw one's life away for just some guy who happens to be your master is about as un-American a sentiment as it comes. But something in Yamamoto Tsunetomo's words strikes a deep chord.
In a way, Tsunetomo is giving advice on how to turn a man into a weapon -- one whose moral sense is almost entirely bound up in sustenance of a society of order and honor. A samurai is measured in terms of usefulness, specifically to his master. I think it is this purity of intention that makes the Hagakure so appealing over such time -- there is something in the masuline genius that wants to find meaning in full-throated dedication to a singular ideal.
I've been thinking about the extent to which the Hagakura might be translated into a Christian text, replacing the fallible human master with the Lord Jesus Christ. To this end, the Hagakure and Josemaria Escribá's The Way make a lovely reading pair. Both are composed of brief, loosely connected excerpts, commands, advice, proverbs, etc., and both are concerned with forging a powerful moral identity that can overcome the distractions, temptations, and adversities of the world, albeit with very different ends in mind. Having the two side by side has made for very interesting spiritual reading. The two put me in a calm, determined mindset that I'd like to cultivate.