Homoerotic activity was practiced in many ancient militaristic cultures, especially the Samurai. I helped to balance the exclusive effeminate maternal upbringing a boy knew before he was sent to military school. It substituted strong, life-saving…
We all know the dry mouth that comes with fear. We have only to stand up before a group to give a speech in order to find our mouths go dry and our lips stick…
It is never too late to adopt the Samurai Way of Life, to abandon old selfish ways, to embrace new principles, and to devote one’s life to being loyal to those principles. Especially after a…
Firearms and Christianity brought new problems to Shogun Ieyasu which he solved by separation and division. When he died the Shogunate fell to his son and then eight years later to his grandson, the tyrannical…
Conflict between North and South, introduction of firearms, and foreign religious interference present problems that only an extraordinary man could solve. The Shogun Ieyasu intended to be that man.To attain his goal he calmly resorted…
Japan’s first “Separation of Church and State” long cherished by Americans was accomplished by its first Shogun, (“the barbarian suppressing Commander in Chief”) Yoritomo Minamoto who let the Emperor preside over religious matters in Kyoto…
All great movements have a beginning which fulfills a need. Peasants, being given no armor or weapons when they were sent into battle, had to copy the “attack and defend” techniques of birds, insects, and…
Few writers have been so prolific and so eloquent in their love of their country’s traditions as world-class author Yukio Mishima. In Part I of her Commentary on the Hagakure, Ming Zhen Shakya discusses Mishima’s…
The Zen Buddhist Order of Hsu Yun is proud to reprint Ming Zhen Shakya’s series on the Hagakure, an account of Samurai life in seventeenth century Japan. In this introduction to the ten part series,…
