Yamamoto Jocho (Tsunetomo) (山本常朝)
Jocho (Tsunetomo) YAMAMOTO (July 30, 1659 - November 21, 1719)
The reading of his first name, Jocho, was applied after he entered into priesthood at the age of 42, and before that, his first name was read 'Tsunetomo.'
He was a samurai and 口述者the dictator of "Hagakure" (the book of Bushido). His common name was Jinemon and his haiku pen name was Kogan (古丸).
Brief Personal History
In 1659, he was born as the second son of a feudal retainer of the Saga clan, Jinemon Shigesumi YAMAMOTO, in a castle town of Saga-jo, Shimokatatae-yokokoji (present Mizugae 2-chome, Saga City). His mother was the daughter of Sakuzaemon MAEDA.
There is a section in the second part of Kikigaki (oral record) of the Hagakure, in which Jocho talked about his backgrounds. According to it, he was born when his father was 70 years old, and as he was of delicate health by nature, the people said that he would not be able to live no more than 20 years, then his father thought that he would rather sustain the life 'selling the salt' (with a small profit without seed money). However, thanks to the mediation of his godfather, Zusho (Shigetomi) TAKU (Okumi gashira [head of the mid-level senior vassal group of a clan] of Shigesumi), who said that 'he would be useful in the future as a successor of paternal blood line,' he was given the original name Kamematsu.
At the age of 9, he was employed as a servant boy by Mitsushige NABESHIMA (the second lord of Saga Domain)
He lost his father when he was 11years old, and at the age of 14, he became Mitsushige's junior Kosho (a boy before genpuku, who served a nobleman as a pageboy) (so called Kogosho or Chigokosho), and changed his name to Ichijuro
In 1678, he celebrated his genpuku (formal recognition of adulthood) at the age of 20 and changed his name to Gonnojo, and assisted goshomotsuyaku (official in charge of the domain lord's library) as osobayaku (attendant page). In this year, Tsuramoto TASHIRO was born.
During this period, in his private life he underwent severe academic training under his nephew Tsuneharu (常治) YAMAMOTO, who was 20 years older than him. However, since Gonnojo also dedicated himself to keep young master Tsunashige NABESHIMA company in making waka poems and this displeased Mitsushige, he was deprived of any position for a while. During this period of frustration, he learned Buddhism under Tannen Osho, a chief priest at Kezoan in Matsuse, Saga County, and at the age of 21, he received kechimyaku (heritage of the Law) (the light of Buddhism handed down from a master to his disciple) and akonenju (recite a prayer in a form of verses to praise the Amitabuddah in a religious ritual; in which he received his funeral performed while in life and hogo (Buddhist name) Jocho Gyokuzan).
His ground of valuing compassion, which can be observed in the Hagakure, must have been cultivated during this period. In addition, during around this period, even though he had mastered Shinto (belief in god of heaven and earth), Confucianism and Buddhism and he was enjoying the fame of the best scholar of the domain, he frequently visited Ittei ISHIDA, who was living in retirement in Matsuume-mura Village in Shimoda (present Yamato-cho, Saga Prefecture) in order to ask for Ittei's tutelage. This period of learning under Ittei also gave a great influence to the contents of the Hagakure (the book of Bushido) that he compiled later.
In July 1682, at the age of 24, he got married with the daughter of Rokudayunaritsugu YAMAMURA, and in November 11 in the same year he received an official appointment to hold the post of goshomotsuyaku. At the age of 28, he was appointed Shoshamotsu bugyo (magistrate in charge of transcription by handwriting) in Edo (present Tokyo) and later he was assigned to take charge of official duties in Kyoto.
After returning home, at the age of 33, he was again assigned to goshomotsuyaku, and he succeeded to his father's name 'Jinemon.'
Five years later in 1696, when he was appointed Kyotoyaku (official in charge of affaires in Kyoto), he made a great effort as an agent of Mitsushige, to gain Kokin denju (the secret transmissions of the "Kokin Wakashu" [Anthology of Old and New Japanese Poems]), which was the long-cherished desire of Mitsushige, who had a special interest in waka (Japanese poetry). It was not easy to gain all the secret transmissions of Kokin denju, but finally he achieved it in 1700, and he sent the complete unit to the bedside of Mitushige, who had been seriously ill in bed after retirement, gaining him honor.
Retirement and his later years
When Mitsushige died at the age of 69 on June 15, 1696, 42-year-old Jocho asked for a permission to the authority to let him enter into priesthood, because he had devoted all his life to Mitsushige during more than 30 years with the spirit to 'take charge of all the family affaires of his master by himself,' but he was not allowed to follow his master to the grave due to the oibara (following one's master into death by committing ritual suicide [seppuku]), and in May 19, he received the religious precept from the highest priest of Koden-ji Temple, Ryoi Osho and took the tonsure. Then in early August he began a secluded life at a hermitage Asahiken (朝陽軒) in Kurotsuchihara, Yamaji Raikoji-mura Village (present Kinryu-machi, Saga City) 10 km to the north from the Saga-jo Castle town.
It was on April 3, 1710, 10 years later, when Tsuramoto TASHIRO, who was adoring Jocho, visited him. In this way, the oral record of the Hagakure (the book of Bushido), consisting of writing what was dictated, started.
Afterwards, Asahiken became to be called Sojuan, and Mitsushige's wife who came to hold a service for her deceased husband there decided that it would be her graveyard. Therefore, Jocho refrained from staying there and moved to a hermitage in Daishoguma (present Kureishi (礫石), Yamato-cho, Saga City) about 11 km to the west from Kurotsuchihara in 1713. In June 1714, he started writing "Kakioki " a must-do's book of the feudal lords for Lord of Kawakubo Shuzen KAMISHIRO (the seventh son of Mitushige, later the fifth lord of the Saga Domain, Muneshige NABESHIMA), and when he finished it next year he present it to Shuzen.
On October 24, 1716, Tsuramoto TASHIRO completed the compilation of the eleven volumes in total of the Hagakure (the book of Bushido). After 20 year's secluded life in the mountain, in November 21, 1719 he died at the age of 61. The next day, his body was cremated in the field in front of the hermitage, and buried in the graveyard of Hachinohe Ryoun-ji Temple.
Death poems
After an unbearable agony, I came to feel that I no longer stand up, and just that moment I finally encountered my hermitage covered with moss, the place far more tranquil than the outback of a secluded deep mountain.
The faint singing of an insect, which worries me thinking whether it might be dying, I would ask what to do if there were someone.
Historical materials
After becoming a priest, Jocho made detailed chronicle lists of the main events of his father Shigesumi as well as that of his grandfather Jinemon Seimei NAKANO, and he also continued recording his personal details in his chronological list of the main events until two weeks before his death. The autograph reprint of Jocho's "Nenpu" (Chronological List of the Main Events) is included in "Hagakure Kenkyu" (Study on Hagakure), Volume 2, published by Hagakure Kenkyukai (study group).