Hagakure is a book mainly depicting the thoughts of Yamamoto Yamamoto on virtues and conducts for samurai in Tokugawa period.Yamamoto Yamamoto was a samurai with military background born in 1659 but have never been to the front line. He had been providing service to Nabeshima Mitsushige, the third daimyo of Saga Prefecture since he was young. However, his father was a warrior of strong personalities who had once participated in battles and had almost abandoned Yamamoto due to his fragile health condition. Under the influence of his father, Yamamoto had never lost the persistence side of samurai even in a peaceful age. All the way to his twentieth year, he was never put into an important position because of his intelligent face. Then he turned to visit the Zen Buddhist priest Tannen and the Confucius scholar Ishida Ittei who later both had massive impact on shaping the ideas of Yamamoto on the Way of samurai. Later on his master’s death, Yamamoto was at his age of forty-two. He was forbidden from committing senppuku by the government, which was against his idea that “the way of samurai is found in death” (Yamamoto, 23). The failure to demonstrate his loyalty in disembowelment motivated him to go into seclusion and to protest against shogunate rules in a way that he communicated his thoughts on what makes a warrior a way warrior to a young samurai who later used them compiling the book Hagakure. The focus of this article will lie on identifying in which ways Yamamoto’s way of samurai was influenced by Buddhism and Confucius ideas.
One of the themes that run through the book is loyalty. From the perspective of Yamamoto, being loyal and obedient to his master is the most essential character for samurai. This idea has the strong relationship with Confucianism. Confucius advocates a social hierarchy with scholar on the top, followed by peasants, artisans and merchants. In Japan, warriors sit at the top of caste system but are geographically separated from other classes. Yamamoto thus believes samurai should be of the same virtues as shi when seeing China is running well with such structure. However, the fact that samurai as military aristocracy have obvious distinctions from commoners, as opposed to Chinese scholars who were mixed with other classes, pushes the concept of loyalty to an extreme level. In the eyes of Confucians, the relationship of retainers and emperors are more reciprocal. They suggest officials should be loyal to lords who treat them with sincerity and respect and they are expected to point out their emperors’ mistakes in a euphemistic way. The cases in which retainers risk lives to correct lord’s mistakes do exist but are rare. When Confucianism was introduced to Japan, samurai such as Yamamoto who were born in a time without warfare but also looking to prove themselves saw it as a mean to restore reputation of their class and to maintain dignity. They integrated the loyalty idea in classic Confucianism with their own needs-distancing themselves from commoners in terms of conducts and ideologies, and derived what they perceived as the way of warrior. Loyalty to Yamamoto is more associated with determination, resolution and courage to die for his lord at any time. With regard to the nature of the way of the samurai, Yamamoto says, “If by setting one’s heart right every morning and evening, one is able to live as though his body were already dead, he gains freedom in the Way”(Yamamoto, 24). One key point to become a way samurai is persistence. He points out that samurai can live with their minds and bodies belonging to lords. This is highest level of loyalty-totally devote one’s life to another without thinking over the process. This is also why wisdom is the trait least favored by Yamamoto. “Because we do most things relying only on our own sagacity we become self-interested, turn our backs on reason, and things do not turn out well” (Yamamoto, 25). He believes intelligent samurai would have independent way of thinking which would detract them from serving their lords with all their heart.
Just as Confucianism had a great impact on Yamamoto’s thoughts on loyalty, so too does Buddhism changed his views on matters of death. Buddhism originated in India, later was introduced to Japan through Korea and China. It is a religion that promotes the idea of impermanence which coincides with the frequent natural disaster in Japan. The core value of Buddhism is to achieve enlightenment by building up karma points through good motives. To see the influence of Buddhism on Yamamoto’s thinking on death-related matters, it is better to examine seppuku first-a privilege manner of death for samurai. Seppuku is a special way of suiciding in that it requires high level of bravery; at the same time, it is an elegant manner of death because the samurai who commits seppuku passes away with his best wish for his master. According to Yamamoto, “...if a warrior does not manifest courage on the outside and hold enough compassion within his heart to burst his chest, he cannot become a retainer” (Yamamoto, 100). Life is like a cycle. Following lords into death is the start of another life. Yamamoto asserts death is part of circle, if one samurai dies with moral motives, he is high likely to have a better rebirth. In addition, a warrior being compassionate is somewhat contrary to common sense. But Yamamoto hopes warriors to enter into a good new life by showing sympathy to all living things.
In conclusion, Confucianism taught samurai retainers to be loyal to his lord and Buddhism stresses being compassionate about all creatures.

Bibliography
Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Hagakure. Tokyo: Kodaisha Internation, 2002.