In addition to aspects related to careful control of one’s inner state, a plan of action in accordance with the guidelines of the ‘great and small faiths’, the philosophy of action of Hagakure also assumes actions of a different kind, as stated in the following quote by Mishima:

Fifty or sixty years ago, every morning samurai washed, shaved their forehead, they smeared their hair with lotion, cut their nails and toenails, rubbed their hands and feet with pumice stone, and then with wood sorrel, and generally did everything to have a neat appearance. It goes without saying that they also paid special attention to weapons: they were wiped, polished and stored in exemplary order.

Although it may seem that careful self-care betrays posturing and panache in a person, this is not the case. Even if you know that you may be struck down on this very day, you must meet your death with dignity, and for this you need to take care of your appearance. After all, your enemies will despise you if you look sloppy. Therefore, they say that both old and young people should constantly take care of themselves.

Although you say it is difficult and time-consuming, the calling of a samurai requires this sacrifice. In fact, it is not difficult and does not take much time. If you strengthen your resolve to fall in a conflict every day and live as if you are already dead, you will achieve success in deeds and in battle, and you will never disgrace yourself. Meanwhile, anyone who does not think about it day and night, who lives indulging his desires and weaknesses, sooner or later brings shame upon himself. And if he lives for his own pleasure and thinks that this will never happen, his lecherous and ignorant actions will cause a lot of trouble.

Anyone who has not decided in advance to accept the inevitable death, tries in every possible way to prevent it. But if he was ready to die, wouldn’t he become flawless? In this case, you need to think about everything and make the right decision.

This hides an important aspect of the wisdom of Hagakure, which, by the way, Mishima himself followed throughout his life. The duality between taking systematic and careful care of oneself and one’s own beauty and willingness to die at any moment is completely artificial. External perfection and a system of regular actions aimed at achieving it are necessary for a person both for internal balance (one of the systems of ‘small faith’) and so that the moment that will be the last one can fall like a beautiful Sakura blossom petal, having astonished even the enemies. Perfection in the way of the Hagakure philosophy of action has not only an internal but also an equally important external aspect.

The external aspect of the Hagakure philosophy of action manifests itself, of course, not only in visual perfection. The key here is the relationship between beliefs, words and, most importantly, deeds — that is, what people see in us. Commenting on this, Mishima writes,

A common mistake of our days is the belief that words and deeds are manifestations of conscience and philosophy, which in turn are products of the mind, or heart. However, we are mistaken when we believe in the existence of a heart, conscience, reason, or abstract ideas. So, for people like the Ancient Greeks, who believed only in what they could see with their own eyes, this invisible mind, or heart, did not exist at all.

Thus, in order to deal with such an indefinite entity as the mind or the heart, a person must judge only by external manifestations, such as words and actions. Only then will he be able to understand where this essence came from… Any minor oversight in word or deed can destroy our entire philosophy of life. This harsh truth is not easy to accept. If we believe in the existence of the heart and want to protect it, we must watch everything we say and do. This is how we can cultivate a strong inner passion and delve into the unattainable depths of our nature.

Such a worldview, being extremely resource-intensive for an individual, holding it in the background of his own consciousness, is equally extremely energy-consuming. In other words, it is a life of constant tension, from which it is impossible to retreat. Mishima comments on this as follows:

If, in the name of moral goals, a person strives to live beautifully, and if he considers death to be the final standard of this beauty, life becomes a constant strain for him. Jōchō, for whom laziness is the highest evil, indicates the need to exist in tension, which does not weaken for a moment. Such is the struggle with the circumstances of everyday life. This is the calling of a samurai.

To a Westerner, such a life may seem like an endless self-torture. But, like everything else in samurai ethics, this aspect has another side. Its secret lies in always living ‘in the present moment’, as Mishima points out, quoting the following statement of the Hagakure:

Truly, there is nothing but the true purpose of the present moment. A person’s whole life is a sequence of moments. If a person fully understands the present moment, he does not need to do anything else and has nothing to strive for. Live and stay true to the true purpose of the present moment. People tend to omit the present moment, and then look for it, as if it is somewhere far away. But no one seems to notice this. However, if a person is deeply aware of this, he must, without delay, move from one experience to another. Someone who has once comprehended this can forget about it, but he has already changed and has become different from everyone else. If a person fully understands what it means to live in the present moment, he will have almost no worries.

Thus, constant internal tension, when adopting the Hagakure philosophy of action, ceases to be perceived as tension. This is a special inner state, akin to the steadfastness of Julius Evola’s ‘absolute individual’, for whom everything is thought out at the same time and the potential for total spontaneity is preserved; there is a readiness to die at any moment, but at the same time there is an openness to life and concentration on the purpose and meaning of the present moment; self-care to the smallest detail gets along with indifference to victory and defeat, successes and failures, and as a result — to the very consequences of life. The paradox that Mishima highlights in “Hagakure nyūmon” is that such an attitude to life, its many details and aspects, leads to the most productive and harmonious individual existence. In other words, an icy willingness to die is the key to a successful life. This paradox will be revealed in more detail in our next article for Arktos Journal, dedicated to the Hagakure philosophy of life and death, as explained by Yukio Mishima.