Yamamoto Tsunetomo
Yamamoto Tsunetomo (12 June 1659 - 1719) was a samurai of the Saga domain in Hizen Province under his lord Nabeshima Mitsushige. When Mitsushige died, Tsunetomo was forbidden to follow him in death, and so became a Buddhist teacher. Late in life (between 1709 and 1716), he narrated many of his thoughts to a fellow samurai, Tashiro Tsuramoto. These commentaries were later turned into the Hagakure (In the Shadow of Leaves) (Hagakure kikigaki), also known as the Analects of Nabeshima or the Hagakure Analects.The Hagakure was not widely known during the years following Tsunetomo's death, but by the 1930s it had become one of the most famous representatives of bushido thought in Japan.
Tsunetomo believed that becoming one with death in one's thoughts, even in life, was the highest attainment of purity and focus. He felt that a resolution to die gives rise to a hjigher state of life, infused with beauty and grace beyond the reach of those concerned with self-preservation. He similarly believed in immediate action, and in the Hagakure criticized the carefully planned Ako vendetta (a major event in his lifetime) for its delayed response.