The Writings of the Hagakure and How They Relate to the Films The Last Samurai and The Seven Samurai

In Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai it states, “No Matter if the enemy has thousands of men, there is fulfillment in simply standing them off and being determined to cut them all down.” The same passage states that “a real man does not think of victory or defeat, he plunges recklessly towards an irrational death.” The concept of death under any circumstance being honorable exists in several passages of the Hagakure. It is emphasized later on in passages that tell of men standing up for their masters under any circumstance and men looking noble in appearance in case that death should occur. These meditations on death that appear in the Hagakure also appear in the films The Last Samurai and The Seven Samurai. 

The idea of a real man plunging recklessly towards an irrational death makes no sense to Nathan Algren in The Last Samurai. When Nathan describes the death of General Custer to Katsumoto he speaks of Custer as an “arrogant, foolhardy” man who led a group of 211 soldiers in to get massacred against a group of 2,000 Indians. Katsumoto feels that what Custer did was honorable and courageous and even states that he himself hopes to die in similar fashion someday. Algren doesn’t understand this because he has yet to understand the nature of the samurai. Katsumoto sees Custer’s act of “arrogance” as an act of courageous defiance. As a Samurai, he himself would gladly lead a meager number of troops against a large number of men if it were the wishes of his master. 

Consider a passage from the 10th chapter of the Hagakure that tells of a servant who rushes into the burning house of his master to save the master’s most prized possession; his genealogy. The servant says: “I have never been of use to my master because I’m so careless, but I have lived resolved that someday my life should be of use to him. This seems that time.” While the samurai in The Seven Samurai are by no means careless, they posses the same will of the servant in this chapter. Their purpose is to protect a village from a group of bandits for a very meager reward.