"Alex Bennett has produced the first truly authoritative translation and analysis of Hagakure—perhaps the most famous text ever written about samurai honor—to appear in any Western language. Simultaneously erudite and accessible, this volume belongs on the bookshelves of anyone—scholar or hobbyist alike—interested in samurai culture, or modern perceptions thereof." —Dr. Karl F. Friday, author of Samurai, Warfare and the State in Early Medieval Japan and Japan Emerging: Premodern History to 1850