=== A book of Meditations on Honour ===

"Meditation on inevitable death should be performed
daily. Every day when one's body and mind are at peace,
one should meditate upon being ripped apart by arrows,
rifles, spears and swords, being carried away by surging
waves, being thrown into the midst of a great fire, being
struck by lightning, being shaken to death by a great
earthquake, falling from thousand-foot cliffs, dying of
disease or committing seppuku at the death of one's
master. And every day without fail one should consider
himself as dead."

Honour is gained on the battlefield with weapons of war:
swords, axes, maces, lances, hammers taken up with both
hands and used in a right and just manner against an
enemy similarly empowered, not what peasant folk or
thieves or murderers would wield in the middle of the
night and shame themselves with.  Cast aside now all
whips, daggers, spears and anything else that could be
thrown in the heat of battle.  A shield, while a fine
instrument to take the first strike of a lance on the
field of a tourney, should be, in the whirling melee,
firmly strapped to the back and not carried in the hands.

                            --- A fallen hero.
