RYŌMA!: The Life of Sakamoto Ryoma: Japanese Swordsman and Visionary Volume II

by Ryōtarō Shiba

Ryōma better than he did. “Much as he gets on my nerves, he’s a better man than I am. There’s one thing he’s got that I don’t have: a sort of kindness—he really cares about other human beings. Sometime in the future, crowds of people, drawn by his warmth, will come to support him, and he’ll accomplish something great. As for me, I’ll end up as a samurai who heads into enemy territory all alone.”

When one transcends such dichotomies as life and death or victory and loss, and all, including one’s own self, becomes

dissolved in nothingness, one is said to have reached the ultimate state in swordfighting, or in Zen Buddhism.

Ikeda asked for details and discovered that Ryōma had started by picking several good men and putting them in charge of the others; he allocated specific duties to each one and then had them compete against each other.

Let the people of the world Say what they like I alone know What I will do

Ryōma never argued. He always told himself he mustn’t get into an argument unless it was about something of earthshaking importance. Even if he were to win, he would only succeed in dishonoring his opponent. Besides, losing an argument rarely leads people to change their opinions, much less their ways of life, so in the end, all that would be left was resentment at having lost. Takechi, on the other

“People say that life is like a scene from a drama, but there’s one important difference: someone else sets the scene for actors in a play. In real life, each person builds a stage that suits his own character, little by little, and then acts out his own drama on that stage. No one will build the stage for you.”

‘There really aren’t any high or low human beings. The rank and status that seem so important in our world are all on the outside—just decoration. And people only pay attention to decoration in peaceful times. When there’s trouble brewing that fancy stuff on the outside peels right off. If you want to accomplish something, what you really need are wisdom, courage, and virtue.’”

The purpose of a man’s life is achievement. But you mustn’t admire another’s achievements or try to imitate them. Shakyamuni Buddha, Confucius, and the great emperors who created China all forged their own paths, for which there was no model. A man’s life is but fifty years. Once you have found a goal, you must concentrate only on finding the means to achieve it and never waver in your purpose. If you do not reach your goal, you must die on the way to achieving it. Life and death are natural phenomena and must not enter your calculations.

The stipends we receive are like crumbs scattered for the birds. Heaven created man, and it created food for him as well. To stay cooped up like birds in a cage eating crumbs that are given us by someone else is not a truly human way to live. Go somewhere with a good purpose, and the rice you need will go with you. So if you don’t care to live on a stipend, throw it aside like a worn-out straw sandal!

“Well then, a man shouldn’t worry about life or death,” he told himself. The length of one’s life rests with heaven. A man should leave all that to heaven and just devote himself to his work in this life.

“It means that someone who is resolved to change the nation should always have in his mind’s eye the scene of his dead body thrown into a ditch. And a man of courage should never forget to picture the scene of his beheading. Unless he does so, a man cannot gain real freedom.”