Kato Kiyomasa’s Precepts for Samurai

Stoic Points Written by Warlord Kato Kiyomasa for Men to Follow

Kato Kiyomasa (July 25, 1562 – August 2, 1611) was a daimyo of the late Sengoku, warring States, early Edo Period. A cousin of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and born in the same village of Nakamura in modern-day Nagoya City, Kato Kiyomasa had a reputation as a fierce warrior, seeing action in the Siege of Takamatsu, the Battles of Yamazaki, Shizugatake, Komaki Nagakute, the Kyushu Campaign, the Korean Campaigns, Sieges of Udo and Yanagawa amongst others. Contemporary accounts of Kiyomasa paint him as “awe-inspiring, yet not unfriendly, and a natural leader of men”. Kiyomasa was interested solely in the arts of war, and none of the other arts expected of a samurai, such as the tea ceremony, Noh, nor the reciting of poetry, which is said to have been forbidden in his presence.