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Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com! Japanese war strategy is a subject you find fascinating. You believe that war tactics, although obviously useful in wartime, have rightful application in the Japanese business world as well. You have read the Japanese translation of “The Art of War,” and in everyday life in Japan, you find ways to incorporate the book’s principles. No wonder your favorite Japanese historical figure is Takeda Shingen! In this lesson, you’ll learn about Takeda Shingen, a Japanese military commander. We’ll tell you about the book “The Art of War” and how it influenced Shingen too. In addition, you’ll learn about Shingen’s contributions to the people of his Japanese territory. Visit us at JapanesePod101.com, where you will find Japanese lesson notes (remember—this Advanced Audio Blog lesson is spoken entirely in Japanese!) and many more fantastic lessons and learning resources! Leave us a message while you are there!


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This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 11th, 2012 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Advanced Audio Blog 5 . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “Advanced Audio Blog S5 #18 - Top 10 Japanese Historical Figures: Takeda Shingen”

JapanesePod101.com says:

武田信玄

「風林火山」という旗印で有名な武田信玄は、16世紀にいた甲斐国(現在の山梨県)の戦国武将。戦の強さだけでなく、政治家としての手腕も高く評価されている人物です。
まず「風林火山」の意味から紹介しましょう。これは、古代中国の『孫子』という兵法書から引用されたもので、原文は中国語ですが、日本語でわかるように読み方を補うと「疾きこと風の如く、徐かなること林の如く、侵略すること火の如く、動かざること山の如し」。つまり「風のように速く軍を進め、林のように静かに構える。火のように激しく攻撃し、守るときは山のように動かない。」と戦の基本を説いています。

戦術の分析・格言が載っている『孫子』を愛読し影響を受けた武将は非常に多く、信玄もその一人でした。また『孫子』の中には現代社会にも通じる思想を説いているので、今日の日本でもビジネス書として読んでいる経営者も多いとか。
「風林火山」以外に有名な『孫子』の中の言葉に「敵を知り己を知れば百戦危うからず」があります。「敵と自分をよく知れば、戦に負けることはない」、つまり情報収集をし、勝てる相手を見極めろという意味です。実際、信玄は各国の情報を集める忍者軍団を持っており、最強と言われる兵を持ちながらも無用の戦いや利益の薄い戦いは努めて避けていたと言われています。

また、信玄は領地内の安定・内政に細かく気を配っていたことでも知られ、領地内の憲法のようなものも定めたり、氾濫して領民を苦しめていた川に堤防を築いたりしました。「信玄堤」の名で有名なその堤防は、築後400年以上経つ今でも人々を水害から守っています。

 

 


 

 

みなさんの国に、戦でも政治でも優秀だった人物はいますか。コメント欄でぜひ教えてくださいね。

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Bob1 says:

This lesson has been ultra-challenging to work through the text word-by-word and try to understand the sentence constructions. Am I correct that phrases such as 「風の如く」 use archaic Japanese grammar, or at least reflect a non-standard dialect? “Gotoku” looks like a verb, yet it is preceded by a noun and the particle “no.” In modern Japanese, I would expect another noun to appear here, as in, say, “kaze no hayasa” (the speed of the wind). What’s going on grammatically here?

BTW, “Shingen Bank” sounds like a place where I might deposit my pay check. :razz: While I did get a Google hit for this translation of 「信玄堤」, “Shingen Levee” got more Google hits, and these appeared within much higher quality English texts.

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JapanesePod101.com says:

Bob1-san,
Great analysis! :smile:
You’re right; (風)の如く is not a standard modern Japanese. It’s actually old Japanese (grammar). ごとく means ように in modern Japanese.
It’s interesting that you googled comparing Shingen bank and 信玄堤 :lol:

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

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