Treatise 107: Military Affairs I

¶Ah, the places where the military might of our country is displayed are truly vast and mighty. That the successive emperors have governed all under heaven and made foreign lands stand in awe and submission has been through this martial might. That later generations have inherited the foundations of the realm and secured its territory has likewise been through this martial might. From the highest to the lowest, for thousands of years, there was no one among the people who did not follow this way. Its origins are indeed ancient.

¶From the time when Izanagi-no-Mikoto and Izanami-no-Mikoto took up the jeweled spear and fixed the Eight Great Islands, the emblem of martial valor appeared. When the Heavenly Ancestor commanded the Imperial Grandchild to descend and reign over the lower world, and handed down the precious sword as the token of the imperial throne, the way of martial valor became clear. When the Great Founder (Emperor Jinmu), by his divine martial power, pacified the Central Land and, receiving the sacred mandate, became the first human sovereign, the teaching of martial valor was established. As for the deities who descended from heaven, not to speak of the heroic ferocity of Takeikazuchi-no-Kami and Iwainushi-no-Kami, down to Hayasusanoo-no-Mikoto's slaying of the great serpent and Ōnamuchi-no-Mikoto's pacification of the land, did any of them fail to accomplish their tasks through manly valor and to assist in the founding of the state? Moreover, that Emperor Suinin revered and worshipped the deities of heaven and earth and offered bows and swords as votive offerings, and that he bestowed spears and shields as emblems on those who made and built things, were likewise all in keeping with the way of martial valor. Those above took it as a teaching and those below took it as their calling; habit became nature, and their courage and keenness were without equal. When they set armies in motion and launched campaigns, no country could stand against them, and their prestige shook the lands beyond the Eight Great Islands.

¶Why, then, did the teaching of the Heavenly Ancestor and the Great Founder necessarily require the people to esteem martial valor? It was because they looked ahead tens of millions of years: without martial valor the state cannot be kept secure, and without martial valor the barbarians cannot be held in check. The Central Land of Reed Plains is a land bestowed by the heavenly deities; its treasures are abundant, all things flourish in it, and it is wholly unlike foreign countries. So long as our country prospers, they naturally cannot burn with desire for it and drool over it. But in later ages, if virtue grows thin or thick and fortune waxes and wanes, how can it be guaranteed that there will be no danger of barbarians spying and scheming against us? For this reason the precious sword was bestowed and a bequeathed instruction was left, exalting and honoring martial valor, fixing the direction in which the country should advance, and making it the unshakable foundation of the state for all time. If a later ruler honors this way the country rises; if he goes against it the country falls into disorder and ruin. Down to the rise and fall, survival and extinction of military leaders, it is the same without exception. How great is the teaching of the Imperial Ancestors! It is something that cannot be altered through tens of millions of ages.

¶Now, when a peaceful age lasts long, government gradually grows lax; when government grows lax, men's hearts become careless and idle; when men's hearts become idle, military preparations fall into decay and slackness; and when military preparations decay and slacken, barbarians invade and show contempt, and bandits rise in swarms. This follows necessarily from the principle of things. Enlightened lords and gifted rulers understand this well; they rouse themselves, train body and mind, and take care to exalt and honor martial valor. As for their weapons, battle formations, and systems of training, they revise and alter them as the times require, adapting everything to the needs of the age, and thereby forbid and suppress cruelty and violence under heaven. If so, the purport of the Heavenly Ancestor's bestowal of the precious sword and of the great instruction he left will hardly be lost.

¶Now, relying on the old histories and consulting various other books, I inquire into the purport with which the divine sages employed arms, examine the origins of order and disorder and of flourishing and decline, and take their essentials and set them down in this volume. As for weapons and military equipment, those that appear in the histories are extremely numerous, and not all can be recorded. Only the sword, the spear, and the bow and arrow, though their systems differ between ancient and modern times, are hard, sharp, tough, and keen beyond comparison under heaven, and these too suffice to show the efficacy of the divine sages' esteem for martial valor. The administration of horses (Bamasei) has also existed from ancient times, and by way of kind it is added here. I thus compose the Treatise on Military Affairs.