Tokugawa Ieyasu
My friend who had visited Japan last winter gave me a souvenir yesterday. The souvenir is a model of Tokugawa Ieyasu (Japanese: 徳川家康).
Isn't yesterday April Fool's Day? Yes, you are right. Compared with other heroes in Warring States Period (Japanese: 戦国時代), he likely looked foolish. He was not as powerful as Oda Nobunaga (Japanese: 織田信長), neither as intelligent as Toyotomi Hideyoshi (Japanese: 豊臣秀吉). However he was eventually the winner of the period and set up Edo Shogunate (Japanese: 江戶幕府) that ruled Japan for almost 300 years (1603 - 1868).
One of his characters that led his success is known as patience. As an old joke goes, when a cuckoo did not sing, those three heroes would do the following ways respectively:
The below is the so-called The Last Words of Toshogu (Japanese: 東照宮御遺訓) that shows how Tokugawa Ieyasu thought about patience:
人の一生は重荷を負うて遠き道を行くが如し急ぐべからず
The life of a man is like travelling a long road with a heavy burden on his back. It should not be hurry.
不自由を常と思えば不足なし
No morning sun lasts a whole day. Consider what you have not been strong enough.
心に望み起らば困窮したる時を思いだすべし
When your desire is raised, look back the time that you were poor.
堪忍は無事長久の基怒りは敵と思え
Patience is the base of stability for long time. Consider anger as your enemy.
勝つ事ばかり知りて負くる事を知らざれば害その身に至る
Grasp all, lose all.
己を責めて人を責むるな
You should blame yourself more than other people.
及ばざるは過ぎたるより勝れり
Too much water drowned the miller.
Isn't yesterday April Fool's Day? Yes, you are right. Compared with other heroes in Warring States Period (Japanese: 戦国時代), he likely looked foolish. He was not as powerful as Oda Nobunaga (Japanese: 織田信長), neither as intelligent as Toyotomi Hideyoshi (Japanese: 豊臣秀吉). However he was eventually the winner of the period and set up Edo Shogunate (Japanese: 江戶幕府) that ruled Japan for almost 300 years (1603 - 1868).
One of his characters that led his success is known as patience. As an old joke goes, when a cuckoo did not sing, those three heroes would do the following ways respectively:
- Oda Nobunga: if it does not sing anymore, KILL it!
- Toyotomi Hideyoshi: THINK a method to let it sing.
- Tokugawa Ieyasu: WAIT until it sings.
The below is the so-called The Last Words of Toshogu (Japanese: 東照宮御遺訓) that shows how Tokugawa Ieyasu thought about patience:
人の一生は重荷を負うて遠き道を行くが如し急ぐべからず
The life of a man is like travelling a long road with a heavy burden on his back. It should not be hurry.
不自由を常と思えば不足なし
No morning sun lasts a whole day. Consider what you have not been strong enough.
心に望み起らば困窮したる時を思いだすべし
When your desire is raised, look back the time that you were poor.
堪忍は無事長久の基怒りは敵と思え
Patience is the base of stability for long time. Consider anger as your enemy.
勝つ事ばかり知りて負くる事を知らざれば害その身に至る
Grasp all, lose all.
己を責めて人を責むるな
You should blame yourself more than other people.
及ばざるは過ぎたるより勝れり
Too much water drowned the miller.
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