Operation of Esotericism

Abstract

How do esoteric practices operate? When something is transmitted secretly, how does the transmission function? This chapter focuses on Heihô Kadensho [Family transmission book on swordsmanship¹] written in 1632 by Yagyû Munenori (1571–1646). (To be precise, the colophon of this monograph refers not only to Munenori but also to his father Muneyoshi and to the latter’s mentor Kamiizumi Hidetsuna as the authors.² This highlights an important aspect of the logic of esotericism, which is the agenda of chapter 3.) The present chapter takes this text as its focus because this treatise serves as an informative case study of how an esoteric text operates. I engage in intertextual comparisons only when they can help clarify points that the primary source makes. (For I hold that it is effective to remain within the confines of a single text in perceiving the operation of an esoteric text. In contrast, chapters 3 and 4 will necessitate several texts for comparative purposes. For underlying esotericism, it is, rather, the silent common sense, which can be intertextually testified, that really matters.)

What is to be written down momentarily in these three volumes is a piece of writing that does not go out of the Yagyû household. However, it is not that the Way is to be hoarded up in secrecy. The purpose of keeping it secret is to let it be known. Were it unknown, the writing would be equal to null. May my descendants deliberate this point.

Yagyû Munenori (1571–1646)