我事に於て後悔せず ware koto ni oite kōkaisezu Do not regret what you have done

我事に於て後悔せず Original Scroll by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

Abstract

我事に於て後悔せず, in what I do, I do not regret, is the sixth of twenty-one first-person articles Miyamoto Musashi brushed on one sheet of paper, the 独行道, The Way Walked Alone, dated days before his death in 1645 and addressed to one pupil, in a colophon whose hand is disputed. The form in common use, with 於 as a character and no を, is the one the school's chronicle of 1776 writes in an undated manuscript copy; the sheet itself writes the particle in kana and keeps を. The line is in print from 1886, was said in 1936 to be the words the novelist Kikuchi Kan wrote on shikishi, and entered Yoshikawa Eiji's novel 『宮本武蔵』, where Musashi composes it in his notebook. Its first word is read waga koto, my affairs, and ware koto, I, in matters; its readers have called the sheet a vow to himself, a self-admonition, maxims and a confession; and the English books read make the line an imperative from 2004, while Machida in 2012 and Bennett in 2018 keep the first person.

Overview

The sense. The line is a man's statement about himself, and its readers have taken it three ways. Shitō Seiya, in 1967, reads it plainly: a man who had worked all his life and given everything could say of what he did, as it stands, that he did not regret it, and he calls it a phrase that shines especially in the 独行道, 『独行道』の中でも、とくに光ることば ^[1]. Kobayashi Hideo read it as a resolve, make up your mind not to fool yourself with so comfortable a device as regret, and Yoshikawa Eiji as a confession read backward, the words telling how often he had regretted before, and gone on regretting, day after day ^[1][2].

What kind of text. Its readers have also named the sheet, and the names are the question an English translator answers. The school's chronicle of 1776 says that Musashi, his affairs settled, wrote it 自誓の心にて, in the spirit of a vow to himself, and the National Diet Library's transcription of the contents of the life of 1886 names its chapter 自誓ノ書ヲ作ル事 ^[3][4]. The biography of 1909 calls the articles 自戒の文, words of self-admonition, and reads the list as the portrait of a clean and strong heart ^[5]. Yoshikawa calls the sheet 座右の誡, an admonition kept at his side, written 人に訓えるために誌したものではなく, not set down to teach others, but as a mirror held to his own faults ^[2]. Shitō sets all of these aside, and with them Shiba Ryōtarō's 箴言, maxims: the sheet is 「独り」しずかに自己をみつめての告白, a confession made alone and quietly, looking into himself ^[1]. Of these names only the maxim, Shiba's word as Shitō reports it, makes the articles advice to a reader; Shiba's own text is not read here.

The words. Five characters and four kana, and the grammar is the whole story. 我事 is my affairs, what I myself do, the modern 我が事, 自分に関係のあること。自分のこと ^[6]; に於て is in, as regards; 後悔 is regret for what one has done, the 日本国語大辞典's してしまったことを後になって悔やむこと ^[7]; せず is does not. The sheet, as Wikisource transcribes it, writes the particle in kana with the historical spelling, 我事尓おゐて後悔をせす, keeps the object marker, does no regretting, and ends in a variant form of す, which the transcription reproduces as an image and a reader voices zu ^[8]. Twenty of the twenty-one articles on the sheet turn on a negative, what the writer does not do or does not have, 世々の道をそむく事なし, I do not turn from the way of the generations, 常尓兵法の道をはなれず, I never leave the way of strategy; the fourth, 身をあさく思世をふかく思ふ, I think of myself lightly and of the world deeply, says what he does ^[8]. All twenty-one are one man's statements about himself; the sheet's colophon dates, signs, seals and addresses them to one person, and whether that colophon is his hand or a later one is disputed ^[9][1]. Nothing in the grammar is an imperative. The line as words: in what I do, no regret.

The reading of 我事. 我 before a noun can be waga, my, or ware, I, and the line has been read both ways. Shitō reads waga koto: Musashi's own 五輪書 glosses 我 as わが in the same construction, 敵も我事に受て, and every 我 … におゐて in that book is read waga; the sheet writes わが身 in kana in its fifteenth article; and if the line were ware koto, every article would carry a ware ^[1]. A popular history of 1893 prints the line with the rubi わかこと, without the dakuten, a reading of waga, since ware would be written われ ^[10]. Later prints carry the same reading: 『少年史談』 of 1912 writes 我が事, with が, and sets the rubi わ over 我 ^[11]; 峯玄光's 『禅学観』 of 1932 sets the rubi わがこと over 我事 ^[12], and the Ministry of Education's 『青年修身公民書』, a textbook of ethics and civics, writes 我が事に於いて後悔せず, with が, in its edition for the five-year course of 1942, and the word out in kana, わが事に於いて後悔せず, in its edition for the four-year course of 1944 ^[13][14]. Machida, translating from the original, reads Waga-Koto: he grants that ware expresses the determination more strongly, and rejects it because no other article names its subject; Tokitsu reads waga koto, adding that ware gives approximately the same meaning ^[15][16]. Shitō gives ware to Kikuchi Kan and Yoshikawa by name, 「われ事」（菊池寛氏、吉川英治氏など）と読む人は, and holds that they read so for not knowing that the sheet writes わが身 in kana ^[1]. A catalogue of the Kikuchi Kan collection at the Kagawa Prefectural Library, current to February 1937, lists a large shikishi in his brush as 「われ事に於て後悔をせず」 ^[17]; two accounts of 1936 have him writing 我れ事に於て後悔せず on his shikishi, though his own anthology of 1944 prints 我事 without the れ ^[18][19][20]; Kobayashi Hideo, in his book of 1949, says the same of Kikuchi and takes the other reading: 菊池さんは、いつも「我れ事」と書いてをられたが、私は「我が事」と讀む方がよろしいのだらうと思つてゐる, Mr. Kikuchi always wrote 我れ事, but I think it better to read 我が事 ^[21]; Yoshikawa's novel writes われ事において後悔せず and his essays 我れ事に於て後悔せず ^[22][2]; and the 日本人名大辞典 quotes the line today as 我(われ)事において後悔せず ^[23].

The historical record

1645. Miyamoto Musashi, 独行道, the sheet. Twenty-one articles brushed in ink on one sheet of paper, 16.8 by 97.3 centimeters by the museum's own record (the Wikisource transcription's header gives 98.8 for the width ^[8]), mounted as a hanging scroll, held by 熊本県立美術館 as its 日-書040, and a Kumamoto prefectural important cultural property ^[24][9]. The colophon: 正保弐年　五月十二日　新免武藏　玄信（花押）「二天」（朱文額印）　寺尾孫之丞殿, the twelfth day of the fifth month of the second year of Shōhō, signed Shinmen Musashi Genshin with his cipher and a red seal reading 二天, addressed to his pupil Terao Magonojō 寺尾孫之丞 ^[8]. Whose hand the colophon is, is disputed. The prefecture that designated the sheet in 2003 takes the title and the twenty-one articles for Musashi's own hand and the colophon for a later insertion: 題名および２１箇条の本文と奥書部分は墨色が異なる … 年月日以下を後の書き入れと考えたほうが自然であろう, the ink of the title and the twenty-one articles differs from that of the colophon … it is more natural to take everything from the date on as a later insertion, and it reads the address as telling of the sheet's passing down Terao's line ^[9]. Shitō Seiya 紫藤誠也, whose study of 1967 is the earliest of the sheet as a text among the sources read here, sees the same difference of ink and size and reads it the other way: 別筆ではない, not another hand, the date, signature and address written on a different day from the text ^[1]. He also holds that when it was written is not known exactly, and from the signs of revision in its content would place it 臨終直前と限定せず晩年のある時期, at some time in his late years rather than only just before his death ^[1]. The sixth article, as the Wikisource transcription gives it: 一 我事尓おゐて後悔をせす, its last kana a variant す that the transcription sets as an image ^[8]. The school's chronicle gives the death a week later: 同五月十九日千葉城ノ宅ニテ病卒ス, on the nineteenth of the same month he died of illness at his house at 千葉城 ^[25].

1776. 『二天記』, the school's chronicle, in manuscript and in the typeset of 1909. The chronicle of the Toyoda family, retitled from the 武公伝 of 1755, sets the text under the twelfth day of the fifth month, after Musashi has given away his keepsakes: 物事かたつけ極められて、自誓の心にて書せらる, his affairs settled, he wrote it in the spirit of a vow to himself ^[3]. It copies the sheet as nineteen articles, without its fourth and twentieth, so the line is the fifth. In the manuscript copy at Tokyo University of the Arts, which carries no date of its own, it reads 一 我事ニ於テ後悔セス, with 於 as a character and no を ^[25]; that is the form in common use today. The typeset of 1909, made from another copy, reads 一我事におひて後悔をせず, with the sheet's を ^[3].

1886 and 1893. The earliest known prints. Fujino Tominosuke 藤野富之助's life of Musashi, 『剣道達人武蔵実記』, prints the chronicle's nineteen under the heading 獨行道, the line fifth, 一我事におひて後悔をせず, its に and ず in variant kana, read at the leaf ^[4]. A popular history of 1893, 『古今名誉実録』, prints the same nineteen with the same misprint in the third article, 沈居 for 依怙, so it follows the 1886 book, and it sets rubi over the words: 我事 is わかこと ^[10].

1909. The Miyamoto Musashi Memorial Society (宮本武蔵遺蹟顕彰会), Miyamoto Musashi, 金港堂. The biography opens with a character sketch and quotes the articles inside it: この人嘗て獨行道と稱し、自戒の文十九條を自署して云く, this man once wrote out under his own hand nineteen articles of self-admonition he called the Way Walked Alone, and among them, numbered (五), 我事に於て後悔せず ^[5]. It is the earliest print of the manuscript's form, 於 with no を, in the full-text index; the index cannot read the variant kana of the 1886 book, so an earlier print set that way would not show in it. What it makes of the list: 然れどもこの自戒の文を味はゞ、その心いかに潔く、いかに强く、いかに名利を厭ひ、いかに貪慾を惡みしかを知るべし, taste these articles and you will know how clean his heart was, how strong, how he shunned fame and profit and hated greed ^[5].

1909 to the present. The spellings in print. The National Diet Library's full-text index, which reads katakana and hiragana alike, searched on five spellings of the particle after 我事, finds the line in each. The oldest item for each: 我事に於て後悔, the 1909 biography; 我事において後悔, a Kumamoto school reader of 1918, which prints the sheet's twenty-one and calls them his 信條, creed; 我事におゐて後悔, the sheet's kana, Shimada 島田正蔵's theory of physical education of 1926, which also prints the twenty-one; 我事におひて後悔, the 1893 history, since the index does not read the 1886 book; and 我事に於いて後悔, an item of 1936 the index lists without its text, not read ^[26][27][28]. The earliest 於いて read here at its page is the Ministry of Education's textbook of 1942, 我が事に於いて後悔せず; its edition of 1944 writes the first word in kana, わが事に於いて後悔せず ^[13][14]. Written with the が of waga, 我が事に於て後悔せず, the oldest item the index finds is 池辺藤園's 『少年史談』 of 1912, a book of history for the young, which prints the nineteen as 自戒の文 with the line fifth and the rubi わ over 我 ^[11]. The library's catalogue also enters the book under 池辺義象, and Shitō, without naming the work, credits 「自戒」の文 (池辺義象氏) among the names given the sheet; the 1912 page calls the articles いはゆる、自戒の文, what are called words of self-admonition ^[11][1]. The index counts items, and a book held in several printings or copies counts more than once, so its totals do not say how often the line is printed in one spelling or another. The line is quoted in books on Zen, on the sword and for soldiers from 1916, and into the present.

1936. Kikuchi Kan's shikishi. An item in 『文藝春秋』 of January 1936 says: 「我れ事に於て後悔せず」といふ宮本武藏の獨行道の中にある語を、菊池寛氏はよく賴まれた色紙などに書く, the words 我れ事に於て後悔せず, from Miyamoto Musashi's 獨行道, are what Mr. Kikuchi Kan often writes on the shikishi he is asked for ^[18]. An anthology of Kikuchi's prose of the same year, read in an excerpt only, has …紙などには、いつも「我れ事に於て後悔せず。」とか, on … paper, always 'in what I do, I do not regret' ^[19]. The kana れ after 我 writes ware. Neither excerpt names its writer, and the reader is a book of several hands. A year later the Kagawa Prefectural Library's catalogue of its 菊池寛文庫, the Kikuchi Kan collection, current to February 1937, lists under 揮毫, brushwork: 菊池寛氏揮毫大色紙「われ事に於て後悔をせず」, a large shikishi brushed by Mr. Kikuchi Kan, 'われ事に於て後悔をせず', one sheet ^[17]. That is the shikishi's wording as the cataloguer transcribed it, with われ in kana and with the sheet's を; the shikishi itself has not been seen. In his anthology of 1944 Kikuchi printed the nineteen with 我事に於て後悔せず as the fifth, without rubi and without the れ ^[20]. Kobayashi Hideo, in his lecture 『私の人生観』, in the book of 1949: 菊池寬さんは、よほどこの言葉がお好きだつたらしく、人から揮毫を請はれるとよくこれを書いてをられた。菊池さんは、いつも「我れ事」と書いてをられた, Mr. Kikuchi seems to have been very fond of these words, and when people asked him to brush something he often wrote them. Mr. Kikuchi always wrote 我れ事 ^[21].

1936. Yoshikawa Eiji, 『宮本武蔵』, the novel. The novel ran in the 朝日新聞 from August 1935 to July 1939 ^[29]. In it Musashi sits over his notebook on New Year's Eve, with the temple bells ringing, and writes われ何事にも悔いまじ; he changes われ何事にも to われ事において, tries われ事において悔いまじ, and settles on われ事において後悔せず: 最初のは「悔いまじ」であったが、それではまだ弱いと考えられたのである。「――せず」でなければならない, the first had been 'I shall not regret', but that seemed still too weak. It had to be 'I do not'. The words are quoted from the modern edition of 1989; the excerpt of the book edition of 1936 carries われ事において後悔せず and 最初のは『悔いまじ』であつたが ^[22][30]. In a later volume, after he has cut down the boy Genjirō at 一乗寺下り松, he remembers the line written at the edge of his travel diary, and it does not hold ^[30]. The novel places the line decades before the sheet and makes it a young man's vow; the sheet's colophon dates it to his last days, and Shitō would place it in his late years. Yoshikawa's essays on Musashi print it as 一、われ、事において後悔せず in a list of fourteen of his own ordering, and quote it in their prose as 我れ事に於て後悔せず ^[2].

1936 to 1946. The preachers. Sawaki Kōdō 沢木興道, the Sōtō master, insisted that the sheet's twenty-one were the genuine text, named the sixth, 「我事において後悔をせず」, and preached on it: 大抵の者は自分の事を後悔してゐる … こつちが負ければ向ふが勝つてるんぢや、後悔することはない, most people regret their own doings … if I lose, the other side wins, and there is nothing to regret ^[31]. Takashima Beihō 高嶋米峰 in 1946: 宮本武藏は、『我れ事に於て後悔せず』と言つてゐるが、それは、彼が如き達人にして、始めて言ひ得ること, Musashi says 'in what I do, I do not regret', but only a master such as he can say it ^[32].

1967. Shitō Seiya, the earliest study of the sheet as a text among the sources read here. Shitō prints the article as 一我事におゐて後悔をせず, argues the reading waga koto set out above, and reads the line as said outright: いつも工夫に工夫をかさね全力をつくしてきた武蔵には、「我事におゐて」文字通り「後悔をせず」ともよかった心中をそのまま吐露したものであろう, for Musashi, who had always worked device upon device and given all his strength, it is probably his heart as it was, that he could say literally 'in what I do, I do not regret'. He quotes Kobayashi and Yoshikawa on it: 「後悔などいふお目出度い手段で、自分をごまかさぬと決心してみろ、さういふ確信を武蔵は語ってゐる」とは小林秀雄氏（「私の人生観」）、「彼がいかに嘗っては悔い、また、悔いては日々悔いを重ねて来たかを、ことばの裏に語っている」と吉川英治氏（「随筆宮本武蔵」）など、諸家の見解がある, 'make up your mind not to fool yourself with so comfortable a device as regret; that is the conviction Musashi speaks of', says Kobayashi Hideo (My View of Life); 'the words tell underneath how often he had regretted before, and gone on regretting day after day', says Yoshikawa Eiji (Essays on Miyamoto Musashi); such are the views ^[1].

The dictionaries today. The general dictionaries have no entry for the line. The 日本人名大辞典 closes its entry on Musashi with it, under 【格言など】, as 我(われ)事において後悔せず(「独行道」) ^[23].

What is not a source. The prints of nineteen articles, from 1886, descend from copies of the chronicle and are not independent witnesses to the text; the prints of twenty-one, from 1918, go back to the sheet or a copy of it. The novel's scene of composition is fiction. The English lists of the twenty-one precepts on martial-arts and quotation sites are one witness however many pages repeat them; the one read names no translator, and its list is the English Wikipedia's.

The text in English

1974. Victor Harris, A Book of Five Rings, Overlook. Sometimes cited as carrying the sheet; it contains no 独行道, only the Gorin no sho ^[33].

2004. Kenji Tokitsu, Miyamoto Musashi: His Life and Writings, translated by Sherab Chödzin Kohn, Shambhala. With Wilson's of the same year, the earliest rendering of the article in the English books read here (three of 2002 and 2003 said to carry or name the articles are under Sources not seen): 6. Do not regret what you have done, and in his commentary waga koto ni oite kokai o sezu, noting that the characters can also be read ware koto, with ware as subject, and the meaning is approximately the same. He writes that Terao Magonojō took them as precepts ^[16].

2004. William Scott Wilson, The Lone Samurai, Kodansha International. Do not regret things about your own personal life, among twenty-one maxims written when Musashi picked up the brush for the last time ^[34].

2005. Colin Hyakutake-Watkin, hyoho.com. Waga koto ni oite kokai wo sezu. Never have regrets about oneself, the reading waga, in the page's capture of July 2005 ^[35].

2006. The English Wikipedia. An editor added a list of twenty-one precepts on 4 September 2006, where the article had carried four since April, under Tokitsu's book as the article's only reference, and its sixth is "Do not regret what you have done." ^[36]. Eight of the twenty-one lines are Tokitsu's word for word, the sixth among them; the rest are shortened or recast, and his first, Do not go against the way of the human world that is perpetuated from generation to generation, becomes Accept everything just like the way it is ^[16][36].

2012. Teruo Machida, "The last words of Miyamoto Musashi." From the original sheet: Waga-Koto nioite Kôkai o se-zu, "I will not regret my deeds." A note gives the reason for waga: in context with all the other verses that leave out the personal pronoun, the reading ware is not acceptable, and in the 五輪書 the word before a noun always has the meaning "waga" ^[15].

2012. David K. Groff, The Five Rings, Watkins. Hold no regrets about your personal affairs, in a list of twenty-one imperatives ^[37].

2018. Alexander Bennett, The Complete Musashi, Tuttle. 6. I held no regrets for past deeds, and says why: I chose to translate the content as Musashi's self-reflective statements rather than as a formula for others to follow ^[38].

2016. The circulating list. 6. Do not regret what you have done. Twenty-one lines in the imperative, beginning Accept everything just the way it is, on a martial-arts site that credits no translator and that the Internet Archive first captured in March 2016 ^[39]. It is the Wikipedia list with a few words and spellings changed (just the way for just like the way, whole life for whole life long, honor for honour), and its sixth line is Tokitsu's sentence.

Today. The title Do Not Regret What You Have Done is the sixth line of Tokitsu's book in Kohn's English, word for word, carried by the list. It turns what Musashi says of himself into advice to the reader, the maxim reading, and so do Wilson, hyoho.com, Groff and the list with all twenty-one. Machida keeps the first person as a resolve, I will not regret, and Bennett as a look back, I held no regrets. A rendering must keep the first person: In what I do, I do not regret, or more plainly I regret nothing I do.

A reading

I read the line as the chronicle names the sheet, a vow Musashi makes to himself. The grammar is a statement, せず and not the volitional まじ, and Yoshikawa, who made his Musashi weigh the two, gave the statement the greater force. Shitō's confession is the strongest reading against mine, and his reasons, the ink and the signs of revision, bear on when the sheet was written more than on what it says. A reader who takes Do Not Regret What You Have Done as advice is reading it as maxims, the reading Shitō sets aside and Yoshikawa answers with not set down to teach others; Machida in 2012 and Bennett in 2018 made the first-person choice, and Bennett said why. On the first word I read waga koto, my affairs, with Shitō, Kobayashi, the rubi of 1893 and 1932, the 我が事 of 1912, the Ministry's textbooks of 1942 and 1944, Machida and Tokitsu: no other article names its subject, and the 五輪書's own usage reads 我 before a noun as waga. Ware koto, the reading at the head of this study and the one most Japanese readers know, is the reading reported of Kikuchi, whose own anthology of 1944 prints 我事 without the れ, and is Yoshikawa's, and Tokitsu is right that it changes little in the sense. The line in the sheet's own reading is waga koto ni oite kōkai o sezu; in the chronicle's form in common use, waga koto ni oite kōkaisezu.

Japanese Scrolls by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

我事に於て後悔せずVB6CBlock

我事に於て後悔せずVC6BCursive

我事に於て後悔せずVD6BEri's Choice

我事に於て後悔せずVS6CSemi-Cursive

Sources not seen

Kobayashi Hideo, 私の人生観, the lecture as first printed and the book of 1949 at its page; known here through Shitō's quotation and the National Diet Library's full-text index, whose excerpts of the 1949 book and its reprints are read and whose pages the library serves only on its own premises, the reprint of 1953 only in Japan. It would give Kobayashi's sentences whole and their context.

The 『文藝春秋』 column of January 1936 and 『菊池寛文学読本』 of 1936, read in the full-text index's excerpts only; the library serves the first only on its own premises and the second only in Japan. They would name the item's writer. The large shikishi that the Kagawa Prefectural Library catalogued in 1937, if it survives in that collection, would show in Kikuchi's own hand whether he wrote われ, as the catalogue transcribes it.

Yoshikawa Eiji, 『宮本武藏』 水・火の卷, 大日本雄辯會講談社, 1936, the first book edition, read in the index's excerpts, which carry われ事において後悔せず and the words on 悔いまじ; the scene is read whole in the Aozora Bunko text of the modern edition. The first edition would give the novel's own rubi.

The other copies of the 二天記 that the union catalogue lists, none served with images: 内閣文庫; 東京国立博物館, a copy dated 1755; 九州大学, dated 1801; 金沢市稽堂文庫; 茶図成篋文庫, dated 1818; and the 武徳会's copy of the Noda family's text. They would show which copies write 於テ and which におひて with を.

Fumon Tanaka, Samurai Fighting Arts, Kodansha International, 2003, and Jinichi Tokeshi, Kendo, University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2003, both of which name the twenty-one articles, and William Scott Wilson's translation of the 五輪書, Kodansha International, 2002, described by its publisher as carrying The Way of Walking Alone; not read at the sixth article. Any of them may render it before 2004.

占部賢志, 「小林秀雄ノート（49）我事に於て後悔せず」, 2018, and 加来耕三, 「我事において後悔せず」, 2017, two magazine articles on the line that the union catalogue of research lists and no repository serves. The first would give Kobayashi's use of the line.

今井正之信勝's three-part 独行道講話 in 禅, 2004, the school's own commentary on the text; in print only.

Shiba Ryōtarō's writing on Musashi, in which Shitō reports the articles called 箴言; known here only through Shitō, who does not name the work. It would show whether Shiba meant maxims for others to follow.

Lawrence A. Kane and Kris Wilder, Musashi's Dokkodo, a book-length commentary on the circulating list, not seen. It would show how the list's sixth line is taught.

A reader with access to any of these is invited to write to Takase Studios at Tim@Takase.com.

References

1. 紫藤誠也「宮本武蔵の『独行道』」, 語文研究 24, 九州大学国語国文学会, 1967, pp. 21–41; article 6 at pp. 28–29. https://doi.org/10.15017/12239
2. 吉川英治『随筆　宮本武蔵』, at Aozora Bunko, from the edition of 1990. https://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/001562/card52434.html
3. 豊田景英『二天記』, 1776, in 武藤厳男・宇野東風・古城貞吉編『肥後文献叢書』第二巻, 隆文館, 1909 (the volume's colophon, 明治四十二年十月五日發行; the set's imprint is 明42–43), pp. 190–192. National Diet Library pid 766733, scans 101 to 102. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/766733/1/101
4. 藤野富之助『剣道達人武蔵実記』誠之堂, Tokyo, 1886, p. 62. National Diet Library pid 782065, scan 43. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/782065/1/43
5. 宮本武蔵遺蹟顕彰会 編, 『宮本武蔵』, 金港堂書籍, 1909. National Diet Library pid 992019, scan 27. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/992019/1/27
6. 「我が事」, デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/我が事-415058
7. 「後悔」, 精選版 日本国語大辞典 · デジタル大辞泉 · 普及版 字通, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/後悔-494241
8. 宮本武蔵『独行道』, the sheet, 1645, at Japanese Wikisource, the revision of 15 December 2018. https://ja.wikisource.org/wiki/獨行道
9. 熊本県教育委員会, 「獨行道（どっこうどう）」, the designation text for the 県指定重要文化財（書跡）of 2003, at the Internet Archive's capture of the prefecture's site. https://web.archive.org/web/20081218202853/http://www.pref.kumamoto.jp/education/hinokuni/isan/siteijoukyou/2003.9.12/dokoudou.html
10. 『古今名誉実録』第4巻, 春陽堂, 1893 (the volume's colophon, 明治廿六年十一月七日發行), p. 14. National Diet Library pid 777889, scan 11. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/777889/1/11
11. 池辺藤園『少年史談』第1編, 文成社, Tokyo, 1912, p. 126. National Diet Library pid 1169609, scan 70. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1169609/1/70 · the library's catalogue also enters the book under 池辺義象 (NDL Search, title 少年史談, author 池辺義象): https://ndlsearch.ndl.go.jp/api/opensearch?title=少年史談&creator=池辺義象
12. 峯玄光『禅学観』峯達夫, Tokyo, 1932, p. 95. National Diet Library pid 1024979, scan 63. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1024979/1/63
13. 文部省 編『青年修身公民書』本科5年制用 巻第2, 文部省, Tokyo, 1942 (the colophon, 昭和十七年十二月七日發行), 附録 p. 25. National Diet Library pid 1461104, scan 80. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1461104/1/80
14. 文部省 編『青年修身公民書』本科4年制用 巻2, 文部省, Tokyo, 1944 (the colophon, 昭和十九年七月二十五日發行), 附録 p. 27. National Diet Library pid 1461111, scan 91. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1461111/1/91
15. Teruo Machida, "The last words of Miyamoto Musashi: An attempt to translate his Dokkôdô," 日本体育大学紀要 41 (2), 2012, pp. 199–211, article 6 and note 8. https://nittaidai.repo.nii.ac.jp/records/1222
16. Kenji Tokitsu, Miyamoto Musashi: His Life and Writings, translated by Sherab Chödzin Kohn, Shambhala, Boston, 2004, pp. 216–221.
17. 香川県立図書館 編『菊池寛文庫所蔵目録』昭和12年2月現在, Takamatsu, 1937. National Diet Library pid 1261744, scan 17. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1261744/1/17
18. 『文藝春秋』14 (1), January 1936, scan 122, excerpt only; served in the library only. National Diet Library pid 3197669. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/3197669/1/122
19. 菊池寛 ほか『菊池寛文学読本』秋冬の巻, 第一書房, 1936, scan 69, excerpt only; served only in Japan. National Diet Library pid 1231784. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1231784/1/69
20. 菊池寛『わが愛読文章』非凡閣, Tokyo, 1944, p. 135. National Diet Library pid 1884417, scan 80. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1884417/1/80
21. 小林秀雄『私の人生観』創元選書 173, 創元社, 1949, scan 98, excerpt only; served in the library only. National Diet Library pid 1705842. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1705842/1/98
22. 吉川英治『宮本武藏』水・火の卷, 大日本雄辯會講談社, 1936, scan 257, excerpt only; served in the library only. National Diet Library pid 1904364. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1904364/1/257
23. 「宮本武蔵」, 日本人名大辞典+Plus, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/宮本武蔵-139643
24. 熊本県立美術館, catalogue record for 独行道, 日-書040. https://jmapps.ne.jp/kumabi/det.html?data_id=377
25. 豊田景英 校『二天記』, the 武公傳 retitled, manuscript, 東京藝術大学附属図書館 脩本文庫 R289-1; the sixth article at canvas 47, the death at canvas 48. https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/100288740/manifest
26. 国立国会図書館デジタルコレクション, full-text index over the library's digitized books and journals, including those served only in Japan, on 我事に於て後悔, 我事において後悔, 我事におゐて後悔, 我事におひて後悔 and 我事に於いて後悔, oldest first, counted in items. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/search/searchResult?keyword=我事に於て後悔&fulltext=true&sortKey=ISSUED_ASC
27. 済々黌編『多士読本』下巻, Kumamoto, 1918. National Diet Library pid 926723, scan 70. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/926723/1/70
28. 島田正蔵『体育原論』大同館書店, Tokyo, 1926, pp. 112–115. National Diet Library pid 939697, scans 49 to 51. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/939697/1/50
29. 「宮本武蔵 (小説)」, Japanese Wikipedia, the revision of 23 August 2026. https://ja.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=110743128
30. 吉川英治『宮本武蔵』火の巻 and 風の巻, at Aozora Bunko, from the 吉川英治歴史時代文庫 edition, 講談社, 1989. https://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/001562/card52398.html · https://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/001562/card52399.html
31. 沢木興道述『武道と禅』, 1936, a year the library's record gives as its own estimate, p. 19. National Diet Library pid 1096784, scan 6. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1096784/1/6
32. 高嶋米峰『心の糧』金尾文淵堂, 1946, scan 81, excerpt only. National Diet Library pid 1123488. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1123488/1/81
33. Victor Harris, translator, A Book of Five Rings, Overlook Press, Woodstock, 1974, read in the Overlook paperback of 1982.
34. William Scott Wilson, The Lone Samurai: The Life of Miyamoto Musashi, Kodansha International, Tokyo, 2004, pp. 177–178.
35. Colin Hyakutake-Watkin, "Dokkodo," hyoho.com, the Internet Archive's capture of 28 July 2005. https://web.archive.org/web/20050728143510/http://www.hyoho.com/Hyoho6.html
36. "Dokkōdō," Wikipedia, the revision of 4 September 2006. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=73794671 · the revision of 16 April 2006, four precepts, under Tokitsu's book: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=48669285 · the article's history, no revision between 17 May and 4 September 2006: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dokk%C5%8Dd%C5%8D&action=history
37. David K. Groff, translator, The Five Rings, Watkins Media, 2012 (text copyright 2012), in the Chartwell Books edition, New York, pp. 240–241.
38. Alexander Bennett, translator, The Complete Musashi: The Book of Five Rings and Other Works, Tuttle Publishing, Tokyo, 2018, the chapter "The Path Walked Alone."
39. "Written Works – The Dokkōdō", harmonybudo.com, a twenty-one-precept English list, no translator credited; first captured by the Internet Archive on 24 March 2016. http://harmonybudo.com/harmony-budo-main-page/the-masters/miyamoto-musashi/writtenworks · https://web.archive.org/web/20160324010155/http://harmonybudo.com/harmony-budo-main-page/the-masters/miyamoto-musashi/writtenworks

Authors

Tim Jackowski (Systems Architect, Takase Studios, LLC) · 典 Ten (Anthropic Claude Fable 5.1, Sonnet 5 and Opus 5.5, Takase Studios, LLC)

AI written · Ten wrote the history. Tim Jackowski commissioned it and answers for it.

Checked · Claude Sonnet (Anthropic), 2026-09-15, citations — every claim tested at its address; most verbatim; nothing found to differ; one does not resolve, the checker's, right — Harris carries no 独行道; the rest not openable, live addresses, all re-opened by hand; one re-cited to the museum's record

Research depth: step 5 of our 10-step ladder, libraries searched · October 2026

Cite as: Tim Jackowski and Ten, "Philology of 我事に於て後悔せず (ware koto ni oite kōkaisezu)," Takase Studios, 2026, https://takase.com/library/philology/ware-koto-ni-oite-kokai-sezu.