“…just as the ancient Greeks associated aesthetics with ethics, morality in Hagakure is determined by aesthetics. What is beautiful must be strong, vivid, and brimming with energy. This is the first principle; the second is that what is moral must be beautiful. It does not mean taking great care over clothing and becoming effeminate, but rather it brings together beauty and ethical goals in the greatest possible tension.”
- Yukio Mishima, Mishima on Hagakure
