Daidōji Yūzan
Daidōji Yūzan was a samurai and military strategist of Edo period Japan. He was born in Fushimi in Yamashiro Province. Among the works he wrote in his late years was the widely circulated Budō Shoshin-shū, an introduction to warrior ethics that was influential among middle- and lower-class samurai. It is available in an English translation by William Scott Wilson as Budoshoshinshu: The Warrior's Primer.
Yūzan was the son of Daidōji Shigehisa, the grandson of Daidōji Naoshige and the great-grandson of Daidōji Masashige, an important advisor to the Later Hōjō clan. Shigehisa had been a samurai in the service of Matsudaira Tadateru, daimyō of the Echigo Takada fief, but became a rōnin in 1619 when Tadateru was dismissed from service. Yūzan studied the arts of war in Edo under Obata Kagenori, Hōjō Ujinaga, Yamaga Sokō and others. He then lectured on the subject as a guest of the Asano at the Hiroshima fief, the Matsudaira clan at the Aizu fief, the Matsudaira clan at the Fukui fief, and elsewhere in Japan.
Yūzan's son Daidōji Shigetaka became a retainer of the Fukui fief with a stipend of 300 koku.
