01 · Locate
A passage you can find again
Each reading names the work and a division such as a scroll, chapter, section, or dated entry. Where a library or archive provides a stable image, the source note links to that institutional record.
Primary sources · fresh translations · careful limits
Read the source before the legend.
Tsushima Shiki is a bilingual archive of close readings from Japanese war chronicles, early-modern ninjutsu manuals, sword texts, and the Seven Military Classics. Every article begins with a short, locatable passage and builds an original explanation around what its words can—and cannot—support.
A reason to read here
What this archive adds
A public-domain quotation is only the starting point. The value of each page lies in the new translation, source identification, vocabulary notes, contextual reading, and explicit limits added by the editor.
02 · Separate
Text, translation, and inference stay apart
The original wording is displayed separately from the fresh translation. Notes define difficult terms. Interpretation follows afterward, so a reader can see exactly when the article leaves the quoted sentence and begins to reason from it.
03 · Limit
Uncertainty is part of the result
Many famous stories are more precise than their earliest sources. A page records what the selected witness says, identifies what it leaves unstated, and avoids turning silence in one passage into a claim about all of history.
Four reading rooms
Choose a body of evidence
The categories are organized by source type rather than by modern entertainment labels. Each room includes a guide to its major works and a chronological list of individual readings.
War chronicles
Sengoku
Oda Nobunaga’s chronicle, Takeda house traditions, Hideyoshi-related records, and the practical voices collected in Zōhyō Monogatari.
Manuals of secrecy
Ninjutsu
The Bansenshūkai, Shōninki, and Ninpiden read as transmitted texts: judgment and intelligence first, implements and techniques in their actual place.
Strategy and the sword
Swordsmanship
Miyamoto Musashi and Yagyū Munenori in context. Familiar phrases are returned to the scrolls and technical discussions from which they were taken.
The canon of seven
Military Classics
The Liu Tao, Three Strategies, Sima Fa, Sunzi, Wuzi, Wei Liaozi, and the Questions and Replies, one short passage at a time.
Three examples
What close reading changes
These articles show the method at work: begin with nouns and verbs in the source, then test the familiar story against them.
Shinchō Kōki
Were the prepared heads drinking cups?
The chronicle names three heads, hakudami treatment, presentation, and a drinking party. The article asks whether it also names a cup, pouring, or drinking from the object.
Liu Tao
Why are three occupations “treasures”?
Four repeated sentences link farmers, artisans, and merchants to sufficient grain, implements, and goods. The controlling measure is enough, not limitless accumulation.
Gorin no Sho
Why does Musashi separate striking from hitting?
The Water Scroll uses two ordinary verbs as technical terms. Their contrast becomes clearer when the surrounding explanation is read instead of treating one sentence as a slogan.
Editorial responsibility
Who makes the site, and how corrections work
Shiki Tsushima is the independent translator, editor, and operator of this site. The author page describes the works covered, the page-making process, the relationship between the English and Japanese editions, and the limits of the biographical claims made here.
The source policy identifies the principal editions and repositories used by the archive. It also explains how variant witnesses are handled and why the site tracks the cumulative length of its short public-domain quotations. Corrections supported by a locatable source are invited through the contact page.
About the editor · Source and citation policy · Contact and corrections
原典の一節から、どこまで言えるか
津島史紀は、戦国・忍術・剣術・兵法の原典を、一節ずつ読む日英二言語のサイトです。原文を置くだけではありません。その記事のために新しく訳し、難しい語を確かめ、前後の位置を示し、本文に書かれていることと後世の解釈を分けます。
有名な逸話ほど、原文より具体的な映像を持っています。そこで記事では、何が書かれているかだけでなく、その数行からは何を断定できないかも記します。出典、著者、連絡先、プライバシー方針は下記から確認できます。