"It is bad taste to yawn in front of people. When one unexpectedly had to yawn, if he rubs his forehead in an upward direction, the sensation will stop. If that does not work, he can lick his lips while keeping his mouth closed, or simply hide it with his hand or sleeve in such a way that no one will know what he is doing. It is the same with sneezing. One will appear foolish. There are other things besides these about which a person should use care and training.” (Yamamoto 22)
So this is indeed a guidebook. A guide telling a samurai everything down to how to prevent a sneeze or a yawn. Conduct is extremely important to people and samurais back then. Politeness was important. It is obvious that only a samurai would read this, I think by now. Apparently making face is paramount or at least at the top of priorities. Maybe this book was written because Yamamoto wanted to see a change in samurai at the time and wanted to see a change.
He could have written it because that state of the samurai was not fit for him. But I doubt it.
- do those techniques really work?
- what kind of man wrote this? Was he a samurai?
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