THE BOOK OF FIVE RINGS By Miyamoto Musashi

[GeneChing]

We have several threads that mention Musashi, but none dedicated to The Book of Five Rings. Our new sweepstakes is for a gorgeous new edition of The Book of Five Rings By Miyamoto Musashi, translated by Thomas Cleary, with 2 audio CDS read by Lloyd James (ends 6:00 p.m. PST on 12/22/2010) so I'm using that as an excuse to start one.

On the way to work today, I was toying with the idea of starting a subforum dedicated to books. I know I'm always resistant to launching new forums because it's a hassle to shuffle old threads about and it would require more maintenance. But as a publisher, I'm considering it mostly for the statement it would make.

Back to Musashi, I wrote my Provost D'Arms thesis on The Book of Five Rings. That was back in '85 I think. I'm eager to hear of anyone else who has engaged The Book of Five Rings here.

Some miscellaneous Musashi threads:
Ni-Ten Ichi Ryu (musashi)
Musashi Miyamoto Trilogy

[Lucas]

Thomas Cleary's translation is the one I have also. I really like all of Cleary's translation work and tend to grab his versions when ever available. I'll need to pull that bad boy out and dust it off, its been a while....I stumbled upon the book of five rings about 11 years ago after reading the hagakure for my first time.


Do not harbor sinister designs.
Diligently pursue the Path of Two-Swords-as-One.
Cultivate a wide range of interests in the arts.
Be knowledgeable in a variety of occupations.
Be discreet regarding one’s commercial dealings.
Nurture the ability to perceive the truth in all matters.
Perceive that which cannot be seen with the eye.
Do not be negligent, even in trifling matters.
Do not engage in useless activity.

[Lucas]

reading a bit through, in the book of the void, there is a quote very relevant to all martial artists in regards to becoming a good fighter/warrior;



"To attain the Way of strategy as a warrior you must study fully other martial arts and not deviate even a little from the Way of the warrior. With your spirit settled, accumulate practice day by day, and hour by hour. Polish the twofold spirit heart and mind, and sharpen the twofold gaze perception and sight. When your spirit is not in the least clouded, when the clouds of bewilderment clear away, there is the true void."

[KC Elbows]

A forum on books would be fantastic!

Do it, Gene, you know you want to. It's what all the cool kids do.

[ShaolinDan]

I think a book forum would be nice too.

I like the Book of Five Rings, not sure which translations I've read--a few--none of them so different from each other (nothing like the variation in some of the Chinese classics at least), good stuff. A lot of Sun Tzu in there, reminds me of bruce Lee

[Lucas]

It could be a great place for people to share any studies, articles or papers they find interesting, or have written themselves.

[Jimbo]

Gene, a book sub-forum would be great.
It's been a while since I've read in The Book of Five Rings. Never read the whole thing straight through, though. There is a lot in there to be applied today.

There are other good books along similar lines, as well. One I like a lot is The Unfettered Mind by Takuan Soho, translated by William Scott Wilson.

Regarding Bruce Lee, a great deal (most?) of his philosophy was adopted from old texts or accounts, just reworded a little bit. BL was a huge reader. I heard or read a famous old account of a samurai challenging another (I don't remember if the challenge was to Musashi, but I think it was to another well-known samurai) on a boat, and it was matched exactly by the boat scene in Enter the Dragon where BL tricks the Australian guy off the boat with "The art of fighting without fighting." BL adopted a lot of stuff from old Japanese and Chinese books. That was a good thing, but a lot of BL fans think those ideas were thought up by BL, when in fact they were written down hundreds of years ago.

The great thing about books like The Book of Five Rings, The Unfettered Mind, and others is you can revisit them countless times and glean new things from them.

[GeneChing]

Takuan Soho has often been credited as Musashi's master, but that legend has been discredited for the most part. Kenji Tokitsu's Miyamoto Musashi: His Life and Writings (also from Shambhala coincidentally) offers some serious criticisms of that legend - it's a must-read for any Musashi scholar. I even reference this in my book, Shaolin Trips on page 79. Nevertheless, I concur with you, Jimbo. Unfettered Mind is a tremendous read.

As for Lee's works, anyone who has even a passing knowledge of philosophy knows that Lee poached a lot of his ideas from his studies. I mentioned this in Shaolin Trips: Flashback, my most recent e-zine installment. Sadly, when his posthumous works were being compiled, Lee's notes were pillaged and many of the ideas were credited to Lee. I'm not sure if the compilers were trying to make look wiser than he was or if they were just ignorant of the body of philosophy Lee was exposed to in his studies. I don't think Lee would have wanted that. It's a strange legacy.

[Lucas]

One I like a lot is The Unfettered Mind by Takuan Soho

One of the best books I have ever read. For anyone who has not read this, go read it now!!

[sanjuro_ronin]

I have 3 translations of the Book of five rings.
The unfettered mind.
The sword and the mind by Yagyu Muneori
The sword polisher by Adam Hus
Sheesh, I have SO MANY books on MA its ridiculous.
I Have the Hand is my sword by Robert Trias.
Dynamic Judo: Grappling by Kudo
The Kawashi m ethod of Judo by Kawasashi (old school judo).
I even have some books with Gene talking about Hung ga, the article he wrote for Inside Kung fu centuries ago.
LOL !
I have some old stuff, real old stuff.

[Lucas]

I have 3 translations of the Book of five rings.
The unfettered mind.
The sword and the mind by Yagyu Muneori
The sword polisher by Adam Hus
Sheesh, I have SO MANY books on MA its ridiculous.
I Have the Hand is my sword by Robert Trias.
Dynamic Judo: Grappling by Kudo
The Kawashi m ethod of Judo by Kawasashi (old school judo).
I even have some books with Gene talking about Hung ga, the article he wrote for Inside Kung fu centuries ago.
LOL !
I have some old stuff, real old stuff.

did munenori and musashi actually have a rivalry or was that only in fiction? the time line seems to fit.

kojiro fought musashi with a nodachi!

[sanjuro_ronin]

did munenori and musashi actually have a rivalry or was that only in fiction? the time line seems to fit.

kojiro fought musashi with a nodachi!

I think it was one of those "if two tigers fight one dies and the other is crippled for life" type of thing and they probably avoided each other out of mutual admiration.

Musashi was a fine strategist and his philosophy carries over very well, his problem was that he was obessive compulsive and had no balance when he wrote the GO rin No sho.
It is far to one dimensional in regards to life, which makes sense since he was obsessed with combat.

[Lucas]

his views were definately to the far end of the extreme. i can understand from a point of perspective, it must have been a hard life. A reputation like his wouldn't leave much room for slack in discipline.

i always wondered how much truth there is to the whole carved ore thing. i just looked up on wikipedia...it says he carved the bokken to be bigger than a nodachi!!! man thats FREAKING HUGE. almost a rediculous claim lol, it doesnt say on wiki that he did but didnt he deliver the death blow with his wakizashi? maybe im just remembering that from that old musashi movie or something...

[Jimbo]

I have 3 translations of the Book of five rings.
The unfettered mind.
The sword and the mind by Yagyu Muneori
The sword polisher by Adam Hus
Sheesh, I have SO MANY books on MA its ridiculous.
I Have the Hand is my sword by Robert Trias.
Dynamic Judo: Grappling by Kudo
The Kawashi m ethod of Judo by Kawasashi (old school judo).
I even have some books with Gene talking about Hung ga, the article he wrote for Inside Kung fu centuries ago.
LOL !
I have some old stuff, real old stuff.

Wow, I thought I was the only one who still has a copy of The Hand is My Sword. I also have a library of MA books, many now out of print. A room is set aside that houses this 'library'. Some other notable books in my MA collection include:

The Sword Polisher's Record by Adam Hsu.
Lone Sword Against a Cold Cold Sky by Adam Hsu.
Budo Secrets by John Stevens.
The Demon's Sermon on the Martial Arts by Issai Chozanshi, translated by William Scott Wilson.
Combat Techniques of Taiji, Xingyi, and Bagua by Lu Shengli.
Karate: The Art of Empty-Hand Fighting by Nishiyama and Brown.
The Way of Karate by Mattson.
The Complete Kano Jiu-Jitsu by Hanc0ck and Higashi.
Chinese Boxing: Masters and Methods by R.W. Smith.
Martial Musings by R.W. Smith.
Western Boxing and World Wrestling by John F. Gilbey (actually, a pen name for R.W. Smith).
Several interesting books by Marc "Animal" MacYoung.
And of course, Chinese Martial Arts Training Manuals by Kennedy and Guo.

I don't buy very many books on MA anymore, but there's still some really good stuff that comes out now and then. I must get Gene's book Shaolin Trips!

[sanjuro_ronin]

his views were definately to the far end of the extreme. i can understand from a point of perspective, it must have been a hard life. A reputation like his wouldn't leave much room for slack in discipline.

i always wondered how much truth there is to the whole carved ore thing. i just looked up on wikipedia...it says he carved the bokken to be bigger than a nodachi!!! man thats FREAKING HUGE. almost a rediculous claim lol, it doesnt say on wiki that he did but didnt he deliver the death blow with his wakizashi? maybe im just remembering that from that old musashi movie or something...

It was a mental **** move, he knew the reason the other guy used the nodachi was because he wanted, no, NEEDED the range.
Once the other guy lost that "advantage" he was beaten already.
There is a huge lesson there.