Product Description

Setting down his thoughts on swordplay, on winning, and on spirituality, legendary swordsman Miyamoto Musashi intended this modest work as a guide for his immediate disciples and future generations of samurai. He had little idea he was penning a masterpiece that would be eagerly devoured by people in all walks of life centuries after his death. Along with The Art of War by Sun Tzu, The Book of Five Rings has long been regarded as an invaluable treatise on the strategy of winning. Musashi's timeless advice on defeating an adversary, throwing an opponent off-guard, creating confusion, and other techniques for overpowering an assailant was addressed to the readers of earlier times on the battlefield, and now serves the modern reader in the battle of life. In this new rendering by the translator of Hagakure and The Unfettered Mind, William Scott Wilson adheres rigorously to the seventeenth-century Japanese text and clarifies points of ambiguity in earlier translations. In addition, he offers an extensive introduction and a translation of Musashi's rarely published The Way of Walking Alone. This gift-book edition also features original art by Musashi himself as well as new calligraphy by Japanese artist Shiro Tsujimura.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17816 in Books
• Published on: 2002-04-01
• Original language: Japanese
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 160 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
To learn a Japanese martial art is to learn Zen, and although you can't do so simply by reading a book, it sure does help--especially if that book is the Book of Five Rings. One of Japan's great samurai sword masters put down in decisive, unfaltering terms the certain path to victory, and like Sun Tzu's Art of War, it is applicable not only on the battlefield but in all forms of competition. Always observant, creating confusion, striking at vulnerabilities--these are some of the basic principles. Going deeper, we find suki, the interval of vulnerability, of indecisiveness, of rest, the briefest but most vital moment to strike. In succinct detail, Miyamoto records ideal postures, blows and psychological tactics to put the enemy off guard and open the way for attack. Most important of all is Miyamoto's concept of rhythm, how all things are in harmony, and by working with the rhythm of a situation, we can turn it to our advantage with little effort. But like Zen, this requires one thing above all else, putting the book down and going out to practice. --Brian Bruya

Review
"Musashi's teachings read like lessons from the latest business management gurus. Who couldn't succeed in business by applying Musahi's insights to conflicts and strategy." --Inc. Magazine

"On Wall Street, when Musashi talks, people listen" --Time Magazine

About the Author
Miyamoto Musashi (1584-1645) was a renowned swordsman and painter. A masterless samurai, he developed the two-sword style of fighting and emerged victorious in more than 60 sword fights in his travels throughout Japan. The author of The Book of Five Rings, he is also the subject of the novel Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa.

William Scott Wilson, the translator, was born in 1944 in Nashville, Tennessee, and grew up in Florida. He received B.A. degrees from Dartmouth College and the Monterey Institute of Foreign Studies, and an M.A. in Japanese literary studies from the University of Washington. His long-selling translations of Hagakure, The Unfettered Mind, and Taiko have become standards. Hagakure was featured prominently in the film Ghost Dog.

Customer Reviews

stunning book not easily understood by non technical readers
Well, this is one of the greatest books ever written on strategy. But a great deal of it is highly technical and not easily understood by people without extensive background in the Japanese martial arts - I lived in Japan for 3 years, have studied over 10 year and make no claims to understand it. I used to ask my Sensei about it and he would just laugh - it was deliberately written to be obscure. I think you ought read it, enjoy it, know that most business managers (Japan or America) do not understand it and all the hype about it as a business text is BS.

An Awseome Insight
This is a fantastic book. You are recieving a lesson in "the way" from a man who has spent his entire life trying to follow and discover the way. He is not just talking about these things in an abstract mannor he has lived through countless battles and proven his beliefs time and time again. Read this book, then read it again and carry on reading it and taking something new from it each time. The lessons which can be learned are endless.
Listen to the words of a truly great swordsman offering his final lessons to his students for after he is gone.

Tantalising
This tantalisingly brief book gives half of the teaching of an almost legendary Samurai duellist. Where is the other half? Lost. As the author reminds us again and again, the five scrolls are there to support the oral, technical teaching which he gave his students.

This is at once admirable and frustrating. As a fencing coach, I know that only a part of my work is to explain attitudes, tactics and techniques. The greater part is to teach, train and coach the individual student, building on what they find comes naturally and developing what they find difficult. At the same time, the original School of Two Swords, as he styles it, is long in the past and although we can capture the modern tradition, we cannot learn from the master.

The Book of Five Rings is about much more than swordplay, though. We are led again and again from a principle derived in individual combat to large scale military strategy. Likewise, each of the five spheres is aimed at developing the correct attitude, with technique merely being secondary.

The underlying theme of this book is 'winning by all means possible'. This, and the other principles of the Way of Two Swords, have many applications to other ways of engaging an opponent in today's environment.

Nonetheless, I finished this book with one regret - 'if only I could have met him'.