Miyamoto Musashi – A Book of Five Rings

Miyamoto Musashi – A Book of Five Rings

The link

"A Book of Five Rings" on Goodreads

What it is

“A Book of Five Rings” is the book of swordsmanship by Miyamoto Musashi, a 17th century Japanese swordsman. Unlike Sun Tzu , the existence of Miyamoto Musashi is historically confirmed: he lived in Japan from 1584 to 1645.

Musashi rose to fame as a duelist, winning over 60 duels while remaining undefeated. He roamed through Japan as a wandering duelist and military commander before settling down to teach later in life. In 1643, sixty years old Musashi retired to a cave to write “A Book of Five Rings”, which he finished in 1645. He died a few months after its completion.

Like “The Art of War”, the book is under 100 pages in translation. There are multiple translators available; the text is remarkably straightforward, so I doubt there will be large differences between them.

What it means to me

“A Book of Five Rings” boils dueling down to one concept, and repeats it often: “the only thing that matters in swordsmanship is to kill the opponent”. While this echoes Sun Tzu’s “Great Victory”, Miyamoto Musashi veers off into a different direction entirely: Sun Tzu looks at how to strategically and tactically move an army; Musashi looks at the kind of person you have to be to win a life-or-death duel.

Along the way, Musashi thoroughly destroys the notion that anything matters but the ultimate goal of killing ones opponent. When he describes weapons , specific situations, and defensive postures in detail they are always options to be considered, rather than ends to themselves.

The fourth book of the 'five rings', “Wind”, is dedicated to a critique of rival schools. Musashi considers their focusing on a single aspect a distraction from the true way, as it comes at the expense of flexibility and focus. Noteworthy is his dismissal of a school which teaches to fight with longer than average swords:

“Their preference is for the extra-long sword and relying on the virtue of this length, they think to defeat the enemy from a distance. […] It shows the inferior strategy of a weak spirit that men should be dependent on the length of their sword, fighting from a distance without the benefit of strategy.”

In short, a sixty year old swordmaster is telling a rival school to stop hiding behind their oversized swords and get good.

“A Book of Five Rings” frequently reminds the reader that reading is no substitute for practice. In fact, you almost get the sense that Musashi is frustrated at the inability of language to convey what he wants to say. Miyamoto Mushashi keeps on encouraging the reader to try, and master, all the swords, all the forms, and all the attacks. When you do so, break techniques down into how and why they work; incorporate their practical uses into your fighting style, rather than flashy displays. Ultimately, you will have all sorts of tools at your disposal, and will be able to use the right one at the right time.

No toolkit is ever big enough, and tools should remain tools instead of becoming crutches.


Leonard

(This is the second entry in a series of three reviews of famous works of Eastern Martial Philosophy. The first one is Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War”; the third one is Yamamoto Tsunemoto’s “Hagakure”. )