Book Review: The Book of Five Rings

The Strategy of the Samurai

By Miyamoto Musashi

Summary

This book contains Japanese sword saint Miyamoto Musashi’s reflections on strategy, as well as an introduction that provides some background on his life and the period he lived in.

Review

At only 159 pages of large text and a lot of large pictures, this book can easily be read over a weekend.  The book of five rings itself – the translated writings of Musashi on sword fighting and strategy in general – is relatively short, and reads more like an instruction manual than a novel.  As a combat strategy guide, I think it will be particularly interesting to martial artists.

Reflection

I enjoy books that transport you across time and space – this version of the book of five rings, with its introduction on the life of Musashi and the period he lived in does just that. Musashi lived from the late 1500s to the mid 1600s in Japan. He is known as the greatest Samurai swordfighter of all time, having won 61 duals, many of which were fought to the death.

He was a Samurai somewhat displaced in time himself.  During the relatively peaceful period Musashi lived in, there were really no more big wars for Samurai to fight. Feeling somewhat robbed of their purpose but unwilling to give up their old ways, many continued to devote themselves to the mastery of the sword. Some fought each other in duals seemingly just for the sake of seeing who was better.

At this time there was also a large emphasis in dojos on studying the Chinese classics and being able to write. The book mentions a concept of “Bunbu Ichi” or “pen and sword in accord” that points to highly they regarded this ability to read and write. It is likely for this reason, at the end of his life while living as a hermit in a cave, Musashi decided to write down his thoughts. His writing included lessons learned from a lifetime of studying sword fighting with a chapter of esoteric Buddhist wisdom thrown in for good measure. He originally wrote it on five scrolls, why it is called “The Book of Five Rings” to this day.

As a person with a martial arts background, I enjoyed the practical sword fighting manual more than a typical person probably would. Some suggestions are very specific to sword fighting or how to best use a specific weapon under specific circumstances. But there are some concepts that transcend martial arts styles and scenarios and it is likely after a lifetime of sword fighting Musashi arrived at many of these fundamental truths of combat and strategy.

Some are very common sense practical. For example, if you are in some sort of altercation it is a good idea to position yourself with the sun at your back so it gets in your opponents eyes and obscures his vision. Others are a bit less obvious, and may require the lens of martial arts practice to understand and apply.

Of course, he wouldn’t be a good cave-dwelling hermit if he didn’t include a section at the end about the very abstract Buddhist concept of the void. A concept about which seemingly nothing can be said, this final chapter only includes a few paragraphs and opens with this:

“What is called the spirit of the void is where there is nothing. It is not included in man’s knowledge. Of course, the void is nothingness. By knowing things that exist, you can know that which does not exist. That is the void.”

After a lifetime of single-minded devotion to sword fighting, Musashi had arrived at an understanding of the unspeakable truths reserved for saints and buddhas. There are many paths to this type of enlightenment, and Musashi is an example that any path, even a seemingly violent one, pursued with earnest devotion can arrive at the same goal.