The Book of Five Rings Read online

  ABOUT THE BOOK

  Along with Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, The Book of Five Rings is considered to be one of the most insightful texts on the subtle arts of confrontation and victory to emerge from Asia. Composed in 1643 by the famed duelist and undefeated samurai Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings analyzes the process of struggle and mastery over conflict that underlies every level of human interaction. For Musashi, the way of the martial arts was a mastery of the mind rather than simply technical prowess—and it is this path to mastery that is the core teaching in The Book of Five Rings. This brilliant manifesto is written not only for martial artists but for anyone who wants to apply the timeless principles of this text to their life.

  WILLIAM SCOTT WILSON is the foremost translator into English of traditional Japanese texts on samurai culture. His best-selling translations include Hagakure and The Book of Five Rings.

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  NOTE

  Throughout this volume, Japanese names appear in the traditional order, surname preceding given name

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  English translation © 2002 by William Scott Wilson

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Miyamoto, Musashi, 1584–1645.

  [Gorin no sho. English]

  The book of five rings / Miyamoto Musashi; translation by William Scott Wilson; calligraphy by Shiro Tsujimura.

  p. cm.

  Includes bibliographical references.

  eISBN 978-0-8348-2786-8

  ISBN 978-1-59030-984-1 (hardcover: alk. paper)

  1. Military art and science—Early works to 1800. 2. Swordplay—Japan—Early works to 1800. I. Wilson, William Scott, 1944– II. Title.

  U101.M5913 2012

  355.02—dc23

  2011043512

  The English translation is dedicated to Sifu Steve Williams

  CONTENTS

  PREFACE BY WILLIAM SCOTT WILSON

  INTRODUCTION BY WILLIAM SCOTT WILSON

  THE WAY OF WALKING ALONE

  THE BOOK OF FIVE RINGS

  THE EARTH CHAPTER

  THE WATER CHAPTER

  THE FIRE CHAPTER

  THE WIND CHAPTER

  THE EMPTINESS CHAPTER

  NOTES

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  E-MAIL SIGN-UP

  PREFACE

  In a private collection in Japan, there is a remarkable painting, nearly four hundred years old, of a shrike on a withered branch. Done in monochrome India ink and measuring about four feet high by a foot and a half wide, it expresses a tension and clarity of spirit that seem to go far beyond the bounds of its relatively few lines. The shrike sits with extraordinary attention and concentration, its sharp beak a subtle and almost cruel curve, its gaze cast into the void. It is clearly a bird such as we rarely see in our backyards. As we continue to look at this work, it is the single stroke depicting the greater part of the branch that becomes most arresting. Rising up from the bottom left of the painting and cutting through its near center, it is grace and strength in a single quick movement, standing out against nothingness; the observer might conclude that the painter must have been, in a sense, absolutely fearless. How else the decisiveness and total self-confidence of this one swordlike stroke?

  The painter’s name was Niten, or “Two Heavens.” More exactly, Niten was the artistic name of one Shinmen Musashi, or Miyamoto Musashi.

  With the publication of The Book of Five Rings, I feel a sense of completion on what might be considered a short cycle of translations of works centering around Japanese warrior thought and concerns. Musashi, who was the ultimate combatant on the field, reveals his techniques for defeating one’s opponent through spirit, awareness and discipline. For him, the only goal is victory: there is no other point to combat, whether in one-on-one confrontations or on the battlefield for his lord. What is gained along the Way of this discipline, however, is a grasp of all the other arts, both martial and literary. In The Unfettered Mind, the Zen priest Takuan, a contemporary of Musashi, teaches the defeat of the interfering ego—the overriding sense of self, over which we often stumble—specifically in its first essay, “The Mysterious Record of Immovable Wisdom.” Writing to one of the sword masters to the shogun, Takuan uses the example of martial combat to explain the Zen approach to handling the ego, and so deals with the transcendental area including both life and death.

  In the third work of this cycle, the Hagakure, Yamamoto Tsunetomo considers the warrior values of loyalty, duty, and righteousness, and finds his ultimate realization of these matters in death. To Tsunetomo, a man’s death demonstrated his sincerity, and in considering himself as already dead, he was able to complete his daily work with utter peace and tranquility. Musashi, Takuan, and Tsunetomo, it would seem, are concerned with the elimination of fear, and how to engage in life in a straightforward and unwavering manner. It is Musashi, however, who deals with the subject with an astonishing practicality and realism, and he encourages us to cut through any obstacles with energy and self-reliance. Asking no aid from the gods and Buddhas, we brace ourselves only with an internalized Way.

  Musashi wrote The Book of Five Rings toward the very end of his life, after fighting in over sixty individual matches and at least three major battles on the field. That we have such easy access to his reflections on his life-and-death experiences should, I think, be both congratulatory and an admonishment, for it grants us the ability to be conversant with the wisdom learned from intense experiences that very few of us will ever have, and may show us how lightly we take our own lives and potential. Accordingly, while The Book of Five Rings will be of extraordinary interest to practitioners of the martial arts and students of Japanese culture, its study will be of value for anyone whose life encompasses conflict.

  Musashi’s original manuscript of five scrolls no longer exists, but the various copies made differ only slightly in some of the words and phrases. Remarkably, the copy presented by Musashi’s disciple Terao Nobumasa to Yamamoto Gensuke, in 1667 (only twenty years after Musashi’s death), is still in the possession of the Hosokawa family, whose ancestor, the daimyo Hosokawa Tadatoshi, was Musashi’s primary benefactor. It is considered to be the most accurate of those extant, and it is the copy upon which this translation is based.

  Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to Mr. Kuramochi Tetsuo, former senior executive editor at Kodansha International, for suggesting and coordinating the original translation project; Ms. Beth Frankl, editor at Shambhala Publications, and Mr. John Golebiewski, assistant editor, for their diligence and enthusiasm in bringing out this new edition; Messrs. Kamata Shigeo and Watanabe Ichiro for their clear notes and translations of the original into modern Japanese; my wife, Emily, for her patience and encouragement; and my late professors, Hiraga Noburu and Richard McKinnon, whom I still feel looking over my shoulder with friendly bemusement. Any and all mistakes are my own.

  William Scott Wilson

  October 26, 2011

  Publisher’s Note

  This book contains Chinese and Japanese characters. If you encounter difficulty displaying these characters, please set your e-reader device to publisher defaults (if available) or to an alternate font. />
  INTRODUCTION

  We have very few reliable facts about Musashi’s life. His own words on the subject fill less than a page at the beginning of The Book of Five Rings, and later accounts, such as the Nitenki or the Tanba Hokin Hikki, were all written eighty to one hundred and thirty years after his death. However, a bare-bones biography might be pieced together, with events that are commonly accepted as true from the sources that are available. These include a memorial inscription of stone erected nine years after Musashi’s death by his adopted son and the priest with whom the swordsman studied Zen Buddhism in his later years, plus what was noted of his comings and goings by the Hosokawa clan in northern Kyushu. We must exclude legendary feats of speed and skill attributed to Musashi since they are at once unreliable and go against the spirit of Musashi’s writings. Those interested in the full gamut of stories that grew up around Musashi’s life should read Musashi, the endlessly entertaining historical fiction written by Yoshikawa Eiji, or see the film Samurai Trilogy, directed by Inagaki Hiroshi.

  MUSASHI

  In The Book of Five Rings, Musashi notes that he was born in Harima, but there is also evidence that he came from the village of Miyamoto, in Mimasaka.1 Neither claim can be proven. The date of his birth is unclear, but according to his own account, he was born in 1584. His father, Shinmen Munisai, was said to be a master of the jitte (a small metal club with an extended “thumb” for countering a sword), and may have left the family when Musashi was quite young.

  When Musashi was thirteen, he fought and defeated a swordsman of the Shinto Style, Arima Kihei, in Harima. His second match and subsequent victory was at the age of sixteen, when he defeated a martial artist from Tajima by the name of Akiyama. It is said that he joined the Toyotomi forces (which lost) at the historically decisive Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, but this, too, is uncertain. The next few years must have been spent in hard training, for at the age of twenty-one Musashi went to Kyoto and fought a series of engagements with the Yoshioka clan, which held the position of martial arts instructor to the shogun’s family in that city. After maiming the eldest brother, Yoshioka Seijuro, with a wooden sword and killing the second brother, Denshichiro, Musashi fought off a group of Yoshioka disciples who, beneath the pines of the Ichijo temple, tried but failed to take revenge. It is said that it was during the fight with Seijuro that Musashi’s eyes were opened to the “Two Heavens,” or Two-Sword Style.

  Leaving the Yoshiokas in disarray, Musashi met and defeated a disciple of the famous In’ei, a spearman-priest at the Hozoin. Traveling to Edo, he then fought Muso Gonnosuke, the famous staff martial artist, in the only contest that may have been considered a draw. A little later he fought and defeated a practitioner of the Yagyu Style, a style that would become one of the most famous of the period. Moving on to Iga, he met with the well-known sickle-and-chain martial artist, Shishido Baikin, and defeated him as well.

  In April of 1612, Musashi left Kyoto and went to Kokura in northern Kyushu. There he sought out one of his father’s former disciples, now a senior official of the Kokura fief, in order to gain permission to have a match with Ganryu Sasaki Kojiro. Kojiro was employed as a sword teacher to the Hosokawa clan and was famous for his long “Drying Pole” sword and Swallow Style. This famous match was held on Funashima, now called Ganryujima, a small lonely island in the sea off Kokura. Tradition has it that as Musashi was being rowed to the island, he carved a wooden sword from an extra oar, and it was with this “sword” that he quickly brained his unfortunate opponent. Kojiro did not survive the blow.

  According to some accounts, Musashi next surfaced in 1615 to take part in the military action at Osaka Castle, the final fall of the Toyotomi clan. After that he seems to have set out through the northern provinces of Dewa and Hitachi, where he may have taken on his disciple, Iori, who was later to become his adopted son. He then returned to Nagoya in Owari and toured a number of other provinces, always seeking out matches with other martial artists.

  In 1634, Musashi traveled again to Kokura, now under the authority of Ogasawara Tadazane, and stayed a number of years. In 1637, he seems to have participated in the attack on Hara Castle during the Shimabara Rebellion, in which he received several wounds. Having returned to Kyoto for recuperation, he is said to have met Hosokawa Tadatoshi, the master of Kumamoto Castle, at a literary group in 1640, and to have been invited by the latter to stay as a guest with his own residence in the castle town. Musashi accepted and continued to practice and teach his martial art there.

  In February of 1641, at the request of Lord Hosokawa, Musashi wrote down the Thirty-five Articles of the Martial Arts . This was the first time he recorded his own style in writing, and it was from this document in outline form that he eventually would write The Book of Five Rings. Tragically, Tadatoshi passed away shortly afterward at the age of fifty-four, dashing Musashi’s hopes for an official endorsement of his style. Thus began a period when the famous swordsman concentrated increasingly on poetry, tea, painting, and sculpture.

  By 1643, Musashi must have felt the intimations of what was to be a fatal disease. On October 10 of that year, in an act of purification, he “climbed Mount Iwato in the province of Higo on the island of Kyushu, bowed in veneration to Heaven, worshipped Kannon, and stood before the Buddha,” and began to compose The Book of Five Rings. This he would complete after two years of meditation on his experiences.

  Around the springtime of 1645, his disease, which is thought to have been some form of thoracic cancer, gradually worsened, and in April he retreated to the Reigan Cave on Mount Iwato (also called Mount Iwatono), where he had practiced zazen during previous years, and where he wanted to wait peacefully for death. However, he was convinced to return to his residence, where he could be looked after by his disciples. On May 12, his disease becoming critical, Musashi gave out parting gifts to his disciples. His final act was to write out “The Way of Walking Alone” (or “The Way of Self-Reliance”; , twenty-one points on self-discipline for later generations.

  On May 19, 1645, Miyamoto (Shinmen) Musashi died at his residence, by most accounts, at the age of sixty-two. A requiem was given soon after by the priest Shunzan, with whom Musashi had studied Zen. As the priest intoned the sutras, it is said that the sky suddenly clouded over and there was an enormous clap of thunder. Thus was it known that the great swordsman had passed away.

  THE KYOTO RENAISSANCE

  “I have never had a teacher while studying the Ways of the various arts and accomplishments, or in anything at all” (“The Earth Chapter”).

  This is an astonishing statement from a man who was not only one of the most famous swordsmen of his time, but also an extraordinarily skilled painter, sculptor, and metallurgist. We also know that Musashi was well acquainted with poetry, the Way of Tea, the recitation of Noh drama and perhaps even carpentry. This necessitates an adjustment of the picture we may have of him as a man of strength and skill (both qualities he would regard as of secondary importance) who did little other than wander the country engaging other martial artists in matches he inevitably won. In order to make that adjustment, we must consider the world in which he lived and the people with whom he may have been in contact.

  Musashi was active during a time aptly called the Kyoto Renaissance, a period stretching approximately fifty years on either side of the year 1600. After suffering a devastating century and a half of civil wars during which countless art treasures were destroyed, ancient temples and buildings burned, and libraries lost forever, Japan was brought back to unification and eventual peace by the efforts of three successive warlords: Oda Nobunaga (1534–82), Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536–98) and Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542–1616). After so many years of social disruption, the response to this peace was a surge in economic prosperity and a concomitant flourishing of the arts in almost every arena. Castle architecture blossomed, there was a new interest in classical poetry and painting, the art of the tea ceremony reached its height, the world of ceramics spread in new directions, and schools in the mart
ial arts proliferated, with every new disciple striking out on his own. How the various players of this period influenced Musashi is not documented, but considering his artistic talent and curiosity, his insistence that we know all the arts, and the time he spent in Kyoto, it is germane, I think, to look briefly at two men representative of the period with whom he is likely to have associated.

  At the aesthetic center of the Kyoto Renaissance was Hon’ami Koetsu (1558–1637), a man whom tradition, if not recorded evidence, links with Musashi. Koetsu came from a family of sword polishers and appraisers—well known in that field since the fourteenth century—and was much in demand for his skills in this work. Still, there were very few other arts that he did not practice. Granted by the shogun an area of land—Takagamine, or Takaramine—just outside of Kyoto, he established an art colony that would act as a sort of launching pad for everything from paper making to lacquerware to pottery. Koetsu himself is best known today for his calligraphy and pottery, but his strong ties to the samurai sword and his intense and friendly personality must have made him a congenial sometime companion for the lone martial artist. Koetsu’s strong interest in Noh recitation may have sparked Musashi’s later participation in that art as well. One of Koetsu’s friends, Sakon Daiyu, was the head of the Kanze school of Noh, and it is not unlikely that Musashi would have made his acquaintance along with many others in the arts. Among Koetsu’s other associates were Tawara Sotatsu, the painter; Furuta Oribe, the warrior and tea master; Raku Don’yu, the potter to the tea masters; and Hayashi Razan, the Confucian scholar. Musashi could not have helped being influenced by this society of talented men, even if only peripherally, and Koetsu’s reputed strong character and intense dislike of greed would have fit well with the same tendencies in the swordsman’s personality.