Later they apparently entered the service of daimyo Ogasawara Tadazane when he fought in the Shimabara Rebellion. Iori served with excellence in putting down this rebellion and would gradually rise to the rank of karo, a position equal to a minister.
Musashi, however was injured by a thrown rock while scouting in the front line. Six years later Musashi moved to service of Hosokawa Tadatoshi, daimyo of Kumamoto Castle to train and paint. He finished it a couple of weeks before his death around June 13, After his death, various legends began to appear. Most talk about his feats in kenjutsu and other martial arts.
Others tell that he killed giant lizards in Echizen. He gained the stature of Kensei, a "sword saint" and various tales connect him with other contemporary martial artists. In this technique, the swordsman uses both katana and wakizashi at the same time. It is said the two-handed movements of temple drummers inspired him. In actual fact Nito Seiho bears no resemblance whatsoever with drumming.
Jitte techniques taught by his father use a long sword in the right and jitte in the left. In his time a long sword in the left hand was referred to as gyaku nito.
Musashi was also an expert in throwing weapons. He frequently threw his shortsword. In fact before the Meiji era multi faceted skills were a necessity.
Musashi was a loner. He spent many years studying Buddhism and swordsmanship. He was an accomplished artist, sculptor, and calligrapher. Records also show that he had architectural skills. Also, he had a rather no-nonsense approach to fighting; with no additional frills or aesthetic considerations. This was probably due to his real-life combat experience. Especially in his later life Musashi also followed the more artistic side of bushido.
He made various Zen brush paintings and calligraphy and sculpted wood and metal. Even in the Book of Five Rings he emphasizes that samurai should understand other professions as well. It is now during the first ten days of the tenth month in the twentieth year of Kanei I have climbed mountain Iwato of Higo in Kyushu to pay homage to heaven, pray to Kwannon, [God dess of mercy in Buddhism.
From youth my heart has been inclined toward the Way of strategy. My first duel was when I was thirteen, I struck down a strategist of the Shinto school, one Arima Kihei. When I was sixteen I struck down an able strategist Tadashima Akiyama. When I was twenty-one I went up to the capital and met all manner of strategists, never once failing to win in many contests.
After that I went from province to province dueling with strategist of various schools, and not once failed to win even though I had as many as sixty encounters. This was between the ages of thirteen and twenty-eight or twenty-nine. When I reached thirty I looked back on my past. The previous victories were not due to my having mastered strategy.
Perhaps it was natural ability, or the order of heaven, or that other schools' strategy was inferior. After that I studied morning and evening searching for the principle, and came to realize the Way of strategy when I was fifty. Since then I have lived without following any particular Way. Thus with the virtue of strategy I practice many arts and abilities - all things with no teacher. To write this book I did not use the law of Buddha or the teachings of Confucius, neither old war chronicles nor books on martial tactics.
I take up my brush to explain the true spirit of this Ichi school as it is mirrored in the Way of heaven and Kwannon. The time is the night of the tenth day of the tenth month, at the hour of the tiger a.
Commanders must enact the craft, and troopers should know this Way. There is no warrior in the world today who really understands the Way of strategy. There are various Ways. There is the Way of salvation by the law of Buddha, the Way of Confucius governing the Way of learning, the Way of healing as a doctor, as a poet teaching the Way of Waka, [a type of poem.
Each man practices as he feels inclined. It is said the warrior's is the twofold Way of pen and sword, and he should have a taste for both Ways. Even if a man has no natural ability he can be a warrior by sticking assiduously to both divisions of the Way.
Generally speaking, the Way of the warrior is resolute acceptance of death. Although not only warriors but priests, women, peasants and lowlier folk have been known to die readily in the cause of duty or out of shame, this is a different thing. The warrior is different in that studying the Way of strategy is based on overcoming men. By victory gained in crossing swords with individuals, or enjoining battle with large numbers, we can attain power and fame for ourselves or our lord.
This is the virtue of strategy. Warriors must learn this Way. Recently there have been people getting on in the world as strategists, but they are usually just sword-fencers. The attendants of the Kashima Kantori shrines of the province Hitachi received instruction from the gods, and made schools based on this teaching, traveling from country to country instructing men. This is the recent meaning of strategy. In olden times strategy was listed among the Ten Abilities and Seven Arts as a beneficial practice.
It was certainly an art but as a beneficial practice it was not limited to sword- fencing. The true value of sword-fencing cannot be seen within the confines of sword- fencing technique. If we look at the world we see arts for sale. Men use equipment to sell their own selves. As if with the nut and the flower, the nut has become less than th flower. In this kind of Way of strategy, both those teaching and those learning the way are concerned with colouring and showing off their technique, trying to hasten the bloom of the flower.
They speak of "This Dojo" and "That Dojo". They are looking for profit. Someone once said "Immature strategy is the cause of grief".
That was a true saying. There are four Ways in which men pass through life: as gentlemen, farmers, artisans and merchants. The Way of the farmer. Using agricultural instruments, he sees springs through to autumns with an eye on the changes of season.
Second is the Way of the merchant. The wine maker obtains his ingredients and puts them to use to make his living. The Way of the merchant is always to live by taking profit. This is the Way of the merchant. Thirdly the gentleman warrior, carrying the weaponry of his Way. The Way of the warrior is to master the virtue of his weapons. If a gentleman dislikes strategy he will not appreciate the benefit of weaponry, so must he not have a little taste for this? Fourthly the Way of the artisan. The Way of the carpenter [architect and builder, all buildings were of wood.
Thus he passes through life. These are the four Ways of the gentleman, the farmer, the artisan and the merchant. Comparing the Way of the carpenter to strategy The comparison with carpentry is through the connection with houses.
Houses of the nobility, houses of warriors, the Four houses, [there are also four different schools of tea. The carpenter uses a master plan of the building, and the Way of strategy is similar in that there is a plan of campaign. If you want to learn the craft of war, ponder over this book. The teacher is as a needle, the disciple is as thread. You must practice constantly. Like the foreman carpenter, the commander must know natural rules, and the rules of the country, and the rules of houses.
This is the Way of the foreman. The foreman carpenter must know the architectural theory of towers and temples, and the plans of palaces, and must employ men to raise up houses. The Way of the foreman carpenter is the same as the Way of the commander of a warrior house. In the construction of houses, choice of woods is made. Straight un-knotted timber of good appearance is used for the revealed pillars, straight timber with small defects is used for the inner pillars.
Timbers of the finest appearance, even if a little weak, is used for the thresholds, lintels, doors, and sliding doors, and so on. Good strong timber, though it be gnarled and knotted, can always be used discreetly in construction. Timber which is weak or knotted throughout should be used as scaffolding, and later for firewood. The foreman carpenter allots his men work according to their ability.
Floor layers, makers of sliding doors, thresholds and lintels, ceilings and so on. Those of poor ability lay the floor joists, and those of lesser ability carve wedges and do such miscellaneous work. If the foreman knows and deploys his men well the finished work will be good. The foreman should take into account the abilities and limitations of his men, circulating among them and asking nothing unreasonable. He should know their morale and spirit, and encourage them when necessary.
This is the same as the principle of strategy. The Way of Strategy Like a trooper, the carpenter sharpens his own tools. He carries his equipment in his tool box, and works under the direction of his foreman. He makes columns and girders with an axe, shapes floorboards and shelves with a plane, cuts fine openwork and carvings accurately, giving as excellent a finish as his skill will allow.
This is the craft of the carpenters. When the carpenter becomes skilled and understands measures he can become a foreman. The carpenter's attainment is, having tools which will cut well, to make small shrines, writing shelves, tables, paper lanterns, chopping boards and pot-lids.
These are the specialties of the carpenter. Things are similar for the trooper. You ought to think deeply about this. The attainment of the carpenter is that his work is not warped, that the joints are not misaligned, and that the work is truly planed so that it meets well and is not merely finished in sections. This is essential. If you want to learn this Way, deeply consider the things written in this book one at a time. You must do sufficient research.
It is difficult to realize the true Way just through sword-fencing. Know the smallest things and the biggest things, the shallowest things and the deepest things.
As if it were a straight road mapped out on the ground, the first book is called the Ground book. Second is the Water book. With water as the basis, the spirit becomes like water. Water adopts the shape of its receptacle, it is sometimes a trickle and sometimes a wild sea. Water has a clear blue colour. By the clarity, things of Ichi school are shown in this book. If you master the principles of sword-fencing, when you freely beat one man, you beat any man in the world. The spirit of defeating a man is the same for ten million men.
The strategist makes small things into big things, like building a great Buddha from a one foot model. I cannot write in detail how this is done. Things of Ichi school are written in this the Water book. Third is the Fire book. This book is about fighting. The spirit of fire is fierce, whether the fire be small or big; and so it is with battles. The Way of battles is the same for man to man fights and for ten thousand a side battles.
You must appreciate that spirit can become big or small. What is big is easy to perceive: what is small is difficult to perceive. In short, it is difficult for large numbers of men to change position, so their movements can be easily predicted. An individual can easily change his mind, so his movements are difficult to predict.
You must appreciate this. The essence of this book is that you must train day and night in order to make quick decisions.
In strategy it is necessary to treat training as part of normal life with your spirit unchanging. Thus combat in battle is described in the Fire book. Fourthly the Wind book. This book is not concerned with my Ichi school but with other schools of strategy.
By Wind I mean old traditions, present-day traditions, and family traditions of strategy. Thus I clearly explain the strategies of the world. This is tradition. It is difficult to know yourself if you do not know others. To all Ways there are side- tracks. If you study a Way daily, and your spirit diverges, you may think you are obeying a good Way but objectively it is not the true Way.
If you are following the true way and diverge a little, this will later become a large divergence. You must realize this. Other strategies have come to be thought of as mere sword-fencing, and it is not unreasonable that this should be so. The benefit of my strategy, although it includes sword-fencing, lies in a separate principle. I have explained what is commonly meant by strategy in other schools in the Tradition Wind book.
Fifthly, the book of the Void. By void I mean that which has no beginning and no end. Attaining this principle means not attaining the principle. The Way of strategy is the Way of nature. When you appreciate the power of nature, knowing rhythm of any situation, you will be able to hit the enemy naturally and strike naturally. All this is the Way of the Void.
I intend to show how to follow the true Way according to nature in the book of the Void. In olden times these were called the long sword and the sword; nowadays they are known as the sword and the companion sword. Let it suffice to say that in our land, whatever the reason, a warrior carries two swords at his belt. It is the Way of the warrior. The spear and the halberd are weapons which are carried out of doors. Students of the Ichi school Way of strategy should train from the start with the sword and the long sword in either hand.
It is false not to do so, and to die with a weapon yet undrawn. If you hold a sword with both hands, it is difficult to wield it freely to left and right, so my method is to carry the sword in one hand. This does not apply to large weapons such as the spear or halberd, but swords and companion swords can be carried in one hand.
It is encumbering to hold a sword in both hands when you are on horseback, when running on uneven roads, on swampy ground, muddy rice fields, stony ground, or in a crowd of people.
To hold the long sword in both hands is not the true Way, for if you carry a bow or spear or other arms in your left hand you have only one hand free for the long sword. However, when it is difficult to cut an enemy down with one hand, you must use both hands. It is not difficult to wield a sword in one hand; the Way to learn this is to train with two long swords, one in each hand. It will seem difficult at first, but everything is difficult at first.
Bows are difficult to draw, halberds are difficult to wield; as you become accustomed to the bow so your pull will become stronger. When you become used to wielding the long sword, you will gain the power of the Way and wield the sword well.
As I will explain in the second book, the Water Book, there is no fast way of wielding the long sword. The long sword should be wielded broadly and the companion sword closely.
This is the first thing to realize. According to this Ichi school, you can win with a long weapon, and yet you can also win with a short weapon.
In short, the Way of the Ichi school is the spirit of winning, whatever the weapon and whatever its size. It is better to use two swords rather than one when you are fighting a crowd, and especially if you want to take a prisoner.
These things cannot be explained in detail. From one thing, know ten thousand things. When you attain the Way of strategy there will not be one thing you cannot see. You must study hard. The Benefit of the Two Characters reading "Strategy" Masters of the long sword are called strategists. As for the other military arts, those who master the bow are called archers, those who master the spear are called spearmen, those who master the gun are called marksmen, those who master the halberd are called halberdiers.
But we do not call masters of the Way of the long sword "longswordsmen", nor do we speak of "companion swordsmen". Because bows, guns, spears and halberds are all warriors' equipment they are certainly part of strategy. To master the virtue of the long sword is to govern the world and oneself, thus the long sword is the basis of strategy. The principle is "strategy by means of the long sword". If he attains the virtue of the long sword, one man can beat ten men.
Just as one man can beat ten, so a hundred men can beat a thousand, and a thousand can beat ten thousand. In my strategy, one man is the same as ten thousand, so this strategy is the complete warrior's craft. The Way of the warrior does not include other Ways, such as Confucianism, Buddhism, certain traditions, artistic accomplishments and dancing. But even though these are not part of the Way, if you know the Way broadly you will see it in everything.
Men must polish their particular Way. The Benefit of Weapons in Strategy There is a time and place for use of weapons. The best use of the companion sword is in a confined space, or when you are engaged closely with an opponent. The long sword can be used effectively in all situations. The halberd is inferior to the spear on the battlefield. With the spear you can take the initiative; the halberd is defensive.
In the hands of one of two men of equal ability, the spear gives a little extra strength. Spear and halberd both have their uses, but neither is very beneficial in confined spaces. They cannot be used for taking a prisoner. They are essentially weapons for the field.
Anyway, if you learn "indoor" techniques, you will think narrowly and forget the true Way. Thus you will have difficulty in actual encounters. The bow is tactically strong at the commencement of battle, especially battles on a moor, as it is possible to shoot quickly from among the spearmen. However, it is unsatisfactory in sieges, or when the enemy is more than forty yards away.
For this reason there are nowadays few traditional schools of archery. There is little use nowadays for this kind of skill. From inside fortifications, the gun has no equal among weapons. It is the supreme weapon on the field before the ranks clash, but once swords are crossed the gun becomes useless. One of the virtues of the bow is that you can see the arrows in flight and correct your aim accordingly, whereas gunshot cannot be seen.
You must appreciate the importance of this. Just as a horse must have endurance and no defects, so it is with weapons. Horses should walk strongly, and swords and companion swords should cut strongly. Spears and halberds must stand up to heavy use: bows and guns must be sturdy.
Weapons should be hardy rather than decorative. You should not have a favourite weapon. To become over-familiar with one weapon is as much a fault as not knowing it sufficiently well. You should not copy others, but use weapons which you can handle properly. It is bad for commanders and troopers to have likes and dislikes. These are things you must learn thoroughly. Timing in strategy There is timing in everything. Timing in strategy cannot be mastered without a great deal of practice.
Timing is important in dancing and pipe or string music, for they are in rhythm only if timing is good. Timing and rhythm are also involved in the military arts, shooting bows and guns, and riding horses. In all skills and abilities there is timing. There is also timing in the Void. There is timing in the whole life of the warrior, in his thriving and declining, in his harmony and discord. Similarly, there is timing in the Way of the merchant, in the rise and fall of capital.
All things entail rising and falling timing. You must be able to discern this. In strategy there are various timing considerations. From the outset you must know the applicable timing and the inapplicable timing, and from among the large and small things and the fast and slow timings find the relevant timing, first seeing the distance timing and the background timing.
This is the main thing in strategy. It is especially important to know the background timing, otherwise your strategy will become uncertain. You win battles with the timing in the Void born of the timing of cunning by knowing the enemies' timing, and thus using a timing which the enemy does not expect. All the five books are chiefly concerned with timing.
You must train sufficiently to appreciate this. If you practice day and night in the above Ichi school strategy, your spirit will naturally broaden. Thus is large scale strategy and the strategy of hand to hand combat propagated in the world. This is the way for men who want to learn my strategy: 1. Do not think dishonestly. Not only were education, law, government and class controlled, but even the costume and behavior of each class. The traditional class consciousness of Japan hardened into a rigid class structure.
There were basically four classes of person: samurai, farmers, artisans and merchants. Next in the hierarchy came the farmers, not because they were well thought of but because they provided the essential rice crops. Their lot was a rather unhappy one, as they were forced to give most of their crops to the lords and were not allowed to leave their farms. Then came the artisans and craftsmen, and last of all the merchants, who, though looked down upon, eventually rose to prominence because of the vast wealth they accumulated.
Few people were outside this rigid hierarchy. Musashi belonged to the samurai class. These officers were mounted, wore armour, and used the bow and sword. When the great provincial armies were gradually disbanded under Hideyoshi and Ieyasu, many out-of-work samurai roamed the country redundant in an era of peace. There were still samurai retainers to the Tokugawas and provincial lords, but their numbers were few.
The hordes of redundant samurai found themselves living in a society which was completely based on the old chivalry, but at the same time they were apart from a society in which there was no place for men at arms. They became an inverted class, keeping the old chivalry alive by devotion to military arts with the fervour only Japanese possess. This was the time of the flowering in Kendo. Kendo, the Way of the sword, had always been synonymous with nobility in Japan. Since the founding of the samurai class in the eighth century, the military arts had become the highest form of study, inspired by the teachings of Zen and the feeling of Shinto.
The education of the sons of the Tokugawa Shoguns was by means of schooling in the Chinese classics and fencing exercises. Today, prominent businessmen and political figures in Japan still practise the old traditions of Kendo schools, preserving the forms of several hundred years ago. To sum up, Musashi was a ronin at a time when the samurai were formally considered to be the elite, but actually had no means of livelihood unless they owned lands and castles.
Many ronin put up their swords and became artisans, but others, like Musashi, pursued the ideal of the warrior searching for enlightenment through the perilous paths of Kendo. Duels of revenge and tests of skill were commonplace, and fencing schools multiplied. The Itto school provided an unbroken line of Kendo teachers, and the Yagyu school eventually became the secret police of the Tokugawa bureaucracy.
Each daimyo or lord, sponsored a Kendo school, where his retainers could be trained and his sons educated. The hope of every ronin was that he would defeat the students and master of a Dojo in combat, thus increasing his fame and bringing his name to the ears of one who might employ him. The samurai wore two swords thrust through the belt with the cutting edge uppermost.
The longer sword was carried out of doors only, the shorter sword was worn at all times. For training, wooden swords and bamboo swords were often used. Duelling and other tests of arms were common, with both real and practice swords. These took place in fencing halls and before shrines, in the streets and within castle walls. The samurai studied with all kinds of weapons: halberds, sticks, swords, chain and sickle, and others.
Many schools using such weapons survive in traditional form in Japan today. To train in Kendo one must subjugate the self, bear the pain of gruelling practise, and cultivate a level mind in the face of peril. But the Way of the sword means not only fencing training but also living by the code of honour of the samurai elite.
The meaning of life and death by the sword was mirrored in the everyday conduct of the feudal Japanese, and he who realised the resolute acceptance of death at any moment in his everyday life was a master of the sword.
It is in order to attain such an understanding that later men have followed the ancient traditions of the sword-fencing styles, and even today give up their lives for Kendo practise. The warrior courts of Japan from the Kamakura period to the Muromachi period encouraged the austere Zen study among the samurai, and Zen went hand in hand with the arts of war.
In Zen there are no elaborations, it aims directly at the true nature of things. There are no ceremonies, no teachings, the prize of Zen is essentially personal. Enlightenment in Zen does not mean a change in behaviour, but realisation of the nature of ordinary life. The end point is the beginning, and the great virtue is simplicity.
The secret teaching of the Itto Ryu school of Kendo, Kiriotoshi, is the first technique of some hundred or so. This is the ultimate timing … it is lack of anger.
It means to treat your enemy as an honoured guest. It also means to abandon your life or throw away fear. The first technique is the last, the beginner and the master behave in the same way. Knowledge is a full circle.
The teachings of Kendo are like the fierce verbal forays to which the Zen student is subjected. Assailed with doubts and misery, his mind and spirit in a whirl, the student is gradually guided to realisation and understanding by his teacher. The first elementary teaching becomes the highest knowledge, and the master still continues to practise this simple training, his every prayer. When Musashi was seven, his father, Munisai, either died or abondoned the child.
He was a boisterous youth, strong-willed and physically large for his age. Whether he was urged to pursue Kendo by his uncle, or whether his aggressive nature led him to it, we do not know, but it is recorded that he slew a man in single combat when he was just thirteen. The opponent was Arima Kihei, a samurai of the Shinto Ryu school of military arts, skilled with sword and spear.
The boy threw the man to the ground, and beat him about the head with a stick when he tried to rise. Kihei died vomiting blood.
There must have been many ronin traveling the country on similar expeditions, some alone like Musashi and some enjoying sponsorship, though not on the scale of the pilgrimage of the famous swordsman Tsukahara Bokuden who had traveled with a retinue of over one hundred men in the previous century.
Concerned only with perfecting his skill, he lived as men need not live, wandering over Japan soaked by the cold winds of winter, not dressing his hair, not taking a wife, nor following any profession save his study. It is said he never entered a bathtub lest he was caught unawares without a weapon, and that his appearance was uncouth and wretched. He survived the terrible three days during which seventy thousand people died, and also survived the hunting down and massacre of the vanquished army He went up to Kyoto, the capital, when he was twenty-one.
The Yoshiokas had been fencing instructors to the Ashikaga house for generations. Later forbidden to teach Kendo by lord Tokugawa, the family became dyers, and are dyers today. Yoshioka Seijiro, the head of the family, was the first to fight Musashi, on the moor outside the city. Seijiro was armed with a real sword, and Musashi with a wooden sword. Musashi laid Seijiro out with a fierce attack and beat him savagely as he lay on the ground.
The retainers carried their lord home on a rain-shutter, where for shame he cut off his samurai topknot. Musashi lingered on in the capital, and his continued presence further irked the Yoshiokas. The second brother, Denshichiro, applied to Musashi for a duel. Denshichiro was dead. The house issued yet another challenge with Hanshichiro, the young son of Seijiro, as champion. Hanshichiro was a mere boy, not yet in his teens.
The contest was to be held by a pine tree adjacent to ricefields. Musashi arrived at the meeting place well before the appointed time and waited in hiding for his enemy to come. The child arrived dressed formally in war gear, with a party of well-armed retainers, determined to do away with Musashi. Musashi waited concealed in the shadows, and just as they were thinking that he had thought better of it and had decided to leave Kyoto, he suddenly appeared in the midst of them, and cut the boy down.
Then, drawing both swords, he cut a path through them and made his escape. After that frightful episode Musashi wandered over Japan, becoming a legend in his own time.
We find mention of his name and stories of his prowess in registers, dairies, on monuments, and in folk memory from Tokyo to Kyushu. He had more than sixty contests before he was twenty-nine, and won them all. In the year of the Yoshioka affair, , he visited the temple Hozoin in the south of the capital. The priest was a spearman, but no match for Musashi who defeated him twice with his short wooden sword.
Musashi stayed at the temple for some time studying fighting techniques and enjoying talks with the priests. There is still today a traditional spear fighting form practised by the monks of Hozoin.
The priest used spears with cross-shaped blades kept outside the temple under the eaves and used in fire fighting. When Musashi was in Iga province he met a skilled chain and sickle fighter named Shishido Baikin.
As Shishido twirled his chain Musashi drew a dagger and pierced his breast, advancing to finish him off. The watching pupils attacked Musashi but he frightened them away in four directions. In Edo, a fighter named Muso Gonosuke visited Musashi requesting a duel. Gonosuke made a fierce attack, but Musashi stepped straight in and banged him on the head. Gonosuke went away.
There were many good strategists in Izumo. Permission was granted against a man who used an eight foot long hexagonal wooden pole. Musashi used two wooden swords. He chased the samurai up the two wooden steps of the library veranda, thrust at his face on the second step, and hit him on both his arms as he flinched away.
To the surprise of the assembled retainers, lord Matsudaira asked Musashi to fight him. The lord bowed in defeat, and Musashi stayed for some time as his teacher. Kojiro was retained by the lord of the province, Hosokawa Tadaoki.
That night Musashi left his lodging and moved to the house of Kobayashi Taro Zaemon. He got up, drank the water they brought to him to wash with, and went straight down to the shore.
As Sato rowed across to the island Musashi fashioned a paper string to tie back the sleeves of his kimono, and cut a wooden sword from the spare oar.
When he had done this he lay down to rest. The boat neared the place of combat and Kojiro and the waiting officials were astounded to see the strange figure of Musashi, with his unkempt hair tied up in a towel, leap from the boat brandishing the long wooden oar and rush through the waves up the beach towards his enemy. Kojiro drew his long sword, a fine blade by Nagamitsu of Bizen, and threw away his scabbard.
Some sources have it that after he killed Kojiro, Musashi threw down the oar and, nimbly leaping back several paces, drew both his swords and flourished them with a shout at his fallen enemy. It was about this time that Musashi stopped ever using real swords in duels. He was invincible, and from now on he devoted himself to the search for perfect understanding by way of Kendo.
In and again in he took the opportunity of once more experiencing warfare and siege. Ieyasu laid siege to Osaka castle where the supporters of the Ashikaga family were gathered in insurrection. Musashi joined the Tokugawa forces in both winter and summer campaigns, now fighting against those he had fought for as a youth at Seki ga Hara.
According to his own writing, he came to understand strategy when he was fifty or fifty-one in He and his adopted son Iori, the waif whom he had met in Dewa province on his travels, settled in Ogura in this year. Musashi was never again to leave Kyushu island. The Hosokawa house had been entrusted with the command of the hot seat of Higo province, Kumamoto castle, and the new lord of Bunzen was an Ogasawara.
The lords of the southern provinces had always been antagonistic to the Tokugawas and were the instigators of intrigue with foreign powers and the Japanese Christians.
Musashi was a member of the field staff at Shimawara where the Christians were massacred. After this, Ieyasu closed the ports of Japan to foreign intercourse, and they remained closed for over two hundred years. After six years in Ogura, Musashi was invited to stay with Churi, the Hosokawa lord of Kumamoto castle, as a guest. He stayed a few years with lord Churi and spent his time teaching and painting. Go Rin No Sho heads every Kendo bibliography, being unique among books of martial art in that it deals with both the strategy of warfare and the methods of single combat in exactly the same way.
The more one reads the book the more one finds in its pages. When, at twenty-eight or twenty-nine, he had become such a strong fighter, he did not settle down and build a school, replete with success, but became doubly engrossed with his study.
In his last days even, he scorned the life of comfort with lord Hosokawa and lived two years alone in a mountain cave deep in contemplation.
The behaviour of this cruel, headstrong man was evidently most humble and honest. He did, in fact, become a master of arts and crafts. He produced masterpieces of ink painting, probably more highly valued by the Japanese than the ink paintings of any other. His works include cormorants, herons, Hotei the Shinto God, dragons, birds with flowers, bird in a dead tree, Daruma Bodhidharma , and others.
There is a small wood sculpture of the Buddhist deity Fudo Myoo in private hands. A sculpture of Kwannon was lost recently. He is said to have written poems and songs, but none of these survive. It is said also that he was commissioned by the Shogun Iemitsu to paint the sunrise over Edo castle. It is evident that he did just that.
He sought out not only great swordsmen but also priests, strategists, artists and craftsmen, eager to broaden his knowledge. This applies not just to military strategy, but to any situation where plans and tactics are used. Japanese businessmen have used Go Rin No Sho as a guide for business practice, making sales campaigns like military operations, using the same energetic methods.
In the same way that Musashi seems to have been a horribly cruel man, yet was following logically an honest ideal, so successful business seems to most people to be without conscience. It is now during the first ten days of the tenth month in the twentieth year of Kanei I have climbed mountain Iwato of Higo in Kyushu to pay homage to heaven,3 pray to Kwannon,4 and kneel before Buddha.
From youth my heart has been inclined toward the Way of strategy. My first duel was when I was thirteen, I struck down a strategist of the Shinto school, one Arima Kihei. When I was twenty-one I went up to the capital and met all manner of strategists, never once failing to win in many contests. After that I went from province to province duelling with strategists of various schools, and not once failed to win even though I had as many as sixty encounters.
This was between the ages of thirteen and twenty-eight or twenty-nine. When I reached thirty I looked back on my past. The previous victories were not due to my having mastered strategy. Perhaps it was natural ability, or the order of heaven, or that other schools' strategy was inferior. After that I studied morning and evening searching for the principle, and came to realise the Way of strategy when I was fifty.
Since then I have lived without following any particular Way. It is the road of the cosmos, not just a set of ethics for the artist or priest to live by, but the divine footprints of God pointing the Way. In Shinto there are many Holies, gods of steel and fermentation, place and industry, and so-on, and the first gods, ancestors to the Imperial line.
See note Musashi studied various arts in various schools, but when after his enlightenment he pursued his studies he had become separate from traditional guidance. It could be put as feeling, manner. The time is the night of the tenth day of the tenth month, at the hour of the tiger8 a. Commanders must enact the craft, and troopers should know this Way.
There is no warrior in the world today who really understands the Way of strategy. There are various Ways. There is the Way of Salvation by the law of Buddha, the Way of Confucius governing the Way of learning, the Way of healing as a doctor, as a poet teaching the Way of Waka,9 tea,10 archery,11 and many arts and skills.
Each man practices as he feels inclined. It is said the warrior's is the twofold Way of pen and sword,12 and he should have a taste for both Ways. Even if a man has no natural ability he can be a warrior by sticking assiduously to both divisions of the Way. Generally speaking, the Way of the warrior is resolute acceptance of death. It is basically a ritual, based on simple refined rules, between a few persons in a small room. Archery is practised as a ritual like tea and sword.
Hachiman, the God of War, is often depicted as an archer, and the bow is frequently illustrated as part of the paraphernalia of the gods.
Young men during the Tokugawa period were educated solely in writing the Chinese classics and exercising in swordplay. Pen and sword, in fact, filled the life of the Japanese nobility. Under the Tokugawas, the enforced logic of the Confucius-influenced system ensured stability among the samurai, but it also meant the passing of certain aspects of Bushido.
Discipline for both samurai and commoners became lax. This kind of suicide was strictly prohibited by the new legislation, and, full of remorse, Yamamoto retired in sadness to the boundary of Nabeshima Han. Here he met others who had faced the same predicament, and together they wrote a lament of what they saw as the decadence of Bushido. I find that all men are negligent of this. From this we can say they do not follow the Way of the warrior.
By the Way of the warrior is meant death. The Way of the warrior is death. This means choosing death whenever there is a choice between life and death. It means nothing more than this. It means to see things through, being resolved. They are unresolved as to whether to keep to their original plan when faced with the choice of life and death. Every man wants to live. They theorize with staying alive in mind. That to die having failed is to die uselessly is a mad point of view.
This is not a shameful thing. It is the most important thing in the Way of the warrior. The warrior is different in that studying the Way of strategy is based on overcoming men. By victory gained in crossing swords with individuals, or enjoining battle with large numbers, we can attain power and fame for ourselves or for our lord.
Warriors must learn this Way. Recently there have been people getting on in the world as strategists, but they are usually just sword-fencers. The attendants of the Kashima Kantori shrines15 of the province Hitachi received instruction from the gods, and made schools based on this teaching, travelling from country to country instructing men. This is the recent meaning of strategy. In olden times strategy was listed among the Ten Abilities and Seven Arts as a beneficial practice.
It was certainly an art but as beneficial practice it was not limited to sword-fencing. The true value of sword-fencing cannot be seen within the confines of sword-fencing technique. If we look at the world we see arts for sale. Men use equipment to sell their own selves.
As if with the nut and the flower, the nut has become less than the flower. In this kind of Way of strategy, both those teaching and those learning the way are concerned with colouring and showing off their technique, trying to hasten the bloom of the flower. They speak of "This Dojo" and "That Dojo". Someone once said "Immature strategy is the cause of grief".
That was a true saying. Such a fellow is a spendid retainer. In this house there have been generations of splendid gentlemen and we are deeply impressed by their warm kindness … all our ancestors.
This was simply abondoning body and soul for the sake of their lord. What a joyful thing if this can be used to advantage. To think only of the practical benefit of wisdom and technology is vulgar. Some men do not quickly have good ideas but arrive at the answer by slow consideration. Whoever thinks deeply on things, even though he may carefully consider the future, will usually think around the basis of his own welfare.
By the result of such evil thinking he will only perform evil acts. It is very difficult for most silly fellows to rise above thinking of their own welfare. Then you cannot fail. Be useful to the lord. Be respectful to your parents. Get beyond love and grief: exist for the good of man. Many of the school ancestors are entombed in the Kanto area, not far from Tokyo, where the Kashima and Kantori shrines still stand.
Arima Kihei, the samurai whom Musashi killed at the age of thirteen, was a fencer of the Shinto school associated with the shrines. The Yagyu school was derived from the Kashima style. Shinto was a religion of industry in everyday life, and the War Gods enshrined at Kashima and Kantori are still invoked today as part of the everyday practice of the Shinto school. There are four Ways17 in which men pass through life: as gentlemen, farmers, artisans and merchants.
The way of the farmer. Using agricultural instruments, he sees springs through to autumns with an eye on the changes of season. Second is the Way of the merchant.
The wine maker obtains his ingredients and puts them to use to make his living. The Way of the merchant is always to live by taking profit. This is the Way of the merchant. Thirdly the gentleman warrior, carrying the weaponry of his Way. The Way of the warrior is to master the virtue of his weapons.
If a gentleman dislikes strategy he will not appreciate the benefit of weaponry, so must he not have a little taste for this? Fourthly the Way of the artisan. The Way of the carpenter18 is to become proficient in the use of his tools, first to lay his plans with a true measure and then perform his work according to plan.
Thus he passes through life. These are the four Ways of the gentleman, the farmer, the artisan and the merchant. Comparing the Way of the Carpenter to Strategy The comparison with carpentry is through the connection with houses.
Houses of the nobility, houses of warriors, the Four houses,19 ruin of houses, thriving of houses, the style of the house, the tradition of the house, and the name of the house. The carpenter uses a master plan of the building, and the Way of strategy is similar in that there is a plan of campaign. If you want to learn the craft of war, ponder over this book.
The teacher is as a needle, the disciple is as thread. You must practice constantly. Like the foreman carpenter, the commander must know natural rules, and the rules of the country, and the rules of houses. This is the Way of the foreman. The foreman carpenter must know the architectural theory of towers and temples, and the plans of palaces, and must employ men to raise up houses. The Way of the foreman carpenter is the same as the Way of the commander of a warrior house. Straight un-knotted timber of good appearance is used for the revealed pillars, straight timber with small defects is used for the inner pillars.
Timber of the finest appearance, even if a little weak, is used for the thresholds, lintels, doors, and sliding doors,21 and so on. Good strong timber, though it be gnarled and knotted, can always be used discreetly in construction. Timber which is weak or knotted throughout should be used as scaffolding, and later for firewood. The foreman carpenter allots his men work according to their ability. Floor layers, makers of sliding doors, thresholds and lintels, ceilings and so on.
Those of poor ability lay the floor joist, and those of lesser ability carve wedges and do such miscellaneous work. If the foreman knows and deploys his men well the finished work will be good. The foreman should take into account the abilities and limitations of his men, circulating among them and asking nothing unreasonable. He should know their morale and spirit, and encourage them when necessary.
There are also four different schools of tea. If you see a Google Drive link instead of source url, means that the file witch you will get after approval is just a summary of original book or the file has been already removed. Loved each and every part of this book. I will definitely recommend this book to philosophy, non fiction lovers. Your Rating:.
Want more? Advanced embedding details, examples, and help! Topics Miyamoto , Musashi , five rings , book , go rin no sho , strategy , zen , samurai Collection opensource Language English. 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 penned in decisive, unfaltering terms this certain path to victory, and like Sun Tzu's The Art of War it is applicable not only on the battlefield but also 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.
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