A Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi

The Book of Five Rings is a text on Kenjutsu and the martial arts in general, written by the Japanese swordsman Miyamoto Musashi around 1645. 五輪書 = Choyaku Gorin no Dho = A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy, Miyamoto Musashi But I guess, as the book says, 'these things are not explainable in detail.' I can say one positive thing about my experience reading the book: It left me using sword battle as an analogy for human relations and that might be useful somehow.

The edition I read presents the book as 'the cornerstone of Japanese Culture' and I have absolutely no idea how this book played any significant role in Japanese culture it baffles me. I have a suspicion that all those people who rated this book highly have filled in the gap with their imagination. Furthermore, the topics are elaborated on very little in this book. The book is full of lines such as 'research this well,' 'study this thoroughly,' 'I cannot elaborate on this in writing' and I'm not sure how these are supposed to evoke any insight in me into anything. I guess I'm supposed to reflect on it and come back to it until I 'get it' if there's any wisdom in here. I'm definitely missing something, either due to the translation or my inability to read between the lines. This book puzzled me in that at first glance I seem to have learned nothing else from it than how to hold a sword and attack and enemy, and obvious things like never let your enemy have a chance to recover. I read a translation by Ashikaga Yoshiharu and Rosemary Brant.

A Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi