TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOREWORD 1 A HISTORICAL MAP OF JAPAN 2 A BIOGRAPHY OF MUSASHI 3 A BOOK OF FIVE RINGS 8

Introduction Outline of the Five Books 11 Book One: GROUND 12 Book Two: WATER 19 Book Three: FIRE 31 Book Four: WIND 42 Book Five: VOID 49

ART BY MIYAMOTO MUSASHI 50 ART BY OTHER ARTISTS 62 A SHORT HISTORY OF JAPAN 74 A TRADITIONAL HISTORY OF KENDO 79 THE RELIGIOUS TRADITION OF JAPAN 82 BIBLIOGRAPHY 91

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FOREWORD When I decided to produce this book it was with the idea of presenting Musashi’s philosophy to the 21st century mind. The first version of the book I came across was a small hardback copy produced in 1974 by The Overlook Press, which contained a translation into English by Victor Harris. But the book was hard to read and understand owing to the frequent repetition of certain words and phrases which I am sure were a direct literal translation with all the jumps in syntax and grammar intact. While this was a worthy effort on the part of Mr. Harris it is hard to follow for someone who wants to get the actual gist of Musashi’s instruction without slogging through the verbage and losing its meaning.

In this book I attempt to simplify and expand on the original text while keeping to the spirit of Musashi’s work. I am also not sure how accurate the dictation taken by his pupil Teruo Magonojo was. He may have also deviated somewhat from his master’s words, in which case we benefit from a translation of a translation. With the huge jump in interest in Japanese anime and the attendant interest in the samurai as an artifact of Japanese tradition, I saw this book as an opportunity to present something of the five books as an entire philosophy of strategy and warfare in the modern world. Many of the principles described in these books are practiced today in the modern Japanese boardroom and as a strategy for success for the savvy entrepreneur. The principles are not confined to swordplay alone, but are useful in everyday life no matter what craft or level of expertise you possess. Inserted in the text are brief notations in brackets ([ ]), which are explanations of certain words and traditions contained therein, along with illustrations and annotations. Footnotes are appended at the end of each chapter. In addition, there is a gallery of Musashi’s own artwork and also a gallery of prints depicting Musashi in various situations and other samurai by several Japanese artists of the 19th century. I have tried to find information for each one which is accurate but some remain unknown. I also present a brief history of Japan covering the time that Musashi lived along with essays on modern kendo and the religious traditions that are at its base. I hope you enjoy reading and learning from this book as much I did putting it together, and that you profit by its contents. - ♦ - Theresa M. Moore

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AN HISTORICAL MAP OF JAPAN

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A BIOGRAPHY OF MIYAMOTO MUSASHI

Shinmen Musashi No Kami Fujiwara No Genshin, or Miyamoto Musashi as he is now known, was born in 1584 to a noble but somewhat middle-class family. “No Kami” means a noble person (samurai), while “Fujiwara” is the name of a noble family well known in Japan. His ancestors came from a branch of the Harima clan in Kyushu, the southern island of Japan. Hirada Shokan, his grandfather, was a retainer of Lord Shinmen Iga No Kami Sudeshige of Takeyama Castle.

His mother died shortly after he was born but he was raised by his stepmother and his notoriously harsh and distant father, who was an expert with the jitte, an iron truncheon with a tongue for catching blades. In this hard and ascetic environment Musashi was led to study Kendo as an outlet for his own violent nature. He was quite tall and had facial scars from a childhood illness (measles or smallpox) that were hard to conceal. His lack of beauty, his violent life on the road and his innate paranoia at being caught unarmed in the bath conspired to make him live the life of an itinerant hobo, unkempt and unwashed most of the time, and made him a spectacle in noble circles. This in spite of the Japanese tradition of cleanliness which at the time was far beyond the grooming habits of Europeans of that period. However, he was also said to take showers under waterfalls like some Buddhist monks, so the description of his shabbiness may have been an exaggeration supplied by his growing list of both enemies and admirers. When he was 13 years old Musashi was already a rebel without a cause [like Mugen in “Samurai Champloo”]. He challenged an experienced samurai named Arima Kihei to an organized duel, in which he killed his opponent. Having won by dint of his strength and his determination, Musashi was well on his way toward carving out a reputation for himself.

When he was 16 Musashi ran away from home and embarked on a long and celebrated career of traveling the countryside alone, with the single-minded ambition to improve his skills as a swordsman. He won several recorded duels as well as many we may not ever know of. One such celebrated duel was with a samurai named Tadashima Akiyama. Musashi participated in the battle of Sekigahara and ended up on the losing side. Somehow he survived the battle in which 70,000 of his comrades in arms were slaughtered, and escaped a concerted manhunt for stragglers and wounded among the defeated army. Sometime later, Musashi left Kyoto in 1605 to avenge an insult to his father made by the Yoshioka clan. The Yoshiokas had been fencing instructors to the Ashikaga house for generations. Munisai, Musashi’s father, had been invited to Kyoto years before by the Shogun Ashikaga Yoshioka. The story is that Munisai fought three of the Yoshiokas, winning two out of three duels. But because he did not win the third they called him a coward.

Musashi challenged the head of the house, Yoshioka Seijiro, and broke his arm

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with a bokken [a short wooden stick]. Shamed by this, Seijiro cut off his topknot. His brother Denshichiro became incensed and challenged Musashi to a duel. Musashi promptly killed him with a blow to the head. Enraged by the fate of his father and uncle, the young master of the house, Hanshichiro, challenged Musashi to a duel. Being a minor, the boy would have to be represented by a second, but he had 30 men surround the area armed with guns, arrows and swords, some hiding in a pine tree nearby. But Musashi had cleverly anticipated their plan and hid in the underbrush until the warriors were ready to give up; then sprang from his hiding place, cut the boy down and dispatched the rest, starting with the gunmen. Later, Musashi said that being the one among many made him fight with both swords; one to control the enemy’s position and the other to kill with. This was the birth of his famous two-sword technique. Later that year he visited the temple Hozoin in the south of Edo [Tokyo]. Here he fought with Oku Hozoin, a pupil of the Zen priest Hoin Inei, and won the duel. Musashi stayed on and studied his sword skills while receiving instruction and advice from the temple priests. While he was there he was visited by a fighter named Muso Gonosuke, who challenged him to a duel while he was cutting wood to make a bow. Gonosuke was armed with a sword, and Musashi only a wand for a wooden sword, but when Gonosuke attacked Musashi stepped in and hit him smartly on the head. Thus humiliated, Gonosuke fled. When Musashi left the temple to continue his path of enlightenment he passed through Izumo Province and stopped there to ask Lord Matsudaira’s permission to fight with his strongest Kendo expert. He was matched with a man who used an 8 foot long hexagonal wooden pole. Musashi faced him armed with two wooden swords. The contest was held in the house’s library garden, where Musashi chased the man up the two wooden steps and thrust at his face, throwing him off balance, then hit him in both arms. Intrigued, Lord Matsudaira asked Musashi to fight him. Musashi drove him up the steps and broke his sword with the “Fire and Stones” cut. The lord conceded the duel and asked Musashi to stay on as his teacher.

Sometime later Musashi fought with Shishido Baikin, a master of the sickle and chain, who wrapped his ball and chain around his opponent’s sword and then stabbed him with the sickle while his enemy tried to disentangle himself. This did not work with Musashi, who promptly dropped his katana [long sword], pulled out his wakizashi [short sword] and stabbed Baikin with it. Baikin’s followers were shocked and angry but Musashi chased them away with an impressive show of force. Musashi’s most famous duel was in the 17th year of Keicho [1612], when he was in Ogura in Bunzen Province. There he fought with Sasaki Kojiro, a retainer of Lord Hosokawa Tadaoki. Kojiro had developed a fighting technique called Tsubame-gaeshi [swallow counter], inspired by the motion of a swallow’s tail in flight. Musashi applied to Lord Tadaoki for permission to fight Kojiro. The lord granted his request and arranged for the fight to take place at 8 o’clock the next morning on an island a few

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miles from Ogura. To prepare, Musashi left his lodging that night and moved to the house of an aquaintance, inspiring a rumor that Musashi was so in awe of Kojiro’s technique that he fled for his life. At 8 o’clock a prompter was sent to Musashi to wake him and meet the officials assembled on the island. He got up and went straight down to the shore. As he was 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, then wrapped a towel around his head. He laid back to rest. Once the boat reached the shore Musashi leapt from the boat brandishing the wooden sword and rushed through the surf toward his opponent. Kojiro drew his katana but Musashi declared, “you have no more need of that” as he rushed forward with his oar sword held to one side. Thus forced into making the first cut, Kojiro managed to cut the towel from Musashi’s head but was not prepared for the upward thrust that knocked his blade aside. Musashi followed through and brought the oar down on Kojiro’s head, killing him instantly.

After that Musashi stopped using steel swords in duels. He was invincible, and from then on practiced Kendo as a way to achieve perfect understanding of himself. By the age of 29 Musashi had over 60 contests under his belt, and won them all. The earliest accounts appear in Niten Ki or “Two Heavens Chronicle”, a record compiled by his students a generation after his death. In 1614 and again in 1615 he participated in warfare during the Tokugawa ascension. Ieyasu Tokugawa laid siege to Osaka Castle where the Ashikaga clan maintained their stronghold and were fomenting an insurrection against the emperor. [It was this battle upon which James Clavell based his blockbuster novel Shogun] When he was 50 Musashi settled into the life of the wanderer and devoted his study to perfecting his skill as a swordsman. According to his own writing, he came to understand strategy as a Way or discipline in 1634. Like many other men of the sword, Musashi was an avowed bachelor and never took a wife. He willed his worldly goods to a street kid he met in Dewa named Iori, whom he adopted and took to live with him in Ogura on Kyushu Island. Iori distinguished himself by fighting against the Christians in the Shimawara uprising in 1638 as a captain of the army for Ogasawara Tadazane, when Musashi was about 55. After six years in Ogura, Musashi was invited to stay with Hosokawa Tadatoshi, the lord of Kumamoto Castle, as a guest. There he spent his time teaching and painting. In 1643 he left his royal patron and retired from there to climb Mount Iwato and live a life of seclusion in a cave called “Reigendo”.

After he wrote the Book of Five Rings he became quite ill and his pupils and followers transported him back to civilization for hospice care. In a few month he was dead, and was returned to his hometown as cremated remains to be placed in the family tomb in Miyamoto.

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Kumamoto Castle (restored) where Musashi lived for several years as the guest of Lord

Hosokawa.

Miyamoto Musashi is known as kensei [sword saint]. “Gorin No Sho” heads every Kendo bibliography. It is unique in that it touches on the strategy of both single combat and battlefield combat in exactly the same way. Instead of establishing a standard dojo he simply redoubled his efforts to study Kendo and the principles of strategy in the quest for meaning and self-understanding. Despite his cruel headstrong temperament and violent past he remained ever a humble and honest spirit throughout his life.

- ♦ -

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A print of Musashi – the position is “happo biraki” or “open on all eight sides” (unkown artist)

INTRODUCTION

My name is Shinmen Musashi No Kami Fujiwara No Genshin, aged sixty years old. I am a warrior of the Harima Province. I have climbed the sacred mountain Iwato of Higo in Kyushu to pay homage to Heaven1, pray to Kwannon2, and kneel before Buddha. It is now the tenth day of the tenth month in the twentieth year of Kanei [1645]. From my youth I have long studied the Way3 of strategy4, called Nitten Ichi Ryu5 [“two swords as one”]. I write these words to explain this Way for the first time. I fought my first duel when I was thirteen years old and struck down an able strategist by the name of Arima Kihei, a student of the Shinto school. When I was sixteen I defeated another able strategist named Tadashima Akiyama. When I was twenty one I went to the capital [Edo (Tokyo)] and went against many strategists, never once losing these contests. I traveled from province to province, dueling with strategists of various schools of combat and remained undefeated through sixty battles for sixteen years.

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When I reached the age of thirty I looked behind me. The previous victories were not due to a mastery of strategy. Most of my wins were due to a variety of factors, like natural talent, the will of Heaven, or the inferior strategy of the other combatants’ schools. I began to study hard, day and night; until I found the Way of strategy at the age of fifty. Since then I have lived life without following any particular Way, and I practice many arts and abilities without a teacher to guide me6. To write this book I did not rely on the principles of Buddha or of Confucius; nor did I own the record of wars or books of other martial artists. I take up my brush to explain the soul7 of the Ichi school as it is reflected in the way of Heaven and Kwannon. The time is the hour of the tiger* [3-5 am] on the night of the tenth day of the tenth month. *Based on the Chinese zodiac.

FOOTNOTES 1. homage to Heaven: “ten” or heaven means the Shinto religion. Shinto – a word compound

of the two characters kami (god) and michi (way) – stands for the old religion of Japan. There are “holies”; gods of steel and fermentation, place and industry, and so forth, including the first gods who were ancestors in the imperial line of descendency.

2. Kwannon is the goddess of mercy in Buddhism. 3. Way: the character is read michi in Japanese or do in Chinese based language. It is the

equivalent of the Chinese word tao and means the whole life of the warrior, his devotion to the sword and his place in society. It is the road of the cosmos and not just a set of ethics to live by; the divine footprints of God pointing the way.

4. Strategy: read as heiho, a Chinese word meaning military combat. “Hei” meaning soldier, and “ho” means method or form.

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5. Nitten Ichi Ryu (literally “two heavens as one school” or “two swords as one”) is characterised by the use of both long and short swords. The use of two swords in modern Kendo is known as “Nittou Ryu” (two swords) and is currently seeing a resurgence in popularity after a hiatus of many years. The kamae [handholds] invoked by Musashi is known as Tadashi Kamae (traditional kamae); however, most practitioners prefer to use the long sword in the left hand and the short one in the right. This kamae is known as Gyauku Kamae (reverse kamae).

6. All things with no teacher: Musashi studied various arts in various schools, but in time he became separate from traditional guidance. The schools were part of a system of traditions instituted by the Muromachi Period, and perpetuated through the Tokugawa Shogunate.

7. Soul: shin or kokoro, translated as “heart” or “spirit”, expression of feeling or manner. A famous saying: “The sword is the soul of the samurai”.

-♦ -

OUTLINE OF THE FIVE BOOKS The Way is shown in 5 books1 of the Go Dai [Five Greats]. These are: Ground, Water, Fire, Wind [Tradition or style] and Void. The first book: the body of the Way in my Ichi School is explained in this book like a straight road mapped out on the ground. It is hard to know the true Way just by sword fencing. One must know a little of everything to know the Way; from the smallest and shallowest to the greatest and deepest of all things. Second is the Water Book. Water adopts the shape of the vessel which contains it. It is at once a trickle and the wild sea. It has a clear blue color. Things of the Ichi School are shown clearly in this book. If you can beat one man at sword fencing you can beat any man, or ten million men. The spirit of mastery is the same. The strategist can make a big thing from a small thing, or model. The principle of strategy is to know a little of everything. One drop of water is the same as an ocean. Third is the Fire Book. This book is about fighting. In strategy training is essential to conduct a normal life with a constant spirit. The essence of this book is that you must train day and night in order to make quick decisions. The Way of battles is the same between man to man as for ten thousand men. It is easy to predict the movement of large numbers of men but hard to predict the movement of one. The spirit of fire is fierce whether the fire is big or small; so it is the same with men. Combat in battle is described in this book. The Wind Book is not about my Ichi School but about other schools of strategy. It is about tradition. It is hard to know yourself if you do not know others. There are distractions to avoid when studying any Way. If you allow yourself to become sidetracked you will stray from your path. A small distraction can grow into a larger one with time. You must focus on your study of strategy. Other schools are thought of

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as mere swordplay, often with good reason. The principles of my strategy are explained in this book. The fifth book is the Book of Void2, that which has no beginning and no end. The Way of strategy is the way of nature. When you appreciate the power of nature and know the rhythm of any situation you will be able to fight naturally. This is the way of the Void. In this book I show how to follow the Way by following nature.

FOOTNOTES

1. 5 books: The five rings of Buddhism are the five parts of the human body; head, left and

right elbows, and left and right knees. 2. Void: The void, or nothingness, is a Buddhist term for the illusionary nature of worldly

things. - ♦ - Sa

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Strategy is the warrior’s craft. Commanders must enact it, and their troops should know it. There is no warrior who truly understands the Way of strategy in the world today. Each man practices what he feels is important to learn. There are various ways to learn: salvation through Buddha, the philosophy of learning through Confucius, the doctor’s art, the poetry of Waka1, tea making, archery2, and many other arts and skills. The way of the warrior is the way of the pen and the sword. He should have a taste for both. Even if a man has no natural ability he can become a warrior by adhering to the learning of both. The way of the warrior is the resolute acceptance of death3. This is different from the way priests, women, peasants and others face death; in the performance of their duty to their lord or to escape their shame. The warrior’s task is to defeat men. The warrior attains power and fame for himself or his lord through victory in battle. This is the virtue in strategy. In China and Japan practitioners of the Way have been known as “masters of strategy”. To master it, warriors must learn the Way. The name Ichi Ryu Ni To [one school; two swords] Warriors, both commanders and troopers, carry two swords in their belts; the long sword [katana or tachi] and the short or companion sword [wakizashi]. There is an

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