Product Description

The Book of Five Rings is one of the most insightful texts on the subtle arts of confrontation and victory to emerge from Asian culture. Written not only for martial artists but for anyone who wants to apply the timeless principles of this text to their life, the book analyzes the process of struggle and mastery over conflict that underlies every level of human interaction. The Book of Five Rings was composed in 1643 by the famed duelist and undefeated samurai Miyamoto Musashi. Thomas Cleary's translation is immediately accessible, with an introduction that presents the spiritual background of the warrior tradition. Along with Musashi's text, Cleary translates here another important Japanese classic on leadership and strategy, The Book of Family Traditions on the Art of War by Yagyu Munenori, which highlights the ethical and spiritual insights of Taoism and Zen as they apply to the way of the warrior.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3074 in Books
• Published on: 2005-01-11
• Released on: 2005-01-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 192 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781590302484
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
"Embraced by many contemporary readers as a manual on how to succeed in life."— Library Journal

From the Inside Flap
The Book of Five Rings is one of the most insightful texts on the subtle arts of confrontation and victory to emerge from Asian culture. Written not only for martial artists but for anyone who wants to apply the timeless principles of this text to their life, the book analyzes the process of struggle and mastery over conflict that underlies every level of human interaction.
The Book of Five Rings was composed in 1643 by the famed duelist and undefeated samurai Miyamoto Musashi. Thomas Cleary's translation is immediately accessible, with an introduction that presents the spiritual background of the warrior tradition. Along with Musashi's text, Cleary translates here another important Japanese classic on leadership and strategy, The Book of Family Traditions on the Art of War by Yagyu Munenori, which highlights the ethical and spiritual insights of Taoism and Zen as they apply to the way of the warrior.

From the Hardcover edition.

About the Author
Miyamoto Musashi, who lived in Japan in the 1600s, was an undefeated dueler, a masterless samurai, and an independent teacher. He spent the last decades of his life refining and teaching his military science.

Customer Reviews

There is no second place
I have read this short series of essays a few times now.
They can be summed up as follows.

A: In a fight for your life, there is no second place.

B: The way to win a fight for your life is as follows.
1: Be smarter than your enemy
2: Be better prepared than your enemy
3: Have more talent than your enemy
4: Don't be predictable to your enemy
5: Be more determined than your enemy

These things may seem obvious, but if they are, why don't we execute and win?
This translation is clear and easily understood, especially for those who have spent some time in the martial arts, and those who have played sports or engage in competitive business. You may also enjoy The Art of War which was a lot of the inspiration for this man's life, and Musashi which is a fun story of his dueling days.

Profundity is in the Mind of the Beholder
How would a Japanese feudal army fare against a Macedonian phalanx or a Roman legion? Or to be more historical, how would samurai force led by Musashi in 1643 fare against an equal force led by Gustavus Adolphus, his Swedish contemporary? Musashi asserts that the rules which govern the combat of armies apply equally to individual duels, so how would Musashi himself fare against Cyrano, or Richard the Lion-Hearted, or his enemy Saladin?

If you think the answers are "like duh, obvious, dude!", you need a surreality check. The Way of the Samurai, like all the arts of pre-Meiji Japan, evolved in splendid isolation, never battle-tested outside that sphere. One has only to watch a bout of "mixed martial arts" in comparison to the fantasy martial arts of a film like 'Hero' to realize that power often defeats art. Musashi Miyamoto never toyed with fantasy; the sole goal of swordsmanship, he wrote repeatedly, is to kill your opponent by any means possible.

I picked up this small translation of Musashi's writings at an exhibit centered on his career at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum. That museum tour also inspired me to re-watch some of the classic Japanese samurai films of Kurosawa and Kobayashi. Sure enough, The Book of the Five Rings reads like a script for the balletic duels fought in those films by Mifune Toshiro and Nakadai Tatsuyo. In other words, those films were grounded in historical realities, and thus were plausible enough to evoke suspense and empathy. They portrayed, within artistic limits and license, the ethics and aesthetics of Japan during the Shogunate, and they were high human entertainment, not game-boy escapism.

Does The Book of Five Rings contain useful wisdom for modern strategists of state-craft, war, or business? I'm told by the editors that it does, but I suspect that the wisdom is like that of pondering a mandala; it's the mind of the reader that finds validation in the reading. For practical help with exercising your personal opportunism, Niccolo Macchiavelli's The Prince would be a hundred times more useful.

Read Musashi Miyamoto for his historical interest, and try to arrange a visit to the SF Asian Arts Museum in the near future.

Great value
I won't waste anyone's time or space on reviewing the book itself; there are plenty of great references and articles on the value of its contents. Instead I'll focus on the format itself and this particular printing; for starters, it's a lot smaller and more compact than I expected, but still easy to read. The book itself isn't terribly long, so they managed to keep it small without having to shrink the text too much. It still has all of the add on material by Thomas Cleary, so nothing is lost in the transfer. All in all, a very worthwhile buy if you're looking for an affordable, pocket-sized version of the book, or just need to replace it.