The Book of Five Rings E-Book

Miyamoto Musashi

• Herausgeber: Madeley publishing
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

Miyamoto Musashi's Go Rin no Sho or the book of five rings, is considered a classic treatise on military strategy, much like Sun Tzu's The Art of War and Chanakya's Arthashastra. The five "books" refer to the idea that there are different elements of battle, just as there are different physical elements in life, as described by Buddhism, Shinto, and other Eastern religions. Through the book Musashi defends his thesis: a man who conquers himself is ready to take it on on the world, should need arise.

Leseprobe

The Book of Five Rings

by Miyamoto Musashi

Translated by Victor Harris

Contents

Miyamoto Musashi and the Book of Five Rings

Japan during Musashi's lifetime

Introduction

The Ground Book

The Water Book

The Fire Book

The Wind Book

The Book of the Void

Miyamoto Musashi and the Book of Five Rings

Miyamoto Musashi (March 12, 1584, Ōhara-Chō, – June 13, 1645), also known as Shinmen Takezō, Miyamoto Bennosuke or, by his Buddhist name, Niten Dōraku, was a Japanese swordsman, philosopher, strategist, writer and rōnin. Musashi, as he was often simply known, became renowned through stories of his unique double-bladed swordsmanship and undefeated record in his 61 duels (next is 33 by Itō Ittōsai). He is considered a Kensei, a sword-saint of Japan. He was the founder of the Niten Ichi-ryū school or Nito Ichi-ryū style of swordsmanship, and in his final years authored The Book of Five Rings (五輪の書, Go Rin No Sho), and Dokkōdō (The Path of Aloneness). Both documents were given to Terao Magonojō, the most important of Musashi's students, seven days before Musashi's death. The Book of Five Rings deals primarily with the character of his Niten Ichi-ryū school in a concrete sense e.g. his own practical martial art and its generic significance; The Path of Aloneness on the other hand, deals with the ideas that lie behind it, as well as his life's philosophy in a few short aphoristic sentences. The Miyamoto Musashi Budokan training center - in a remarkable architecture - located in Ōhara-chō (Mimasaka), Okayama prefecture, Japan was erected to honor his name and legend.

In Musashi's last book, The Book of Five Rings (五輪書, Go Rin no Sho), Musashi seems to take a very philosophical approach to looking at the "craft of war": "There are five ways in which men pass through life: as gentlemen, warriors, farmers, artisans and merchants."

Throughout the book, Musashi implies that the way of the Warrior, as well as the meaning of a "true strategist" is that of somebody who has made mastery of many art forms away from that of the sword, such as tea drinking (sadō), laboring, writing, and painting, as Musashi practiced throughout his life. Musashi was hailed as an extraordinary sumi-e artist in the use of ink monochrome as depicted in two such paintings: "Shrike Perched in a Dead Tree" (Koboku Meigekizu, 枯木鳴鵙図) and "Wild Geese Among Reeds" (Rozanzu, 魯山図). Going back to the Book of Five Rings, Musashi talks deeply about the ways of Buddhism.

He makes particular note of artisans and foremen. When he wrote the book, the majority of houses in Japan were made of wood. In the use of building a house, foremen have to employ strategy based upon the skill and ability of their workers.

In comparison to warriors and soldiers, Musashi notes the ways in which the artisans thrive through events; the ruin of houses, the splendor of houses, the style of the house, the tradition and name or origins of a house. These too, are similar to the events which are seen to have warriors and soldiers thrive; the rise and fall of prefectures, countries and other such events are what make uses for warriors, as well as the literal comparisons: "The carpenter uses a master plan of the building, and the way of strategy is similar in that there is a plan of campaign".

Japan during Musashi's lifetime

Miyamoto Musashi was born in 1584, in a Japan struggling to recover from more than four

centuries of internal strife. The traditional rule of the emperors had been overthrown in the

twelfth century, and although each succesive emperor remained the figurehead of Japan,

his powers were very much reduced. Since that time, Japan had seen almost continuous

civil war between the provincial lords, warrior monks and brigands, all fighting each other

for land and power. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the lords, called daimyo, built

huge stone castles to protect themselves and their lands and castle towns outside the

walls began to grow up. These wars naturally restricted the growth of trade and

impoverished the whole country.

In 1573, however, one man, Oda Nobunaga, came to the fore in Japan. He

became Shogun, or military dictator, and for nine years succeeded in gaining control of

almost the whole of the country. When Nobunaga was assassinated in 1582, a commoner

took over the government. Toyotomi Hideyoshi continued the work of unifying Japan

which Nobunaga had begun, ruthlessly putting down any traces of insurrection. He

revived the old gulf between the warriors of Japan— the samurai— and the commoners by

introducing restrictions on the wearing of swords. "Hideyoshi's sword-hunt", as it was

known, meant that only samurai were allowed to wear two swords; the short one which

everyone could wear and the long one which distinguished the samurai from the rest of

the population.

Although Hideyoshi did much to settle Japan and increase trade with the outside

world, by the time of his death in 1598 internal disturbances still had not been completely

eliminated. The real isolation and unification of Japan began with the inauguration of the

great Togugawa rule. In 1603 Tokugawa leyasu, a former associate of both Hideyoshi and

Nobunaga, formally became Shogun of Japan, after defeating Hideyoshi's son Hideyori at

the battle of Seki ga Hara.

leyasu established his government at Edo, present-day Tokyo, where he had a

huge castle. His was a stable, peaceful government beginning a period of Japanese

history which was to last until the Imperial Restoration of 1868, for although leyasu himself

died in 1616 members of his family succeeded each other and the title Shogun became

virtually an hereditary one for the Tokugawas.

leyasu was determined to ensure his and his family's dictatorship. To this end, he

paid lip-service to the emperor in Kyoto, who remained the titular head of Japan, while

curtailing his duties and involvement in the government. The real threat to leyasu's

position could only come from the lords, and he effectively decreased their opportunities

for revolt by devising schemes whereby all lords had to live in Edo for alternate years and

by placing great restrictions on travelling. He allotted land in exchange for oaths of

allegiance, and gave the provincial castles around Edo to members of his own family. He

also employed a network of secret police and assassins.

The Tokugawa period marks a great change in the social history of Japan. The

Bureaucracy of the Tokugawas was all-pervading. 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. The samurai

were the highest — in esteem if not in wealth — and included the lords, senior government

officials, warriors, and minor officials and foot soldiers. 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. We find the origins of the samurai class in

the Kondei ("Stalwart Youth") system established in 792 AD, whereby the Japanese

army — which had until then consisted mainly of spear-wielding foot soldiers — was revived

by stiffening the ranks with permanent training officers recruited from among the young

sons of the high families. These officers were mounted, wore armour, and used the bow

and sword. In 782 the emperor Kammu started building Kyoto, and in Kyoto he built a

training hall which exists to this day called the Butokuden, meaning "Hall of the virtues of

war". Within a few years of this revival the fierce Ainu, the aboriginal inhabitants of Japan

who had until then confounded the army's attempt to move them from their wild lodgings,

were driven far off to the northern island, Hokkaido.

When the great provincial armies were gradually disbanded under Hideyoshi and

leyasu, many out-of-work samurai roamed the country redundant in an era of peace.

Musashi was one such samurai, a "renin" or "wave man". 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.

Schools of Kendo born in the early Muromachi period — approximately 1390 to

1600— were continued through the upheavals of the formation of the peaceful Tokugawa

Shogunate, and survive to this day. The education of the sons of the Tokugawa Shoguns

was by means of schooling in the Chinese classics and fencing exercises. Where a

Westener might say "The pen is mightier than the sword", the Japanese would say "Bunbu

Itchi", or "Pen and sword in accord". 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 renin 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 renin 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. Two schools especially, the Itto school and the Yagyu school, were

sponsored by the Tokugawas. The Itto school provided an unbroken line of Kendo

teachers, and the Yagyu school eventually became the secret police of the Tokugawa

bureaucracy.

KENDO

Traditionally, the fencing halls of Japan, called Dojo, were associated with shrines and

temples, but during Musashi's lifetime numerous schools sprang up in the new castle

towns. Each daimyo or lord, sponsored a Kendo school, where his retainers could be

trained and his sons educated. The hope of every renin 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. Duels were

fought to the death or until one of the contestants was disabled, but a few generations

after Musashi's time the "shinai", a pliable bamboo sword, and later padded fencing

armour, came to be widely used, so the chances of injury were greatly reduced. 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,