Hittokiri's Hara-Kiri Forum

Title: The Book Of Five Rings
Author: Miyamoto Musashi
ISBN: 9784770028013
Other Authors: William Scott Wilson (Translator)


The Book Of Five Rings is written by Miyamoto Mushashi, who is likely the greatest swordsman of all time. As a warrior he made his first kill as a kid. The Book Of Five Rings is Musashi's description of his own style, which is known as niten (two-heavens). The book is broken down into five chapters Wind, Water, Earth, Fire, and Emptiness. Each chapter is used to describe a different aspect of his style and is compared to elements.

The Book Of Five Rings is good, but difficult to understand. Reading it would require reading it more than once or reading more than two versions. The book was something in the realm of enlightening. I had a few reservation to his referring to his Way as being the true way, but he doesn't fail to explain why. I was annoyed by his frequent use of the phrase "this should be throughly investigated".

This particular translation was well done, the translating author writes a short biography about Mushashi and explains parts of the book. He makes a good effort to leave notes on particular meanings. In particular I was interested by Buddhist deity named Kannon as well as Japanese military phrase that got me thinking. The book contained two painting done by Mushashi that were certainly interesting. In front of each chapter is the kanji done in good calligraphy for the names of each chapter.

Would I recommend this book? Yes, but not without its asterisk. One being to read it more than once or to read multiple translations. Two being that this should only be read if one wishes to better them self either or to get a glimpse into another culture.