The Book of Five What??
When thinking of another great book that i would recommend to someone looking for a book on tactics and strategy in martial arts, I would have to tell them of a famous book named “The Book of Five Rings”. The book of five rings is an very intelligently written book by Miyamoto Musashi. From looking at the man behind the book we will get an understanding of how and why it is such a great book. We will go over and briefly review his book and get an understanding of who he is and what he talks about as well. For in doing so i believe that you will be surprised about the history of Miyamoto and his character and the context of his literary masterpiece.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Five_Rings
Before we look at this book we must understand the man that wrote it. Miyamoto is a Japanese swordsman who was considered a great warrior. He fought in many duels and battles and was known for being victorious in a majority of them. This guy is so awesome that he left his village at the age of 16 to travel around and duel people and fight in wars. He even challenged and defeated an entire school of people in Kyoto, Japan. He traveled a lot going around and learning different styles and dueling masters and schools. He even fought some duels with a bokken, which is a wooden sword. It is said that he must have fought in some 58 duels or so without even losing one bout. So from what we can see about this man is that he is one tough dude.
Now we will view this masterpiece that he wrote. The Book of Five Rings is composed of five books:
- Book of Earth
- Book of Water
- Book of Fire
- Book of Wind
- Book of Nothing
How Do These Books Help Me?
It is said that he taught these principles in these books to his students, and wrote them down for future generations to read. The five books are suppose to represent the five elements that make up a war or battle. Since Miyamoto was a Buddhist, we can see this sense of nature and adding Buddhist influence into his books. Miyamoto in his alter life started to study zazen,and we can see this in some of these texts as well. In looking for an overview of these books i found a pretty good definition of what each book talks about. So for the sake of quoting i will quote wikipedia, because i thought it was a good representation of each books character.
” * The Book of Earth chapter serves as an introduction, and metaphorically discusses martial arts, leadership, and training as building a house.
* The Book of Water chapter describes Musashi’s style, Ni-ten ichi-ryu, or “Two Heavens, One Style”. It describes some basic technique and fundamental principles.
* The Book of Fire chapter refers to the heat of battle, and discusses matters such as different types of timing.
* The Book of Wind chapter is something of a pun, since the Japanese character can mean both “wind” and “style” (e.g., of martial arts). It discusses what Musashi considers to be the failings of various contemporary schools of swordfighting.
* The Book of No-thing chapter is a short epilogue, describing, in more esoteric terms, Musashi’s probably Zen-influenced thoughts on consciousness and the correct mindset.” (Wikipedia)
To summarize what each book talks about as a whole. it concentrates on philosophy, tactics and strategy of war and battle. Each book goes into more detail on a different section of battle and makes the reader understand how to be successful in battle. Being in martial arts, I believe that studying ancient old strategies on battle can be a useful tool for your training.
One of Musashi's Infamous Battles...on the beach
Apply Miyamoto’s philosophies, tactics and strategies into your match between you and your opponent. These ideals in The Book of Five Rings can easily apply to yourself sparring in the ring. These principles and different books are valuable instruments for improving your mind and body and strengthening your martial arts style. I would highly recommend going out there and purchasing this book, and adding it to your library of great books (if you haven’t already).
Quoted Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Five_Rings
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