Waterstones Musashi's Book of Five Rings
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Price: £10.99
Brand: Waterstones
Description: This classic interpretation of Miyamoto Musashi's famous Book of Five Rings is explicitly intended for the martial artist | ??as Miyamoto Musashi originally intended. It explains the underlying truths necessary for a full understanding of Musashi's message for warriors. The result is an enthralling book on military strategy that combines the instincts of the warrior with the philosophies of Zen Buddhism, Shintoism, Confucianism and Taoism. It is a crucial book for every martial artist to read and understand. Like the original, this classic book of strategy is divided into five sections. The Book of Earth lays the groundwork for anyone wishing to understand Musashi's teachings; the Book of Water explains the warrior's approach to strategy; the Book of Fire teaches fundamental fighting techniques based on the Earth and Water principles; the Book of Wind describes differences between Musashi's own martial style and the styles of other fighting schools; while the Book of No-thing describes the way of nature as understood through an unthinking existing preconception. Famed martial artist and bestselling author Stephen Kaufman has translated this classic without the usual academic or commercial bias, driving straight into the heart of Musashi's martial teachings and interpreting them for his fellow martial artists. The result is an enthralling combination of warrior wisdom and philosophical truths that Musashi offered to other warriors who wished to master the martial way of bushido. Waterstones Musashi's Book of Five Rings - shop the best deal online on thebookbug.co.uk
Category: Books
Merchant: Waterstones
Product ID: 9780804835206
Delivery cost: 2.99
ISBN: 9780804835206
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Author: M. Franklin
Rating: 5
Review: As a martial arts person myself I have read just about every translation of this book and I can honestly say this is the one to follow if you are on a martial arts journey. This copy is translated by a high level martial artist who has immersed his life in the material and his obvious love of the work shines through. He also captures eloquently the direct and aggressive tone of such a larger than life character as Miyamoto Musashi. I have shown this book to high calibre martial artists of varying styles such as Kyokushin Karate and Boxing and all agree that the strategies are impressive. There is a certain mind set of "win at all costs" that emerges from the book that not everyone will agree with but which is still a fascinating insight to another time and place where a man's survival literally depended on his fighting ability. For that mind set alone this book belongs on the shelf of every person interested in self defense, although there is so much more to this book. Almost every paragraph ends with "you must train in this constantly" or "you must research this well" and this only helps to focus your intention on the level of commitment needed to achieve success. This book is always inspirational to read and as the great author himself points out you will learn something new from it every time you approach it.
Author: Mr. A. P. Watson
Rating: 1
Review: Unlike one of the other reviewers, I wouldn't advise any potential buyers to ignore ANY of the reviews - a stupid bit of advice (sounds like "don't listen to anyone else except me!"). Read all the reviews and form your own opinion. What anyone who gives this a glossy review completely fails to acknowledge is this: IT IS A RIP OFF OF NUMEROUS OTHER ACTUAL TRANSLATIONS While Kaufman states this within his rag of a publication, he tries to suggest that his own regurgitation of Musashi's writings are in some way useful because of a simple formula he applies - he copies other translations and simply throws in the odd "you can kick here" or "this applies to punching and kicking". Anyone who considers anything Musashi wrote to be of value would avoid this book as a) there are far more accurate translations of the original by scholars who understand something of the nuances of the time that it was written in and have tried to preserve that and b) by Kaufman adding in his own version of the English reading he is simply adding things that Musashi DID NOT WRITE! I know a few highly skilled and experienced martial artists who have trained longer that Kaufman but I still would not consider their own reinterpretation of Musashi's work to be of any value at all unless a) they had translated it directly from the original Japanese manuscript and b) they had carried out auxiliary research of the art, the history and alternative texts which might shed more light on a document which is difficult to interpret, even by experts.
