Here I reveal another wonderful piece of writing by Musashi that is not included in “the Book of Five Rings” which I have found in “Miyamoto Musashi: His Life and Writings” by Kenji Tokitsu: Dokkodo, “The Way to Be Followed Alone.” It includes 21 dense articles, and was supposedly writing only days before his death.… Continue reading "The Way to Be Followed Alone"

The other day at school, one of the English teachers at school came across a very interesting short essay from one of the textbooks she uses in class. It is a story about a wolf, but one that maybe doesn’t quite fit most people’s image of the creature. “During my most recent wolf lecture tour,… Continue reading Sensei as Wolves?

Though I have finished “the Book of Five Rings”, I am now reading other documents that Musashi wrote concerning martial strategy. For those few who received transmission of Musashi’s art, they also received some written explanations from Musashi, which seem to be the pre-workings of “the Book of Five Rings.” However, there are a few… Continue reading More Writings From Musashi

Today I just finished rereading Musashi’s “the Book of Five Rings.” The book is divided into five sections, or Scrolls rather: Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, and Heaven (the Void). I remember in my first reading, it was the Earth and Heaven sections that were the most inspirational for me. In the Scroll of Earth, Musashi… Continue reading The Gem in Musashi’s "Book of Five Rings"

As I’ve been rereading Miyamoto Musashi’s, “the Book of Five Rings,” I have many wonderful new revelations I was unable to have on prior readings, however there are still a few still sections mired in mystery for me. Here’s one I found towards the end of the Scroll of Fire concerning a “mouse’s head and… Continue reading Riddles from Musashi

Well, according to the Scroll of Water of Miyamoto Musashi’s, “the Book of Five Rings”: “A thousand days of training to develop, ten-thousand days of training to polish. You must examine all this well.”So, we should “train to develop” for 2.74 years (about 2 years and 9 months), and then “train to polish” for 27.40… Continue reading How long should we train for?

“I’m sorry to say”, “I have some bad news”, “It’s unfortunate but”, these are the rough translations you can make from Japanese to English of “Zannen desu ga”, and this is what I had to say to my aikido comrades tonight. I’ve been waiting for the right time, which is very important in relaying such… Continue reading "Zannen desu ga…"