The Book of Five Rings - 「五輪書」(宮本武蔵)

- Fate is decided by God but destiny is the path you choose to get there -

Firstly I am a great fanatic of Japanese feudal war series, especially the Edo Jidai where warlords and samurais rule the continent of ancient Japan. The illusionary depiction of brutal samurais were pretty much misleading when these ever-talented gentlemen were not only skilled in sword techniques, they were also well-versed in calligraphy and poetry. They based their entire lives serving their masters with genuine loyalty eventhough they are just a special breed of soldiers who will carry out the "dirty" missions. Much like the special forces today.

Many important lessons, strategies, art and history flourished during this time and eventhough that's like almost 400 years ago, many today still seek reference from the legendary names and tactics used in the past.

Infact there are too many names to list so that explains my post title...The Book of Five Rings (五輪書) written by Miyamoto Musashi (宮本武蔵), probably the most famous sword fighter amongst all others. This book is my latest craze to "immerse" myself back into the past and learn the essence of these gems created by mortals who became legends and whose names still ring 400 years after their death and probably passed on generations after generations.

There are too many versions and variations of the book after being translated to so many languages and distortions are inevitable so this one is probably the most accurate for the English version. Maybe someday my Japanese standard can reach the level when I could understand the ancient Japanese that Musashi first penned without any distortions but that's for the distant future. So for now, I'll just stick to the good old English which most of us are proficient in.

As for the contents, you can try searching the internet and I'm sure you'd probably find a lot more but this book in particular has pictures of the original paintings by Miyamoto Musashi from a private collection which also can be found on the internet, that is if you have so much free time. Okay I am sarcastic but for me, I would definitely want a physical possession of such gems from the past if you know what I mean. Here's the cover...