Reviews

Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa

codymyre97's review

adventurous emotional lighthearted reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

mussa's review

5.0

Nothing could have prepared me for the emptiness that I feel now having finished this absolutely epic story after spending over 5 months with it. Through this book, I feel like I’ve lived a whole other life in 16th century japan as Musashi but at the same time as his close friend or something. It was great seeing his character develop from a boy in search for glory and just wanting to make a name for himself into the badass, enlightened & full of wisdom man who I will probably pretend to be from here on out. The last quarter of the book was so addicting, & created an amazing buildup for one of the most famous swordfights in history. Also the writing in this book was absolutely beautiful. The imagery Yoshikawa uses in his writing to paint pictures of the scenes was so wonderful and at times felt like poetry. What a journey this book was, the only negative was that it had to come to an end.

Glad I finished 2022 with this book, I feel like it was the highlight of my year of reading!

Happy New Year!

mattschiller's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

An odyssey of a book is the best way I can describe it. Full of great moments and great characters, Musashi is eminently readable and entertaining. I can see the serialized version being slightly better to the book version as it’s just a long book at the end of the day and the last act suffers a bit for it in my opinion. In comparing it to other Japanese epics, this falls a notch below Shogun but ultimately deals with very different subject matter so perhaps not a fair comparison. Still enjoyed it very much and would recommend to those who like to go on a journey. 

katstuy's review

adventurous challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

girish0731's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

My inspiration to read this novel was due to the manga Vagabond and a book-tuber recommendation.The philosophy and development of a character through his life is done so well that it deserves its appreciation to be a classic.
But like classics usually have an issue of long windedness and supporting characters of being not much fleshed throughout but abruptly changing towards the end was kinda jarring.
Overall this was a spiritual and incredibly positive journey in the overall than its little flaws.

unklekrinkle's review

adventurous funny informative tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

djc2323's review

Read the reviews and gave it a try. After a few hours of reading I couldn’t get into it. The plot jumps from one place to another with no real explanation of what’s going on and the writing style (might be a translation issue) is very bland. The main character was very unlikeable to me and Is kind of horrible to a few of the characters in the book. Also was put off at the very beginning of the book by the translator or author feeling the need to down on and spoil half of Shogun.

katja_weinert's review

adventurous informative reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Enjoyed the audiobook but wish i had had a character list as there are so many people to keep track of

xuaeyaqonavosoi's review

4.0

o jezu, coz to byly za emocje... ogolnie cala serie oceniam jako naprawde dobra, ale pod koniec nie moge ukryc swojego zalu wobec tej nieszczesnej relacji glownego bohatera z tsu, ktora caly czas jest tak naprawde zbednym dodatkiem. fajnie, ze to nie byl romans, bo nie lubie kiedy romansowe rzeczy wysuwaja sie w tego typu ksiazkach na pierwszy plan, ale to ich "uczucie" jest tak z tylka, ze w pewnym momencie zaczelo mrozic. juz by lepiej bylo jakby byli po prostu dobrymi przyjaciolmi, bo ona sobie dla niego doslownie marnuje zycie a przez caly ten czas jedyna sytuacja gdzie musashi zdradzil sie z jakimis glebszymi uczuciami wobec tsu byl moment, kiedy ja prawie zgwalcil w 4. tomie :'). no i na koncu dziewczyna i tak jest na tyle bliska smierci, ze nawet gdyby mial nastapic jakis ciag dalszy to nie bylaby "przeszkoda" na drodze samorozwoju bohatera. poza tym matahachi przechodzi w koncu jakas rzeczywista przemiane i wyjmuje mozg z dupy, chociaz kiedy zobaczylam, ze ma dziecko z akemi to sie prawie udlawilam. ja przez caly ten czas bylam przekonana, ze oni mieli relacje bardziej ziomkowska, biorac pod uwage to, ze wczesniej matahachi byl utrzymankiem matki dziewczyny. nawet kiedy udawali malzenstwo nie zauwazylam nic, co mogloby sugerowac, ze robiliby cos wiecej niz tylko udawanie. no po prostu szok. ciezko mi okreslic czy jestem z tego rozwiazania zadowolona, bo z jednej strony to swieckie zycie jakos lepiej do niego pasuje, a z drugiej strony przywyklam juz do myslenia o nim jako o nawroconym ze zlej sciezki zycia mnichu. przemiana babki sugi wydaje mi sie troche zbyt out of character, ale z drugiej strony to jest ten typ osoby, ktory jak sobie cos wymysli, to daje z siebie 100% niezaleznie od tego jak bardzo klociloby sie to z logika/wczesniejszymi przekonaniami. co do pojedynku ze sasakim kojiro moge powiedziec jedynie tyle, ze jest mi zal, ze to ostatnia scena i dalej nie ma juz nic, ale z drugiej strony to dodaje takiego uroku legendy i nie trzeba juz czytac jak przez wiele kolejnych rozdzialow babka sugi przepisuje sutry o milosci rodzicow i jak musashi sieje ryz. seria miewala swoje slabsze i lepsze momenty, ale ogolnie uwazam, ze warto ja przeczytac chocby z uwagi na ciekawe tlo historyczne.

squiddish's review against another edition

There were so many things I did not like about this book. The writing, which may be a translation issue, was bland and stiff. Dialogue and descriptions are often clunky and interesting. The few times we actually got sword fighting, it was well done, but he left so many fights off screen I was starting to wonder if I was even reading a book about a samurai.

The real problem? The women in this book are cardboard cutouts at best, and a tool for the author to heavy handedly get a weak plot across through assault and glorification. Otsu, our "love interest" is annoying, but pure and angelic and can do no wrong. Akemi, the foil, is simply there to be an example of who Musashi isn't going to love; a task accomplished by consistently putting her through abusive situations in a way that leaves you wondering if it's the characters or the authors justifying their place.

If the book was just boring, it would have been fine.

But it wasn't; it was also incredibly disrespectful to women (if we can even call them that given how poorly they were characterized) and used assault as a plot point just to show which woman we should be rooting for. Historically accurate depictions of gender differences are fine; explaining and justifying these sorts of things and then including them to excess is a bit far.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment and Rape