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arkaron 's review for:
Fünf Ringe: Die Kunst des Samurai-Schwertweges
by Miyamoto Musashi
The book of five rings is a ~400 years old book about sword fighting by one of the most legendary sword fighters that ever lived, Myamoto Musashi. Sounds pretty epic but why the fuck would I read that. I've never held a real sword and I'll (probably) never be in a sword fight. What can I get from this?
I'm still not quite sure. I've been interested in learning a bit more about feudal Japan lately and I thought what better way to get into the mindset of a samurai then to read one of the most famous books written by one of the most famous samurai.
Well... Musashi isn't the most typical sword fighter in feudal Japan. In fact, the whole book not only documents his unique two handed sword fight technique but heavily critizices other famous japanese sword fighting schools. Musashi seemed to be fed up with the narrow focus on single techniques and styles and tried to offer a non-bullshit way of fighting. Defeating your enemy is the only thing that matters. Everything else isn't important.
And maybe that's one of the parts I can extract as a life lesson. Do shit with a focus. It doesn't matter how you reach your goal as long as you work on it hard and focused.
Aside from that the book did give me some nice insights in samurai fighting techniques, the way of bushido life, Zen philosophy, japanese history and language, arts and culture.
It's a short but good read if you're interested in samurai or sword fighting. Just know that you won't find much of the stereotypical stuff here.
As a sidenote: I thought it was pretty hilarious when a friend of mine who did Kendo told me his Dojo listed this as mandatory reading material, considering how much Musashi obviously despised Dojos and stereotypical Kendo. I wonder what Musashi would think of that.
I'm still not quite sure. I've been interested in learning a bit more about feudal Japan lately and I thought what better way to get into the mindset of a samurai then to read one of the most famous books written by one of the most famous samurai.
Well... Musashi isn't the most typical sword fighter in feudal Japan. In fact, the whole book not only documents his unique two handed sword fight technique but heavily critizices other famous japanese sword fighting schools. Musashi seemed to be fed up with the narrow focus on single techniques and styles and tried to offer a non-bullshit way of fighting. Defeating your enemy is the only thing that matters. Everything else isn't important.
And maybe that's one of the parts I can extract as a life lesson. Do shit with a focus. It doesn't matter how you reach your goal as long as you work on it hard and focused.
Aside from that the book did give me some nice insights in samurai fighting techniques, the way of bushido life, Zen philosophy, japanese history and language, arts and culture.
It's a short but good read if you're interested in samurai or sword fighting. Just know that you won't find much of the stereotypical stuff here.
As a sidenote: I thought it was pretty hilarious when a friend of mine who did Kendo told me his Dojo listed this as mandatory reading material, considering how much Musashi obviously despised Dojos and stereotypical Kendo. I wonder what Musashi would think of that.