Miyamoto Musashi

Martial Artist's Book of Five Rings

Michael Springer

I've always meant to go back and read another translation of Musashi's book. This one is, as you can tell by the title, geared towards martial artists, and this ties into the whole presentation. 

Perhaps I should give a little background: Musashi was a Japanese swordsman in the seventeenth century who fought in some ridiculous number of duels and won them all. He wrote a book of strategy called "The Book of the Five Rings" that is considered by many martial artists to be of a comparable worth with "The Art of War." So, Musashi was a martial fighter, but fought in a very different context than the modern martial arts: he fought in duels to the death, and fought with a sword. I've heard from multiple sources that the chance of surviving a single samurai duel was roughly 1 out of three. This is because a high number of duels resulted in both samurai killing each other. So, surviving a bunjillion duels and then dying from a disease in his 60's is quite a feat. 

What I liked about this was the practicality of the fighting philosophy. However, much of this knowledge is now intuitive to those who know anything about military tactics or martial arts: find high ground, be prepared for different types of terrains, etc. But, it gives one piece of advice that has helped me win (or sometimes just survive) in lots of sparring matches: always be on the offensive. It might sound counter-intuitive to someone who hasn't tried applying the philosophy; what if someone with a greater level of expertise is coming at you fast? But, this is actually the situation where this technique has served me the best. 

For a while, we sparred every friday night at a youth center in a little dojo ran by a second degree blackbelt, and most of the time he would join in the sparring rotation. He was a battering ram. He didn't know how to NOT move forward while fighting. I could never beat him, but I was the only person who could score points on him because he wasn't used to people moving forward to meet him. 

But, in martial arts philosophies like Aikido, the idea is to use your opponent's energy against them: redirect their force and use it to toss them away, or slam them down on the ground. Actual attacks are usually part of this kind of redirection. 

I think that the idea of being on the offense has more to do with space though, and doesn't necessarily mean you aren't parrying attacks. Even Aikido fighters can catch opponents by surprise more effectively when quickly moving toward them. And, in a case like my example above (where you really aren't as good as your opponent), surprising your opponent might be your only chance to win. 

Could also get you killed, though. 

But this advice has served me well. Most of the other strategies are good, but few are surprising. And, because it is modified to apply specifically to the martial arts, it can't be adapted all that well into non-combat aspects of life. For those interested in the martial arts, it is a very good read. For the rest of you, I'd give it a pass.

Martial Artist's Book of Five Rings

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