![\"Book](\"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/bsgfx\/thebookoffiverings1997.jpg\")
As I mentioned when I bought this book two weeks ago<\/a> that I had already read this book in 2021<\/a>, but this pretty edition (only $8) was tempting. So I bought it, and I’ve read the book again. Note that this “pretty” edition is a Barnes & Noble edition from thirty years ago. You know, when they took books out of copyright and packaged them into discounted hardbacks not unlike Dover Publications did with paperbacks basically printed on newsprint. What a time to have been alive–this was seen as a profitable endeavor! I’ve been in Barnes & Noble recently, and I’m not sure any brick and mortar new book store has any profitablity path. Ai, what a time to be alive.<\/p>\nAt any rate, as with the paperback edition, this book collects not only The Book of the Five Rings<\/em>, a book of five “scrolls” dealing with the lessons of Musashi’s martial arts school training in sword combat but also A Hereditary Book on the Art of War<\/em> by Yagy\u016b Munenori which is a similar book but<\/em> more steeped in Buddhist and Confucian thought (I said in my previous review that it was more Confucian, but it’s really more Buddhist).<\/p>\n So, what did I take away from this reading?<\/p>\n Well, Musashi favors fighting with two swords; I can visualize this better since I acquired the wakizashi and tachi pair in 2025<\/a> (and I can sort of see them behind all the other clutter on my desks).<\/p>\n In retrospect, the books are kind of like modern martial arts books in that they’re better understood if you have trained in the martial art described<\/em>. You’re not going to learn swordsmanship from either of these books as you’re not going to learn karate from reading Complete Karate<\/a><\/em>, tae kwon do from reading Tae Kwon Do Basics<\/a><\/em>, or boxing from Boxer’s Start-Up<\/a><\/em>. The Book of Five Rings<\/em> and A Hereditary Book on the Art of War<\/em> don’t even have photos or illustrations to capture a single point in motion, a strike, or a drill. They’re maybe most helpful with some pointers if you’ve already studied the art just a little bit. And these books (the ones I’m reporting on) don’t even go into strikes but more philosophy.<\/p>\n That said, in this reading, I got more out of the back-of-the-book filler book (A Hereditary Book on the Art of War<\/em>) than The Book of the Five Rings<\/em>. Its Buddhist mindsets and metaphors–probably the first half of the book deals in these metaphors for how the martial art should eventually flow through you without thought, and how thinking while martial arting will trip you up. Gee, mister, does it! I speak from experience. I think too much while I should be stick fighting.<\/p>\n At any rate, it might be worth re-reading every once and again since it’s a short book. I’m not sure why it was in the philosophy section as it is more martial arts than Buddhist or Zen (and I think those would be in a different section altogether at ABC Books anyway). But I will likely not<\/em> re-read it any time soon, although in five years, who knows what kind of edition I might find.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As I mentioned when I bought this book two weeks ago that I had already read this book in 2021, but this pretty edition (only $8) was tempting. So I bought it, and I’ve read the book again. Note that this “pretty” edition is a Barnes & Noble edition from thirty years ago. You know, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3334,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-report","category-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3334"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35540"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35541,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35540\/revisions\/35541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}