The Lone Samurai: The Life of Miyamoto Musashi (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Musashi is primarily known in the West as the author of The Book of Five Rings, a guide to swordsmanship strategies that became a essential business-strategy manual in the 1980s. Wilson, having translated Musashi's book into English, turns for the first time to biography, with as complete a life of the man behind the sword as possible, given his legendary stature and peripatetic, largely undocumented story. Musashi lived in the 17th century and had his first match at 13 with a shugyosha (an older, professional swordsman); only Musashi walked away alive. For three decades, he wandered feudal Japan, moving from patron to patron, taking on opponents in formal and informal matches, teaching others his art and sometimes taking part in clan and regional rivalries. He eventually settled in southern Japan, where his martial art skills led organically to visual art: simple-looking, highly disciplined ink-and-brush painting and calligraphy. Toward the end of his life, Musashi synthesized everything he'd learned into the literary work he is now best known for. Wilson integrates a considerable amount of Japanese history and culture into a short, dense book with lots of specialized information. Although Musashi doesn't become fully dimensional—and given the scarcity of primary source material, he probably can't—Wilson provides an extensive appendix of other materials that have depicted the legendary swordsman over the centuries.
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Review

"A fascinating glimpse of a central figure in traditional Japanese culture." -- Kirkus Reviews, starred review

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Kodansha International (August 15, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 477002942X
• ISBN-13: 978-4770029423
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #120,132 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The historical Musashi, September 12, 2004

By	Zack Davisson "All Good Things" (Seattle, WA, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Miyamoto Musashi, like Billy the Kid, Rob Roy MacGregor and Robin Hood, is a historical figure who has become so obscured by fictionalized accounts and romantic dramas that it is difficult to separate fact from fancy. In "The Lone Samurai: The Life of Miyamoto Musashi," William Scott Wilson has stripped the legends away and presents a true historical account of the wandering swordsman, artist and philosopher. In this instance, the history is no less interesting than the fantasy.

Wilson, who has an impressive resume when dealing with Musashi and the Samurai, having translated Samurai works such as "Hagakure," "The Life-Giving Sword" as well as Musashi's own "The Book of Five Rings," presents us with a "Real Live Human Being." He has sifted through the various conflicting history books and biased clan records, investigated the several "confirmed" birth places and graves of Musashi, and logically assembled an accurate history of the man, his philosophy and his biography. From his first lethal match at 13, to the famous duel at Ganryu Island that was to secure Musashi's place in history, followed by his later years refining his technique and maturing into the warrior-poet who would write "The Book of Five Rings," secluded in an isolated cave on the grounds of a Buddhist temple, Musashi's complete life is detailed.

More than Musashi the warrior, it is clearly the seemingly contradictory image of Musashi the philosopher and artists that interests Wilson the most. Of Musashi's 60 duels, only the most important are given any coverage, but several of his paintings and works of art are analyzed in-depth, discussing both the skill Musashi had with an ink brush as well as the Zen Buddhist philosophies backing each piece. Backgrounds are given on the various art styles, including an analysis of the kanji (Chinese characters) that make up each art form. Perhaps he felt that Musashi the warrior had received enough attention from other sources, but the artists needed a bit more spotlighting. It does make one wish for a Musashi art book, detailing his works.

Wilson does assume some familiarity regarding Japanese history and Musashi's life on the part of the reader. Such things as the Waring States period, familiar to anyone who knows Japanese history, are not explained but are put forward as common knowledge. There is some interesting analysis of the kanji for the various names of the warriors, and Wilson shows how, in spite of the books title, Musashi was not an actual Samurai at all, as he never served a lord. Musashi was a bushi, a warrior.

In addition to the main text, Wilson includes some fascinating appendixes, juxtaposing the legend of Musashi as told in Kabuki plays, movies and Yoshikawa Eiji's famous book with the accurate history. Also of interest is a comparison of the philosophies of "The Book of Five Rings" with similar tomes such as Sun Tzu's "The Art of War."

All of this is packed into a fairly slim and highly readable book. A definite must have for anyone interested in Japan's greatest legend, Miyamoto Musashi.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great For Starters, December 30, 2005

By	Bu-chan (Aotearoa) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Miyamoto Musashi is something of a folk hero in Japan, and like many others, there has been a lot of legend attached to his name. In Japan, volumes have been written about him, and there is often some debate about him, as well. All in all, Musashi makes an interesting character to learn about.

Miyamoto is perhaps most famous for his style of swordsmanship, mostly for using two swords simultaneously. He is also famous for his pyschological tactics, his use of a wooden sword and also his fights where killing his opponent did not happen. Musashi was also an accomplished painter, gardener, and poet. For this, and much more, he is worthy of some serious study.

"The Lone Samurai" is one of the few books, (relatively speaking to the reams and reams written in Japanese), available to English speaking readers. It is not a detailed book, but it provides you with a good overview of the man and his life. In addition to a very well written text, the book provides some pictures of Musashi's work in paintings and so on. For such a short book, "The Lone Samurai" introduces the reader well to many aspects of this complex and deep individual.

I honestly came away from this book with a feeling of intimidation mixed with inspiration. Musashi was man who had achieved a large amount of success in many fields, and devoted himself wholeheartedly to what he was doing. In that sense, my own lack of devotion to living life was highlighted. Musashi is a guy who may leave you with some moments of self-reflection.

"The Lone Samurai" is not going to give you all the detail, but it will serve as a great launching point for further reading into Musashi's life and philosophy. It is a great book about one of the central figures in the history of Japanese martial arts. I highly recommend it to martial artists and non-martial artists alike: a great read!

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars End of the myth, January 19, 2005

By	lordhoot "lordhoot" (Anchorage, Alaska USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

For most Americans, Eiji Yoshikawa's fictional novel, Musashi continued to be the most vivid view of this legendary samurai warrior, Miyamoto Musashi. Yoshikawa's image of Musashi proves to be hard to shake. To reinforced that image, the three "Samurai Trilogy" movies starring Toshiro Mifune which was based on Yoshikawa's book, totally popularized Yoshikawa's Musashi. This is mostly due to the fact that Yoshikawa's book is probably the only book in the English language that dealt with Musashi's life in detail and even came out in popular paperback series in the 1990s. However, thanks to Wilson's new book, that is no longer the case.

The Lone Samurai is the first English language biography on Miyamoto Musashi ever published. The book is highly readable, informative and considering the limited primary sources, pretty well researched. I seem to get the feeling that the author was trying to do his best to debunked the popular Yoshikawa's Musashi to the real man and his life. Musashi as a real man, still remains somewhat of a mystery to most historians. The book really isn't that thick and its pretty reflective on the lack of information on the subject. However, the author was pretty successful in presenting the facts in the simplist and most effective way possible for American readers for whom Japanese history, zen and culture may be bit confusing. I also enjoyed the maps presented in the book, one which traces Musashi's journey through life which I thought to be well designed.

One of the few weaknesses I thought the book could used was that it could have probably used some diagrams illustrating Musashi's style and what make it stand out so much. If anyone out there have seen that movie "Kill Bill Vol. 1", Lucy Liu's character start her fight against Uma Thurman in a classical Musashi style.

I should also point out that there isn't that much background information on Musashi's time period in this book so it would help if the reader have little background on the late Sengoku Period of Japan and the Tokugawa take over.

Overall, a well written and highly informative book on the life and time of Miyamoto Musashi, one of Japan's premier experts on swordmanship and concepts that goes behind it.