Customer Reviews

The Lone Samurai: The Life of Miyamoto Musashi

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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.

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!

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.

I think this book sould have done a better job
addressing the reading needs of both Western and
non-Western readers. This book should have been
targeted to both Japanese intellects who can read
English and non-Japanese intellects who can read
some Japanese and Chinese texts. As a Japanese
reader who can read English, I found myself
frustrated as I read it.

It should have dauntlessly had more Japanese
texts in parentheses to supplement the
understanding and facilitate the further readings
for the above mentioned readers. The book already
has a glossary and notes with Japanese texts just
for some terminologies, but in a sporadic way.
The incomplete insertion of Japanese texts, as
odd bits of information, created an inconvenience
to Japanese readers. Those words in italic all
should have had Japanese texts in parentheses.
Those were Buddhism terminologies, names of
people, and old literatures, and I was unable to
identify the exact kanji(Chinese) for some words
due to the poor references in Japanese texts even
though I am a native Japanese reader.

If you can read Japanese, Amazon Japan
(www.amazon.co.jp) has reviews on this same book,
and you can find the same complaints described as
a weakness of this book. This weakness, however,
is a small weakness and does not cause me to
value this book any less.

I had skeptically read this book, considering the
author being non-Japanese. However, I must
conclude that the author describes Japanese
culture and history quite accurately. The degree
of his understanding of Japan deserves a high
respect. To those who have a strong interest in
Japan, not limited to martial arts, will find
plenty of information in this book, for history,
politics, religion, philosophy, culture, and art,
as well as Miyamoto Musashi's portrait, are dealt
with in this book.

I would assume casual martial arts fans may find
it difficult to read as its content far more
elaborate than my expectation. However, I assure
that any reader will learn something out of this
book.

What first attracted me to this book was the cover illustration although the one that i own has a different image of musashi on it. When i began to read the book it was hard for me to put it down. Wilson does a very good job of presenting the life of Musashi to the reader. Included in this book is a map and a section of notes that help you to follow and understand every one of Musashi travels. According to Wilson himself the difficult aspect of writing a biography on Musashi is that not much was known about the man however through his studies Wilson carefully weaves the story of this man together. His approach is very realistic in the sense that there are no parts of the book that made me think that a particular incident could not have happened. Also included towards the end of the book were sections from the art of war and the book of five rings including others in which Wilson compares and contrasts the work of Musashi to other well respected men. If you have an interest in Musashi or just admire the samurai pick it up.

This was a spur of the moment purchase to take with me on an airplane. Boy am I glad I picked it up! The book is fast paced and interesting. The author has done fantastic historical research, very accurate. It reads more like an adventure novel than a work of non-fiction. I'm really impressed!

William Scott Wilson spends the first half of the book chronicling the extraordinary life of Miyamoto Musashi, arguably the best swordsman who ever lived. This portion is intriguing and insightful. The second half covers much of what I have already seen in other adaptations of Musashi's famous Book of Five Rings. Since I already knew that material I found it somewhat less interesting than the first half, but well above average. Overall, it's a great read.

Lawrence Kane
Author of Surviving Armed Assaults, The Way of Kata, and Martial Arts Instruction

Being a novice student of both the martial arts and Japanese culture and history (though I have a good collection of Japanese swords--fueling much of my interest in both the above subjects), I found Wilson's book both readable and enlightnening. I have read "The Book of Five Rings" three or four times, but after reading "The Lone Samurai" it is much more meaningful to me.

The best contribution of Wilson's book is his emphasis on Musashi the artist. I did not know previously that Musashi is also known not only as a great swordsman (and strategist), but is one of Japan's greatest artists in the india ink painting style. It is easy to see Wilson's point about the similarity between the total commitment of a deadly sword strike and the brush stroke of non-erasable ink. (This comparison also explains and qualifies one of Musashi's most famous and apparently mistranslated quotes from "The Book of Five Rings": "The way of the warrior and the way of the pen are the same." It should read, "the way of the warrior and the way of the BRUSH," which is more accurate if not quite so profound and philosophical-sounding.)

I was also very interested to learn for the first time that of Musashi's famous "over sixty duels" in fact most of them were not to the death. This, and the extensive discussion of Musashi's art, make him seem much less the grim fanatic that sometimes dominates Musashi's image.

Don't be fooled, therefore, by the inappropriately lurid style of the book's cover art! This is not another sensational/specialized publication for the macho martial artist and samurai wannabees. (I delayed buying this book for years because I was so put off by the misleading cover.) "The Lone Samurai" is actually and elegant and respectful study, written in a way that balances thorough scholarship with affection and readability.

My only criticism (other than the book's cover) is what other reviewers have noted already: Wilson could have included a chapter, or expanded parts of the existing book to include more context about the history and culture of Japan, especially during Musashi's time. However, this did not keep me from being able to follow the basic "plot" of the book.

Also, this is not really a "288-page" book. Wilson has tried hard (and fairly) to flesh out the limited factual material available with interesting comparative sources, but be advised that the actual biography is less than 165 pages, including analysis of Musashi's "Principles."

The best part of this book is the fact that the author does not pretend to KNOW everything. He lays out his opinion, which I usually agreed with, but also will lay out what other people have interpreted things as. He has laid this out in a matter that makes the
works and writing of Musashi so easy to understand and relate to. The Book of Five Rings is a piece of work that is meant to make us think and practice the strategies over and over again. This book gives an easy way for the beginner to the expert to relate to and open ideas about Musashi's writing and ideas

In the 43 films about Musashi, he has developed a near mythological standing. The book he wrote, The Book of Five Rings, is available in at least a dozen editions in English, and many, many more in various languages. It is a standard text on modern Japanese corporate management. Modern implies that it was written a bit more recently than four centuries ago. But it was published just before his death in 1645.

This is an extensively researched book. Musashi left only a few sentences regarding his own life. Original sources used for this book included: the monument inscribed with the story of his life that was erected by his sone in 1645 to the Nitenki; a compilation of stories about Musashi and his disciples published in 1755; various clan records that were touched by Musashi's presence. This is easily the most accurate depiction of Musashi's life to date.

In The Lone Samurai: The Life Of Miyamoto Musashi, William Scott Wilson draws upon his considerable expertise as a preeminent translator of classic samurai texts to write an original biography of the legendary Japanese swordsman who lived and fought in 17th century feudal Japan. For some four hundred years, Musashi has been one of Japan's most revered historical figures. Since 1908 there have been 43 films produced about him. Fighting more than 60 duels from the age of 13 to the age of 29, Musashi was undefeated at the end of his career as a samurai. He was best noted for his skill at handling two swords at once. Uniquely, in nearly all of his matches, Musashi used a wooden sword instead of a metal blade. In addition to his swordsmanship, Musashi designed castle towns with an eye towards defense and within these castles, he is noted for designing Zen temple gardens as well. Musashi was also a respected ink wash painter and many of his painting are still in existence. The ultimate Japanese equivalent of a Renaissance man, Musashi excelled in calligraphy, sculpture, metallurgy, poetry, tea ceremony, Noh drama, and carpentry. Enthusiastically recommended reading, The Lone Samurai is the superlatively written biography of a truly remarkable man.