Martial Artist's Book of Five Rings [Paperback]

Hanshi Steve Kaufman (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Tuttle Publishing; 1st edition (May 15, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0804830207
• ISBN-13: 978-0804830201
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,416,142 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Personal Interpretation of Musashi's "Book of 5 Spheres", February 22, 2003

By 

C. J. Hardman (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Martial Artist's Book of Five Rings (Paperback)

I have no doubt about the author's sincerity in offering this personal interpretation of Musashi's original work, "Book of 5 Spheres" (or "The Book of 5 Rings"). The problem I have with what Stephen Kaufman has done to Musashi's book deals more with his implied suggestion that this edition is the result of an actual ~translation~ which he was responsible for (see pages xi-xii, "Translator's Note"). In fact, when asked Mr. Kaufman has admitted that this volume (and some others he has written) are not translations at all, but rather his own personal interpretations of English translations done by other authors--something he DOESN'T bother to communicate to his readers. The title of this volume, at odds with the "translator's note" on pgs xi -xii, is actually "...The Definitive _Interpretation_ of Miyamoto Musashi's Classic Book of Strategy". I fail to understand why Kaufman confuses his readers by mixing and matching interpretation with translation. It should be noted that Mr Kaufman himself does NOT speak or read Japanese, and in fact innocently named his own martial arts school "Dojo no Hebi" ("Place of Practice's Snake"), when he was trying for "Dojo of the Snake" (which in Japanese would have been "Hebi no Dojo", meaning "The Snake's Place of Practice"). Innocent mistakes yes, but one would expect a Black belt of the 10th Dan (degree grade) and a proclaimed "Hanshi" (master practitioner) to at least check his spelling with someone who _could_ speak the language he was using.

Kaufman doesn't bother to provide a bibliography of which English translations he used, nor does he include notes explaining how he drew his conclusions from the texts he studied. I am bothered by the fact that many of Musashi's words have been heavily edited, re-arranged, or deleted altogether by this author until they have been removed entirely from their original context. In doing this, Mr. Kaufman has actually ALTERED the _meaning_ of Musashi's work! What remains appears to be little more than a new age self-help guide for modern martial artists which has retained a smidgeon of flavor from Musashi's original work.

A brief example illustrating Kaufman's tendancy to put his own words in Musashi's mouth is in the fourth paragraph on page 6 of Kaufman's book. Kaufman reworks Musashi's words regarding Merchants as a class to read, "Merchants are a ridiculed class because they produce nothing except profit from the work of others." Two other men who have actually translated Musashi's work from the original Japanese suggest nothing sinister in Musashi's original work. Victor Harris in his translation of "A Book of Five Rings" offers: "The way of the merchant is always to live by taking profit" (page 41, 1974). Translator Thomas Cleary offers the same sentence as: "Whatever the business, merchants make a living from the profits they earn acording to their particular status" (page 7, 1993). This is a minor demonstration of the differences between Kaufman's work and those offered by actual translators--the translators make an effort to convey to the reader the actual meaning of Musashi's words in English, while Kaufman crafts a meaning which never existed in Musashi's work. Suffice to say, Kaufman's interpretation seems heavily influenced by his modern view of martial arts and his concept of what samurai may have been like four centuries ago. It bears little resemblance to competent translations of Musashi's writings.

I recommend two excellent translations of Musashi's work which stay true to the original Japanese. The first is "A Book of Five Rings" translated by Victor Harris, a mechanical engineer and technical interpreter of Japanese language who not only practiced kendo (Japanese fencing), but studied this art in Japan for 3 years under Ito Kyoitsu at the Seijudo Dojo. A second recommendation is "The Book of Five Rings" by Thomas Cleary, another professional translator. Unlike Kaufman, I did not find translations by these men to be "intellectual exercises in translating Japanese to English" (pg xi). I found legitimate translations by competent translators who were clear and direct...I suspect most scholarly people, whether students of martial arts or not, will draw a similar conclusions upon comparing Kaufman's book to any actual translation.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Poorly Written Text on a Classic Book of Strategy, October 8, 1999

By 

Ron Beaubien (Tokyo, Japan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Martial Artist's Book of Five Rings (Paperback)

Despite the fact that the author claimed that The Martial Artist's Book of Five Rings was a "translation" (page xi) and also used the word "interpretation" (cover & xii), this book was NOT actually translated from the original Japanese document into English as implied. Instead Mr. Kaufman merely reworded the English translations of Gorin No Sho that are currently available as he admitted publicly on E-budo (Kaufman 1990). These English translation are the same ones Mr. Kaufman has criticized as being biased towards business as a selling point on the back cover of his book.

There were many mistakes throughout The Martial Artist's Book of Five Rings. For example, although the names "Nito Ichi-ryu" and "Hyoho Niten Ichi-ryu" were used in the original document (Imamura 1982: 61 & 73) in Mr. Kaufman's book only the incomplete name of "Ichi school" was used (page 12 & 13). Also the use of terminology in Mr. Kaufman's book lacked any real depth of meaning and showed only a superficial understanding of the various concepts used in Japanese kenjutsu.

Even if we forget the fact that Mr. Kaufman claimed that book was a "translation" and just think of it as an "interpretation", here meaning an "explanation" of Gorin No Sho, the book is still very poor in that very little explaining was done. A few references to the use of "the sword" were changed to "kicks and punches" as on page 35, but nothing was made easier to understand nor applied to situations really beneficial to the modern martial artist. The book was also very incongruous this way. For example, when reading about how to hold the long sword in the Book of Water, the topic in Mr. Kaufman's version suddenly changed the topic to the karate sword hand technique which is a very different method of holding the hand altogether (page 30).

The fact is that Gorin No Sho is very difficult to understand even for Japanese people who have studied the martial arts for many years. Even Imai sensei, the 10th soke of Musashi's own school: Niten Ichi-ryu in Japan, has stated that it is impossible to understand Gorin no Sho without having studied Buddhist sutras. Imai sensei goes on to say that it has taken him thirty years of study so far and then shows specific examples in the Japanese text and how they have not been fully understood by people to date (Imai 1994: 34-38). It is doubtful then that Mr. Kaufman has really broken any new ground based on his use of only English translations and his personal experiences in American karate.

Sources:

Imai, Masayuki. 1994. "Comments on Musashi's Gorin No Sho" Furyu: The Budo Journal. Issue #3 (Winter). Hawaii: Tengu Press.

Kaufman, Stephen. Aug. 15th, 1999. "Primary Source for translation?" From the Spotlight on Budo Forum at E-budo.

Imamura, Yoshio. 1982. Nihon Budo Taikei. Vol. 2. Kyoto: Dohosha.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Fraudulent "Translation", November 8, 2000

By 

David Craik (Conover, NC, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Martial Artist's Book of Five Rings (Paperback)

For one to write an informed review of this book, one has to understand a few things. All translations of the Go Rin No Sho are hopelessly flawed, because the "original" scrolls(in possession of the Hosakawa family):

1. are missing many characters. 2. are written in old Jap., which even Japanese scholars have a rough time converting to the modern version of their language. 3. are intentionally vague so that only those with internal knowledge of the Ni-Ten would have a hope of understanding them.

Even going by the "best" translations we have in English, Kaufman's interpretation isn't even close. He states all sorts of things (written as if said by Musashi) that aren't even remotely like anything Musashi said. It is noteworthy that he did NOT use the Japanese version as a reference, he used the badly flawed English translations. He obviously doesn't speak Japanese as his Dojo-No-Hebi means "snake of the school", not "school of the snake", as he claims. His "Hanshi" designation is bogus, and I am very inclined to believe self-bestowed. Pehaps "snake of the school" is accurate. Don't buy this book, it's nonsense. Go out and get the Cleary translation. Kaufman's work, is not, by any stretch of the imagination, the Book of Five Rings.