The Meaning of A Book of Five Rings - Part I
First, let me wish a Happy New Year to all. I hope you are healthy and training hard!
When I reached the level of Black Belt, I decided then that I would devote my entire life to teaching Karate. Ever since that time, I have carefully studied Miyamoto Musashi’s, A Book of Five Rings. I promised myself at that young age that one day I would translate this ancient book for myself and my fellow students. Many other great books were written about the Samurai, and I carefully read them all. But I didn’t believe what they had to say. Most were very philosophical in nature and relied heavily on the teachings of monks and preachers. These texts were foggy and unclear – not anything close to the reality I knew from actual fighting. Maybe their writings were true, but I just couldn’t buy it. Then I read Mushashi’s A Book of Five Rings. It was so clean and simple. His writing was direct and straight forward. It was all about HEIHO which means “winning strategy”. Musashi didn’t need to make his subject complicated or complex. He just wanted to tell his readers how to win. Unfortunately, Musashi’s original text no longer exists. Ancient scholars transcribed Musashi’s book before it was lost, though. Today we have interpretations of it written by renowned professors in modern Japanese. I have read many of these translations, but I have found that most of these scholars miss the point of Musashi’s book. Some of these Japanese translators admit that they don’t understand the martial arts. They just translate from an academic or business perspective. Some of them are so bad! They make Musashi’s writing seem very abstract. This is useless for martial artists. So what I want to do for you in this series is tell you what Musashi really meant and connect it to the world of Karate. Somebody’s got to do it. If not me, then who? This is a very great challenge. I feel like I’m trying to climb up Mt. Everest barefooted, but it’s something I really want to do.
After I came to the United States as a young man, I began to appreciate the history of Japan in a way that I never could before. When I was living in Japan, I didn’t care about any of that. But when I left, all of the history and traditions of Japan and Karate came alive for me. I wanted to know everything and understand it deeply. You remember that I wrote the article “The Last Samurai”. (See the World Oyama Karate Newsletter, Fall 2003 issue.) When I first read that history, I really related to it, and it fired my passion for teaching Karate. I saw that modern Karate misses the point of this traditional Karate. Most Karate schools are images of the ancient way. They are just automated production lines that churn out advanced belts. I want to teach you the traditional way that does not allow for short cuts. For example, in KIHON training, you must train until contact. You cannot skip this fundamental basic training. That is why I wrote Perfect Karate and the Karate Kyoten series of books. By writing these books, I preserved the traditional way of World Oyama Karate for all time. To add to this body of work, I wanted to translate A Book of Five Rings in an organized way – straight through. But with the many other things I have to do – teach, write, direct the World Oyama Karate Organization – I’ve found that it is not possible to do this in a reasonable time. Time is moving on, and I fear that I will miss the opportunity to complete my translation of A Book of Five Rings.
When I reached the level of Black Belt, I decided then that I would devote my entire life to teaching Karate. Ever since that time, I have carefully studied Miyamoto Musashi’s, A Book of Five Rings. I promised myself at that young age that one day I would translate this ancient book for myself and my fellow students. Many other great books were written about the Samurai, and I carefully read them all. But I didn’t believe what they had to say. Most were very philosophical in nature and relied heavily on the teachings of monks and preachers. These texts were foggy and unclear – not anything close to the reality I knew from actual fighting. Maybe their writings were true, but I just couldn’t buy it. Then I read Mushashi’s A Book of Five Rings. It was so clean and simple. His writing was direct and straight forward. It was all about HEIHO which means “winning strategy”. Musashi didn’t need to make his subject complicated or complex. He just wanted to tell his readers how to win. Unfortunately, Musashi’s original text no longer exists. Ancient scholars transcribed Musashi’s book before it was lost, though. Today we have interpretations of it written by renowned professors in modern Japanese. I have read many of these translations, but I have found that most of these scholars miss the point of Musashi’s book. Some of these Japanese translators admit that they don’t understand the martial arts. They just translate from an academic or business perspective. Some of them are so bad! They make Musashi’s writing seem very abstract. This is useless for martial artists. So what I want to do for you in this series is tell you what Musashi really meant and connect it to the world of Karate. Somebody’s got to do it. If not me, then who? This is a very great challenge. I feel like I’m trying to climb up Mt. Everest barefooted, but it’s something I really want to do.
After I came to the United States as a young man, I began to appreciate the history of Japan in a way that I never could before. When I was living in Japan, I didn’t care about any of that. But when I left, all of the history and traditions of Japan and Karate came alive for me. I wanted to know everything and understand it deeply. You remember that I wrote the article “The Last Samurai”. (See the World Oyama Karate Newsletter, Fall 2003 issue.) When I first read that history, I really related to it, and it fired my passion for teaching Karate. I saw that modern Karate misses the point of this traditional Karate. Most Karate schools are images of the ancient way. They are just automated production lines that churn out advanced belts. I want to teach you the traditional way that does not allow for short cuts. For example, in KIHON training, you must train until contact. You cannot skip this fundamental basic training. That is why I wrote Perfect Karate and the Karate Kyoten series of books. By writing these books, I preserved the traditional way of World Oyama Karate for all time. To add to this body of work, I wanted to translate A Book of Five Rings in an organized way – straight through. But with the many other things I have to do – teach, write, direct the World Oyama Karate Organization – I’ve found that it is not possible to do this in a reasonable time. Time is moving on, and I fear that I will miss the opportunity to complete my translation of A Book of Five Rings.
There are different opinions about when Musashi was born, but most likely it was in the year 1584. He started writing A Book of Five Rings when he was 60 years old. This was in October, 1643. When he finished the book in 1645, he was 62 years old. That same year, on May 19, 1645, Musashi died. My age is 62 years now. I am in good health, but I can’t wait any longer, so I am going to begin – just do it. I don’t have time to translate and organize each chapter straight through. So I will write about those parts of A Book of Five Rings that directly relate to World Oyama Karate. I think it will be of interest to others, too. So now I have started. I will try to do the best that I can to help you understand Musashi’s work.
Musahsi divided his book into five big chapters. The chapters of A Book of Five Rings are: Ground or Earth (CHI NO MAKI), Water (MIZU NO MAKI), Fire (HI NO MAKI), Wind (KAZE NO MAKI), and Void or Emptiness (KU NO MAKI). These are Buddhist concepts, but you must understand that Musashi’s book is not about religion. He said so himself. Musashi just used these concepts to help his readers identify with what he was teaching.
In the first chapter, CHI NO MAKI, Musashi explains HEIHO NO HYOSHI NO KOTO. The literal translation of this is tempo, rhythm or timing. This is correct, and there’s nothing wrong with that translation. This is how it is translated in all the books. However, it has a greater meaning than that, and I want to explain this more deeply. Musashi said that everything in the world, even everything in the universe, has timing or rhythm. He said this is especially true for HEIHO. You have to get the rhythm to win. To do this it takes a lot of continuous training.
Remember that HEIHO means winning strategy, literally how to win. This is a key point that you must keep in your head as you read this article. HYOSHI is literally rhythm, tempo, or timing. The very first point that Musashi makes regarding HYOSHI is that there are so many different HYOSHI for HEIHO, and that if you want to win, you have to train hard to build up all of these different types of HYOSHI. Without a strong command of the different types of HYOSHI, you can not win. Musashi says that this is a most important point. In Musashi’s time, learning HYOSHI was the same thing as learning to kill your enemy and not die yourself. And if you were going to kill your enemy, you had to learn how to use your weapons effectively. And in order to use your weapons effectively, you had to use correct HYOSHI. These concepts are inseparable. He described many different types of weapons, but he made it simple by telling you about only one weapon, the sword. Musashi used the sword to illustrate his point about HYOSHI, and he explained it in great detail. I want to show you how to use HYOSHI for Karate. In Musashi’s time, he used the sword as his weapon, but we use kick, punch, block, and control of distance and angle with footwork. These are our weapons. (Of course, we use weapons such as NUNCHUKA and BO, but I’m going to keep this simple so that we can move on through Musachi’s work.) You can see that if you don’t have good HYOSHI with your kick and punch, etc., then your opponent will knock you out. It’s the same as with the sword in Musashi’s time. You’ve got to build up your HYOSHI, your rhythm, if you’re going to win.
I’m going to show you one other sports example to help you understand this concept. Think about a great, major league baseball pitcher. If he doesn’t change up his rhythm, that is, if he throws the ball the same way every time, then the batter will hit a homerun every time – easy. So a good pitcher has to throw with different HYOSHI to be successful, and that means he has to practice, practice, practice.
O.K., back to Karate... I’m sure all of you remember that when you first started training, it was easy to get out of breath. But after many months and even years of training, you began to understand how to control your breathing. If you control your breathing you also control your rhythm. The ability to maintain this control requires continuous training, day in and day out. Even advanced students lose this rhythm if, for some reason, they must miss training for an extended period of time. This is the same for all students, even Black Belts, Senseis, Shihans, Shihan-Dais, and Saiko Shihan. Yes, that’s right. Even my HYOSHI fades away if I don’t train regularly. So I think that Musashi was saying that you must train every day to get your breathing right. Not only that, but you must also control your eating and sleeping and every other aspect of your life if you want to control your rhythm. And in that day, if you didn’t, you would die.
Remember that HEIHO means winning strategy, literally how to win. This is a key point that you must keep in your head as you read this article. HYOSHI is literally rhythm, tempo, or timing. The very first point that Musashi makes regarding HYOSHI is that there are so many different HYOSHI for HEIHO, and that if you want to win, you have to train hard to build up all of these different types of HYOSHI. Without a strong command of the different types of HYOSHI, you can not win. Musashi says that this is a most important point. In Musashi’s time, learning HYOSHI was the same thing as learning to kill your enemy and not die yourself. And if you were going to kill your enemy, you had to learn how to use your weapons effectively. And in order to use your weapons effectively, you had to use correct HYOSHI. These concepts are inseparable. He described many different types of weapons, but he made it simple by telling you about only one weapon, the sword. Musashi used the sword to illustrate his point about HYOSHI, and he explained it in great detail. I want to show you how to use HYOSHI for Karate. In Musashi’s time, he used the sword as his weapon, but we use kick, punch, block, and control of distance and angle with footwork. These are our weapons. (Of course, we use weapons such as NUNCHUKA and BO, but I’m going to keep this simple so that we can move on through Musachi’s work.) You can see that if you don’t have good HYOSHI with your kick and punch, etc., then your opponent will knock you out. It’s the same as with the sword in Musashi’s time. You’ve got to build up your HYOSHI, your rhythm, if you’re going to win.
I’m going to show you one other sports example to help you understand this concept. Think about a great, major league baseball pitcher. If he doesn’t change up his rhythm, that is, if he throws the ball the same way every time, then the batter will hit a homerun every time – easy. So a good pitcher has to throw with different HYOSHI to be successful, and that means he has to practice, practice, practice.
O.K., back to Karate... I’m sure all of you remember that when you first started training, it was easy to get out of breath. But after many months and even years of training, you began to understand how to control your breathing. If you control your breathing you also control your rhythm. The ability to maintain this control requires continuous training, day in and day out. Even advanced students lose this rhythm if, for some reason, they must miss training for an extended period of time. This is the same for all students, even Black Belts, Senseis, Shihans, Shihan-Dais, and Saiko Shihan. Yes, that’s right. Even my HYOSHI fades away if I don’t train regularly. So I think that Musashi was saying that you must train every day to get your breathing right. Not only that, but you must also control your eating and sleeping and every other aspect of your life if you want to control your rhythm. And in that day, if you didn’t, you would die.
In the next paragraph Musashi explains that rhythm and timing are tied to the success of everything. It’s just as necessary as it is for musicians and dancers. All musical instruments must be played with good rhythm. If not, the result is definitely not a thing of beauty. Do you remember Yule Brenner and Deborah Carr in “The King and I”? What if he had stepped on her foot during the dance scene? It would have been a comedy! But they danced gracefully in perfect rhythm, and the result was a thing of beauty.
Well, here I want to tell you a story from my childhood. I was in Junior High School, and we were all preparing for the great Fall Festival. This was a really big deal for all of us. Every class had to put on a performance of some kind. In my class there were about 30 students, boys and girls, and we had a singing chorus. We practiced so hard. Every day our music teacher would make us stay after school and practice, practice, practice! Even after all that, I and another boy just could not follow the music – the tune or the rhythm. Every time the music went up in tone, we went down. Every time the music went down, we went up. And we were always off-beat - sometimes behind, sometimes ahead. We were awful! The music teacher would wrap us hard on the head and yell, “Do again!!” I had a headache every day for almost a month from all this. I was so sore, I couldn’t even touch my head. Where was my big class law suit? Anyway, the Fall Festival arrived, and it was our big day to perform. Everybody was all dressed up and hair neatly combed. There was a big audience. All the parents were there. Then, just before we began our performance, the teacher said to me and my buddy, “Don’t sing! Just move your mouth, and don’t make a sound!” My feelings were so hurt! That’s a true story, and I remember how I felt to this day. It was a hard lesson, but because of it I can understand what Musashi was saying. I understand that rhythm is so very important. I have experience.
In the next line, Musashi says that timing is important in the use of military weapons. The Samurai had to have the correct timing to win. Think about it. When a soldier fires his weapon, whether it’s a bow and arrow or a gun, he must be in rhythm with the moving target, or he will miss every time. A cavalryman is dumped to the ground if he doesn’t stay in rhythm with his horse. In other words, Musashi was again saying that rhythm is important in everything. Without it, you cannot win.
In the next paragraphs, Musashi describes KU NO HYOSHI. This is the rhythm of the SAMURAI’S life. Sometimes he rises up in his position. This is when everything is going smoothly, and he is advancing in his status as a warrior. At other times he encounters many difficulties. He hits the wall. Everything seems to go wrong, and he falls down in his position. It’s the same today for a businessman. Sometimes he advances successfully in his business and makes lots of money. At other times his business goes on the rocks – business stinks and he loses money. You cannot see this HYOSHI of life. It’s like a wave. But you need to know about it and the forces that move it. You need to understand politics, history, culture, the economy, etc. You must know all of this to get the rhythm of life so that you can see into the future. This is not something that you physically see, but it is critical that you know and feel this KU rhythm if you are to be successful. That means that you have to study hard and open your mind. Don’t isolate yourself from the world. You need to “see” your future and whether it is rising up or falling down, going right or going left. This rhythm is called KU NO HYOSHI. And if you miss this unseen rhythm, you will fail in whatever you are trying to accomplish in life.
I want to explain HYOSHI in one more simple way. When you are born, you’re a baby and dependent for everything. Then you’re a toddler and everything is so interesting. Then comes older childhood and fundamental education. Then come the teenage years and young adulthood. At this stage of life, you have so much energy and enthusiasm! You want to act and do! Then comes middle age, and you enjoy your accomplishments. Then finally you reach old age. You sit and receive, dependent in the end as you were as a baby. You can see the rhythm of human life in this cycle. This is HYOSHI, too. The point is that whatever your time in life, you should try to build yourself up. If you don’t, you will miss your timing and miss your chance for success. Ride the top of your wave by working hard and having ambition. That way you can be successful no matter what your stage in life, and you will stay forever young. (By the way, we have a Senior Division in the Ultimate Challenge Tournament on April 16. Here’s your chance to build up your rhythm!)
In the next paragraph, Musashi really describes HEIHO NO HYOSHI in detail. He says that there are many different kinds of HEIHO NO HYOSHI. But, he says, you will see that some HYOSHI fit you and some HYOSHI do not fit you. You have to recognize this if you want successful HEIHO. So let me explain this point as it relates to Karate. Think about a big guy who is very powerful, but he’s stiff. So his JODAN MAWASHI GERI lands waist high. For this guy, high kick techniques make him lose his rhythm. So it’s best for him to come in close and in-fight. This is the strategy that fits his HYOSHI. This is one example of what HYOSHI fits and what does not.
Then Musashi describes in more detail in the next sentence about HYOSHI. When he describes HYOSHI, he talks about large and small movements and slow and fast movements. When he describes large movements, I think he means powerful, more dynamic movements. When he describes small movements, I think he’s really talking about holding the power or saving the power. Of course, slow means slow, and fast means fast.
Well, here I want to tell you a story from my childhood. I was in Junior High School, and we were all preparing for the great Fall Festival. This was a really big deal for all of us. Every class had to put on a performance of some kind. In my class there were about 30 students, boys and girls, and we had a singing chorus. We practiced so hard. Every day our music teacher would make us stay after school and practice, practice, practice! Even after all that, I and another boy just could not follow the music – the tune or the rhythm. Every time the music went up in tone, we went down. Every time the music went down, we went up. And we were always off-beat - sometimes behind, sometimes ahead. We were awful! The music teacher would wrap us hard on the head and yell, “Do again!!” I had a headache every day for almost a month from all this. I was so sore, I couldn’t even touch my head. Where was my big class law suit? Anyway, the Fall Festival arrived, and it was our big day to perform. Everybody was all dressed up and hair neatly combed. There was a big audience. All the parents were there. Then, just before we began our performance, the teacher said to me and my buddy, “Don’t sing! Just move your mouth, and don’t make a sound!” My feelings were so hurt! That’s a true story, and I remember how I felt to this day. It was a hard lesson, but because of it I can understand what Musashi was saying. I understand that rhythm is so very important. I have experience.
In the next line, Musashi says that timing is important in the use of military weapons. The Samurai had to have the correct timing to win. Think about it. When a soldier fires his weapon, whether it’s a bow and arrow or a gun, he must be in rhythm with the moving target, or he will miss every time. A cavalryman is dumped to the ground if he doesn’t stay in rhythm with his horse. In other words, Musashi was again saying that rhythm is important in everything. Without it, you cannot win.
In the next paragraphs, Musashi describes KU NO HYOSHI. This is the rhythm of the SAMURAI’S life. Sometimes he rises up in his position. This is when everything is going smoothly, and he is advancing in his status as a warrior. At other times he encounters many difficulties. He hits the wall. Everything seems to go wrong, and he falls down in his position. It’s the same today for a businessman. Sometimes he advances successfully in his business and makes lots of money. At other times his business goes on the rocks – business stinks and he loses money. You cannot see this HYOSHI of life. It’s like a wave. But you need to know about it and the forces that move it. You need to understand politics, history, culture, the economy, etc. You must know all of this to get the rhythm of life so that you can see into the future. This is not something that you physically see, but it is critical that you know and feel this KU rhythm if you are to be successful. That means that you have to study hard and open your mind. Don’t isolate yourself from the world. You need to “see” your future and whether it is rising up or falling down, going right or going left. This rhythm is called KU NO HYOSHI. And if you miss this unseen rhythm, you will fail in whatever you are trying to accomplish in life.
I want to explain HYOSHI in one more simple way. When you are born, you’re a baby and dependent for everything. Then you’re a toddler and everything is so interesting. Then comes older childhood and fundamental education. Then come the teenage years and young adulthood. At this stage of life, you have so much energy and enthusiasm! You want to act and do! Then comes middle age, and you enjoy your accomplishments. Then finally you reach old age. You sit and receive, dependent in the end as you were as a baby. You can see the rhythm of human life in this cycle. This is HYOSHI, too. The point is that whatever your time in life, you should try to build yourself up. If you don’t, you will miss your timing and miss your chance for success. Ride the top of your wave by working hard and having ambition. That way you can be successful no matter what your stage in life, and you will stay forever young. (By the way, we have a Senior Division in the Ultimate Challenge Tournament on April 16. Here’s your chance to build up your rhythm!)
In the next paragraph, Musashi really describes HEIHO NO HYOSHI in detail. He says that there are many different kinds of HEIHO NO HYOSHI. But, he says, you will see that some HYOSHI fit you and some HYOSHI do not fit you. You have to recognize this if you want successful HEIHO. So let me explain this point as it relates to Karate. Think about a big guy who is very powerful, but he’s stiff. So his JODAN MAWASHI GERI lands waist high. For this guy, high kick techniques make him lose his rhythm. So it’s best for him to come in close and in-fight. This is the strategy that fits his HYOSHI. This is one example of what HYOSHI fits and what does not.
Then Musashi describes in more detail in the next sentence about HYOSHI. When he describes HYOSHI, he talks about large and small movements and slow and fast movements. When he describes large movements, I think he means powerful, more dynamic movements. When he describes small movements, I think he’s really talking about holding the power or saving the power. Of course, slow means slow, and fast means fast.
Next, Musashi goes even deeper to describe the three different timings that can be used for each of those four HYOSHI. These are A TARU HYOSHI, MA NO HYOSHI, and SOMUKU HYOSHI.
The first timing, A TARU, means simply to engage your opponent. In the Karate world, this does not necessarily mean that you make contact. It means that you take action. You engage according to your rhythm - the rhythm that fits you. This might mean that you simply use your step work to get good distance and angle.
The next timing Musashi describes is MANU HYOSHI. In this HYOSHI, you break off from your opponent. For example, if you feel that your opponent is reading your rhythm and he knows your next technique, then break away from him. Also, if his spirit is very strong and you feel that he intends to crush you, then you should break away and make him cool down. The last timing is SOMUKU. This means that you use opposite or different rhythm than your opponent. If he’s not expecting a face kick, then that is the time to use a face kick. If he’s not expecting you to come straight, then do come straight at him. So whatever your opponent is expecting, you do something different. The point is to confuse your opponent so that you control the rhythm, the HYOSHI, of the fight. This makes good HEIHO, winning strategy.
At the end of this chapter, Musashi says again that if you want to make strong HEIHO (winning strategy), then you have to have a strong SOMUKU HYOSHI. This is such an important point that Musashi closes the chapter with that point alone. He says in the final two lines that in a real fight as in war, you must know you enemy’s HYOSHI. You must read your enemy’s rhythm. You must read his HYOSHI or he will kill you. Your HYOSHI should always be whatever HYOSHI your enemy in not expecting. That’s how you should decide what HYOSHI to use for the fight. Whatever HYOSHI you use, apply KU NO HYOSHI, too. Remember that this is the “unseen rhythm”. In the fighting situation, this means that you should use psychology to confuse your enemy mentally. Make your opponent uptight, mad, confused and emotional.
Then at the very end of this first chapter, Musashi reminds us that there are five big chapters in his book, and in each chapter he always ties back to HYOSHI. The theme of every chapter is connected to HYOSHI in some way. That’s how important rhythm is. And how do you build up HYOSHI? By training, training, training!
OSU!
The next timing Musashi describes is MANU HYOSHI. In this HYOSHI, you break off from your opponent. For example, if you feel that your opponent is reading your rhythm and he knows your next technique, then break away from him. Also, if his spirit is very strong and you feel that he intends to crush you, then you should break away and make him cool down. The last timing is SOMUKU. This means that you use opposite or different rhythm than your opponent. If he’s not expecting a face kick, then that is the time to use a face kick. If he’s not expecting you to come straight, then do come straight at him. So whatever your opponent is expecting, you do something different. The point is to confuse your opponent so that you control the rhythm, the HYOSHI, of the fight. This makes good HEIHO, winning strategy.
At the end of this chapter, Musashi says again that if you want to make strong HEIHO (winning strategy), then you have to have a strong SOMUKU HYOSHI. This is such an important point that Musashi closes the chapter with that point alone. He says in the final two lines that in a real fight as in war, you must know you enemy’s HYOSHI. You must read your enemy’s rhythm. You must read his HYOSHI or he will kill you. Your HYOSHI should always be whatever HYOSHI your enemy in not expecting. That’s how you should decide what HYOSHI to use for the fight. Whatever HYOSHI you use, apply KU NO HYOSHI, too. Remember that this is the “unseen rhythm”. In the fighting situation, this means that you should use psychology to confuse your enemy mentally. Make your opponent uptight, mad, confused and emotional.
Then at the very end of this first chapter, Musashi reminds us that there are five big chapters in his book, and in each chapter he always ties back to HYOSHI. The theme of every chapter is connected to HYOSHI in some way. That’s how important rhythm is. And how do you build up HYOSHI? By training, training, training!
OSU!
