Musashi: An Epic Novel of the Samurai Era

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Wooden Katanas Are Even Better: Musashi was the Trope Codifier in Real Life. He uses them a lot in the novel, too, but not all the time. About halfway through the book I learned it had been written and published in serialized format in a Japanese newspaper. This is why each chapter feels like an individual short story and why some of the action in each chapter feels forced and aribtrary. Chance, as well as the characters' very different life decisions, give to the book a philosophical dimension that is revealed in its ending. The English translation was done by Charles S. Terry and features a foreword by Edwin O. Reischauer. It was first published in 1981 by Kodansha International Ltd., and Kodansha America, Inc.. Publication was assisted by a grant from the Japan Foundation. It was distributed in the United States by Kodansha America, Inc., and in the United Kingdom and continental Europe by Kodansha Europe Ltd..

read Vagabond or Musashi (the novel) first? Should I read Vagabond or Musashi (the novel) first?

Combat Pragmatist: Musashi developed his technique based on what works, giving him an advantage while fighting the Yoshiokas. Time Skip: Takezō's transformation into Musashi involves 3 years interned in Himeji Castle learning the classics. It's covered quite briefly.If you master the principles of sword-fencing, when you freely beat one man, you beat any man in the world. The spirit of defeating a man is the same for ten million men. In the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Sekigahara, two very young samurai friends rise to consciousness and find they are injured but have survived the battle. Shinmen Takezō, in time, will find himself a ronin and a violent one at that. He is finally beaten by a monk named Takuan, tied up for several days, and, finally, spending 3 years in captivity studying and reading. When Takezō emerges, he adopts the name Miyamoto Musashi and undertakes an epic journey to find the Way of the Sword. The book ends with his famous battle against Sasaki Kojiro on Ganryujima.

Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa - Audiobooks on Google Play Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa - Audiobooks on Google Play

I am sure many people will enjoy (or have enjoyed) such an epic, and I am happy for them, but I cannot say that I enjoyed my time with this audiobook. I am a huge fan of the old Criterion Collection samurai movies and I loved Toshiro Mifune's portrayal of Musashi, so I thought I'd give this a read. I found it VERY slow at the beginning, but I powered through. It took me as long to read this as it did to read Don Quixote….coincidentally, Musashi lived at the same time as Cervantes, so it was interesting to compare what was going on in Japan in the time of Shakespeare and Cervantes. Defiled Forever: With Akemi, the novel goes to great lengths to show that no, non-virtuous girls (even if they aren't really responsible for their lot in the first place) don't deserve a good life. Also played with with notorious whoremongering Matahachi, who ends up with said defiled Akemi, while Musashi gets virtuous Otsū. All man are the same except for their belief in their own selves, regardless of what others may think of them.I don’t now Japanese literature and culture well enough, but I get the impression that, as a consequence, he also created a new genre of Japanese literature. I see all sorts of familiar tropes here, characters and themes I recognize out of Saturday morning karate movies by way of Kurosawa. In some ways, this is the blueprint for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, complete with the hero who follows the way of the sword, his chaste lover, and the old crone who’s sworn vengeance on him. The novel has been translated into English by Charles S. Terry, with a foreword by Edwin O. Reischauer, published by Kodansha International under ISBN 4-7700-1957-2. Single-Stroke Battle: Most people only get hit once. As far as major fights go, the only one where both sides only take one swing at each other is the fight between Musashi and Seijūrō.