The Five Rings Book

Legendary swordsman Miyamoto Musashi intended his modest work, The Book of Five Rings, as a guide for his immediate disciples and future generations of samurai, setting down his thoughts on swordplay, winning, and spirituality. Little did he know that he was penning a masterpiece that would be eagerly devoured by people in all walks of life centuries after his death. Alongside Sun Tzu's The Art of War, Musashi's book has long been regarded as an invaluable treatise on the strategy of winning. Musashi's timeless advice on defeating an adversary, throwing an opponent off-guard, creating confusion, and other techniques for overpowering an assailant was addressed to readers of earlier times on the battlefield and now serves the modern listener in the battle of life. In this new rendering by translator William Scott Wilson, the 17th-century Japanese text is rigorously adhered to, with points of ambiguity clarified from earlier translations. Additionally, the book includes an extensive introduction and a translation of Musashi's rarely published The Way of Walking Alone.

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