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Musashi
The classic samurai novel about the real exploits of the most famous swordsman. Musashi is a novel in the best tradition of Japanese story telling. It is a living story, subtle and imaginative, teeming with memorable characters, many of them historical. Interweaving themes of unrequited love, misguided revenge, filial piety and absolute dedication to the Way of the Samurai, it depicts vividly a world Westerners know only vaguely.
970 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1935
4,233 people are currently reading
43.3k people want to read
About the author
Eiji Yoshikawa
491 books745 followersPen-name of Yoshikawa Hidetsugu. Yoshikawa is well-known for his work as a Japanese historical fiction novelist, and a number of re-makes have been spawned off his work.
In 1960, he received the Order of Cultural Merit.
Eiji Yoshikawa (吉川 英治, August 11, 1892 – September 7, 1962) was a Japanese historical novelist. Among his best-known novels, most are revisions of older classics. He was mainly influenced by classics such as The Tale of the Heike, Tale of Genji, Outlaws of the Marsh, and Romance of the Three Kingdoms, many of which he retold in his own style. As an example, the original manuscript of Taiko is 15 volumes; Yoshikawa took up to retell it in a more accessible tone, and reduced it to only two volumes. His other books also serve similar purposes and, although most of his novels are not original works, he created a huge amount of work and a renewed interest in the past. He was awarded the Cultural Order of Merit in 1960 (the highest award for a man of letters in Japan), the Order of the Sacred Treasure and the Mainichi Art Award just before his death from cancer in 1962. He is cited as one of the best historical novelists in Japan.
In 1960, he received the Order of Cultural Merit.
Eiji Yoshikawa (吉川 英治, August 11, 1892 – September 7, 1962) was a Japanese historical novelist. Among his best-known novels, most are revisions of older classics. He was mainly influenced by classics such as The Tale of the Heike, Tale of Genji, Outlaws of the Marsh, and Romance of the Three Kingdoms, many of which he retold in his own style. As an example, the original manuscript of Taiko is 15 volumes; Yoshikawa took up to retell it in a more accessible tone, and reduced it to only two volumes. His other books also serve similar purposes and, although most of his novels are not original works, he created a huge amount of work and a renewed interest in the past. He was awarded the Cultural Order of Merit in 1960 (the highest award for a man of letters in Japan), the Order of the Sacred Treasure and the Mainichi Art Award just before his death from cancer in 1962. He is cited as one of the best historical novelists in Japan.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,741 reviews
April 20, 2024
Overall, I enjoyed this long novel very much. It was very entertaining, easy to read, with plenty of hilarious moments, and a large cast of eccentric and colourful characters from a variety of walks in life.
It did have its issues, naturally. The characterisation isn't quite that deep for most characters, with the exception of the protagonist, Miyamoto Musashi, and perhaps a couple of others. But given the scope and breadth of the story, it'd have been extremely difficult to make everyone multi-layered, and tedious, too. Another bump was that the second half of the novel doesn't flow as smoothly or reads as fun as the first half; it tends to philosophise a lot, and characters start to act a wee bit erratically sometimes, as well as that some plot threads not getting tied up properly left small plotholes. And, finally, the end-of-the-road change of heart for a certain character didn't ring all that true or believable to me.
Nevertheless, it's a great story, and I'm happy to not focus too much on these little flaws, as they were to me weighed against the overall story. It was worth the time I spent reading it.
Update April 2024: For all of you "Shogun" fans out there, this novel picks up right were Clavell & the FX show left: the Battle of Sekigahara that Lord Toranaga is getting ready to fight by the end of the book & show, so feel free to jump into this cart right away!
Or, alternately, you can read the manga adaptation of this novel, "Vagabond" by Takehiko Inoue. But be warned that the adaptation is unfinished, with no date of completion, and that there are notable differences between this novel and the manga. So if GRRM/Rothfuss/Lynch have traumatised you, read only "Musashi" and not "Vagabond."
It did have its issues, naturally. The characterisation isn't quite that deep for most characters, with the exception of the protagonist, Miyamoto Musashi, and perhaps a couple of others. But given the scope and breadth of the story, it'd have been extremely difficult to make everyone multi-layered, and tedious, too. Another bump was that the second half of the novel doesn't flow as smoothly or reads as fun as the first half; it tends to philosophise a lot, and characters start to act a wee bit erratically sometimes, as well as that some plot threads not getting tied up properly left small plotholes. And, finally, the end-of-the-road change of heart for a certain character didn't ring all that true or believable to me.
Nevertheless, it's a great story, and I'm happy to not focus too much on these little flaws, as they were to me weighed against the overall story. It was worth the time I spent reading it.
Update April 2024: For all of you "Shogun" fans out there, this novel picks up right were Clavell & the FX show left: the Battle of Sekigahara that Lord Toranaga is getting ready to fight by the end of the book & show, so feel free to jump into this cart right away!
Or, alternately, you can read the manga adaptation of this novel, "Vagabond" by Takehiko Inoue. But be warned that the adaptation is unfinished, with no date of completion, and that there are notable differences between this novel and the manga. So if GRRM/Rothfuss/Lynch have traumatised you, read only "Musashi" and not "Vagabond."
September 8, 2007
A breathtaking fictionalization of the life of one of the world's greatest warriors and renaissance men. Yoshikawa takes us on a mezmorizing voyage to a crossroads in Japanese history that changed all the rules and gave birth to a legend. The book opens in the year 1600 at the end of the infamous battle of Sekigahara, where the armies of east and western Japan met to decide who would govern: Toyotomi or Tokugawa. In the end to Tokugawa emerged victorious and the 150 year period of civil war came to an end.
The young son of a country samurai, Shinmen Takezo, goes to fight for the Toyotomi at Sekigahara and opens the book prostrate on the ground with two bullets in his thigh. He escapes the carnage of the battle to his home province and emerges from this ordeal not as the noble warrior he intended, but rather as a savage bandit. However, through the intervention of an old friend he is brought to justice and given a second chance and a new name. He is locked in a room of the Lord's castle for three years straight with only treatises on war, religion, and the classics of both Japan and China. From this incarceration he emerged a new man.
Musashi is offered a position as reatiner to the Tokugawa governor, but instead decides to journey across Japan to hone his swordsmanship. To do this Musashi does more than practice drawing and swinging a sword. To achieve this he studies calligraphy, painting, sculprture, agriculture, and music, all in the the pursuit of perfection as a swordsman.
The book takes us through the highlights of Musashi's career from Sekigahara , to his legendary feud with the Yoshioka sword school of Kyoto to it's culmination at the Duel of the Spreading Pine, finalizing with his infamous duel with the sword saint, Sasaki Kojiro, on Funajima Island.
Musashi evolves constantly as a character, as does his rival, Kojiro. Both men are near facsimilies of each other, the difference of which makes the book and the unfolding of both the aforementioned's destinies so tantalizing.
The young son of a country samurai, Shinmen Takezo, goes to fight for the Toyotomi at Sekigahara and opens the book prostrate on the ground with two bullets in his thigh. He escapes the carnage of the battle to his home province and emerges from this ordeal not as the noble warrior he intended, but rather as a savage bandit. However, through the intervention of an old friend he is brought to justice and given a second chance and a new name. He is locked in a room of the Lord's castle for three years straight with only treatises on war, religion, and the classics of both Japan and China. From this incarceration he emerged a new man.
Musashi is offered a position as reatiner to the Tokugawa governor, but instead decides to journey across Japan to hone his swordsmanship. To do this Musashi does more than practice drawing and swinging a sword. To achieve this he studies calligraphy, painting, sculprture, agriculture, and music, all in the the pursuit of perfection as a swordsman.
The book takes us through the highlights of Musashi's career from Sekigahara , to his legendary feud with the Yoshioka sword school of Kyoto to it's culmination at the Duel of the Spreading Pine, finalizing with his infamous duel with the sword saint, Sasaki Kojiro, on Funajima Island.
Musashi evolves constantly as a character, as does his rival, Kojiro. Both men are near facsimilies of each other, the difference of which makes the book and the unfolding of both the aforementioned's destinies so tantalizing.
January 1, 2025
4.8
top 5 fiction book for me—simple but in a good way, easy and fun read
top 5 fiction book for me—simple but in a good way, easy and fun read
July 16, 2023
This is a quick and easy read despite its length. The prose is straightforward and there's plenty of action.
Unfortunately, to me it feels as though the characters are mostly two-dimensional (at best), and the plot is sort of repetitive in places which resulted in tedious bits. And I never really emotionally connected with the characters or the story.
That doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it.
If you're interested in samurais and Japanese culture, definitely give it a try. It’s absolutely worth a read.
Unfortunately, to me it feels as though the characters are mostly two-dimensional (at best), and the plot is sort of repetitive in places which resulted in tedious bits. And I never really emotionally connected with the characters or the story.
That doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it.
If you're interested in samurais and Japanese culture, definitely give it a try. It’s absolutely worth a read.
February 4, 2009
wow...that is the first thing that came to mind when i finished this book. it is easily the best historical fiction i have ever read. it is also the largest and most difficult book i have ever read. it is very japanese therefore some of the names and places tend to get mixed up in the nearly 1000 page epic. however...that is the only negative i have after reading this book. it will go down as one of my favorite reads of all time. it focuses on the life (very dramatized by the fantastic eiji yoshikawa-san) of musashi miyamoto, a wandering ronin (samurai) during the edo period (1600's) of feudal japan. this is the time when samurai were still prevalent by the advent of muskets was starting to take over. the story the yoshikawa-san unfurls is a fantastic epic of the nature of the way of the sword. it was of fairness, fierceness, and unyielding strength, and musashi was the height of that ideal. i highly recommend this to those (like me) who have a fascination with japanese history and the way of the samurai in general. also, there is a beautiful love story mixed in the pages (also highly dramatized but wonderful non-the-less) that makes one believe that true love may actually exist out there. if you read it...please give it the time because it is slow at points...but the end result is well worth the time and effort...and that is just how musashi would have it!
August 27, 2024
4,5 stara
May 29, 2023
This book has fundamentally changed me.
Review to come.
Review to come.
February 27, 2022
God, he's so good. In my list of knights without fear and reproach, which every girl creates by stringing a garland of book and film characters on a virtual thread (even if she has not been a girl for a long time, and the heroes are not quite knights): Ivanhoe. Robin Hood, Alan from "Kidnapped", de Bussy and Athos, Mr. Rochester, Mr. Darcy, Heathcliff, Gatsby - my list of additions.
This is a samurai whose full name sounds like Shinman Musashi-no-Kami Fujiwara-no-Harunobu, but he is better known to the world by the short Miyamoto Musashi and, despite that. that the person is legendary, quite existed in reality. He lived in the sixteenth century, became famous as an invincible swordsman, on his account a record number of duels won.
However, he is more valuable than material history by creating his own school of two-handed combat using long (katana) and short (wakizashi) swords, which no one had done before him. The theoretical justification of this practice is the "Book of the Five Rings". Also, his frequent use of short swords as throwing weapons is considered a precursor to ninja shurikens.
And of course, if the science of killing had been Musashi's primary contribution to history, he would not have occupied the place in the culture of modern Japan that rightfully belongs to him, revered as a saint. His opponents could perceive the sword as a murder weapon, as a marker of belonging to a certain privileged stratum, as a noble weapon, as a symbol of strength and skill - for Miyamoto Musashi, the sword was a symbol of the spirit.
Путь Бусидо
Воды Закона
Мелеют день за днем.
И близок день, когда
Над голыми вершинами Хиэй
Задует студеный ветер.
Боже, как он хорош. В моем списке рыцарей без страха и упрека, который каждая девочка создает нанизывая на виртуальную нить гирлянду книжных и киноперсонажей (даже если она уже давно не девочка, а герои не вполне рыцари): Айвенго. Робин Гуд, Алан из "Похищенного", де Бюсси и Атос, мистер Рочестер, мистер Дарси, Хитклиф, Гэтсби - в моем списке пополнение.
Это самурай, полное имя которого звучит, как Шинмен Мусаси-но-Ками Фудзивара-но-Харунобу, однако миру он более известен под коротким Миямото Мусаси и, несмотря на то. что личность это легендарная, вполне существовал в реальности. Жил в шестнадцатом веке, прославился как непобедимый фехтовальщик, на его счету рекордное число выигранных поединков.
Однако более матери-истории ценен созданием собственной школы двуручного боя с использованием длинного (катаны) и короткого (вакидзаси) мечей, чего до него никто не делал. Теоретическим обоснованием этой практики "Книгой пяти колец". Также частое использование им коротких мечей как метательного оружия считают преддверием сюрикенов ниндзя.
И конечно, если бы наука убивать была преимущественным вкладом Мусаси в историю, он не занял бы в культуре современной Японии того места, которое по праву принадлежит ему, почитаемому как святому. Его противники могли воспринимать меч как орудие убийства, как маркер принадлежности к определенному привилегированному слою, как благородное оружие, как символ силы и мастерства - для Миямото Мусаси меч был символом духа.
Книгу о нем классика японской литературы Эйдзи Ёсикавы вернее было бы отнести к жанру псевдоисторического романа и беллетризованной биографии, чем к собственно историческому и биографическому. С одной стороны, хронология жизни Мусаси есть, и довольно подробная, с другой - касается она главным образом значимых поединков, рассказывая о личной жизни до смешного скупо; с другой - Мусаси стал легендой и культовым персонажем еще при жизни и немудрено, что его имя на протяжении половины тысячелетия обросло кучей небылиц.
Впервые мы встречаем шестнадцатилетнего героя после битвы при Сэкигахаре (1600 год), когда раненые, они с другом некоторое время укрываются в доме вдовы самурая, промышляющей мародерством. Заканчивается книга поединком с Сасаки Кодзиро, когда Мусаси было двадцать восемь. Ему предстоит прожить еще тридцать четыре года, создать свою школу и обессмертить имя, усыновить и вырастить ребенка. пережив его смерть, и совершить множество значимых деяний, которые останутся за рамками романа.
То есть, фактически, "Мусаси" охватывает двенадцать лет жизни героя, три из которых он провел в монастырском заточении, в полной тишине, имея однако доступ к библиотеке настоятеля, рассказ об этом промежутке умещается в коротенькую главку. Что не отменяет факта - "Мусаси" грандиозный роман. Во всех смыслах: объема (больше тысячи страниц), яркости и точности воссоздания исторического контекста, глубины и сложности характеров, мощи философского содержания.
Личность героя раскрывается во взаимодействии со множеством второстепенных, но не менее значимых персонажей: идеальной возлюбленной Оцу, преданным учеником (что не мешает ему быть изрядным обормотом) Дзётаро, другом-завистником Матахати, и его мстительной гарпией-мамашей Осуги, девицей не самых строгих моральных правил Акэми - всеми сквозными персонажами, с которыми судьба то и дело сталкивает Мусаси в его странствиях.
Большая книга, которую неплохо иметь в читательском активе, если вы интересуетесь буддизмом, Японией и кодексом Бусидо.
This is a samurai whose full name sounds like Shinman Musashi-no-Kami Fujiwara-no-Harunobu, but he is better known to the world by the short Miyamoto Musashi and, despite that. that the person is legendary, quite existed in reality. He lived in the sixteenth century, became famous as an invincible swordsman, on his account a record number of duels won.
However, he is more valuable than material history by creating his own school of two-handed combat using long (katana) and short (wakizashi) swords, which no one had done before him. The theoretical justification of this practice is the "Book of the Five Rings". Also, his frequent use of short swords as throwing weapons is considered a precursor to ninja shurikens.
And of course, if the science of killing had been Musashi's primary contribution to history, he would not have occupied the place in the culture of modern Japan that rightfully belongs to him, revered as a saint. His opponents could perceive the sword as a murder weapon, as a marker of belonging to a certain privileged stratum, as a noble weapon, as a symbol of strength and skill - for Miyamoto Musashi, the sword was a symbol of the spirit.
Путь Бусидо
Воды Закона
Мелеют день за днем.
И близок день, когда
Над голыми вершинами Хиэй
Задует студеный ветер.
Боже, как он хорош. В моем списке рыцарей без страха и упрека, который каждая девочка создает нанизывая на виртуальную нить гирлянду книжных и киноперсонажей (даже если она уже давно не девочка, а герои не вполне рыцари): Айвенго. Робин Гуд, Алан из "Похищенного", де Бюсси и Атос, мистер Рочестер, мистер Дарси, Хитклиф, Гэтсби - в моем списке пополнение.
Это самурай, полное имя которого звучит, как Шинмен Мусаси-но-Ками Фудзивара-но-Харунобу, однако миру он более известен под коротким Миямото Мусаси и, несмотря на то. что личность это легендарная, вполне существовал в реальности. Жил в шестнадцатом веке, прославился как непобедимый фехтовальщик, на его счету рекордное число выигранных поединков.
Однако более матери-истории ценен созданием собственной школы двуручного боя с использованием длинного (катаны) и короткого (вакидзаси) мечей, чего до него никто не делал. Теоретическим обоснованием этой практики "Книгой пяти колец". Также частое использование им коротких мечей как метательного оружия считают преддверием сюрикенов ниндзя.
И конечно, если бы наука убивать была преимущественным вкладом Мусаси в историю, он не занял бы в культуре современной Японии того места, которое по праву принадлежит ему, почитаемому как святому. Его противники могли воспринимать меч как орудие убийства, как маркер принадлежности к определенному привилегированному слою, как благородное оружие, как символ силы и мастерства - для Миямото Мусаси меч был символом духа.
Книгу о нем классика японской литературы Эйдзи Ёсикавы вернее было бы отнести к жанру псевдоисторического романа и беллетризованной биографии, чем к собственно историческому и биографическому. С одной стороны, хронология жизни Мусаси есть, и довольно подробная, с другой - касается она главным образом значимых поединков, рассказывая о личной жизни до смешного скупо; с другой - Мусаси стал легендой и культовым персонажем еще при жизни и немудрено, что его имя на протяжении половины тысячелетия обросло кучей небылиц.
Впервые мы встречаем шестнадцатилетнего героя после битвы при Сэкигахаре (1600 год), когда раненые, они с другом некоторое время укрываются в доме вдовы самурая, промышляющей мародерством. Заканчивается книга поединком с Сасаки Кодзиро, когда Мусаси было двадцать восемь. Ему предстоит прожить еще тридцать четыре года, создать свою школу и обессмертить имя, усыновить и вырастить ребенка. пережив его смерть, и совершить множество значимых деяний, которые останутся за рамками романа.
То есть, фактически, "Мусаси" охватывает двенадцать лет жизни героя, три из которых он провел в монастырском заточении, в полной тишине, имея однако доступ к библиотеке настоятеля, рассказ об этом промежутке умещается в коротенькую главку. Что не отменяет факта - "Мусаси" грандиозный роман. Во всех смыслах: объема (больше тысячи страниц), яркости и точности воссоздания исторического контекста, глубины и сложности характеров, мощи философского содержания.
Личность героя раскрывается во взаимодействии со множеством второстепенных, но не менее значимых персонажей: идеальной возлюбленной Оцу, преданным учеником (что не мешает ему быть изрядным обормотом) Дзётаро, другом-завистником Матахати, и его мстительной гарпией-мамашей Осуги, девицей не самых строгих моральных правил Акэми - всеми сквозными персонажами, с которыми судьба то и дело сталкивает Мусаси в его странствиях.
Большая книга, которую неплохо иметь в читательском активе, если вы интересуетесь буддизмом, Японией и кодексом Бусидо.
February 3, 2023
Having finished this, it feels like I've been on an epic journey. It was an intimidatingly long book, but after six months or so I'm finally done.
This novel tells the story of Japan's most famous samurai, Musashi Miyamoto, his best friend Matahatchi, his love interest Otsu and the many many other characters he encounters as he attempts to master the Way of the Sword.
The main reason I picked this up was because it seems like the manga adaptation "Vagabond" is never going to be completed. Aside from finally getting a conclusion to Musashi story, I also was given the chance to experience the original story, and I'm so glad I did.
Not only do we get to learn firsthand about Musashi's thoughts and actions it also delves into his many friends and enemies so by the end we have a pretty well rounded view of the characters in this world.
There are elements that feel quite alien to me, although since this takes place in early 17th century Japan, that is not surprising. For the most part it was fun diving into this whole new world.
As with the manga it does sometimes feel like characters are simply walking in a giant circle. Great chunks of this book are just characters looking for each other, catching up, losing each other and starting the cycle all over again. Honestly it's frustrating when you consider the length of this thing.
Some characters also just come and go. Musashi takes on pupils, they worship him, and he seems to care for them too only to completely disregard them. His relationship with Otsu is interesting at the heart of it, but there is so much faffing about that it falls into that repetitive trap.
When Musashi and Otsu are allowed to spend time together it is a fairly compelling love story, and it highlights how well some of these characters are written. They're complex and contradictory, and in that sense feel very real.
The themes the book explores focus on tradition, family, revenge and acceptance. All very grand in design but work in context of the story. Characters I hate early on become targets of pity, while characters I love turn into villains.
While I love both the manga and this book in equal measure, the one thing I'd say the adaptation does better is the depiction of Musashi's friend and eventual nemesis Kojiro Sasaki. He's simply a more charming and arrogant version of Musashi here, which was probably quite novel at the time but it feels a little tiresome now.
The book doesn't shy from the hypocrisy of the Way of the Samurai either. I was expecting all the samurai to be upstanding citizens who prize honour above all else, but they're mostly conniving and selfish which helps make Musashi's journey all the more interesting.
This novel tells the story of Japan's most famous samurai, Musashi Miyamoto, his best friend Matahatchi, his love interest Otsu and the many many other characters he encounters as he attempts to master the Way of the Sword.
The main reason I picked this up was because it seems like the manga adaptation "Vagabond" is never going to be completed. Aside from finally getting a conclusion to Musashi story, I also was given the chance to experience the original story, and I'm so glad I did.
Not only do we get to learn firsthand about Musashi's thoughts and actions it also delves into his many friends and enemies so by the end we have a pretty well rounded view of the characters in this world.
There are elements that feel quite alien to me, although since this takes place in early 17th century Japan, that is not surprising. For the most part it was fun diving into this whole new world.
As with the manga it does sometimes feel like characters are simply walking in a giant circle. Great chunks of this book are just characters looking for each other, catching up, losing each other and starting the cycle all over again. Honestly it's frustrating when you consider the length of this thing.
Some characters also just come and go. Musashi takes on pupils, they worship him, and he seems to care for them too only to completely disregard them. His relationship with Otsu is interesting at the heart of it, but there is so much faffing about that it falls into that repetitive trap.
When Musashi and Otsu are allowed to spend time together it is a fairly compelling love story, and it highlights how well some of these characters are written. They're complex and contradictory, and in that sense feel very real.
The themes the book explores focus on tradition, family, revenge and acceptance. All very grand in design but work in context of the story. Characters I hate early on become targets of pity, while characters I love turn into villains.
While I love both the manga and this book in equal measure, the one thing I'd say the adaptation does better is the depiction of Musashi's friend and eventual nemesis Kojiro Sasaki. He's simply a more charming and arrogant version of Musashi here, which was probably quite novel at the time but it feels a little tiresome now.
The book doesn't shy from the hypocrisy of the Way of the Samurai either. I was expecting all the samurai to be upstanding citizens who prize honour above all else, but they're mostly conniving and selfish which helps make Musashi's journey all the more interesting.
April 29, 2012
Perhaps my expectations were too high but I was a bit disappointed by this book. I am really interested in (traditional) Japanese culture and looked forward to reading Musashi. Although it is an entertaining read and I did gain some inspiration from it, I found it really missed the depth you'd expect from such a saga.
Apart from Musashi himself, all the other characters in the book are fairly one-dimensional and as a consequence, the story does not really seem to progress or unravel after the first few chapters (the meetings with Sasaki Kojirō are probably an exception to this).
I realize the simplicity of the writing might fit the underlying Japanese values but I think it really did not reflect the complexities of the society and the characters it is trying to describe. It seems to me people in traditional Japan would have more on their mind than Miyamoto alone...
But mostly, after a couple of hundred pages, I became annoyed with the fact that while walking all over Japan, Musashi seems to run into the exact same people everywhere.
Apart from Musashi himself, all the other characters in the book are fairly one-dimensional and as a consequence, the story does not really seem to progress or unravel after the first few chapters (the meetings with Sasaki Kojirō are probably an exception to this).
I realize the simplicity of the writing might fit the underlying Japanese values but I think it really did not reflect the complexities of the society and the characters it is trying to describe. It seems to me people in traditional Japan would have more on their mind than Miyamoto alone...
But mostly, after a couple of hundred pages, I became annoyed with the fact that while walking all over Japan, Musashi seems to run into the exact same people everywhere.
July 2, 2017
5 stars for sheer enjoyment and immersion in another time and culture. This book has easily landed on my favourites list. Despite its nearly thousand pages I was fully immersed in the story of Miyamoto Musashi and never felt like I was slogging through an enormous tome. To be fair the beginning is a little rough, but Eiji Yoshikawa does an excellent job at keeping things moving as we follow the famous ‘sword-saint’ of early Tokugawa-era Japan in his growth from a callow, bullying youth into a man attempting to attain perfection in both body and spirit through the Way of the Sword.
Yoshikawa paints on a broad canvas indeed, immersing the reader into the world of feudal Japan by showing us characters from all walks of life. We meet not only the daimyo and samurai who ruled in this world, but also the merchants, craftsmen, peasants, and priests all of whom gave to the era and country its unique character and flavour. While the story centers on the life and growth of its titular protagonist Miyamoto Musashi it is truly an epic saga, following the intertwined lives of many characters as they criss-cross Japan searching for (or trying to escape from) each other. Indeed there are so many coincidental meetings and near misses that it becomes something of a commonplace in the story. In some ways I was reminded of Dumas while reading this book: both authors first wrote in a serialized format that was later transferred to tomes of kitten-squishing size; many characters walk across the epic stage of history as plots and sub-plots unfold to follow the life of our protagonist; and despite its epic size and scope the prose is eminently readable and it’s definitely a real page-turner of romanticized historical fiction.
The characters themselves are varied and colourful, their stories brought to vivid life from the irascible old dowager Osugi and her feckless son Matahatchi who seek Musashi's downfall, to the virginal Otsu and rambunctious Jotaro who become something of a family in their shared devotion to the vagabond swordsman. Then of course there is Musashi himself the man destined to become the great sword-saint and a man of intriguing complexity: at times seeming little more than a ragged vagabond with slight knowledge of the ways of the world, and at others like an insightful philosopher finding wisdom and perceiving connections where others see nothing at all. Of course one cannot fail to mention two of the most colourful characters in the story: Sasaki Kojiro the great swordsman whose cocksure confidence and wily intellect, along with his unequaled martial prowess, make him Musashi's only possible peer and a real threat for the sword-saint; and Takuan the Buddhist monk who at times can seem little more than a carefree and even clownish figure, while at others he exhibits the harsh and uncompromising nature of a man of great intellectual and moral acuity. Both prove to be interesting foils for Musashi and provide an intriguing study in similarity and contrasts to him.
As he travels the roads and fields of Japan, Musashi takes advantage of every opportunity he can to learn. He is especially keen to gain from the experiences of those he meets who appear to have sounded the depth of a particular art, whether they be a craftsman obsessed with the creation of ceramics, a courtesan versed in the art of music, or an old woman expert in the niceties of the tea ceremony. All who have viewed some aspect of life and art with honesty and rigour can teach him something which he is able to apply to the of the way of the sword. It is this open-mindedness that allows Musashi to avoid being a slave to any one style of martial arts and only in his eagerness to learn from all of his experiences is he able to overcome his many opponents and develop from nameless vagabond to the 'sword-saint' of legend.
While this is ostensibly the story of Musashi he is often absent from the pages for extended periods of time (seemingly deserting the reader as he does the other characters in the story). Luckily for us the characters that take over the narrative at these times are, as noted above, vivid and intriguing making the time spent with them never seem either wasteful or a slog. It is through these absences that we truly come to see the extent of the influence Musashi has on the other characters. Indeed the story is as much about the effect Musashi has on them, both by his presence and his absence (perhaps even moreso the latter), as it is about his life and deeds as such. In this I was reminded of the character of Able from Gene Wolfe's The Wizard Knight. Both men are searchers after truth and wisdom through the way of the warrior, whose actions have a profound effect on the people whose lives they touch. Musashi’s chi or spirit is so strong that not only is he able to master the sword and intimidate his opponents, but he is also able to instill in others a sense of devotion and awe.
This makes Musashi sound like little more than a superhero, but this is far from the case. Yoshikawa still manages to make Musashi very human in his foibles and sense of inadequacy. Indeed, despite his prowess Musashi does not come across as very much like a typical action hero at all, that role is reserved for the suave and supremely confident Sasaki Kojiro. Musashi is more like a wide-eyed innocent looking for the path to perfection, but always certain it has escaped his grasp. The book thus treads a fine line between romanticizing the Samurai ideology in the figure of Musashi and portraying some of the harsh realities of the warrior culture that allowed bullies and braggarts to rule. Thus while we see one man’s attempt to achieve the ideal represented by bushido the story acknowledges the harsh truths that were all too often the reality.
A really enjoyable book that is recommended to all lovers of historical fiction looking for an immersive and compelling experience of Tokugawa era Japan.
Yoshikawa paints on a broad canvas indeed, immersing the reader into the world of feudal Japan by showing us characters from all walks of life. We meet not only the daimyo and samurai who ruled in this world, but also the merchants, craftsmen, peasants, and priests all of whom gave to the era and country its unique character and flavour. While the story centers on the life and growth of its titular protagonist Miyamoto Musashi it is truly an epic saga, following the intertwined lives of many characters as they criss-cross Japan searching for (or trying to escape from) each other. Indeed there are so many coincidental meetings and near misses that it becomes something of a commonplace in the story. In some ways I was reminded of Dumas while reading this book: both authors first wrote in a serialized format that was later transferred to tomes of kitten-squishing size; many characters walk across the epic stage of history as plots and sub-plots unfold to follow the life of our protagonist; and despite its epic size and scope the prose is eminently readable and it’s definitely a real page-turner of romanticized historical fiction.
The characters themselves are varied and colourful, their stories brought to vivid life from the irascible old dowager Osugi and her feckless son Matahatchi who seek Musashi's downfall, to the virginal Otsu and rambunctious Jotaro who become something of a family in their shared devotion to the vagabond swordsman. Then of course there is Musashi himself the man destined to become the great sword-saint and a man of intriguing complexity: at times seeming little more than a ragged vagabond with slight knowledge of the ways of the world, and at others like an insightful philosopher finding wisdom and perceiving connections where others see nothing at all. Of course one cannot fail to mention two of the most colourful characters in the story: Sasaki Kojiro the great swordsman whose cocksure confidence and wily intellect, along with his unequaled martial prowess, make him Musashi's only possible peer and a real threat for the sword-saint; and Takuan the Buddhist monk who at times can seem little more than a carefree and even clownish figure, while at others he exhibits the harsh and uncompromising nature of a man of great intellectual and moral acuity. Both prove to be interesting foils for Musashi and provide an intriguing study in similarity and contrasts to him.
As he travels the roads and fields of Japan, Musashi takes advantage of every opportunity he can to learn. He is especially keen to gain from the experiences of those he meets who appear to have sounded the depth of a particular art, whether they be a craftsman obsessed with the creation of ceramics, a courtesan versed in the art of music, or an old woman expert in the niceties of the tea ceremony. All who have viewed some aspect of life and art with honesty and rigour can teach him something which he is able to apply to the of the way of the sword. It is this open-mindedness that allows Musashi to avoid being a slave to any one style of martial arts and only in his eagerness to learn from all of his experiences is he able to overcome his many opponents and develop from nameless vagabond to the 'sword-saint' of legend.
While this is ostensibly the story of Musashi he is often absent from the pages for extended periods of time (seemingly deserting the reader as he does the other characters in the story). Luckily for us the characters that take over the narrative at these times are, as noted above, vivid and intriguing making the time spent with them never seem either wasteful or a slog. It is through these absences that we truly come to see the extent of the influence Musashi has on the other characters. Indeed the story is as much about the effect Musashi has on them, both by his presence and his absence (perhaps even moreso the latter), as it is about his life and deeds as such. In this I was reminded of the character of Able from Gene Wolfe's The Wizard Knight. Both men are searchers after truth and wisdom through the way of the warrior, whose actions have a profound effect on the people whose lives they touch. Musashi’s chi or spirit is so strong that not only is he able to master the sword and intimidate his opponents, but he is also able to instill in others a sense of devotion and awe.
This makes Musashi sound like little more than a superhero, but this is far from the case. Yoshikawa still manages to make Musashi very human in his foibles and sense of inadequacy. Indeed, despite his prowess Musashi does not come across as very much like a typical action hero at all, that role is reserved for the suave and supremely confident Sasaki Kojiro. Musashi is more like a wide-eyed innocent looking for the path to perfection, but always certain it has escaped his grasp. The book thus treads a fine line between romanticizing the Samurai ideology in the figure of Musashi and portraying some of the harsh realities of the warrior culture that allowed bullies and braggarts to rule. Thus while we see one man’s attempt to achieve the ideal represented by bushido the story acknowledges the harsh truths that were all too often the reality.
A really enjoyable book that is recommended to all lovers of historical fiction looking for an immersive and compelling experience of Tokugawa era Japan.
June 11, 2023
Musashi offers two stories beautifully interwoven into a single narrative. The first is a rollicking adventure complete with nemeses, battles, and, true love. The second is a man's quest for enlightenment. The genius of the novel is that both stories are often furthered by the same events. When viewed one way, these happenings are a straightforward action story. But, from a different perspective, they show Musashi's advancement along the path to enlightenment and contrast this to the ordinary lives of the other characters. Each tale, alone, is worth reading. Together, they are unmissable.
January 25, 2021
Musashi written by Eji Yoshikawa in the 1930s is only loosely considered to be "historical fiction". Many of the famous characters, including Musashi himself, did indeed exist. But this is primarily a fiction novel that tells the story of Miyamoto Musashi.
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.
This dense story (900 + pages with little type) is an adventure through the Japan of the Shgunate. As the Shogun starts a campaign for control and develops the capital of Edo, Japan is undergoing massive changes. This is the world of Musashi.
The style reminded me of "Don Quixote" by Cervantes. An epic adventure following the main character as they travel all throughout their native lands. Musashi is full of violence and humor and can often be very deep in terms of life lessons or even Zen ideas. As Musashi learns more about the arts, he learns more about himself. In time he will use this knowledge to develop a two-sword style that was utterly new for the period.
There is also a large cast of side characters. Some are incredibly annoying and others are rather humorous or wise. This functions as an adventure story that also tells a deep moral tone. Yet it is also exciting, as the bloody violence of this time period is never far away.
Perhaps along with "Shogun" this is one of the most well-known books steeped in the history and concepts of Japan in the time of the Shoguns. I truly enjoyed all aspects of it- from the story, to the martial arts ideas and even insights into humanity. But it is also a great adventure, a coming of age and, darkly, a tale of humor.
If you are interested in the Mushashi story or just enjoy the setting of Shugnate Japan, you will absolutely love this Japanese folk classic.
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.
This dense story (900 + pages with little type) is an adventure through the Japan of the Shgunate. As the Shogun starts a campaign for control and develops the capital of Edo, Japan is undergoing massive changes. This is the world of Musashi.
The style reminded me of "Don Quixote" by Cervantes. An epic adventure following the main character as they travel all throughout their native lands. Musashi is full of violence and humor and can often be very deep in terms of life lessons or even Zen ideas. As Musashi learns more about the arts, he learns more about himself. In time he will use this knowledge to develop a two-sword style that was utterly new for the period.
There is also a large cast of side characters. Some are incredibly annoying and others are rather humorous or wise. This functions as an adventure story that also tells a deep moral tone. Yet it is also exciting, as the bloody violence of this time period is never far away.
Perhaps along with "Shogun" this is one of the most well-known books steeped in the history and concepts of Japan in the time of the Shoguns. I truly enjoyed all aspects of it- from the story, to the martial arts ideas and even insights into humanity. But it is also a great adventure, a coming of age and, darkly, a tale of humor.
If you are interested in the Mushashi story or just enjoy the setting of Shugnate Japan, you will absolutely love this Japanese folk classic.
February 14, 2019
26th book for 2019.
This much loved epic, which originally appeared as a series of Japanese newspaper installments in the 1930s, chronicles the rise of one of Japan's greatest samurai and swordsmen, Miyamoto Musashi.
Despite it's nearly 1000-page length, I found it a fun, quick(ish) read, which enriched my understanding of samurai warrior code and culture this grew out of. It has influenced numerous films and books relating to Japanese culture; even the final battle scene in Kill Bill 1 seems to mashup homage to various incidents within the book.
I look forward to reading Musashi's own A Book of Five Rings in due course.
4-stars.
This much loved epic, which originally appeared as a series of Japanese newspaper installments in the 1930s, chronicles the rise of one of Japan's greatest samurai and swordsmen, Miyamoto Musashi.
Despite it's nearly 1000-page length, I found it a fun, quick(ish) read, which enriched my understanding of samurai warrior code and culture this grew out of. It has influenced numerous films and books relating to Japanese culture; even the final battle scene in Kill Bill 1 seems to mashup homage to various incidents within the book.
I look forward to reading Musashi's own A Book of Five Rings in due course.
4-stars.
November 14, 2020
I have spent the last 9 months listening, on and off, to the audiobook of Musashi and I can safely say that I am glad that I didn't try a print version, for I am certain that it would have been a DNF for me.
At it's core, Musashi is the story of a young man from Japan who grows up to be a renowned master of the way of the sword. Over the course of the 50+ hour long story, he encounters new sword fighting techniques and learns the skills and attributes that are required and expected of an honourable Ronin.
He studies philosophy, is taught humility, modesty, trust and how to train and teach others by a variety of other characters that he meets whilst on his journey for self-improvement and self-mastery.
This premise is what sold me on the book. I wanted a slow-burn Samurai adventure story. And, in a way, I got too much of what I was looking for - as well as some things that I definitely could have done with less of.
To start off with the obvious; 53 hours is too long. I feel as though this story could have been cut down into 20 hours and it would have still had all of it's major beats and all the more exciting and important events still in there.
There is so much repetition and going in circles, as well as huge chunks of the book in which it feels as though no forward progress is made.
The characters were also entirely two-dimensional. And don't even get me started on the sickeningly weak romance that is played out throughout the entire 1000 pages!
Otsu, a childhood friend of Mushashi (who is then known as Takezo), follows him across the country, trying to find him, win him over and convince him to show her love.
He declines and turns her away multiple times, not because he doesn't love her in return, rather simply because he doesn't wish for their relationship to get between him and his personal goal of mastering the sword.
But yes... she continues to trail him, with fate, destiny, coincidence and dumb luck bringing them together over and over again. It got so terribly boring and predictable.
Musashi also has two separate pupils at different times in the story, Jotaro and "Jotaro.2" - I label the character as such because I have completely forgotten the second character's actual name and he is ostensibly the same person as the original Jotaro.
There are dozens and dozens of characters and none of them felt like real people at all.
Plus the female characters are all either just pawns in the men's games, simple and shallow love interests or they are manipulative and bitter old crones - scheming against our honourable and virtuous male characters.
As for the setting and the themes, they are definitely the strongest part of the story. Those that are interested in period Japanese culture or want to see the morals and ethics of Sun Tzu's 'The Art Of War' exemplified in a fictional epic - you will certainly find more in this book than I did. But be aware, as stated above, that there is a LOT of fluff and filler surrounding that which you are looking for.
For those of you here for the action, similarly, there is certainly good quality swordplay and dueling, as well as moments of covert and military strategy, but these scenes are always relatively short lived and buried within the wider scope of book in general.
As I have already mentioned, the story's unspoken reliance on extraordinary coincidences is probably my biggest problem with Musashi as a whole. With an entire country to explore, the way our protagonist bumps into the same 4 or 5 characters dozens of times throughout the story just led to such a stale overarching sense of progress and development.
I know that I am in the minority regarding these opinions, but this book just wasn't for me. The fact that it took me 9 months to listen to it says enough, it wasn't what I wanted it to be and I know that's on me.
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.
___________________________
Thank you for reading my review.
Musashi has been in my 'currently reading' for so long and I am relived to have finally finished it and to be able to start a new audiobook to listen to alongside all my physical reads.
Up next for review will either be The Tower of Fools by Andrzej Sapkowski or Book 4 in The Dark Tower series by Stephen King; Wizard and Glass, depending on which one I finish first.
I hope that anyone reading this is doing well and that you are enjoying whatever book you are reading at the moment!
At it's core, Musashi is the story of a young man from Japan who grows up to be a renowned master of the way of the sword. Over the course of the 50+ hour long story, he encounters new sword fighting techniques and learns the skills and attributes that are required and expected of an honourable Ronin.
He studies philosophy, is taught humility, modesty, trust and how to train and teach others by a variety of other characters that he meets whilst on his journey for self-improvement and self-mastery.
This premise is what sold me on the book. I wanted a slow-burn Samurai adventure story. And, in a way, I got too much of what I was looking for - as well as some things that I definitely could have done with less of.
To start off with the obvious; 53 hours is too long. I feel as though this story could have been cut down into 20 hours and it would have still had all of it's major beats and all the more exciting and important events still in there.
There is so much repetition and going in circles, as well as huge chunks of the book in which it feels as though no forward progress is made.
The characters were also entirely two-dimensional. And don't even get me started on the sickeningly weak romance that is played out throughout the entire 1000 pages!
Otsu, a childhood friend of Mushashi (who is then known as Takezo), follows him across the country, trying to find him, win him over and convince him to show her love.
He declines and turns her away multiple times, not because he doesn't love her in return, rather simply because he doesn't wish for their relationship to get between him and his personal goal of mastering the sword.
But yes... she continues to trail him, with fate, destiny, coincidence and dumb luck bringing them together over and over again. It got so terribly boring and predictable.
Musashi also has two separate pupils at different times in the story, Jotaro and "Jotaro.2" - I label the character as such because I have completely forgotten the second character's actual name and he is ostensibly the same person as the original Jotaro.
There are dozens and dozens of characters and none of them felt like real people at all.
Plus the female characters are all either just pawns in the men's games, simple and shallow love interests or they are manipulative and bitter old crones - scheming against our honourable and virtuous male characters.
As for the setting and the themes, they are definitely the strongest part of the story. Those that are interested in period Japanese culture or want to see the morals and ethics of Sun Tzu's 'The Art Of War' exemplified in a fictional epic - you will certainly find more in this book than I did. But be aware, as stated above, that there is a LOT of fluff and filler surrounding that which you are looking for.
For those of you here for the action, similarly, there is certainly good quality swordplay and dueling, as well as moments of covert and military strategy, but these scenes are always relatively short lived and buried within the wider scope of book in general.
As I have already mentioned, the story's unspoken reliance on extraordinary coincidences is probably my biggest problem with Musashi as a whole. With an entire country to explore, the way our protagonist bumps into the same 4 or 5 characters dozens of times throughout the story just led to such a stale overarching sense of progress and development.
I know that I am in the minority regarding these opinions, but this book just wasn't for me. The fact that it took me 9 months to listen to it says enough, it wasn't what I wanted it to be and I know that's on me.
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.
___________________________
Thank you for reading my review.
Musashi has been in my 'currently reading' for so long and I am relived to have finally finished it and to be able to start a new audiobook to listen to alongside all my physical reads.
Up next for review will either be The Tower of Fools by Andrzej Sapkowski or Book 4 in The Dark Tower series by Stephen King; Wizard and Glass, depending on which one I finish first.
I hope that anyone reading this is doing well and that you are enjoying whatever book you are reading at the moment!
August 12, 2008
I didn't like this book. It consisted of boring parts, punctuated by parts where the main character and maybe other characters, would go do something really stupid because of their bizarre moral codes or lack thereof.
The book is old enough that the levels of sexism in it are absurd, and parts of it got me so annoyed that I was really distracted from the plot.
I suppose it's interesting to get a perspective on a VERY different culture, but half the time I couldn't fathom any conceivable logical or moral reason why the characters would be doing what they were doing, and this only got worse as the book went along.
Also, the main character puts himself on too much of a pedestal for my liking (I know some people will want to deny that he does this, but he DOES). That, like pretty much everything else about Musashi (and here I mean both the character and the book itself) was annoying in the extreme.
The book is old enough that the levels of sexism in it are absurd, and parts of it got me so annoyed that I was really distracted from the plot.
I suppose it's interesting to get a perspective on a VERY different culture, but half the time I couldn't fathom any conceivable logical or moral reason why the characters would be doing what they were doing, and this only got worse as the book went along.
Also, the main character puts himself on too much of a pedestal for my liking (I know some people will want to deny that he does this, but he DOES). That, like pretty much everything else about Musashi (and here I mean both the character and the book itself) was annoying in the extreme.
April 30, 2013
Mostly this book is like Pokemon. A young man wandered around the wilderness in his quest to be the greatest samurai/Pokemon master and runs into others who he does battle with to increase his power. He gains new techniques from kindly old masters and visits temples where he participates in more battles.
The story does start to be more engaging in about the last third of the book. You can tell that it was originally released serially and should probably be consumed with the attitude one has towards consuming a season of television.
The story does start to be more engaging in about the last third of the book. You can tell that it was originally released serially and should probably be consumed with the attitude one has towards consuming a season of television.
October 21, 2015
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.
The story is epic in scope and follows Musashi Myamoto's life from the time when he was a 17 year old punk to his final battle with Ganryu, which cemented his fame. It is a great introduction to Japanese history and has me itching to some follow up non-fiction reading on Japan.
As far as rating it, I could go anywhere from a 3 to a 5. The story itself is captivating and completely hooks you after a while. The writing seemed immature and choppy at the beginning, but then got more and more sophisticated. I don't know if this is a translation thing, but it kind of works. It seems as if the author or translator used this as a story telling device, that is, as the main characters matured and became wiser, so did the text and the way it was written. Maybe I am imagining this?
The story is epic in scope and follows Musashi Myamoto's life from the time when he was a 17 year old punk to his final battle with Ganryu, which cemented his fame. It is a great introduction to Japanese history and has me itching to some follow up non-fiction reading on Japan.
As far as rating it, I could go anywhere from a 3 to a 5. The story itself is captivating and completely hooks you after a while. The writing seemed immature and choppy at the beginning, but then got more and more sophisticated. I don't know if this is a translation thing, but it kind of works. It seems as if the author or translator used this as a story telling device, that is, as the main characters matured and became wiser, so did the text and the way it was written. Maybe I am imagining this?
December 2, 2021
Musashi: An Epic Novel of the Samurai Era - Eiji Yoshikawa
موساشي رواية طويلة لـ إيجي يوشيكاوا ( 1892م – 1962م) وهو كاتب وصحفي ياباني اشتهر برواياته التاريخية التي يعيد فيها سرد بعض الأعمال الكلاسيكية اليابانية الشهيرة بأسلوبه الخاص، ورواية موساشي هي ملحمة من عصر الساموراي وتروي قصة المبارز الشهير مياموتو موساشي.
ترافقني رواية موساشي منذ أكتوبر، رافقت الشخصيات في أحداث تمتد لأكثر من 12 عامًا وأشعر الآن بعد توديعهم بفراغ هائل. ..
السرد جميل ومتماسك حتى مع طول الرواية (+900 صفحة)، والأسلوب محبب وبسيط والتنقل بين الأحداث خاطف وسلس والترجمة لها دور كبير جدًا وهناك الكثير من الاقتباسات المذهلة التي تملأ الكتاب من لحظات الحزن إلى الفرح والشعر والحكم والمواقف الظريفة .
مأخذي الوحيد على العمل أنه ذكوري لدرجة تثير الاشمئزاز، لكنه مفهوم في سياقه طبعًا، العمل تجري أحداثه في اليابان في القرن السابع عشر.
موساشي رواية طويلة لـ إيجي يوشيكاوا ( 1892م – 1962م) وهو كاتب وصحفي ياباني اشتهر برواياته التاريخية التي يعيد فيها سرد بعض الأعمال الكلاسيكية اليابانية الشهيرة بأسلوبه الخاص، ورواية موساشي هي ملحمة من عصر الساموراي وتروي قصة المبارز الشهير مياموتو موساشي.
ترافقني رواية موساشي منذ أكتوبر، رافقت الشخصيات في أحداث تمتد لأكثر من 12 عامًا وأشعر الآن بعد توديعهم بفراغ هائل. ..
السرد جميل ومتماسك حتى مع طول الرواية (+900 صفحة)، والأسلوب محبب وبسيط والتنقل بين الأحداث خاطف وسلس والترجمة لها دور كبير جدًا وهناك الكثير من الاقتباسات المذهلة التي تملأ الكتاب من لحظات الحزن إلى الفرح والشعر والحكم والمواقف الظريفة .
مأخذي الوحيد على العمل أنه ذكوري لدرجة تثير الاشمئزاز، لكنه مفهوم في سياقه طبعًا، العمل تجري أحداثه في اليابان في القرن السابع عشر.
May 16, 2019
A great novel that reads easier than its length or age might make you believe (The epic sword fights didn't hurt, either). The only negative that I found was that it has "Walter Scott" syndrome, where the main (and thus most interesting) character disappears for long stretches of time throughout.
May 21, 2024
Musashi
“He saw the white paper as the great universe of nonexistence. A single stroke would give rise to existence within it. He could evoke rain or wind at will, but whatever he drew, his heart would remain in the painting forever. If his heart was tainted, the picture would be tainted; if his heart was listless, so would the picture be. If he attempted to make a show of his craftsmanship, it could not be concealed. Men’s bodies fade away, but ink lives on. The image of his heart would continue to breathe after he himself was gone.”
Eiji Yoshikawa, Musashi: An Epic Novel of the Samurai Era
This showed up as a recommended next read after shogun. It’s really interesting because it takes place right after the end of shogun and is also based on historical figures. But where shogun is set in the upper echelon of feudal Japanese society and is full of political machinations; Musashi takes place among the peasantry and middle classes, merchants and itinerant ronin.
This is a great story, on par with heroic tales from any culture. The characters are all archetypes but have deep flaws to overcome that are obvious to everyone but them.
Musashi himself does many things that are not at all heroic or even good. He literally runs away from any commitment, like when he tells a girl she can come with him but when she goes to get her stuff, he runs away! He employs this strategy many times, he runs from anything but a fight.
Musashi is the epitome of Japanese manliness, his eyebrows are fucking huge, they go right off the sides of his head! This has the effect of making every woman that even catches sight of him dissolve into a puddle and fall instantly in love with him!
Musashi thought, has no time for the tender charms of fair maidens or even famous hookers, he rebuffs them all.
He’s got armies of dipshits to hack to pieces! So that begs the question, is Musashi a virgin? That would explain his foul temper.
Musashi continues to work on himself; spiritually, artistically and most especially his swordsmanship as he travels the country in search of the ultimate truth of zen but the real treasure was the friends he made along the way.
“No one appreciates the agonizing effort he’s had to make. Now that his years of training have yielded such spectacular results, everybody’s talking about his ‘god-given talent.’ That’s how men who don’t try very hard comfort themselves.”
This book is a bit off beat for western readers, there may be a few things lost in translation but it’s manages to be epic, action packed, funny, heartfelt and tragic- read it and you shall learn the way of the sword and attain spiritual enlightenment!
“He saw the white paper as the great universe of nonexistence. A single stroke would give rise to existence within it. He could evoke rain or wind at will, but whatever he drew, his heart would remain in the painting forever. If his heart was tainted, the picture would be tainted; if his heart was listless, so would the picture be. If he attempted to make a show of his craftsmanship, it could not be concealed. Men’s bodies fade away, but ink lives on. The image of his heart would continue to breathe after he himself was gone.”
Eiji Yoshikawa, Musashi: An Epic Novel of the Samurai Era
This showed up as a recommended next read after shogun. It’s really interesting because it takes place right after the end of shogun and is also based on historical figures. But where shogun is set in the upper echelon of feudal Japanese society and is full of political machinations; Musashi takes place among the peasantry and middle classes, merchants and itinerant ronin.
This is a great story, on par with heroic tales from any culture. The characters are all archetypes but have deep flaws to overcome that are obvious to everyone but them.
Musashi himself does many things that are not at all heroic or even good. He literally runs away from any commitment, like when he tells a girl she can come with him but when she goes to get her stuff, he runs away! He employs this strategy many times, he runs from anything but a fight.
Musashi is the epitome of Japanese manliness, his eyebrows are fucking huge, they go right off the sides of his head! This has the effect of making every woman that even catches sight of him dissolve into a puddle and fall instantly in love with him!
Musashi thought, has no time for the tender charms of fair maidens or even famous hookers, he rebuffs them all.
He’s got armies of dipshits to hack to pieces! So that begs the question, is Musashi a virgin? That would explain his foul temper.
Musashi continues to work on himself; spiritually, artistically and most especially his swordsmanship as he travels the country in search of the ultimate truth of zen but the real treasure was the friends he made along the way.
“No one appreciates the agonizing effort he’s had to make. Now that his years of training have yielded such spectacular results, everybody’s talking about his ‘god-given talent.’ That’s how men who don’t try very hard comfort themselves.”
This book is a bit off beat for western readers, there may be a few things lost in translation but it’s manages to be epic, action packed, funny, heartfelt and tragic- read it and you shall learn the way of the sword and attain spiritual enlightenment!
July 7, 2018
There were portions of this novel that I really enjoyed, but other sections I found somewhat tedious. This is not because of a lack of action; on the contrary, there seems to be action in every single chapter. Rather it's because of the large number of poorly developed characters, settings, and side stories. Half the time, I found myself not caring.
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.
I still enjoyed the book overall, especially the first half. I feel like the novel hung together really well up until The Spreading Pine chapter. Musashi's early journeys and battles are very entertaining. And The Spreading Pine chapter is, in some ways, the first of the book's two major climaxes.
After The Spreading Pine, though, the book is not as cohesive. In almost every chapter new characters are introduced. Even the final two chapters introduce new characters. And the characters are rarely developed much, so they are hard to visualize, hard to remember.
The end of the novel is sufficiently gratifying, although I wish it wasn't so cursory. Conflicts that have lasted for 800+ pages are given a few paragraphs to resolve with no follow-up. It was almost like Yoshikawa got tired of writing and decided to tie up all the loose ends in a single chapter.
Although I'm glad I read this novel and still think it's worth reading, I feel it would have been better if:
* Characters were fewer and developed better.
* A map was used to show the locations of all the towns and cities, which are just as numerous as the characters.
* Some of the plot had been tightened up.
* The conclusion of the novel had been given more thorough treatment.
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.
I still enjoyed the book overall, especially the first half. I feel like the novel hung together really well up until The Spreading Pine chapter. Musashi's early journeys and battles are very entertaining. And The Spreading Pine chapter is, in some ways, the first of the book's two major climaxes.
After The Spreading Pine, though, the book is not as cohesive. In almost every chapter new characters are introduced. Even the final two chapters introduce new characters. And the characters are rarely developed much, so they are hard to visualize, hard to remember.
The end of the novel is sufficiently gratifying, although I wish it wasn't so cursory. Conflicts that have lasted for 800+ pages are given a few paragraphs to resolve with no follow-up. It was almost like Yoshikawa got tired of writing and decided to tie up all the loose ends in a single chapter.
Although I'm glad I read this novel and still think it's worth reading, I feel it would have been better if:
* Characters were fewer and developed better.
* A map was used to show the locations of all the towns and cities, which are just as numerous as the characters.
* Some of the plot had been tightened up.
* The conclusion of the novel had been given more thorough treatment.
September 29, 2021
I first read The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi, a book on the martial arts, written by the Japanese swordsman Miyamoto Musashi around 1645. That booked then sparked my interest in the life of Miyamoto Musashi. After a short amount of research I found this book, which is a predominantly fictional tale about the life of the great Japanese Ronin Miyamoto Musashi written by Eiji Yoshikawa. It was originally released as a serial in the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun, between 1935 and 1939. Which can be felt in the pacing of this novel. Which feels chapter to chapter quite episodic.
I have never had an experience with a book quite like I had with Musashi. The first half of the book had me intoxicated. The world of the Edo period in Japan seems real and tangible here because of the extremely simple and modern translation into english. The story flows at a delightful pace. The balance between action, and the development of Musashi's Character. My devouring of the material started to slow in the middle of the book though. As the storyline started to feel monotonous. I ended up skipping a few chapters and reading their summaries online in the middle. I am usually not bothered by a book being so long, but in this case it became quite a trudge through the second half of the book. Overall, it was entertaining though, and I am able to forgive my grievances due to the majority of the story being worthwhile.
I have never had an experience with a book quite like I had with Musashi. The first half of the book had me intoxicated. The world of the Edo period in Japan seems real and tangible here because of the extremely simple and modern translation into english. The story flows at a delightful pace. The balance between action, and the development of Musashi's Character. My devouring of the material started to slow in the middle of the book though. As the storyline started to feel monotonous. I ended up skipping a few chapters and reading their summaries online in the middle. I am usually not bothered by a book being so long, but in this case it became quite a trudge through the second half of the book. Overall, it was entertaining though, and I am able to forgive my grievances due to the majority of the story being worthwhile.
July 9, 2008
This is easily my favorite book. It's very long and translated from Japanese resulting in some rough spots, but nevertheless, I could not put this one down. I recommend this to anyone...well, anyone who loves sword fighting.
December 17, 2007
Ini buku pertama yang banyak memberikan inspirasi dalam hidup saya. Dimana perubahan 180° bisa terjadi dalam hidup kita.
Buku ini tidak semata-mata darah dan pertarungan tapi lebih pada Semangat dalam pencarian dan pengembangan jati diri, Kesetiaan dan Kepasrahan Cinta, Keindahan dan Seni.
Saya memberikan rating penuh untuk buku ini, bukan karena akan dusukai oleh semua orang. Tapi lebih banyak ke pribadi saya yang tidak akan melupakan sihir dari buku ini pada kehidupan saya.
Buku ini tidak semata-mata darah dan pertarungan tapi lebih pada Semangat dalam pencarian dan pengembangan jati diri, Kesetiaan dan Kepasrahan Cinta, Keindahan dan Seni.
Saya memberikan rating penuh untuk buku ini, bukan karena akan dusukai oleh semua orang. Tapi lebih banyak ke pribadi saya yang tidak akan melupakan sihir dari buku ini pada kehidupan saya.
April 3, 2020
Notes:
Brian Nishii is great! He really made the long journey come to life in the audio. I'm sure I only caught 1/3 of the references and things the story held because I'm not Japanese, but what I did grasp was pretty great and I can see why this is a classic. The movies only give a glimpse of the facets & ideas from the book. I'm glad I read it and I'm sure I'll read it again.
The story comes across as being very simple but it is the layers of common things that make up a complex whole.
Brian Nishii is great! He really made the long journey come to life in the audio. I'm sure I only caught 1/3 of the references and things the story held because I'm not Japanese, but what I did grasp was pretty great and I can see why this is a classic. The movies only give a glimpse of the facets & ideas from the book. I'm glad I read it and I'm sure I'll read it again.
The story comes across as being very simple but it is the layers of common things that make up a complex whole.
April 21, 2024
***THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS***
Occasionally I lapse into profanity. If this offends you please do not read any further. This is a long review, so please avoid it if you dislike these, but I'm attempting to convey why I'm going against the grain here and rating what I suppose is an objectively important book so low.
Well, that was a slog.
I love historical fiction and I'm not shy of reading through books that could serve double duty as doorstops. I also grew up with Kurosawa's samurai epics and really enjoyed more modern entries into the same genre, like 13 Assassins. On paper, Musashi ticked all the boxes for me: a historical action novel about one of history's greatest swordsmen, set in feudal Japan, epic in scope and length, and written by a Japanese author who could hardly be accused of orientalist sensationalism? Sign me up!
In short, I was excited to read this book.
That excitement lasted all of, oh, maybe 200 pages before I realised, with a sinking feeling, that this book really wasn't for me. As a point of principle, I don't DNF books, so I persevered. Having struggled through all 970 pages of my edition of Musashi, including absolutely headbutting my way through the last 300 pages or so, I can't help but feel that my time would have been better spent elsewhere.
Some context before I get into the detail of the review. Musashi was published between 1935 and 1939, the early Showa Period in Japanese history. The context is important - this was a time of extreme militancy in Japanese society, with aggressive expansionism a near-constant, and even a bloody attempt at a military coup. Japan was at war with China while Musashi was being published, and two years later they would launch their attack on Pearl Harbor.
Over a period of four years, Musashi was serialised in Japan's most important newspaper. This format is almost certainly the source of many of the problems which, in my opinion, bedevil this work. I have tried to break down my issues with the novel thematically below - be advised, spoilers are present from here on out. Do not read further if you want to explore Musashi on your own.
Style: Musashi suffers from what I consider to be a very janky translation and would almost certainly benefit from an update. The translator intersperses modern colloquialisms, such as "okay", throughout the dialogue. Questionable word use abounds. Sentence structure is often poorly thought out, and the dialogue itself reads like early subtitles for Japanese films, and I don't mean that as a compliment; one senses a lot more nuance exists in the original. That being said, maybe the Japanese just talk like that (or Yoshikawa wrote them that way) and it just sounds jarring to me as a European.
Structure: Musashi is simultaneously too short and too long. I have read elsewhere that the 1000-page epic that exists in English is actually an abridged version of what was serialised in Japan's Asashi Shinbun, and that makes sense because entire narrative and character arcs occasionally fast-forward by a matter of years. Characters we have spent hundreds of pages with simply up and disappear; sometimes they appear again, and sometimes they don't. At one point about 800 pages in, Musashi is taken prisoner. The last time we see him he is being dragged away by the authorities, bound. He reappears some 40 pages later, apparently very little the worse for wear, and when Iori, his disciple at the time, asks him what happened he basically shrugs and says "don't worry about it, I'll tell you some other time." THIS IS THEN NEVER ADDRESSED AGAIN. What the Hell?
At the same time, entire Books (the novel is split into portions which loosely mirror Musashi's own philosophical text, The Book of Five Rings) are basically identical retreads of the previous ones, and serve to provide no narrative impetus, running along much the same lines: "Musashi is on the road, being harassed by his longtime persecutors who provide flank interference. He gets into some sort of argument, usually caused by a misunderstanding, with the head of a powerful Samurai house or swordfighting school. He fights them, and wins." A ruthlessly competent editor could probably trim the entire thing to a lean 300-odd pages and I suspect the novel would be much more enjoyable for it.
Character Arcs & Characterisation: Firstly, there are simply too many. I get that some of these are real historical figures which Japanese audiences probably got a kick out of seeing crop up, but many serve no narrative purpose beyond being glorified cameos; they appear and disappear at will, sometimes for hundreds of pages, occasionally turning up with something along the lines of "'tis I, so-and-so! Remember how we shared half a page together six hundred pages ago?". With ten pages to go to the end, new characters were STILL being introduced. This is simply not necessary.
Main characters will spend hundreds of pages - virtually the entire novel, in some cases - displaying not one iota of character development, only to have colossal, world-altering epiphanies and literally turn their entire life around over the course of half a page. This is not infrequent, and happens to at least 3 key characters. At other times, for no logical reason, characters will behave in a manner completely at odds with what we've learned about them and what they've done so far, only to then revert to type - or not, as the case may be. Again, one suspects there's a lot of cut content. Some specific issues with characters and their arcs below:
- Musashi: It's never made clear WHY Musashi is as good of a swordsman as he is, at least not in any satisfactory manner. His "training montage" consists of him being confined with books for several years in his teens, emerging from his enforced sabbatical a master swordsman. Then again, he was also pretty formidable before, based on the fights we see him engage in during the first part of the novel. There's some references to Zen and the meditative aspects of swordmanship, the implication being that Musashi had the raw potential and simply studied himself into excellence, but come on - when did he actually PRACTICE? At one point, Musashi's will-he-won't-he love interest and his disciple are kidnapped in suspicious circumstances, and he spends all of, oh, maybe five pages looking for them before effectively saying "well, that's that I guess", and going on with his life. This abandonment is never adequately explained or discussed by those characters when they do turn up later (no thanks to him).
- Matahachi: Musashi's childhood friend, a complete doormat of a character who is an utterly shiftless layabout for approximately 900 of the 970 pages, and who goes EXTREMELY close to sexually abusing Otsu, Musashi's "love interest" (on which more anon), who basically floats through the novel being variously useless, obnoxious, violent towards the weak, traitorous, drunken, and overall just pathetic. Yet in half a page in the final act of the book he suddenly decides he's going to be a good dad upon discovering he has a child with Akemi, the daughter of the older woman he shacked up with at the start of the novel. All well and good, but this is treated as some kind of redemption arc when we've seen Matahachi completely renounce all his grand prospects about a dozen times before (he literally gives up on his journey to become a priest in order to look after Akemi and his child) so one would be forgiven for suspecting he'll dump Akemi and become a pirate or some such after the novel's close.
- Sasaki Kojiro/Ganryu: The villain of the piece and after Musashi the only character I thought was worth spending any time with. Despite being an out-and-out self-aggrandising scumbag for the majority of the novel, he's apparently canonised when Musashi, at last, cracks his skull open on the last page-but-one (despite it being extremely obvious from page 50 or so that they'd eventually fight to the death). Through Musashi's POV, we're meant to somehow simpathise with Kojiro, a character who a few hundred pages before RAPED Akemi and spent a lot of the book terrorising her to get her back after she escaped. It might, theoretically, be possible to craft a redemption arc for a character who engaged in such a reprehensible act - maybe (if you were an exceptionally talented author). Personally, I think it places him beyond the pale, but in the final page, Yoshikawa basically tries to make us feel sorry for the prick. I say good riddance.
Jotaro/Iori: Musashi has two disciples in the novel, first Jotaro and then Iori. Both are children. He picks up Jotaro when he's quite young himself. I suppose the implication is that Musashi maturing over the course of the novel means he's actually a better teacher and therefore Iori is a better human than Jotaro but this is never really developed or even implied - one simply deduces it from the fact that Jotaro is an absolute shitstain while Iori is at least tolerable. Neither is particularly enjoyable to spend time with, but Jotaro is truly awful. At one point he beats a dog (belonging to a nobleman) to death because he provoked it and the dog lashed out. When the nobleman's retainers are about to punish him, Musashi prevents them from doing so, for no particularly good reason. He later savagely beats a servant who's just trying to do his job. Beyond physically growing up, he never displays any character development - he's basically the same obnoxious little asshole at the end of the book as he is at the start. Iori is a little better, if only because he's less bloodthirsty towards defenceless animals and social inferiors. Iori also actually gets TRAINED by Musashi, whereas Jotaro never receives a single physical lesson in swordsmanship and learned his trade, one presumes, by osmosis.
Otsu: I hate the word "simp" but if ever a character deserved to be tarred with this brush it's Otsu. She feverishly pines after Musashi (to the point of almost dying of it) for the entire length of the novel, despite him outright rejecting her, and abandoning her to some less-than-ideal fates, a number of times throughout the book. I mentioned before how Musashi let her get kidnapped (by Matahachi) and then gave up on looking for her after about an hour. Does she ever bring this egregious betrayal up? Does she bollocks. They eventually get "married" prior to Musashi's duel with Kojiro on page 965/970 or thereabouts, presumably because Musashi was so exhausted with her, but not as exhausted as I was. A complete mollusc of a character. Grow a spine, lady! Have you considered reading "He's Just Not That Into You"? The bloke clearly just wants to go around being a lone Ronin, just let him get on with his life and find some meaning in yours. The "happy resolution" is effectively an acknowledgement that Otsu has wasted a couple decades of her life waiting for Musashi to make up his bloody mind.
Osugi: Matahachi's mother and the only female character with anything resembling some sort of agency - but that agency is entirely wasted by having her be some sort of (I assume) semi-comedic antagonist to Musashi. I say semi-comedic because the idea of the best swordsman in the world being repeatedly threatened by a little old woman with a shortsword in a one-on-one duel seems farcical, yet it's ostensibly played straight - maybe I just don't get Japanese humour. Throughout the entire novel, she goes out of her way to variously attempt to murder (either herself or through proxies) incarcerate, slander, discredit and otherwise wreak serious harm upon Musashi, Otsu and any number of the main cast, purely because of a misunderstanding (she blames Musashi for her son's downfall) that could have been cleared up in about thirty minutes if they'd all just sat down and talked. I get that she's meant to be a cautionary tale about the perils of hate for hate's sake, but come on. The woman is also portrayed as old and ailing at the start of the novel yet she's somehow on the hunt for Musashi for DECADES and is still alive and kicking at the end. Like many other characters, she also does a complete 180 (with the aid of a religious/spiritual revelation) about 960 pages in, and becomes friendly and supportive of Musashi and Otsu despite years of hate and villainy. They also forgive her without question, despite the various attempts on their lives and untold suffering she's caused them.
Narrative Choices & Themes: Coincidence, possibly religious or spiritual in nature (all is pre-ordained, etc) carries way too much weight in the novel. Edo Period Japan had a population of between 20 and 30 million, yet the main cast of characters, often at a distance of years, keep running into each other by complete chance. It makes cities like Edo and Osaka, which in reality were teeming with millions of people, seem like small villages.
While the duels are probably the best part of the novel - one senses fights between men effectively armed with 3-foot razors and wearing no armour would have ended very quickly and messily within one or two fast cuts, with any wound being basically disabling, and this is well-conveyed - some things are treated in a manner so unrealistic they just pull you out of the narrative. The treatment of firearms is especially egregious; several times in the novel, Musashi and (if I remember right) Kojiro outright DODGE musket bullets. This is simply not how firearms, even early ones, work. It's not physically possible. Maybe it's poorly conveyed in translation.
Either Yoshikawa didn't know how to write children, or the child population of Edo (or early Showa) Japan was made up entirely of screeching, violent ferals. I'm not an advocate of corporal punishment in child-raising, but the portrayal of pretty much every kid in this book, especially Jotaro and early Iori, made my hands itch. Yet characters in general who'll happily murder an adult over some perceived slight are weirdly overindulgent with these mini-goblins, who spend most of their time insulting adults or causing physical harm via thrown blunt objects.
The characterisation of women is, I think, problematic. I get that the novel is a product of its time, and that it's extremely likely that in Edo Japan women were reduced to the role of glorified room decor, but in this case I'm disinclined to excuse it. Every female character in this novel is either a prostitute (with varying degrees of consent involved in that career choice) a simp, or an embittered old crone.
Anyone who isn't from the Samurai/aristocratic or (with some exceptions) successful mercantile classes is written as either a bigot, a harmless simpleton, or a vicious moron. Whenever anyone displays any form of artistic or philosophical bent, it's always remarked upon by another character with something along the lines of "ah but of course, he has Samurai blood".
I understand that the novel is an important cornerstone in Japanese literature. I also find it interesting that none of its apologists in the foreword and introduction think it worth mentioning how violent and imperialistic the Japanese zeitgeist was when it was receiving such resounding success as a newspaper serial.
Some grades and a summary, then. Forgive me for rambling as long as I have.
Structure: 1/5. Too much bloat, yet somehow entire crucial story and character beats are missed completely. From around page 600 or so - after the defeat of the Yoshioka school - until around page 900 in the build-up to the duel on Ganryu Island, it loses focus completely.
Character arcs & Characterisation: 2/5 Musashi (and to a lesser extent Kojiro) is the only character I had any interest in spending any time with, yet somehow it felt like we did so for only around half of the novel. Reading chapters from the POV of characters which were simultaneously boring AND utterly unlikeable (Matahachi, Jotaro, Otsu, Osugi) was a chore. Virtually all significant character developments either happened off-page, were treated as a fait accompli, or were wrapped up in half a page or so in the final chapter.
Narrative Choices & Themes: 1/5 A heavy reliance on coincidence and characters consistently picking the worst possible choice, coupled with the virtual recycling of entire books, made getting through this a chore. Add a dollop of unrealistic action and a healthy dose of misogyny and classism and it doesn't make for a very compelling recipe.
Cultural importance: 4/5. This is why I think reading Musashi wasn't entirely a wasted effort. What it DOES provide, in a fascinating way, is an insight into how a popular Japanese author in the 1930s viewed a famous historical figure from the 1600s and thus gives us a window into the collective Japanese psyche at the time. This was a time when the concept of Bushido was effectively being re-invented from scratch from the loose collection of ideas it was in feudal Japan to how it exists in the collective imagination today. In much the same way as Mussolini's Fascist regime remodernised and rewrote Imperial Rome to serve as the bedrock for their own ideals, Imperial Japan did the same during the Meiji Restoration and the Taisho and early Showa periods. As a pastiche of what 1930s Japanese enjoyed and how they thought of their ancestors (and social "superiors" and "inferiors", including women and the working classes) it's very interesting and can give some insight into the psychology that shaped the events to come.
I just wish it weren't so damn long.
Occasionally I lapse into profanity. If this offends you please do not read any further. This is a long review, so please avoid it if you dislike these, but I'm attempting to convey why I'm going against the grain here and rating what I suppose is an objectively important book so low.
Well, that was a slog.
I love historical fiction and I'm not shy of reading through books that could serve double duty as doorstops. I also grew up with Kurosawa's samurai epics and really enjoyed more modern entries into the same genre, like 13 Assassins. On paper, Musashi ticked all the boxes for me: a historical action novel about one of history's greatest swordsmen, set in feudal Japan, epic in scope and length, and written by a Japanese author who could hardly be accused of orientalist sensationalism? Sign me up!
In short, I was excited to read this book.
That excitement lasted all of, oh, maybe 200 pages before I realised, with a sinking feeling, that this book really wasn't for me. As a point of principle, I don't DNF books, so I persevered. Having struggled through all 970 pages of my edition of Musashi, including absolutely headbutting my way through the last 300 pages or so, I can't help but feel that my time would have been better spent elsewhere.
Some context before I get into the detail of the review. Musashi was published between 1935 and 1939, the early Showa Period in Japanese history. The context is important - this was a time of extreme militancy in Japanese society, with aggressive expansionism a near-constant, and even a bloody attempt at a military coup. Japan was at war with China while Musashi was being published, and two years later they would launch their attack on Pearl Harbor.
Over a period of four years, Musashi was serialised in Japan's most important newspaper. This format is almost certainly the source of many of the problems which, in my opinion, bedevil this work. I have tried to break down my issues with the novel thematically below - be advised, spoilers are present from here on out. Do not read further if you want to explore Musashi on your own.
Style: Musashi suffers from what I consider to be a very janky translation and would almost certainly benefit from an update. The translator intersperses modern colloquialisms, such as "okay", throughout the dialogue. Questionable word use abounds. Sentence structure is often poorly thought out, and the dialogue itself reads like early subtitles for Japanese films, and I don't mean that as a compliment; one senses a lot more nuance exists in the original. That being said, maybe the Japanese just talk like that (or Yoshikawa wrote them that way) and it just sounds jarring to me as a European.
Structure: Musashi is simultaneously too short and too long. I have read elsewhere that the 1000-page epic that exists in English is actually an abridged version of what was serialised in Japan's Asashi Shinbun, and that makes sense because entire narrative and character arcs occasionally fast-forward by a matter of years. Characters we have spent hundreds of pages with simply up and disappear; sometimes they appear again, and sometimes they don't. At one point about 800 pages in, Musashi is taken prisoner. The last time we see him he is being dragged away by the authorities, bound. He reappears some 40 pages later, apparently very little the worse for wear, and when Iori, his disciple at the time, asks him what happened he basically shrugs and says "don't worry about it, I'll tell you some other time." THIS IS THEN NEVER ADDRESSED AGAIN. What the Hell?
At the same time, entire Books (the novel is split into portions which loosely mirror Musashi's own philosophical text, The Book of Five Rings) are basically identical retreads of the previous ones, and serve to provide no narrative impetus, running along much the same lines: "Musashi is on the road, being harassed by his longtime persecutors who provide flank interference. He gets into some sort of argument, usually caused by a misunderstanding, with the head of a powerful Samurai house or swordfighting school. He fights them, and wins." A ruthlessly competent editor could probably trim the entire thing to a lean 300-odd pages and I suspect the novel would be much more enjoyable for it.
Character Arcs & Characterisation: Firstly, there are simply too many. I get that some of these are real historical figures which Japanese audiences probably got a kick out of seeing crop up, but many serve no narrative purpose beyond being glorified cameos; they appear and disappear at will, sometimes for hundreds of pages, occasionally turning up with something along the lines of "'tis I, so-and-so! Remember how we shared half a page together six hundred pages ago?". With ten pages to go to the end, new characters were STILL being introduced. This is simply not necessary.
Main characters will spend hundreds of pages - virtually the entire novel, in some cases - displaying not one iota of character development, only to have colossal, world-altering epiphanies and literally turn their entire life around over the course of half a page. This is not infrequent, and happens to at least 3 key characters. At other times, for no logical reason, characters will behave in a manner completely at odds with what we've learned about them and what they've done so far, only to then revert to type - or not, as the case may be. Again, one suspects there's a lot of cut content. Some specific issues with characters and their arcs below:
- Musashi: It's never made clear WHY Musashi is as good of a swordsman as he is, at least not in any satisfactory manner. His "training montage" consists of him being confined with books for several years in his teens, emerging from his enforced sabbatical a master swordsman. Then again, he was also pretty formidable before, based on the fights we see him engage in during the first part of the novel. There's some references to Zen and the meditative aspects of swordmanship, the implication being that Musashi had the raw potential and simply studied himself into excellence, but come on - when did he actually PRACTICE? At one point, Musashi's will-he-won't-he love interest and his disciple are kidnapped in suspicious circumstances, and he spends all of, oh, maybe five pages looking for them before effectively saying "well, that's that I guess", and going on with his life. This abandonment is never adequately explained or discussed by those characters when they do turn up later (no thanks to him).
- Matahachi: Musashi's childhood friend, a complete doormat of a character who is an utterly shiftless layabout for approximately 900 of the 970 pages, and who goes EXTREMELY close to sexually abusing Otsu, Musashi's "love interest" (on which more anon), who basically floats through the novel being variously useless, obnoxious, violent towards the weak, traitorous, drunken, and overall just pathetic. Yet in half a page in the final act of the book he suddenly decides he's going to be a good dad upon discovering he has a child with Akemi, the daughter of the older woman he shacked up with at the start of the novel. All well and good, but this is treated as some kind of redemption arc when we've seen Matahachi completely renounce all his grand prospects about a dozen times before (he literally gives up on his journey to become a priest in order to look after Akemi and his child) so one would be forgiven for suspecting he'll dump Akemi and become a pirate or some such after the novel's close.
- Sasaki Kojiro/Ganryu: The villain of the piece and after Musashi the only character I thought was worth spending any time with. Despite being an out-and-out self-aggrandising scumbag for the majority of the novel, he's apparently canonised when Musashi, at last, cracks his skull open on the last page-but-one (despite it being extremely obvious from page 50 or so that they'd eventually fight to the death). Through Musashi's POV, we're meant to somehow simpathise with Kojiro, a character who a few hundred pages before RAPED Akemi and spent a lot of the book terrorising her to get her back after she escaped. It might, theoretically, be possible to craft a redemption arc for a character who engaged in such a reprehensible act - maybe (if you were an exceptionally talented author). Personally, I think it places him beyond the pale, but in the final page, Yoshikawa basically tries to make us feel sorry for the prick. I say good riddance.
Jotaro/Iori: Musashi has two disciples in the novel, first Jotaro and then Iori. Both are children. He picks up Jotaro when he's quite young himself. I suppose the implication is that Musashi maturing over the course of the novel means he's actually a better teacher and therefore Iori is a better human than Jotaro but this is never really developed or even implied - one simply deduces it from the fact that Jotaro is an absolute shitstain while Iori is at least tolerable. Neither is particularly enjoyable to spend time with, but Jotaro is truly awful. At one point he beats a dog (belonging to a nobleman) to death because he provoked it and the dog lashed out. When the nobleman's retainers are about to punish him, Musashi prevents them from doing so, for no particularly good reason. He later savagely beats a servant who's just trying to do his job. Beyond physically growing up, he never displays any character development - he's basically the same obnoxious little asshole at the end of the book as he is at the start. Iori is a little better, if only because he's less bloodthirsty towards defenceless animals and social inferiors. Iori also actually gets TRAINED by Musashi, whereas Jotaro never receives a single physical lesson in swordsmanship and learned his trade, one presumes, by osmosis.
Otsu: I hate the word "simp" but if ever a character deserved to be tarred with this brush it's Otsu. She feverishly pines after Musashi (to the point of almost dying of it) for the entire length of the novel, despite him outright rejecting her, and abandoning her to some less-than-ideal fates, a number of times throughout the book. I mentioned before how Musashi let her get kidnapped (by Matahachi) and then gave up on looking for her after about an hour. Does she ever bring this egregious betrayal up? Does she bollocks. They eventually get "married" prior to Musashi's duel with Kojiro on page 965/970 or thereabouts, presumably because Musashi was so exhausted with her, but not as exhausted as I was. A complete mollusc of a character. Grow a spine, lady! Have you considered reading "He's Just Not That Into You"? The bloke clearly just wants to go around being a lone Ronin, just let him get on with his life and find some meaning in yours. The "happy resolution" is effectively an acknowledgement that Otsu has wasted a couple decades of her life waiting for Musashi to make up his bloody mind.
Osugi: Matahachi's mother and the only female character with anything resembling some sort of agency - but that agency is entirely wasted by having her be some sort of (I assume) semi-comedic antagonist to Musashi. I say semi-comedic because the idea of the best swordsman in the world being repeatedly threatened by a little old woman with a shortsword in a one-on-one duel seems farcical, yet it's ostensibly played straight - maybe I just don't get Japanese humour. Throughout the entire novel, she goes out of her way to variously attempt to murder (either herself or through proxies) incarcerate, slander, discredit and otherwise wreak serious harm upon Musashi, Otsu and any number of the main cast, purely because of a misunderstanding (she blames Musashi for her son's downfall) that could have been cleared up in about thirty minutes if they'd all just sat down and talked. I get that she's meant to be a cautionary tale about the perils of hate for hate's sake, but come on. The woman is also portrayed as old and ailing at the start of the novel yet she's somehow on the hunt for Musashi for DECADES and is still alive and kicking at the end. Like many other characters, she also does a complete 180 (with the aid of a religious/spiritual revelation) about 960 pages in, and becomes friendly and supportive of Musashi and Otsu despite years of hate and villainy. They also forgive her without question, despite the various attempts on their lives and untold suffering she's caused them.
Narrative Choices & Themes: Coincidence, possibly religious or spiritual in nature (all is pre-ordained, etc) carries way too much weight in the novel. Edo Period Japan had a population of between 20 and 30 million, yet the main cast of characters, often at a distance of years, keep running into each other by complete chance. It makes cities like Edo and Osaka, which in reality were teeming with millions of people, seem like small villages.
While the duels are probably the best part of the novel - one senses fights between men effectively armed with 3-foot razors and wearing no armour would have ended very quickly and messily within one or two fast cuts, with any wound being basically disabling, and this is well-conveyed - some things are treated in a manner so unrealistic they just pull you out of the narrative. The treatment of firearms is especially egregious; several times in the novel, Musashi and (if I remember right) Kojiro outright DODGE musket bullets. This is simply not how firearms, even early ones, work. It's not physically possible. Maybe it's poorly conveyed in translation.
Either Yoshikawa didn't know how to write children, or the child population of Edo (or early Showa) Japan was made up entirely of screeching, violent ferals. I'm not an advocate of corporal punishment in child-raising, but the portrayal of pretty much every kid in this book, especially Jotaro and early Iori, made my hands itch. Yet characters in general who'll happily murder an adult over some perceived slight are weirdly overindulgent with these mini-goblins, who spend most of their time insulting adults or causing physical harm via thrown blunt objects.
The characterisation of women is, I think, problematic. I get that the novel is a product of its time, and that it's extremely likely that in Edo Japan women were reduced to the role of glorified room decor, but in this case I'm disinclined to excuse it. Every female character in this novel is either a prostitute (with varying degrees of consent involved in that career choice) a simp, or an embittered old crone.
Anyone who isn't from the Samurai/aristocratic or (with some exceptions) successful mercantile classes is written as either a bigot, a harmless simpleton, or a vicious moron. Whenever anyone displays any form of artistic or philosophical bent, it's always remarked upon by another character with something along the lines of "ah but of course, he has Samurai blood".
I understand that the novel is an important cornerstone in Japanese literature. I also find it interesting that none of its apologists in the foreword and introduction think it worth mentioning how violent and imperialistic the Japanese zeitgeist was when it was receiving such resounding success as a newspaper serial.
Some grades and a summary, then. Forgive me for rambling as long as I have.
Structure: 1/5. Too much bloat, yet somehow entire crucial story and character beats are missed completely. From around page 600 or so - after the defeat of the Yoshioka school - until around page 900 in the build-up to the duel on Ganryu Island, it loses focus completely.
Character arcs & Characterisation: 2/5 Musashi (and to a lesser extent Kojiro) is the only character I had any interest in spending any time with, yet somehow it felt like we did so for only around half of the novel. Reading chapters from the POV of characters which were simultaneously boring AND utterly unlikeable (Matahachi, Jotaro, Otsu, Osugi) was a chore. Virtually all significant character developments either happened off-page, were treated as a fait accompli, or were wrapped up in half a page or so in the final chapter.
Narrative Choices & Themes: 1/5 A heavy reliance on coincidence and characters consistently picking the worst possible choice, coupled with the virtual recycling of entire books, made getting through this a chore. Add a dollop of unrealistic action and a healthy dose of misogyny and classism and it doesn't make for a very compelling recipe.
Cultural importance: 4/5. This is why I think reading Musashi wasn't entirely a wasted effort. What it DOES provide, in a fascinating way, is an insight into how a popular Japanese author in the 1930s viewed a famous historical figure from the 1600s and thus gives us a window into the collective Japanese psyche at the time. This was a time when the concept of Bushido was effectively being re-invented from scratch from the loose collection of ideas it was in feudal Japan to how it exists in the collective imagination today. In much the same way as Mussolini's Fascist regime remodernised and rewrote Imperial Rome to serve as the bedrock for their own ideals, Imperial Japan did the same during the Meiji Restoration and the Taisho and early Showa periods. As a pastiche of what 1930s Japanese enjoyed and how they thought of their ancestors (and social "superiors" and "inferiors", including women and the working classes) it's very interesting and can give some insight into the psychology that shaped the events to come.
I just wish it weren't so damn long.
August 18, 2019
Being an enormous fan of the manga Vagabond I decided to read Eiji Yoshikawa's version on Musashi, and I have to admit that story-wise the novel is way better than the manga. Of course, one can expect that when comparing a novel to a manga, but still, here the characters and story acquire so many different dimensions it's mind blowing. Adding to the fact that events aren't as exaggerated as in the manga (as the art usually does), this gives the story a much more real, much more serious vibe, actually transporting you in life threatening situations while enveloping you with Japanese culture, morals, and predicaments.
But enough with comparing the manga with the novel; each one is a masterpiece for its own reasons. Let's delve a little further into the book and why it's such a profound piece of art.
For those who aren't familiar with Edo period Japan and the path of the sword, as well as those who're only familiar with them through anime and manga, it'd be good to understand that, although things weren't as wild and inhumane as in medieval Japan. we're talking about an era and culture where the roles in society were still fixed and hopeless. There were lords, farmers, vendors, and samurai, each having their own advantages and disadvantages. A samurai for example was identified with his honor and he was free to exercise his right to kill whoever insulted him, however light this so-called insult might have been (you could sneeze at the wrong time and lose your head!).
Kiri-sute gomen[1] (斬捨御免 or 切捨御免, "authorization to cut and leave [the body of the victim]") is an old Japanese expression dating back to the feudal era right to strike (right of samurai to kill commoners for perceived affronts). Samurai had the right to strike with sword at anyone of a lower class who compromised their honour.
So in a world where Kiri-sute gomen existed and where Samurai ruled the common folk unless there was a lord around, where half the people carried a katana and were ready to use it, in a world where the hive mentally reigned supreme, there came Musashi: the epitome of reason and masculinity.
Nowadays we hear people talking about toxic masculinity. It's true that toxicity can affect every aspect of the human experience, even the most basic ones such as masculinity. But what's the opposite of toxic masculinity and does it exist?
Musashi proves it does. In a society where the strongest warriors are kings, Musashi--arguably the strongest samurai that has ever lived--walks through the world as a beggar. He doesn't take advantage of his skills to wine and whore, neither to make money and fame. Instead he's focused and pure. His sole goal is to walk the path of the sword with all his heart until the very end, to face the strongest and become the most powerful samurai in Japan, to beat the game and find out what's waiting for him on the other side.
Eiji Yoshikawa does an excellent job weaving concepts of Zen and Saki (blood-thirst) as well as the ups and downs of the human experience into masterfully crafted scenes filled with great dialogue and serious action. In doing so, he also shows us what the pure feminine feels and looks like and how overpowering it is in its subtleness and beauty: Otsū.
Otsu is the main female character and although she's all about Musashi and reuniting with him, she's very farm from being a bore. Whenever a scene is dedicated to her she lights the whole novel up. She's something inexplicable. In a culture where unprotected women are used, raped and killed, she strives by just being herself. A woman all heart and tenderness that gives life even to the dying master Yagyu Sekishusai.
Odyssey, one of the greatest epic poems of ancient Greece tells the story of Odysseus and his crew, as for more than ten years pass through all kinds of mysterious and mythical hardships, losing their minds, losing their friends, losing all hope, trying to get back to Ithaca, Penelope waiting for the only man she's ever loved as she fights all sorts of lecherous men off her. We've all heard the story.
In Musashis we have something similar but quite reverse. Here Odysseus leaves his Ithaca on his own free will. He delves head-on into the hardest of hardships a samurai can face: famine, poverty, insulting the honor of the most famous samurai clan in Japan. Even living in heaven there's no heaven unless you've faced hell, so our hero does exactly that. Meanwhile, his Penelope is not waiting but looking for him because there's neither an island nor a kingdom for them to return to. They only have each other. But unless the path of the sword is genuinely walked to its very end, they will both keep on walking through hell, searching and avoiding each other until hell falls apart.
This is a story of Yin and Yang, of love and blood, of people on a path among people with plans, of the pure trying to find itself through the impure, of zen and now. In my humble opinion this is the most spiritual and humane novel one can read while enjoying some good action. In other words, a true masterpiece.
If you like listening to audiobooks then it's good to know that Brian Nishii (Narrator) has done an astonishing job in this one as well. Personally I can't imagine a better audio book version than this one, as the narrator has a great gamut of emotional expressions and is both fluent in Japanese and Chinese, perfect for the story. For people like me who're very picky when choosing an audio version of a book, it's truly a great privilege to have works like that at my disposal. Excellent.
Finally, to those that complained that the main characters kept bumping on each other in every city they happened to arrive, you have to understand that: a) the story is taking place throughout many years, b) there weren't that many people around four hundred years ago, c) not many people dared to roam about when the world was filled with blood and steel, so if you Did dare to travel around, you belonged to the minority and minorities Do tend to stumble upon themselves.
“In battle, if you you make your opponent flinch, you have already won.”
― Miyamoto Musashi
But enough with comparing the manga with the novel; each one is a masterpiece for its own reasons. Let's delve a little further into the book and why it's such a profound piece of art.
For those who aren't familiar with Edo period Japan and the path of the sword, as well as those who're only familiar with them through anime and manga, it'd be good to understand that, although things weren't as wild and inhumane as in medieval Japan. we're talking about an era and culture where the roles in society were still fixed and hopeless. There were lords, farmers, vendors, and samurai, each having their own advantages and disadvantages. A samurai for example was identified with his honor and he was free to exercise his right to kill whoever insulted him, however light this so-called insult might have been (you could sneeze at the wrong time and lose your head!).
Kiri-sute gomen[1] (斬捨御免 or 切捨御免, "authorization to cut and leave [the body of the victim]") is an old Japanese expression dating back to the feudal era right to strike (right of samurai to kill commoners for perceived affronts). Samurai had the right to strike with sword at anyone of a lower class who compromised their honour.
So in a world where Kiri-sute gomen existed and where Samurai ruled the common folk unless there was a lord around, where half the people carried a katana and were ready to use it, in a world where the hive mentally reigned supreme, there came Musashi: the epitome of reason and masculinity.
Nowadays we hear people talking about toxic masculinity. It's true that toxicity can affect every aspect of the human experience, even the most basic ones such as masculinity. But what's the opposite of toxic masculinity and does it exist?
Musashi proves it does. In a society where the strongest warriors are kings, Musashi--arguably the strongest samurai that has ever lived--walks through the world as a beggar. He doesn't take advantage of his skills to wine and whore, neither to make money and fame. Instead he's focused and pure. His sole goal is to walk the path of the sword with all his heart until the very end, to face the strongest and become the most powerful samurai in Japan, to beat the game and find out what's waiting for him on the other side.
Eiji Yoshikawa does an excellent job weaving concepts of Zen and Saki (blood-thirst) as well as the ups and downs of the human experience into masterfully crafted scenes filled with great dialogue and serious action. In doing so, he also shows us what the pure feminine feels and looks like and how overpowering it is in its subtleness and beauty: Otsū.
Otsu is the main female character and although she's all about Musashi and reuniting with him, she's very farm from being a bore. Whenever a scene is dedicated to her she lights the whole novel up. She's something inexplicable. In a culture where unprotected women are used, raped and killed, she strives by just being herself. A woman all heart and tenderness that gives life even to the dying master Yagyu Sekishusai.
Odyssey, one of the greatest epic poems of ancient Greece tells the story of Odysseus and his crew, as for more than ten years pass through all kinds of mysterious and mythical hardships, losing their minds, losing their friends, losing all hope, trying to get back to Ithaca, Penelope waiting for the only man she's ever loved as she fights all sorts of lecherous men off her. We've all heard the story.
In Musashis we have something similar but quite reverse. Here Odysseus leaves his Ithaca on his own free will. He delves head-on into the hardest of hardships a samurai can face: famine, poverty, insulting the honor of the most famous samurai clan in Japan. Even living in heaven there's no heaven unless you've faced hell, so our hero does exactly that. Meanwhile, his Penelope is not waiting but looking for him because there's neither an island nor a kingdom for them to return to. They only have each other. But unless the path of the sword is genuinely walked to its very end, they will both keep on walking through hell, searching and avoiding each other until hell falls apart.
This is a story of Yin and Yang, of love and blood, of people on a path among people with plans, of the pure trying to find itself through the impure, of zen and now. In my humble opinion this is the most spiritual and humane novel one can read while enjoying some good action. In other words, a true masterpiece.
If you like listening to audiobooks then it's good to know that Brian Nishii (Narrator) has done an astonishing job in this one as well. Personally I can't imagine a better audio book version than this one, as the narrator has a great gamut of emotional expressions and is both fluent in Japanese and Chinese, perfect for the story. For people like me who're very picky when choosing an audio version of a book, it's truly a great privilege to have works like that at my disposal. Excellent.
Finally, to those that complained that the main characters kept bumping on each other in every city they happened to arrive, you have to understand that: a) the story is taking place throughout many years, b) there weren't that many people around four hundred years ago, c) not many people dared to roam about when the world was filled with blood and steel, so if you Did dare to travel around, you belonged to the minority and minorities Do tend to stumble upon themselves.
“In battle, if you you make your opponent flinch, you have already won.”
― Miyamoto Musashi
December 27, 2024
Very big book on this semi-legendary warrior figure. Nice interesting read. Recommended
January 19, 2016
As a fan of epic fantasy, I was surprised by how much this was right in my wheelhouse, and I think this should be better-known among SF fans. It's a classic bildungsroman with epic battles, tragic romances, fun if somewhat archetypal characters, and a tremendous amount of cultural flavor and historical information.
It was published serially, and as a result is extremely episodic, which isn't a flaw precisely, although it does slow down the pacing and make it a trifle choppy. It's also got a bit of a problem *ending* things - villains in the first chapter persist through the entire 1000 pages, even though they suffer multiple defeats. (Which is not atypical of epic fantasy - witness Robert Jordan's Incredible Resurrectable Villains, an equally annoying example of the form.)
But for its flaws, I found it thoroughly entertaining and totally readable, and would recommend it to anyone who doesn't have an allergy to doorstops.
It was published serially, and as a result is extremely episodic, which isn't a flaw precisely, although it does slow down the pacing and make it a trifle choppy. It's also got a bit of a problem *ending* things - villains in the first chapter persist through the entire 1000 pages, even though they suffer multiple defeats. (Which is not atypical of epic fantasy - witness Robert Jordan's Incredible Resurrectable Villains, an equally annoying example of the form.)
But for its flaws, I found it thoroughly entertaining and totally readable, and would recommend it to anyone who doesn't have an allergy to doorstops.
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