Heihô sanjûgo kajô: musashi's other book....?

[Zaphiel]

hi guys
...i'm not sure...but perhaps this thread belongs into the history section...if it does :sorry!!

i've read of a book called Heihô sanjûgo kajô (35 articles to the matirial-art of swords) written by miyamoto musashi 1641 as a kind of book to be read before you read the book of the five rings.
and because i've some problems with understanding what musashi wants to tell in his book of the five rings i wondered if anybody can tell me what the contents of this book(i mean the heihô) is and where one can buy it!
thanks<rei>
felix

[Twobitmage]

if i'm thinking of the right thing, you're thinking of a list of "rules" that musashi wrote to beginning swordsman. will they make you fight better? mebbe not. will they make you a better person? possibly.

Heres a copy of it

I never act contrary to traditional morality

I have no partiality for anyone or anything

I never try to snatch a moment of ease

I think little of myself but much of the public

I am entirely free of acquisitiveness throughout my life

I never regret what I have done

I never envy others for their good luck, or on account of my ill luck

I never grieve at parting from anyone or anything at whatever time

I never reproach either myself or others;never complain about myself or others

I never dream of falling in love

Likes and dislikes, I have none

Whatever my dewlling house may be, I take no objection to it

I never desire dainty food for myself

I never have antique objects or curios in my posession

I never perform purification or observe abstinence to protect myself against evils

I have no taste for implements of any kind, excepting swords and other arms

I would never grudge my life in the cause of righteousness

I never wish to hae any estate that would make my old age comfortable

I worship gods and buddhas but never think of depending on them

I would sooner lay down my life than disgrace my good name

Never for a moment does my heart and soul stray from the way of swordsmanship

[Hyaku]

You will have difficulty because its application is towards Musashi's philosophy and practice for his students, although it is possible to take small parts and apply them to Kendo. Musashi tells us to learn the weapons and put them down rather than pick them up and learn from them.

If you look at number six and expound on it....

Waga koto ni oite, kokai wo sezu

Never have regrets about oneself: This means you are the one that has to come to terms with yourself. Your confession in life is to yourself. There should be no regret in human lives.

So is there a way of being able to not regret anything? It would be impossible to say that one cannot have any regret at all. But there is a way towards this. This is when one can reform oneself and go out into this exceedingly big world. To get the know that world without any regrets.

Musashi writes, In order to express this Gorin no Sho is based on, "The way to heaven and Kannon as a mirror". This is what you in your mind when you make a confession to yourself.

So what is meant by "As a mirror?" Zendo Daishi (613 - 681 CE, one of the Seven Patriarchs of Jodo-Shinshu) wrote, "A lesson is like a mirror". This means not seeing an image of yourself on that mirror.

It means the time realize that mirror and the lessons are becoming one thing. So it was said that Musashi had a life between the way to Kannon1 and heaven, then become one by the principle of, "Build yourself up and wake up to the realities of life.

In Buddhism the "Realization of yourself" is called the root of making a confession. Making a confession would seem to have a meaning similar to, "To think over what we have done, to have regret and be ashamed of yourself". But actually they are different. "Thinking over" means you look back on what you have done and to promise to yourself that it will never happen again.

Regret means that you reprehend yourself for what you have done.........
© Hyakutake-Watkin 2004 All right reserved.
.........

This continues into a number of pages. Its comes from Buddhist quotations with deep meaning and is far from just a list of do's and donts.

Just a small free preview. Sorry you will have to wait for the rest until its finished and published.

[Twobitmage]

ahh very neat. Writing a book I see.

I would be very happy if I get a free copy of that book. Especially since you're so handsome and smart and good at kendo

[Zaphiel]

well guys thanks...but what you (twobitmage) wrote are the 21 rules to selfdisiplin....musashi wrote them just before he died and that was in 1645...what i'm looking for is a book he wrote 4 years before in1641 for his later and only lord tadatoshi

[Hyaku]

No copies of that are available. But Dokkodo is a summary of this and Gorin no Sho.

[Zaphiel]

No copies of that are available. But Dokkodo is a summary of this and Gorin no Sho.

Dokkodo?...a book i suppose?...where is that availabel?...internet...bookshop..?

[Hyaku]

No copies of that are available. But Dokkodo is a summary of this and Gorin no Sho.

You just got a preview!

[shotoblogger]

No copies of that are available. But Dokkodo is a summary of this and Gorin no Sho.

Hyaku,
Does that mean no copies are available or no English copies are available? If the former, does it mean there is no copy extant or non have been reproduced?

[Zaphiel]

I wanna have this book......

[Musha]

That extract is quite interesting Hyaku, I was thinking very recently and after watching the 1955 version of the book written about Musashi's life.

Japanese can not really be translated because it is not a European language. Some words mean many things and might not be at all what you think they might mean by the translation.
In a martial arts context words mean more, when you understand and have practised what is being said. Buddhism also plays a great part in Japanese martial arts and there are many similarities.
More over Musashi's book was written in the 1600s and the wording, spelling and characters would have been very different.

The 'Gorin no sho' isn't even an actual book, it is a series of scrolls.
The words will not make sense to you without life experience that you have no possibility of gaining being illegal to kill a person even with there consent. And I do not think people would be eager to rise from being a criminal? living in the woods with no money to a rich person with a high degree of respect.

[Musha]

Musashi him self would have gained his knowledge from life experience and wanted to transmit it to his followers as his legacy. This is done because traditional martial arts and ways were passed down directly from master to pupil. This is unlike how modern kendo is performed by millions of people who each take a different master from the many dojyos in each country so the teachings get extreemly vague indeed.

Even through Musashi him self's teachings, it would not be understood by the pupil untill he had practiced and as Musashi says in his book does not stray from the true path.

So this is why the 'Gorin no sho' and Musashi's teachings any other matial art and thinking can not be easily learned from a book.

[Hyaku]

That extract is quite interesting Hyaku, I was thinking very recently and after watching the 1955 version of the book written about Musashi's life.

Japanese can not really be translated because it is not a European language. Some words mean many things and might not be at all what you think they might mean by the translation. In a martial arts context words mean more, when you understand and have practised what is being said. Buddhism also plays a great part in Japanese martial arts and there are many similarities. More over Musashi's book was written in the 1600s and the wording, spelling and characters would have been very different.

Sorry I did not realize you were such an expert on Japanese.

Believe it or not there are scholars that are able to do an accurate transition of classical Japanese into modern usage. If this was not the case the majority of Japanese history and culture would be unknown to us. Every schoolchild studies Japanese in modern and classical form to examine the roots of the language.

In turn it is possible to rewrite it in other languages otherwise we should perhaps tell people like William Scott -Wilson to give up as nobody believes what he writes and tell other scholars of Asian studies that they are wasting their time.

Also the study of Buddhism helps to understand the deep meaning what Musashi wrote as a summation of his life. A lot of what he wrote is more the coincidental considering the views of his friend the priest Takuan and of Shingon Buddhism. There are also many similarities to Zen and studies of the Gateless Gate a collection of Chinese Koans.

The 'Gorin no sho' isn't even an actual book, it is a series of scrolls. The words will not make sense to you without life experience that you have no possibility of gaining being illegal to kill a person even with there consent. And I do not think people would be eager to rise from being a criminal? living in the woods with no money to a rich person with a high degree of respect.

Sorry you have lost me with the last bit of that. Musashi never had a mind for asking for more in his own house. "Whenever, wherever you sleep or wake, although you stay somewhere, there are always the flowers, always the moon, always as it is, at this moment in time.

I was trying to help by posting a little from my as yet unpublished works of a translation of Dokkodo, its meaning and a detailed manual of the Ito and Nito Seiho of the ryu. In fact I was thinking of putting the whole lot online for free.

In view of the apathy shown I might as well just delete it all.

[Musha]

Sorry I hert your feelings Hayaku . I was trying to express my opinion on things but I see this forum is still a 'Don't disagree unless others feel the same way forum' so ...

What is your opinion on every day people reading the 'Gorin no sho' Hyaku? Do you think some one who has never or is just starting to learn a martial art such as Jyudo would find it useful? Or some one who has no knowledge of martial arts such as a business man or woman as some copies of the book say it might be useful for.

[Future Head]

Believe it or not there are scholars that are able to do an accurate transition of classical Japanese into modern usage. If this was not the case the majority of Japanese history and culture would be unknown to us. Every schoolchild studies Japanese in modern and classical form to examine the roots of the language.

It's very hard to get a full translation from one language to another, even if you can translate most of it. I think the point had more to do with the meaning of specific words -- for example, there's no word in English that fully mirrors the meaning of zanshin. You even see this happen when translating between latin-based languages. The closest French equivalent of "duty," devoir, doesn't carry the full philosophical weight of meaning. Sometimes a phrase or sentencemust be used in one language where a single word suffices in another.