“The true science of martial arts means practicing them in such a way that they will be useful at any time, and to teach them in such a way that they will be useful in all things.” — Miyamoto Musashi
This is the Way.
The discovery of Musashi was a pivotal moment for me. The above quote sums up why. When first reading the Book of Five Rings I had already passed multiple qualifiers for service and participated in multiple formal trainings in pistol, rifle, shotgun. Technically I was very good. All this martial knowledge was separated from my daily life so it meant for little in most things. The Book of Five Rings brings it together.
This is a book to read when you have some significant martial arts knowledge already. The more you know the more you’ll get from it. Likely one should revisit it time to time. You need to take your particular art, in my case gunfighting, and translate it from feudal age kendo - Musashi’s unorthodox Two Heavens style in particular. Unlike Art of War, Five Rings is focused on the individual and day to day operation rather than grand strategic axioms and paradigms related to command of armies. In many ways the two books are complimentary and do overlap in nice ways. To the point that either Musashi and Sun Tzu came to the same conclusions as those are Natural Laws of combat, or Musashi read and understood the Art of War himself.
A profound lesson from Musashi was that the technically proficient warrior is not the best. The unorthodox, clever, thinking, independent warrior can be, and nobody is invincible. Musashi spent his life cutting down technically proficient warriors, nearly all of them bound by culture and rules. To the point Musashi’s opponents often became mindlessly offended when Musashi tactically violated those rules. Many adhered strictly to certain schools of combat. Musashi would use those rules to predict his opponent and prepare a counter that his opponent would have trouble defeating. Those rules and structures were weaknesses to exploit. Strategy trumps Tactics trumps Skill.
Book of Five Rings is not one that you can read casually. It is wise to stop and think for a moment about what Musashi just said and how it applies to you and the modern day each time he says “You should investigate this thoroughly” which is often, sometimes it seems like every paragraph. This annoys many people. Take it as a hint from Musashi you need to stop reading and ponder for a moment at the very least.
Some translations are better than others. It is necessary to translate ancient Japanese to modern Japanese to modern English. This is a lossy translation requiring a translator that understands the meaning of the words and phrases then re-writes them to put the correct information in your mind. Unfortunately the open source public domain translations are not very good. I find the William Scott Wilson translation as very good and is the one I reference
It is necessary to read the Book of Five Rings with an understanding of Japanese culture and mentality. If you read it from a Western stand point you will miss a lot. From a Western view Musashi is a dishonorable thug. In ways he is. He’s also operating under a cultural structure where the only way to gain recognition as the strongest is to defeat those perceived as strong in actual combat. Defense of country was not a concern, only personal glory and that of your faction/shogun. The Japanese were concerned with warfare against each other not with foreigners. In ways the elite in Japan were Samurai, Shogun, and Ronin and they went around canceling each other permanently. Understand when the Book of Five Rings was authored first contact with the Portuguese happened a century prior and the West recently expelled from Japan. To him our ideas are utterly foreign. I think this is what John Lovell misses in his video on Musashi.
However, the Podcast with Tim Ferris where he goes over the legend of Myamoto Musashi is very good