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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.860952
EAN num: 9780879512569
ISBN number: 0879512563
Label: Overlook TP
Manufacturer: Overlook TP
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 144
Printing Date: June 06, 1988
Publishing house: Overlook TP
Sale Popularity Level: 361582
Studio: Overlook TP
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
The Sword and the Mind is the merging of the ideas and experiences of Hidetsuna, Muneyoshi, and Munenori, three swordsmen in 16th- and 17th-century Japan. An exquisite guide to Japanese swordsmanship and strategy, this brand new translation offers martial artists and anyone looking to apply tactical wisdom to their lives an insightful look into the fundamentals of strategy. This translation from the ancient Japanese by William Ridgeway, a lifelong student of the way of the samurai, is a fresh and never-more-relevant addition to the library of every admirer of strategic philosophy.
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Rated by buyers -
It's a set of brief 16-17th century works, transmitted within the family, from Kamiizumi Hidetsuna, to his son Yagyu Muneyoshi, and to his son Yagyu Munenori. This period led up to the start of the Tokugawa shogun era, a turning point in Japanese history. It is interesting to see how the authors turned with their times.
Volume one is very pragmatic. It lists sword-fighting postures and counters. I am no swordsman, but I have to distrust any fixed set of responses to inherently fluid situations. The main value in this section comes from the classical illustrations paired with the text. I enjoyed them immensely in themselves and in their support of the translation, despite the indifferent-or-worse quality of rendering.
Volume two, "The Death-Dealing Blade" starts a much more literate phase of the cycle. It opens with an allusion to Laozi, and the subtitle "Weapons are unfortunate instruments." Pacifist though I am, I acknowledge valid (and unfortunate) purpose for those instruments, and valid (though unfortunate) reason for people to become expert in their use. This is another tactical approach to swordsmanship, but a little less dedicated to rote learning than v.1. Instead, it starts by encouraging Zen, the Tao, and the Confucian classics. Then it goes back to the tactics of swordfighting. As always, the swordsman himself is very first among his tools, and emphasis is on honing that tool.
Volume three, "The Life-Giving Sword," attempts to reconcile the violence of bushido with the quiet of zen. This is far more philosophical than the preceding volumes. It is also firmly grounded in the bloody pragmatics of its time: the sword cuts one person in order that others may live. It opposes moral relativism directly, in its appeal to some clear standard of need, but also demands fast and final judgement by the man on the spot. I can not put words to it, but I see a resolution of the personal and the universal there, in a way that I want to learn.
There's more here, too, in the translator's introduction and in other minor works in the collection. This won't be the centerpiece of any library, but it's worthwhile to any student of the bushido or of classical Japanese culture.
//wiredweird
Rated by buyers -
Although as another reviewer notes there are some problems with this translation, Muenori's book is a superb work of strategy that belongs right subsequent to Musashi Miyamoto's Go Rin No Sho (book of five spheres) and Yamamoto Kansuke's Heiho Okugisho. Where there were illustrations in the original Heiho Kadensho (Family transmission scroll), they are here reproduced for the reader's benefit.
The Sword and The Mind illuminates not only a philosophy for fighting and survival, but a way of being and considering life. Truely a work of Genius! This translation is generally straight forward and easy to understand, and includes a bibliography as well as a glossary of terms. Unfortunately, there are not a number of translations of this work to choose from and compare yet. A decent work worthy of consideration.
Rated by buyers 
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Everyone oohs and ahs over Musashi's book these days. The funny thing is that in Musashi's own time, and later in the Edo period, the book that was considered to be the best was "The Sword and the Mind", not "The Book of Five Rings". In Fact, the fighting style of "The Sword and the Mind" became and remained the official style of the Shogunate! Why there is so little interest in this most important of Japanese combat books I cannot understand. In fact, this book even has woodcut pictures demonstrating the techniques! If you want proof as to the skill of the authors, let it be known that one of them had the habit of defeating swordsmen using only his bare hands! Another one of the authors fought seven men at once and beat them all; Musashi only fought individual one-on-one duels. The guys who wrote this book had a system which worked, and which they could teach to others. Victory is achieved through science. One especially nice thing about this book is that you can, based on the pictures, immediately practice the techniques, even if you will do so rather informally. Another great thing is that it is written in a very polished style typical of the ruling class, and it gives the reader a window into the lives and thoughts of upper-ranking samurai. The book was written over time by the three successive masters of the school. This book and no other is the definitive combat manual of the samurai: this is the one you have to read if you are interested in Japanese Martial Arts and the Samurai.
Rated by buyers 
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This is a very straight translation written by someone who does not know the subject well. His secondary sources, Imamura Yoshio and Watanabe Ichiro, were also known as academics who didn't concern themselves with how well their academic extrapolations matched up with the living tradition of their subject. In short, Mr. Sato has translated words here, but doesn't really know what the words mean.
Here is a concrete example of exactly why this is dangerous. Mr.Sato translates thus: "There may be a hundred combat postures, but there is only one purpose: to win. Ultimately, all this depends on 'shujishuriken'. You may teach or learn the use of the sword in a hundred ways, in a thousand ways, and you may be able to handle the whole array of combat postures and sword positions. But 'shujishuriken' is central"
He then passes on some archaic details (from academic sources) relating to "shujishuriken", even discussing - for Pete's sake - ninjas, but displays no understanding of the term himself.
Despite the fact that the text clearly states that the mastery of the myriad of forms is meaningless if you don't understand the essence of "shujishuriken", Mr.Sato doesn't seem to twig on idea that translating the words of a book without understanding "what it's really about" is an academic exercise of little importance.
Since clear explanations of much of the terminology ARE available, for instance in the book "Yagyu Shinkage Ryu Dogen" by the 21st headmaster of the school, Yagyu Nobuharu, I would not recommend Mr.Sato's work, as he seems comfortable with simply massaging the words.
Rated by buyers -
I have been practicing Yagyu Shinkage ryu in Japan for the last 5 years. In fact, I just finished a 3 day intensive practice in the village of Yagyu near Nara in Japan. We visited the graves of the Yagyu family and stayed in the dojo where they practiced and taught. My dojo is in direct lineage to the founders of this ryu. Finding old scrolls translated so well into English is extremely difficult. This book is absolutely incredible! I have searched years for this. (Translating it myself would have taken much longer!)
I would recommend this book to anyone with a good amount of experience in Japanese sword fighting techiques, but even so, without the verbal lessons that have been handed down to accompany the text, and without seeing it in action, you would find this book too difficult to understand.
Beginners would find the discriptions of the kata hard to follow, but would be able to get the essence of the spirit or the mindset of the practicioner. There is also the history of the ryu and it's lineage that is very informative.
Well written and translated by someone with an understanding of the subject, historically accurate, this book is tops!
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