The Real Musashi: The Bukoden (Origins of a Legend II)
Book Details
PublisherFloating World Editions
ISBN / ASIN1891640607
ISBN-139781891640605
MarketplaceFrance 🇫🇷
Description
Miyamoto Musashi (c. 1584-1645) is the most revered and celebrated swordsman in Japanese history; unfortunately, our modern portrait of this folk hero is derived mainly from popular books, comics, and film, with little heed paid to the early denki, chronicles that faithfully recorded what was passed down by those who knew Musashi.
The Bukôden is one of the earliest such records still in existence. It was completed in 1755 by Toyoda Masanaga, senior retainer to the Nagaoka, a clan closely involved in the events of Musashi's later life. Masanaga's work ranks with the Bushû denraiki as the most reliable records of Musashi's life and exploits outside those from the hand of the master swordsman himself. Now, for the first time in two-and-a-half centuries, Masanaga's insight into this enigmatic and solitary swordsman is available to the English reader.
Like the Bushû denraiki the Bukoden gives its own riveting account of Musashi's encounter with Sasaki Kojiro on Ganryu island, as well as his famed duels with the members of the Yoshioka clan. At the same time it throws a new and refreshing light on many aspects of Musashi's later life--his adoption of Iori, his return to Kyushu in 1634, and of course the gestation of his great work on the philosophy and art of Japanese swordsmanship, the Book of Five Rings. For those interested in the sword culture of Japan, this true story of its most iconic figure is essential reading.
The Bukôden is one of the earliest such records still in existence. It was completed in 1755 by Toyoda Masanaga, senior retainer to the Nagaoka, a clan closely involved in the events of Musashi's later life. Masanaga's work ranks with the Bushû denraiki as the most reliable records of Musashi's life and exploits outside those from the hand of the master swordsman himself. Now, for the first time in two-and-a-half centuries, Masanaga's insight into this enigmatic and solitary swordsman is available to the English reader.
Like the Bushû denraiki the Bukoden gives its own riveting account of Musashi's encounter with Sasaki Kojiro on Ganryu island, as well as his famed duels with the members of the Yoshioka clan. At the same time it throws a new and refreshing light on many aspects of Musashi's later life--his adoption of Iori, his return to Kyushu in 1634, and of course the gestation of his great work on the philosophy and art of Japanese swordsmanship, the Book of Five Rings. For those interested in the sword culture of Japan, this true story of its most iconic figure is essential reading.
