The Real Musashi II: The Bukoden (The Real Musashi: Origins of a Legend Book 2)
Book Details
Author(s)Toyoda Masanaga
PublisherFloating World Editions
ISBN / ASINB009N1XMSE
ISBN-13978B009N1XMS2
Sales Rank1,097,587
MarketplaceUnited States 🇺🇸
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 Bukoden 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.
The Bukoden 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.
The Bukoden throws a new and refreshing light on many aspects of especially 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.
As Mr. De Lange's earlier translation of the Bushu denraiki, this not another retelling or reinterpretation of the great swordsman's life, but a richly annotated rendition of an early and important text, available for the first time in English.
As Mr. De Lange's earlier translation of the Bushu denraiki, this not another retelling or reinterpretation of the great swordsman's life, but a richly annotated rendition of an early and important text, available for the first time in English.
