Can anybody dispute that Miyamoto Musashi’s seminal work, combined with Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War,” will pretty much give you all the tools necessary to order your life for complete success and personal satisfaction? Not me. I happen to have a writing assignment currently for a series of articles on martial arts weapons of Japan and Okinawa, so I went back through my book collections and re-read Musashi’s work, along with Sun Tzu’s fascinating treatise. Being a martial artist myself, and competent in several of the weapons of *Kobudo *(“old martial arts way”), plus a lifelong admirer and collector of several *daisho *(the long and short sword set making up the samurai’s two most well-known weapons in the West), I’ve come to appreciate more and more with each passing year of my life how really in tune with human nature these two gentlemen were.
Years ago, I really enjoyed the translation of Art of War that was edited by James Clavell, which included brief descriptions of battles from Japanese history to illustrate many of Sun Tzu’s points. Wish I still had that book.
“He who attacks flashes from the topmost heights of heaven. He who defends digs down into the deepest recesses of the Earth.”
This phrase often occurs to me when I’m running or biking, whether I’m trying to remind myself to pick up the intensity for an interval, or tone it down for a long ride/run.
(Might have misquoted it. That’s my attempt at it from memory, eighteen years or so after reading it.)
That was a very good quotation. Both Go Rin No Sho and Art of War were required reading for military officers back when I wore the uniform. But they’re more than just strategy and tactics for making war. That’s what makes them so memorable.
