The Complete Musashi: The Book of Five Rings and Other Works

Definitive New Translations of the Writings of Miyamoto Musashi - Japan's Greatest Samurai

By: Miyamoto Musashi, Alexander Bennett - translator, Graham Sayer - foreword

Narrated by: Richard Trapp

The culmination of 25 years of research, Alex Bennett's groundbreaking English translation of Miyamoto Musashi's The Book of Five Rings reveals the true meaning of the original work.

This piece of writing by famed samurai Musashi (1584–1645) is the single-most influential work on samurai swordsmanship, offering insights into samurai history, the Zen Buddhist state of "no-mind" that enables warriors to triumph and the philosophical meaning of Bushido — "the way of the warrior."

Until now, English translations of The Book of Five Rings have been based on inaccurate copies of Musashi's long-lost original manuscript. Bennett's translation is the first to be based on a careful reconstruction of the original text by Japan's foremost Musashi scholar. By identifying discrepancies among the existing copies, adding missing texts and correcting over 150 incorrect characters, this source is the closest representation of Musashi's original work possible. Utilizing this new source, Bennett captures the subtle nuance of the classic Japanese text, resulting in the most accurate English translation of The Book of Five Rings available.

The texts are richly annotated by Bennett, who includes an extensive introduction on Musashi's life and legacy.

The Complete Musashi: The Book of Five Rings and Other Works will be widely heard by those interested in Japanese culture, Samurai history, and martial arts — setting a new standard against which all other translations will be measured.

©2018 Tuttle Publishing (P)2021 Tuttle Publishing

Master piece

I learned so much more! I like how in depth it was. Really great to listen to for confidence

Very thought provoking.

Great narration. Easy to listen too and very thought provoking. Definitely a reread from here on out

Fantastic!!!!

This is by far my favorite translation. The narration is sick as well. Two thumbs up, Chuck Norris would definitely approve.Great job team.

A Masterpiece

This collection is essential to anyone who is studying the martial arts or military strategy, Musashi is flawless with his descriptions and imagery.

The narrator should do sepukku

It is a tragedy that the ultimate translation made by the very best translator possible for this work has such an incapable narrator with an unforgivable gringo accent. Unbearable… Heiho read as “haihoe”, Ryu as “raiyu”, Yoshioka as “yashiouka”, and so on. Getting my money back. So sad.