Musashi and The Way of the Sword (pt.1)

“The summit is believed to be the object of the climb. But its true object—the joy of living—is not in the peak itself, but in the adversities encountered on the way up."
-Eiji Yoshikawa

By Greyson Gilbert

I was on a road trip last winter and was looking for a podcast to listen to. The usual suspects came to mind: The Joe Rogan Experience, Meateater with Steven Rinella, and the Jocko podcast. Jocko #100 caught my eye because it had a guest who is one of my favorite speakers to listen to as well, Tim Ferris. Anything with Jocko and/or Tim Ferris is worth listening to, much less the both of them together, so I hit play. I hadn't read the description of the podcast, but they opened up by saying that this was going to be about a book, as Jocko routinely covers in his shows.

This book was called Musashi, a 1000 page Japanese epic written by Eiji Yoshikawa and translated to English. Miyamoto Musashi was a Japanese swordsman of the early 1600's, and the novel is a dramatic but historically accurate account of his journey to become one of the greatest swordsman Japan has ever known.

 Fighting? Samurai? Immediately I was hooked. And then Jocko read the first couple of pages. It began something like this: "Takezo (who is now called Musashi) lay among the corpses. There were thousands of them. 'The whole world's gone crazy,' He thought dimly. 'A man might as well be a dead leaf, floating in the autumn breeze.'..." The first section goes on to describe how the crazy 17-year old son of a samurai fought at the battle of Sekigahara in the year 1600, and his side had lost. He barely survived the fight...

After the first couple of pages, I knew this was no average book. Then, Jocko said something that grabbed my attention. Essentially, he said, "hey if you keep listening there are spoilers. Or, you can turn off this podcast right now, go buy this book, and read it for yourself."

It was hard to commit to something like reading a book that long, or turning off such an epic podcast only 15 minutes in, but something was drawing me to the journey that I soon discovered this novel would take me on.

And don't get me wrong, I love good books but I'm not as big a reader as I wish I was or need to be.  The prospect of a 970 page was frightening, but it was also a challenge that I wanted to accept, much like the way Musashi took on his journey to master the Way of the Sword. So I bought it, and began reading.

Fast forward a few months, and it was well worth the journey. Normally book reviews would go under the "Books" page on our site, but I think the magnitude of this story calls for a larger canvas on which to paint a picture that cannot even begin to scratch the surface of the depth of this book. So now, I issue you the same challenge that I was issued months ago: go buy this book and read it for yourself, or keep on reading right here.

 The Way of the Sword represents a higher calling, a calling that we are called to pursue in our own lives today. It is choosing the hard path, the path of discipline, hardship, and the path of honor. The book will challenge you in more ways than you thought possible, and I can't recommend it enough. That being said, you can definitely still read this article and then go read the book (I'll avoid major spoilers for you).

Purchase Here.

I can't add on much to the lessons in this book, but below I have included some of my favorite quotes, story summaries, and lessons. To get the full experience, I'm telling you again, go read this book. If your not in a place to take it on,  then I hope you will be able to gain even an iota of it's value from this article.

The book has possibly the most epic first couple of pages ever.

"Takezo lay among the corpses. There were thousands of them. 'The whole world's gone crazy,' he thought dimly. 'A man might as well be a dead leaf, floating in the autumn breeze.' He himself looked like one of the lifeless bodies surrounding him..."

Takezo, who later in the book changes his name to Musashi, fought at the battle of Sekigahara in 1600, and his side lost, but he survived. He grew up the son of a Samurai and sought from a young age to fight. He had his first duel when he was 12, in which he killed a grown man with a stick.

Later in his teens he left and fought at Sekigahara. This marks the beginning of the story. There is no way I can get into all of the details and subplots throughout the novel, so I will highlight some of my favorite stories, lessons, and quotes, along with the central conflict between Musashi and his antithesis, a skilled samurai by the name of Sasaki Kojiro.

Sekigahara marks the beginning of Musashi's journey to master the art of war and the Way of the sword. The crazy web of relationships in the story can be a lot at times, but some of the most insightful are between master and apprentice. After the battle, Musashi gets into some trouble while trying to cross a province border and ends up killing a man, which he is later arrested and imprisoned for. The monk who ends up catching Musashi amd imprisoning him is named Takuan.

After three years in prison, Musashi, having gained a higher level of understanding of the Way through discipline and study while incarcerated, thanks Takuan for opening his eyes, as he is birthed from his shackles a new man, on a new path. Takuan serves as a sort of master for Musashi, and the lessons that Musashi learns from Takuan he carries on when he is the master to his own apprentice, Jotaro, later in the story.

A major turning point in the book comes when Musashi feels the calling to climb the mountain, literally. It is the dead of winter in Japan, and Musashi begins the trek to the top. The symbolism and personal impact of conquering a literal mountain does not need to be explained further: it is powerful. But revealed in Musashi's mind after reaching the summit in the blizzard is a powerful realization:

(The author of Musashi, Eiji Yoshikawa, wrote in another book on feudal Japan, Taiko, the following quote, undoubtedly inspired by the scene of Musashi grinding up the mountain.)

“The summit is believed to be the object of the climb. But its true object—the joy of living—is not in the peak itself, but in the adversities encountered on the way up. There are valleys, cliffs, streams, precipices, and slides, and as he walks these steep paths, the climber may think he cannot go any farther, or even that dying would be better than going on. But then he resumes fighting the difficulties directly in front of him, and when he is finally able to turn and look back at what he has overcome, he finds he has truly experienced the joy of living while on life's very road.” 

I'll leave you with that thought for now. Read it again, and consider it's value in your own life. 

PART 2 CAN BE FOUND HERE.

*Photo from https://allabout-japan.com/en/article/1299/