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Ron Beaubien
28th March 2006, 14:29
Hello,

Although the life of Miyamoto Musashi was certainly interesting the first time I read about him, after reading over ten books on the subject of his life or his writings over the years, his life and writings don't interest me much any more. Although he was apparently a great swordsman, it is very difficult to separate fact from fiction, and Eiji Yoshikawa's famous novel has only made the facts more obscure. Not to mention, books in English usually just rehash the same misinformation from the novel again and again, stating it as if it were fact.

I saw "Lightning in the Void; The Authentic History of Miyamoto Musashi" by John Carroll on the bookstore shelf the other day, took one look at the title and picture of the author dressed in a cowboy hat and holding a rifle, and set the book back on the shelf. I had serious questions about a book that claims to be an "authentic history" when the book appeared to lack any citations and be nothing more than another novel.

Then, the other day, I ran across the following review in the Japan Times. I did like the fact that although another novel, the author apparently did not portray Miyamoto Musashi as some kind of over-romanticized, Edo Period boy scout, complete with modern day morality and dressed in fine silk clothes. Instead, the author attempted to show the dirty, harsh reality of the times and the blood and gore that comes with the territory of regularly killing people, which I applaud.

Still, the image of a Musashi that after an early kill "savagely ripped off his fundoshi and began masturbating" does not sit entirely well with me either...

Thoughts?

Regards,

Ron Beaubien

--------------

A new 'hero' for olden times

By DONALD RICHIE

LIGHTNING IN THE VOID: The Authentic History of Miyamoto Musashi, by John Carroll. Tokyo: Printed Matter Press, 2006, 520 pp., 2,500 yen (paper).

Any history calling itself "authentic" posits one that is inauthentic. Here the target is apparent. It is the "Miyamoto Musashi" of Eiji Yoshikawa, published 1935-39 and translated into English as "Musashi" in 1981.

Still in print and going strong, Yoshikawa's best-seller achieved its popularity by cleaning up its hero, giving him an idealistic education and assuring that he was the poster-boy bushido-type warrior Japan needed in 1935 at the beginning of its final military adventure.

This new and "authentic" Musashi, however, is quite dissimilar. He is reported to be a "stinking wretch who actually boasts that he never takes a bath," who practices an "inelegant, meat-chopping style" of swordsmanship, and would seem to believe that "nothing can beat the look on a man's face when he sees his cock and balls go flying into space."

To be sure, we are here listening to Sasaki Kojiro, the opponent in Musashi's most famous duel, but our hero in action is not much different. He wears a "filthy kimono," and a leather vest that has "become quite ripe." His wild head of hair is louse-infested and in repose our hero is said to resemble "a mound of cow dung in the hot sun."

In action, he is even more dissimilar to the idealized hero. After an early kill, Musashi "savagely ripped off his fundoshi and began masturbating." Later, beset by boys, he breaks their bones then goes to one of his victims "whose faced resembled a blood stew, and calmly spit in his face." Still later, in one of the many fully detailed duels, Musashi knees his antagonist in the groin, rams his short sword deep into the stomach, then twists the blade and watches as his opponent's "guts spilled out like warm streamers of blood pudding."

Yoshikawa's cleaned-up hero is nowhere in sight. Toshiro Mifune, who played Musashi in the best-known of the several film adaptations, would have experienced some difficulties rendering this "authentic" version -- among which would have been his sexual candor.

Musashi is very up front about his preferences. He remembers "the men he had killed, the boys he had loved." He also says that his only incurable weakness "is love for pretty boys . . . but with beautiful creatures like this on the face of the earth, what man in his right mind would waste his time on women."

And indeed this Musashi is misogynistic to a degree, though perhaps not much more so than other bushido-inflamed warriors of his period. However, he is wrong about this being his only "incurable weakness." He has others as well.

These are outlined by the author at the end of his saga. Musashi was a man "whose time had passed, or more precisely had never really come." He dedicated himself to killing others who had done him no harm, simply to advance his career. His Zen-related claims were to ingratiate himself with potential patrons. "Musashi ever remained the complete materialist." As such, he is quite different from Yoshikawa's popular hero with his bushido and his boy-scout ways.

This is quite reason enough to write a counter version such as this, since it is needed in order to square the person with his times. These were bloody times and they made bloody people. The author of this new version of the life gives great swaths of history (including a richly detailed account of the boiling alive of Ishikawa Goemon and his son), and while this usually stops the action, it does give a textured backdrop to this "age of hyenas."

Structured into five long sections (and modeled after Musashi's famous "Five Ring" treatise) John Carroll's version of the hero's career may be welcomed as a more likely rendering of a life of which all too little is actually known -- a version that removes the nationalistic sub-text of most other adaptations, and ignores the poster-boy implications of Yoshikawa.

A result is what the popular press calls "a terrific read," one in which the naked story (that element of narrative that E.M. Forester calls "unfortunate") completely takes over and rivets reader to page. It is a retro reading and speaks not only of Musashi's time but also our own.

This book can be ordered from www.printedmatterpress.com

SLeclair
28th March 2006, 15:07
This new and "authentic" Musashi, however, is quite dissimilar. He is reported to be a "stinking wretch who actually boasts that he never takes a bath," [...]

I believe this is quite unlikely. Better people than me have presented arguments for why this is, so I quote here from Colin Hyakutake-Watkin's review of William Scott Wilson's "The Lone Samurai":



Mr Scott-Wilson explores the many rumors such as skin complaints and cleanliness to add some reality and hopefully put them to rest. He states that clearly Musashi would not even have been granted an audience, let alone have a friendly relationship, with such people as Honda, Ogasawara and Hosokawa if his cleanliness was in doubt.

It seems quite straightforward to me that to maintain such relationships, Musashi must have been more than a stinking wretch that savagely masturbated after a kill.

Thanks for mentionning the book though, I'll know to steer away from it :).

----
Sebastien L.

Jock Armstrong
29th March 2006, 01:30
If you read 'Go Rin No Sho" it would indicate that Musashi was a highly intelligent individual. He was also, a ronin for relatively short periods of his life as a youth and a young man. At various times he was employed by local daimyo as a sword instructor and at the battle of Sekigahara served in Ishida's staff, not a position that would be given to a smelly psychotic with a penchant for strobing the tadger at the slightest oppurtunity. That he managed to escape the general slaughter of the defeated after the battle is a testament to his resource and cunning. Most of the "facts" of Musashi's life are just made up. Most of the duels didn't happen, or didn't happen that way. He probably complained once when he was wandering that he hadn't had time for a bath- hey presto! Urban myth is begun. If you think thats unlikely, just work in pubs and clubs and hear how your own exploits can be embellished by the credulous- its an education!!
Watch some kumitachi from Niten Ichi Ryu- from what I've seen, they are simple but intelligent, using evasion and angles to avoid the enemy's cuts and responding aggressively with your own. Not the product of a "berserker" mentality.

ScottUK
9th April 2006, 23:52
Thanks for the chuckle, Ron. I thought I would get offended at reading that, but after a few lines, it cracked me up. Nice to know that Musashi was a materialist - makes me feel better about filling my house with pointless crap.

As Jock said, HNIR is a very strategic practice employing fast reactions to the opponent's attacks - and not really one for chopping meat...

I will follow Sebastien's lead and avoid.

Brian Owens
11th April 2006, 07:53
If you're looking for a read about Musashi that probably contains fewer errors than others, the above named book by William Scott Wilson is probably a good bet.

Check here: The Lone Samurai (http://koryu.com/store/lonesamurai.html)

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/477002942X.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

ScottUK
11th April 2006, 10:16
I didn't enjoy that one as much as I enjoyed the Kenji Tokitsu version:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1590300459/102-8235776-1877755?v=glance&n=283155

Ron Beaubien
11th April 2006, 15:32
Hello,



From the book:

This new and "authentic" Musashi, however, is quite dissimilar. He is reported to be a "stinking wretch who actually boasts that he never takes a bath..."

Sebastien wrote in reply:

I believe this is quite unlikely. Better people than me have presented arguments for why this is, so I quote here from Colin Hyakutake-Watkin's review of William Scott Wilson's "The Lone Samurai":

"Mr Scott-Wilson explores the many rumors such as skin complaints and cleanliness to add some reality and hopefully put them to rest. He states that clearly Musashi would not even have been granted an audience, let alone have a friendly relationship, with such people as Honda, Ogasawara and Hosokawa if his cleanliness was in doubt."
With all due respect to Colin and Niten Ichi-ryu, my feeling is that the reality was probably somewhere between the two extremes.

Of course Musashi would not be granted an audience with a Daimyo if he was a stinking wretch at the time. However, does that necessarily mean that there was never a period in Musashi's life when he was dirty and unbathed? I don't think the two are mutually exclusive.

Two examples just off the top of my head.

Back in university I had to read Unbeaten Tracks in Japan by Isabella Bird. Now it has been quite a while since I have read it, but she travelled extensively in Japan in 1878, just ten years after Japan had opened up to the West, and she noted repeatedly throughout her book about how dirty and poor the people were. Her trip took place several hundred years after Musashi lived when one would probably assume that living conditions had hopefully, although not necessarily, improved.

I have also done some training with the Haguro Yamabushi and I remember during Akinomine that we were not allowed to bathe during the week-long training. When I asked about it, the reason that I was given was that we were carrying on the tradition that many had followed before us and that in the past, water was often hard to come by and was not to be wasted, especially when traveling in the mountains. If I remember correctly from my geography classes, since 70% of Japan is mountainous that would be a significant part of the country.

I think that there were probably times in Musashi's life when he was young and traveling on musha shugyo that he could indeed have been quite dirty and may have rarely bathed. How could one not be when traveling, probably largely on foot while short on money, through poorer areas? Likewise, when later older and in service to a local daimyo, of course Musashi would most likely be able to bathe often if not daily, and look respectable as was expected of a person in his position.

Regards,

Ron Beaubien

Chris Thompson
11th April 2006, 15:37
As far as the novel is concerned, all we really need to do is to look at Musashi's legacy. ("By their fruits you shall know them.")
Could the man described in that novel have created the HNIR? Could he have written the books he wrote? I don't think so. In fact, it seems kind of nonsensical to me. The author wanted to tell a sensationalistic and shocking story to sell more books.

-Chris Thompson

fifthchamber
7th July 2006, 04:08
I just wanted to add to this by saying that this book is quite possibly one of the worst books I have ever read.. It hurts to think that I still have a few pages to read.. The author seems to go to great lengths to display his knowledge of Japanese History while simultaneously making such inane and random comments about Musashi or others in the book that you would laugh if it were not so badly written.
Stay well clear. This book is not fun, it's not interesting, and honestly, whether it was the "true" history or not, it hurts too much to read for me to care overly about that..
I also think that the author has some strange ideas regarding sex and the issues surrounding that in Japan too.. There is no need for half the references he makes to it..It furthers the story none and does nothing but make me cringe when I read it..
Regards.