The Book of Five Rings

By: Miyamoto Musashi

Narrated by: Kevin Collins

Length: 1 hr and 41 mins

Publisher's Summary

I have been many years training in the way of strategy, called Ni Ten Ichi Ryu, and now, I think I will explain it for the first time. It is now during the first 10 days of the 10th month in the 20th year of Kanei (1645). I have climbed mountain Iwato of Higo in Kyushu to pay homage to heaven, pray to Kwannon, and kneel before Buddha. I am a warrior of Harima province, Shinmen Musashi No Kami Fujiwara No Geshin, age 60 years.

With the virtue of strategy, I practice many arts and abilities - all things with no teacher. To write this book, I did not use the law of Buddha or the teachings of Confucius, neither old war chronicles nor books on martial tactics. I take up my brush to explain the true spirit of this Ichi school as it is mirrored in the way of heaven and Kwannon. The time is the night of the 10th day of the 10th month, at the hour of the tiger.

©2018 Combray Media (P)2018 Combray Media

A Must for All Martial Artists

Having studied the martial arts for a majority of my life, I have read and listened to multiple variations of Miyamoto Musashi's The Book of Five Rings. This book is the foundation for several Japanese martial arts. However, the application of the lessons in this book have also been applied to many businesses and business schools.

What I enjoyed the most about this particular version of the book is that it was straight forward. Many other versions want to go off on a tangent where someone has attempted to analyze what Musashi was saying in the book. In this version, the listener can make his or her own conclusions and interpretations.

There narrator did a great job with the narration. I'm thankful that he did not try to speak in a fake Japanese accent as with most versions of this book.

I was given this book for free in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

A classic

The Book of Five Rings is a classic. It's a life book. It's a management book. It should be required reading for everyone. Why? Life lessons people. Confrontation and communication are key parts to the human narrative. If we each remembered to listen to this book yearly, a lot of that confrontation and communication would happen in a more insightful and clear way. I received this book in return for my honest review.

I learned a lot

I think this book is very good and very interesting I learned a lot from it very much everyone who learned this system should hear this book it was very well written and very very interesting I seriously learned huge amount of things
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

The Strategy of a Martial Artist

Any additional comments?

This audiobook is about the strategy of being an effective martial artist.

A few things to keep in mind:

1) If you are not a martial artist, you will get very little from this book. There is a lot of talk about managing swords, spears and halbert, for example. Furthermore, even if you are a martial artist, it may be difficult for you to understand the concepts presented merely by listening to the narrative (Instead of reading the book).

2) This book was written in the 1600s; therefore, the context and examples given sometimes require the listener to possess a bit of background knowledge of Asian life in the 1600s in order to fully understand the narrative. If you do not possess this background knowledge, some parts of the audiobook might confuse you.

If you can contend with #1 and #2, I genuinely believe you will find this to be an interesting and informative audiobook! Furthermore, the narrator did a nice job reading the material, and his voice was pleasant.

I was provided this audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator in exchange for an unbiased review.

an interesting read

I received this book in exchange for an honest review.

Well I can say I did understood some concepts and all, however not all of them, if I have to be truly honest with myself it was a little hard for me to try and make sense of this book it was very cryptic.

Now I don't think it is a bad book, just that you need to have some good understanding of metaphors to really understand some things or that was my point of view.

I would recommend it for truly scholars.