Musashi
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Musashi
Buy Now for £21.79
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Narrated by:
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Brian Nishii
About this listen
The classic samurai novel about the real exploits of the most famous swordsman.
Miyamoto Musashi was the child of an era when Japan was emerging from decades of civil strife. Lured to the great Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 by the hope of becoming a samurai - without really knowing what it meant - he regains consciousness after the battle to find himself lying defeated, dazed, and wounded among thousands of the dead and dying. On his way home, he commits a rash act, becomes a fugitive, and brings life in his own village to a standstill - until he is captured by a weaponless Zen monk.
The lovely Otsu, seeing in Musashi her ideal of manliness, frees him from his tortuous punishment, but he is recaptured and imprisoned. During three years of solitary confinement, he delves into the classics of Japan and China. When he is set free again, he rejects the position of samurai and for the next several years pursues his goal relentlessly, looking neither to the left nor to the right.
Ever so slowly it dawns on him that following the way of the sword is not simply a matter of finding a target for his brute strength. Continually striving to perfect his technique, which leads him to a unique style of fighting with two swords simultaneously, he travels far and wide, challenging fighters of many disciplines, taking nature to be his ultimate and severest teacher and undergoing the rigorous training of those who follow the way. He is supremely successful in his encounters, but in The Art of War, he perceives the way of peaceful and prosperous governance and disciplines himself to be a real human being.
He becomes a reluctant hero to a host of people whose lives he has touched and by whom he has been touched. Inevitably, he has to pit his skill against the naked blade of his greatest rival.
Musashi is a novel in the best tradition of Japanese storytelling. It is a living story, subtle and imaginative, teeming with memorable characters, many of them historical. Interweaving themes of unrequited love, misguided revenge, filial piety, and absolute dedication to the way of the samurai, it depicts vividly a world Westerners know only vaguely. Full of gusto and humor, it has an epic quality and universal appeal.
©1971 Fumiko Yoshikawa (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.A classic
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On the surface, Musashi is about one man’s journey to becoming the greatest swordsman of the age. However, at its core, it is really a tale of his path to spiritual enlightenment and his search for a single unifying understanding that can be applied to everything from sword-fighting to painting to farming. This is not really an idea that is ever clearly expressed in the story, it is more something that one comes to realise upon completing it.
As I noted before, it is not the most engaging book I’ve ever read/listened to - I never really got bored of listening to it, but there were also stretches of the book where I didn’t feel particularly driven to continue from where I left off. However, there were also parts where I was thoroughly invested and was intrigued to see where the story would go.
The book is expertly narrated by Brian Nishii, who, of course, pronounces everything perfectly, brings the cast to life with unique, recognisable voices, and overall injects a real liveliness to the tale.
I would encourage anyone interested to give this book a go. Having said that, it is not a perfect book, and I will now address some of the criticisms or negative points I have.
Firstly, it is important to note that while this is an unabridged recording, the English translation of which this is a recording is in itself abridged from the original Japanese novel. It is difficult to find any substantial information about the extent of the abridgement - the English translation itself is already almost 1000 pages long. The only place I could find a listing for the length of the full Japanese text placed it at about 3000 pages, though it is important to note that Japanese page count is often inflated by comparison (less text is generally presented per page as far as I can determine).
There are some problems with the book that may be faults with the abridgement of the translation, or they may have been present in the original text. Specifically, towards the end of the book, there are a couple of points where it feels like we have missed several chapters earlier on in the book - one character in particular is introduced in such a way as to suggest he played an important role towards the start of the story, but is in fact absent from any mention up to his apparent ‘return’ later in the book.
In addition, the story suddenly accelerates in pace in the last ‘book’ (the story is divided into seven such ‘books’), but it is hard to know if the odd pacing here is another victim of the abridged translation or if it is present in the original work. It very much feels that the author was given a deadline to finish the work, and so quickly cut everything but the central tale for the final few chapters. I personally felt that, while the story had a satisfying ending, I would have welcomed another chapter or two to serve as an epilogue of sorts for the climactic events of the final chapters.
On the other hand, there are extended sections earlier on in the story that some people may find tedious or overly tangential. There are points where we leave the main character for 10 chapters or so to follow various subplots. I would not be able to identify any point in the story specifically that I feel could have been cut, but there were definitely points where I didn’t feel very invested and had to force myself to find the time to continue listening.
Finally, the book has a fairly large cast, and some readers may struggle to remember who is who (and additionally where is where). I am fairly familiar with Japanese names and media so I feel like I may have had an advantage over people unfamiliar with lots of Japanese names and naming conventions, but even I began to struggle remembering a handful of characters towards the end. For instance, throughout the book we meet five women called Otsū, Osugi, Okō, Ogin, Otsuru - at least three of these make frequent appearances and are important to remember. I have found that there are extremely limited resources when it comes to anything resembling a ‘who’s who’ to Musashi, so I would encourage readers/listeners to make brief notes of who is who if they expect they might struggle with this. I am slowly working on making a cast list at the moment that I intend to eventually add to the Wikipedia page for the novel, but in the time being, don’t expect to have too much luck looking up character names (especially from the later parts of the story).
Overall, in spite of its flaws, I am really glad I listened to this book. I’ve never read or listened to anything quite like it, and am not sure if I ever will again. Someday I’d like to try reading the original Japanese version, but I’m a long way away from that kind of language proficiency. Until then, this serves as an excellent standalone tale for anyone interested.
A powerful, important listen for any fans of Japanese history, culture or martial arts.
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Good book, poor narration
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Epic
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Amazing
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