As a samurai, warrior, and soldier, Miyamoto Musashi viewed sword fighting as a study in strategy and tactics, thinking of the quickest way to defeat the enemy. War strategy is a zero-sum game. He wins who can ably apply his understanding of strategy to enhance his tactics, and his opponent loses. As much as we would like to view it as a book about self-actualization or the achievement of business aims, the Book of Five Rings is primarily a military treatise, written by a man who understood the brutality of war and the necessity to take a fight to the finish. This brief study explains Musashi’s famous text with an eye toward the pragmatism of scientific principles, made easy for modern martial arts.
