I just received my book in the mail. I must that that this is a beautiful edition of this book. Thank you to Shambhalla for providing the book and to Kungfu Magazine for having such awesome contests!!!
I just received the Book of Five Rings in the mail. I extend my appreciation and thanks to both Kung Fu Magazine and Shambhala Publications for offering this edition of the book for the sweepstakes. This translation of Musashi by Thomas Cleary is excellent. The illustrations in this edition are inspiring. The added CD’s are a great bonus–I’ve already popped them into my CD player in my car for added Martial Zen while on the road. Thanks again!
Thank you ever so much for the new translation of the Go Rin No Sho. It arrived yesterday and son number three has already claimed my thirty year old dog eared (and chewed) copy. It seemed General (Sun Tzu) found it on my stack by the desk and had five minutes with it. The history of the period in this translation’s forward is enlightening.
Thirty years ago I used Musashi’s book to regularly disarm more advanced opponents in epee and foil (including the coach). I never got to the point of ending up with both blades in my hands, but I came close. Now, when I teach my sons, and those they bring over, it is in the Florentine style, epee and main gauche, (Musashi’s two swords).
That’s got to be a record here. I’m glad you all enjoyed that prize. It’s a nice one, for sure.
Shambhala was gracious enough to send me a reader’s copy on top of the prizes, but I haven’t really looked at it yet, nor have I listened to the CD. I’m looking forward to my next long drive when I’ll pop that in the player.
I wrote my fencing thesis on Book of Five Rings. I’ve always enjoyed Cleary’s translation.
I wrote that thesis on an intelliwriter. Do you know what that is? It was an electronic typewriter like three times as thick as a laptop. It saved two lines of text on a little LCD screen, and then printed them in dot matrix. There was an extra chip that could store like a dozen pages of text - that’s a dozen total with the extra chip.
I only have hard copies of my thesis. However, it should be on record at SJSU.
requesting a copy now. that thread is a year old, so if I dont get a response on it, I’ll go through more direct means. If you want I will send you a digital copy once I get my hands on it.