Stategy is the craft of the warrior. Commanders must enact the craft, and
troopers should know this Way. There is no warrior in the world today who
really understands the Way of strategy.
There are various Ways. There is the Way of salvation by the law of Buddha,
the Way of Confucius governing the Way of learning, the Way of healing as a
doctor, as a poet teaching the Way of Waka, tea, archery, and many arts
and skills. Each man practices as he feels inclined.
It is said the warrior's is the twofold Way of pen and sword, and he should
have a taste for both Ways. Even if a man has no natural ability he can be a
warrior by sticking assiduously to both divisions of the Way. Generally
speaking, the Way of the warrior is resolute acceptance of death. Although
not only warriors but priests, women, peasants and lowlier folk have been
known to die readily in the cause of duty or out of shame, this is a different
thing. The warrior is different in that studying the Way of strategy is based on
overcoming men. By victory gained in crossing swords with individuals, or
enjoining battle with large numbers, we can attain power and fame for ourselves or for our lord. This is the virtue of strategy.
Recently there have been people getting on in the world as strategists, but
they are usually just sword-fencers. The attendants of the Kashima Kantori shrines
of the province Hitachi received instruction from the gods, and made
schools based on this teaching, travelling from country to country instructing
men. This is the recent meaning of strategy.
In olden times strategy was listed among the Ten Abilities and Seven Arts as
a beneficial practice. It was certainly an art but as beneficial practice it was
not limited to sword-fencing. The true value of sword-fencing cannot be seen
withing the confines of sword-fencing technique.
If we look at the world we see arts for sale. Men use equipment to sell their
own selves. As if with the nut and the flower, the nut has become less than the
flower. In this kind of Way of strategy, both those teaching and those learning
the way are concerned with colouring and showing off their technique, trying
to hasten the bloom of the flower. They speak of "This Dojo" and "That Dojo". They are looking for profit. Someone once said "Immature strategy
is the cause of grief". That was a true saying.
There are four Ways in which men pass through life: as gentlemen, farmers,
artisans and merchants.
The way of the farmer. Using agricultural instruments, he sees springs
through to autumns with an eye on the changes of season.
Second is the Way of the merchant. The wine maker obtains his ingredients
and puts them to use to make his living. The Way of the merchant is always to
live by taking profit. This is the Way of the merchant.
Thirdly the gentleman warrior, carrying the weaponry of his Way. The Way
of the warrior is to master the virtue of his weapons. If a gentleman dislikes
strategy he will not appreciate the benefit of weaponry, so must he not have a
little taste for this?
Fourthly the Way of the artisan. The Way of the carpenter is to become
proficient in the use of his tools, first to lay his plans with a true measure and
then perform his work according to plan. Thus he passes through life. These are
the four Ways of the gentleman, the farmer, the artisan and the merchant.
Like the foreman carpenter, the commander must know natural rules, and the
rules of the country, and the rules of houses. This is the Way of the foreman.
The foreman carpenter must know the architectural theory of towers and
temples, and the plans of palaces, and must employ men to raise up houses. The
Way of the foreman carpenter is the same as the Way of the commander of a warrior house.
In the contruction of houses, choice of woods is made. Straight un-knotted
timber of good appearance is used for the revealed pillars, straight timber with
small defects is used for the innter pillars. Timber of the finest appearance, even
if a little weak, is used for the thresholds, lintels, doors, and sliding doors, and
so on. Good strong timber, though it be gnarled and knotted, can always be
used discreetly in construction. Timber which is weak or knotted throughout
should be used as scaffolding, and later for firewood.
The foreman carpenter allots his men work according to their ability. Floor
layers, makers of sliding doors, thresholds and lintels, ceilings and so on. Those
of poor ability lay the floor joist, and those of lesser ability carve wedges and
do such miscellaneous work. If the foreman knows and deploys his men well
the finished work will be good.
The foreman should take into account the abilities and limitations of his
men, circulating among them and asking nothing unreasonable. He should
know their morale and spirit, and encourage them when necessary. This is the
same as the principle of strategy.
The carpenter's attainment is, having tools which will cut well, to make small shrines,
writing shelves, tables, paper lanterns, chopping boards and pot-lids.
These are the specialities of the carpenter. Things are similar for the trooper.
You ought to think deeply about this.
The attainment of the carpenter is that his work is not warped, that
the joints are not misaligned, and that the work is truly planed so that it meets well
and is not merely finished in sections. This is essential.
If you want to learn this Way, deeply consider the things written in this book
one at a time. You must do sufficient research.
The body of the Way of strategy from the viewpoint of my Ichi school is
explained in the Ground book. It is difficult to realise the true Way just through
sword-fencing. Know the smallest things and the biggest things, the shallowest things
and the deepest things. As if it were a straight road mapped out on the ground, the first book is called the Ground book.
Second is the Water book. With water as the basis, the spirit becomes like water.
Water adopts the shape of its receptacle, it is sometimes a trickle and sometimes a wild sea.
Water has a clear blue colour. By the clarity, things of Ichi school are shown in this book.
If you master the principles of sword-fencing, when you freely beat one
man, you beat any man in the world. The spirit of defeating a man is the same
for ten million men. The strategist makes small things into big things, like
building a great Buddha from one foot model. I cannot write in detail how this is done.
The principle of strategy is having one thing, to know ten thousand things. Things of Ichi school are written in this the Water book.
Third is the Fire book. This book is about fighting. The spirit of fire is fierce,
whether the fire be small or big; and so it is with battles. The Way of battles is
the same for man to man fights and for ten thousand a side battles. You must
appreciate that spirit can become big or small. What is big is easy to perceive:
what is small is difficult to perceive. In short, it is difficult for large numbers of
men to change position, so their movements can be easily predicted. An
individual can easily change his mind, so his movements are difficult to predict.
You must appreciate this. The essence of this book is that you must train day
and night in order to make quick decisions. In strategy it is necessary to treat
training as a part of normal life with your spirit unchanging. Thus combat in
battle is described in the Fire book.
Fourthly the Wind book. This book is not concerned with my Ichi school
but with other schools of strategy. By Wind I mean old traditions, present-day
traditions, and family traditions of strategy. Thus I clearly explain the
strategies of the world. This is tradition. It is difficult to know yourself if you
do not know others. To all Ways there are side-tracks. If you study a Way daily,
and your spirit diverges, you may think you are obeying a good way, but
objectively it is not the true Way. If you are following the true Way and diverge
a little, this will later become a large divergence. You must realise this. Other
strategies have come to be thought of as mere sword-fencing, and it is not
unreasonable that this should be so. The benefit of my strategy, although it
includes sword-fencing, lies in a separate principle. I have explained what is commonly meant by strategy in other schools in the Tradition (Wind) book.
Fifthly, the book of the Void. By Void I mean that which has no beginning
and no end. Attaining this principle means not attaining the principle. The Way
of strategy is the Way of nature. When you appreciate the power of nature,
knowing the rhythm of any situation, you will be able to hit the enemy
naturally and strike naturally. All this is the Way of the Void. I intend to show
how to follow the true Way according to nature in the book of the Void.
"Nito Ichi Ryu" shows the advantage of using both swords.
The spear and halberd are weapons that are carried out of doors.
Students of the Ichi school Way of strategy should train from the start
with the sword and long sword in either hand. This is the truth: when you sacrifice
your life, you must make fullest use of your weaponry. It is false not to do so,
and to die with a weapon yet undrawn.
If you hold a sword with both hands, it is difficult to wield it freely to left
and right, so my method is to carry the sword in one hand. This does not apply
to large weapons such as the spear or halberd, but swords and companion swords
can be carried in one hand. It is encumbering to hold a sword in both hands
when you are on horseback, when running on uneven roads, on swampy ground,
muddy rice fields, stony ground, or in a crowd of people. To hold the long sword in both hands is not the true Way, for if you carry a bow or spear or
other arms in your left hand you have only one hand free for the long sword.
However, when it is difficult to cut an enemy down eith one hand, you must
use both hands. It is not difficult to wield a sword in one hand; the Way to learn
this is to train with two long swords, one in each hand. It will seem difficult at
first, but everything is difficult at first. Bows are difficult to draw, halberds
are difficult to wield; as you become accustomed to the bow so your pull will
become stronger. When you become used to wielding the long sword, you will
gain the power of the Way and wield the sword well.
As I will explain in the second book, the Water Book, there is no fast way of
wielding the long sword. The long sword should be wielded broadly, and the
companion sword closely. This is the first thing to realise.
According to this Ichi school, you can win with a long weapon, and yet you can
also win with a short weapon. In short, the Way of the Ichi school is the
spirit of winning, whatever the weapon and whatever its size.
It is better to use two swords rather than one when you are fighting a crowd and especially if you want to take a prisoner.
These things cannot be explained in detail. From one thing, know ten
thousand things. When you attain the Way of strategy there will not be one thing you cannot see. You must study hard.
The Way of the warrior does not include other Ways, such as Confucianism, Buddhism,
certain traditions, artistic accomplishments and dancing.
But even though these are not part of the Way, if you know the Way broadly you
will see it in everything. Men must polish their particular Way.
The best use of the companion sword is in a confined space, or when you are
engaged closely with an opponent. The long sword can be used effectively in all situations.
The halberd is inferior to the spear on the battlefield. With the spear you can
take the initiative; the halberd is defensive. In the hands of one of two men of
equal ability, the spear gives a little extra strength. Spear and halberd both have
their uses, but neither is very beneficial in confined spaces. They cannot be
used for taking a prisoner. They are essentially weapons for the field.
Anyway, if you learn "indoor" techniques, you will think narrowly and
forget the true Way. Thus you will have difficulty in actual encounters.
The bow is tactically strong at the commencement of battle, especially
battles on a moor, as it is possible to shoot quickly from among the spearmen.
However, it is unsatisfactory in sieges, or when the enemy is more than forty
yards away. For this reason there are nowadays few traditional schools of
archery. There is little use nowadays for this kind of skill.
From inside fortifications, the gun has no equal among weapons. It is the
supreme weapon on the field before the ranks clash, but once swords are crossed the gun becomes useless.
One of the virtues of the bow is that you can see the arrows in flight and
correct your aim accordingly, whereas gunshot cannot be seen. You must appreciate the importance of this.
Just as a horse must have endurance and no defects, so it is with weapons.
Horses should walk strongly, and swords and companion swords should cut strongly.
Spears and halberds must stand up to heavy use: bows and guns must be sturdy. Weapons should be hardy rather than decorative.
You should not have a favourite weapon. To become over-familiar with one
weapon is as much a fault as not knowing it sufficiently well. You should not
copy others, but use weapons which you can handle properly. It is bad for
commanders and troops to have likes and dislikes. These are things you must learn thoroughly.
Timing is important in dancing and pipe or string music, for they are in
rhythm only if timing is good. Timing and rhythm are also involved in the
military arts, shooting bows and guns, and riding horses. In all skills and
abilities there is timing.
There is also timing in the Void.
There is timing in the whole life of the warrior, in his thriving and declining,
in his harmony and discord. Similarly, there is timing in the Way of the
merchant, in the rise and fall of capital. All things entail rising and falling
timing. You must be able to discern this. In strategy there are various timing considerations.
From the outset you must know the applicable timing and the inapplicable timing, and from among the large and small things and the fast and
slow timings find the relevant timing, first seeing the distance timing and the background timing. This is the
main thing in strategy. It is especially important to know the background timing, otherwise your strategy will become uncertain.
You win in battles with the timing in the Void born of the timing of cunning
by knowing the enemies' timing, and this using a timing which the enemy does not expect.
All the five books are chiefly concerned with timing. You must train sufficiently to appreciate all this.
If you practise day and night in the above Ichi school strategy, your spirit
will naturally broaden. Thus is large scale strategy and the strategy of hand to
hand combat propagated in the world. This is recorded for the first time in the five books
of Ground, Water, Fire, Tradition (Wind), and Void. This is the Way for men who want to learn my strategy:
It is important to start by setting these broad principles in your heart, and train
in the Way of strategy. If you do not look at things on a large scale it will be
difficult for you to master strategy. If you learn and attain this strategy you
will never lose even to twenty or thirty enemies. More than anything to start
with you must set your heart on strategy and earnestly stick to the Way. You
will come to be able to actually beat men in fights, and to be able to win with
your eye. Also by training you will be able to freely control your own body,
conquer men with your body, and with sufficient training you will be able to
beat ten men with your spirit. When you have reached this point, will it not
mean that you are invincible?
Moreover, in large scale strategy the superior man will manage many
subordinates dextrously, bear himself correctly, govern the country and foster
the people, thus preserving the ruler's discipline. If there is a Way involving the
spirit of not being defeated, to help oneself and gain honour, it is the Way of strategy.
The second year of Shoho (1645), the fifth month, the twelfth day.
Teruo
Magonojo for SHINMEN MUSASHI
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