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Although it was written over 300 years ago as a treatise on strategy in combat, Miyamoto Musashi’s Book of Five Rings is heralded today as a classic work that speaks equally to the artisan, the philosopher, the businessperson, the athlete, educator and student. In A Way to Victory, Hidy Ochiai—a native of Japan and a legend in the martial arts world who has devoted his life to the art of iaido and the teachings of Musashi—provides both a new translation of the “Book of Five Rings” and annotations that clarify the text’s lessons in strategy for the contemporary reader.
Ochiai’s new translation represents a seven-year effort not only to render the wisdom and spirit of Musashi’s timeless teachings, but to painstakingly maintain the completeness and precision of his original words. Ochiai then follows the five volumes of the book with an in-depth analysis of each section’s theme, offering the work as a constructive method of overcoming life’s challenges.
B. W. Robinson, British author, renowned authority on Asian art (especially the Japanese sword and Japanese prints), wrote Master Ochiai upon receiving a copy of A Way to Victory... “I found the introductory sections admirably clear, instructive and eminently readable. I was much impressed by the splendidly bold calligraphy of the section headings; are these, I wonder, from your own brush?”
Raymond Sosnowski, former director of the Guelph School of Japanese Sword Arts in Ontario, author and frequent contributor to the Journal of Japanese Sword Arts, has called A Way to Victory... “The new standard in translations.”
Dr. Eric Scott, a Professor of Business Management at Florida university has made the book “mandatory reading in his logic and strategic planning classes, and goes on to say his “...students are fascinated by the clarity of the thought process of the book.”
Meik Skoss, author, editor and contributor to the Aikido Journal, as well as highly respected practitioner of traditional Japanese martial arts wrote…“A number of years ago, I wrote a column on the classical martial arts for Aikido Journal magazine. Part of that series was an article on those books that I thought were of high quality, both for specific technical and general information. Conspicuous in its absence were any of the then current translations of Miyamoto Musashi's classic guide to martial strategy and swordsmanship, the Go rin no sho (The Book of Five Rings). I am happy to say that that gap has now been filled, and most admirably. A Way to Victory: The Annotated Book of Five Rings is a translation of Musashi's work by Hidy Ochiai. Ochiai has meticulously translated each of the sections and provided explanatory end notes that help a reader... Moreover, Ochiai has managed to convey the essence—as best as I can determine from the (ancient) Japanese text—of what Musashi said—and that is a very commendable accomplishment.”
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