In the interest of those readers of this
blog whose first language is not English, I have been a little remiss in not
publicizing the two translated versions of my book, The Samurai Mind.
There are, in fact, two other versions:
Italian
Spanish
I do have a couple of the Italian ones, which I
would be happy to send to anyone who drops me a line (first come, first
served), but unfortunately, none of the Spanish edition.
If you are a Spanish or Italian reader, please pick
up a copy and see what you have been missing.
While we are talking of publications, be sure to
check out the latest version of Kendo World (available in Kindle edition,
too). This is, as the name suggests, primarily of interest to Kendo
enthusiasts, but it is well-written and professionally produced and well worth
a look for anyone with an interest in
such things.
The latest edition has Miyamoto Musashi as its
focus, and it includes one of my articles: Confucian Voices in Swordsmanship II:
Kenjutsu no Fushikihen.
As the title suggests, it examines the relationship
between Conficianism and swordsmanship in the work ‘Kenjutsu no Fushikihen’.
This is a little studied work even in Japanese, but it’s inclusion in one of
the major collections of original documents on martial arts at the beginning of
the twentieth century suggests that it deserves to be examined more closely.
Western readers have had very little exposure to it (if they haven’t read The
Samurai Mind, that is), although a few quotes pop up here and there, from DT
Suzuki’s Zen and Japanese Culture, where he casts it in a decidedly Zen light, also
doubting that the writer can have achieved much in the way of enlightenment. In
actual fact, it is a work steeped in Neo-Confucianism, although the references
to Zen might confuse a casual reader. The title, however, is a pointed reference to
Zen – or could be taken as such. Fushiki is the Japanese translation of the
answer Bodhidharma is said to have given to the Emperor Wu when asked who he
was, “I do not know.” The O Yomei (Wang Yangming) branch of Neo-Confucianism was familiar with Zen, and the founder was strongly critical of it. Nevertheless, they often used references to Zen in their teachings, so this doesn't seem at all unusual. (I know I am always criticizing Suzuki, and he does
deserve it, but it must be said in his defense that he wrote extensively (if
partially) on subjects that had received very little serious treatment in
English before then.)
I wrote a little more about Confucianism previously, (The Confucian Swordsman I & II) and of course, the complete text of Kenjutsu no Fushikihen is included in
The Samurai Mind.
Although it is a little
obscure in places, it is a fascinating explanation of how to teach an art that
relies on spontaneity to be effective. It is, in effect, the criticism of a
jazz musician for classical training as a way to prepare someone for a jam
session. As someone whose own music training (not to a very high degree, I must
admit, but I did play the trumpet from the age of eight until starting university)
left him very poorly prepared to jam, I appreciate it.
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