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: ; = Re E AAA A LEE EE EENDE) (Cae EAE ee EEE T: oe ee 3 : 5 z Tamura Book Kusunoki Book Tominaga Book Toritsu Library Kanazawa Library F (Transcribed in 1815) (Discovered in 1961) (Transcribed after 1830) Book Book = a Sadly, the original manuscript of Gorin-no-sho no longer exists.

According to Terao Magonojoé, it was destroyed in a castle fire. Bushi Genshin-ko Denrai mentions this, but it is unclear whether it was the Edo Castle fire of 1657 or the Yashiro Castle fire in Kyushu in 1672. It should be noted that Musashi never titled the five scrolls Gorin-no-sho.

He named each individual scroll as one of the five elements. It was Nagaoka Naoyuki and Toyota Masakata who conceived Gorin-no-sho as a shorthand title in their notes, and this designation stuck. As for the use of the “five elements” (gorin), it was not Musashi’s intention to appropriate the idea from Buddhist philosophy.

In Heihd Sanjtigo-kajo, he had already referred to the heart or mind of the warrior as being comparable to the properties of “Water.” He also wrote briefly of the “Ether” as a state of high attainment and clarity, but not in the Buddhist sense of Nirvana.

It was more like figuratively piercing through the clouds of confusion and being exposed to the boundless clear sky.44 Moreover, he had discussed the “Wind” of other schools in previous texts. Wind is a common term in Japanese, indicating “type” or “appearance.”

Adopting “Earth” to explain the basis of his school, and “Fire” to represent what happens in the heat of battle and dueling, probably seemed convenient and oddly prophetic. To date, only ten handwritten copies (shahon) containing all five scrolls have been found.

The principal one used in modern publications is the Hosokawa Book, which was transcribed twenty-two years after Musashi’s death, possibly from one of Magonoj6’s copies. Uozumi Takashi found five sections to be absent in the Hosokawa Book and over 150 miscopied characters.

He compared all the extant copies to identify discrepancies and commonalities. Through this, he extrapolated a standard text which is estimated to be the closest in content to Musashi’s original. The Content of Gorin-no-sho In “Earth,”

Musashi documents the first half of his life. He also introduces military tactics and the metaphysics behind his school. He asserts that combat strategy is applicable to both generals and rank-and-file soldiers. He also includes a set of rules the warrior should follow if he is serious about mastering the Way.

Musashi explains various aspects of individual combat, such as mental and physical posture, gaze, how to manipulate the sword, footwork and fighting stances. The content is pragmatic and provides aspects of sword work in detail. In “Fire,” he expounds on such matters as how to choose the best site for dueling, how to control the enemy by taking the initiative and implementing stratagems not only applicable to one-on-one duels but also to large-scale battles involving thousands of men.