Musashi
The classic samurai novel about the real exploits of the most famous swordsman. Miyamoto Musashi was the child of an era when Japan was emerging from decades of civil strife. Lured to the great Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 by the hope of becoming a samurai—without really knowing what it meant—he regains consciousness after the battle to find himself lying defeated, dazed and wounded among thousands of the dead and dying. On his way home, he commits a rash act, becomes a fugitive and brings life in his own village to a standstill—until he is captured by a weaponless Zen monk. The lovely Otsū, seeing in Musashi her ideal of manliness, frees him from his tortuous punishment, but he is recaptured and imprisoned. During three years of solitary confinement, he delves into the classics of Japan and China. When he is set free again, he rejects the position of samurai and for the next several years pursues his goal relentlessly, looking neither to left nor to right. Ever so slowly it dawns on him that following the Way of the Sword is not simply a matter of finding a target for his brute strength. Continually striving to perfect his technique, which leads him to a unique style of fighting with two swords simultaneously, he travels far and wide, challenging fighters of many disciplines, taking nature to be his ultimate and severest teacher and undergoing the rigorous training of those who follow the Way.
Stats for nerds
13recommend
25mentions
18people
2008–2026years
68% recommend32% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Also the book simply named “Musashi” is amazing and tells the ‘story’ of his life. It has arguably the best ending of any book I’ve ever read where the lead up builds for 1000+ pages ending in a crescendo.
- Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa. Great for entertainment as well as enlightenment.
- If you are adding Shogun then surely you also must add Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa. A sprawling epic loosely based on history, with real historical people as characters
- A fictionalized biography to be sure, but I highly recommend Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa: https://www.amazon.com/Musashi-Epic-Novel-Samurai-Era/dp/156... about the famous samurai. It reads like a fantasy novel.
Also Taiko by the same author is a fictionalized version of the 3 kingdoms period, told from an interesting perspective.
- Two Japanese novels that I thoroughly enjoyed are Eiji Yoshikawa's Musashi and Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human.
- I (along with some others here) highly recommend Yasunari Kawabata. In a way, he reminds me of Hemingway because he writes sparsely and with a deep sense of melancholy. He also was focused on preserving the "Japanese character" at a time when there was a lot of pressure to Westernize, so in a way he writing encapsulates a Japanese perspective of what makes Japan unique and interesting.
He is also just an amazing writer (he won the Nobel). Some interesting works by him: Master of Go, the novelization of a Go match between two masters (I barely understand how to play Go and still found it interesting) and Thousand Cranes, which centers around the tea ceremony. That story is interesting because a few old tea bowls are treated almost like characters that exert influence over some of the other characters whose lives are kind of intertwined almost like a Shakespearean drama. Anyway, a very interesting and unique author.
I also recommend Musashi from Eiji Yoshikawa. He writes big historical fiction novels that read like fantasy page-turners. Taiko is his lesser known novel in translation, but it is a really awesome overview of the Japanese feudal period and a fun read as well.
