What modern historians know about Miyamoto Musashi is very limited. Many accounts available in the modern day are unreliable to say the least, many are simply fictional accounts. Historians believe Musashi was born right around the same time as Oda Nobunaga’s assassination and lived through the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Musashi was raised by an uncle and educated in Buddhism which many argue is heavily reflected in The Book of Five Rings although not explicitly stated by Musashi. It seems that Musashi began dueling when he was a young man, around the age of thirteen. He then fought around 60 battles without losing. Historians also believe he fought in military conflict as well. Musashi was known for fighting with the use of two swords which is reflected in The Book of Five Rings, some believe he was also quite deadly with a wooden sword.

One of the reasons why Musashi was so interesting was that he was not only a skilled swordsman but also well versed in a variety of other arts such as poetry and drama. Musashi believed that by understanding swordsmanship, one could understand all other types of arts. In his final years, he wrote down much of his knowledge for use by his disciples in The Book of Five Rings. Here we will examine The Book of Five Rings in an attempt to apply Musashi’s knowledge to the modern university in much the same way that his disciples would have done hundreds of years ago to their daily lives. It should be noted that much, if not all, of this analysis will be heavily based in metaphor as cutting down one’s opponents is not literally applicable to the modern university, in fact it would quickly land you in prison.

Note that in the interpretations of the Book of Five Rings, we have chosen to leave out the Water chapter, the second chapter, as it consists of an explanation of practicing Musashi’s chosen style and is not applicable to anything other than the dynamics of swordsmanship.

Nolan Harris & Detlef Nelson