first edition
1974 · Woodstock, New York
by Musashi, Miyamoto; Harris, Victor
Woodstock, New York: The Overlook Press, 1974. Very good in very good plus jacket.. First US edition of this classic work of Japanese philosophy, capturing the essence of samurai culture in the early Edo period. Far more than a simple book of Kendo strategy, BOOK OF FIVE RINGS applies the principles of combat to every aspect of life. The ideal samurai it describes has not only mastered the way of the sword, but also the art of tea, writing, painting, and other virtues, combining elements of Zen, Shinto, and Confucianism into a singular whole.
The harmonious combination of warrior and artist established in the BOOK OF FIVE RINGS has played a formative role in Japanese culture. "Where a Westerner might say 'The pen is mightier than the sword'," notes translator Victor Harris, "the Japanese would say 'Bunbu Itchi', or 'Pen and sword in accord'." This philosophy has long been embraced as the ideal of the Japanese leader, practiced by politicians and CEOs alike.
The book was not published in English until this translation, first issued in the UK by Allison & Busby the same year. The translator Harris himself practiced Kendo and later became Keeper of the Department of Japanese Antiquities at the British Museum in London. According to THE NEW YORK TIMES, "At the start, sales of [this translation] were small — mostly to aficionados of the martial arts. They mounted as novels about Japan and its samurai — SHOGUN and THE NINJA — reached the best-seller lists. They reached magnificent numbers in 1981, after a New York advertising executive named George Lois noticed a copy of the book in a businessman's office during a visit to Japan and wrote about it in a column in ADWEEK. 'The Japanese entrepreneur is not nurtured at an Asian equivalent of the Harvard Business School,' he declared. 'Instead, he studies, lives and works according to an almost mythic tome [...] the classic A BOOK OF FIVE RINGS." Sales of Harris's translation exploded, and the book firmly established itself into the American popular consciousness. 8.25'' x 7''. Original black boards. Original price-clipped color pictorial dust jacket with faux handmade paper pattern. Illustrated in black and white. viii, 96 pages. Three-line ink inscription blacked out on front free endpaper. Touch of rubbing to jacket spine ends and shelfwear to book. Bright. (Inventory #: 50119)
The harmonious combination of warrior and artist established in the BOOK OF FIVE RINGS has played a formative role in Japanese culture. "Where a Westerner might say 'The pen is mightier than the sword'," notes translator Victor Harris, "the Japanese would say 'Bunbu Itchi', or 'Pen and sword in accord'." This philosophy has long been embraced as the ideal of the Japanese leader, practiced by politicians and CEOs alike.
The book was not published in English until this translation, first issued in the UK by Allison & Busby the same year. The translator Harris himself practiced Kendo and later became Keeper of the Department of Japanese Antiquities at the British Museum in London. According to THE NEW YORK TIMES, "At the start, sales of [this translation] were small — mostly to aficionados of the martial arts. They mounted as novels about Japan and its samurai — SHOGUN and THE NINJA — reached the best-seller lists. They reached magnificent numbers in 1981, after a New York advertising executive named George Lois noticed a copy of the book in a businessman's office during a visit to Japan and wrote about it in a column in ADWEEK. 'The Japanese entrepreneur is not nurtured at an Asian equivalent of the Harvard Business School,' he declared. 'Instead, he studies, lives and works according to an almost mythic tome [...] the classic A BOOK OF FIVE RINGS." Sales of Harris's translation exploded, and the book firmly established itself into the American popular consciousness. 8.25'' x 7''. Original black boards. Original price-clipped color pictorial dust jacket with faux handmade paper pattern. Illustrated in black and white. viii, 96 pages. Three-line ink inscription blacked out on front free endpaper. Touch of rubbing to jacket spine ends and shelfwear to book. Bright. (Inventory #: 50119)
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