My rating:
add to my books
Loading...
The Life-Giving Sword: Secret Teachings from the House of the Shogun
This is a translation of an important classic on Zen swordfighting. Yagyu Munenori was so widely renowned that he was appointed official sword instructor to two Tokugawa shoguns. (The position was always coveted by Miyamoto Musashi, but he never succeeded in gaining the post). Yagyu's style is known as the Shinkage-ryu style, for centuries the official style of the Tokugaw...more
Hardcover, 191 pages
Published
December 18th 2003
by Kodansha International
There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!
sign in »
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is currently not featured on any Listopia lists.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
176)
When the title tells you secret teachings it is being absolutely accurate in its description. There is a great deal to be learned here for the martial artist and especially those involved in swordplay. Zen and mindfulness, along with the mental nature of the sword wielder are all covered in detail. Different methods of drawing in an enemy to strike are reminiscent of highly localized form of Sun Tzu's The Art of War.
As such there are explicit moments where methods are discussed that...more
As such there are explicit moments where methods are discussed that...more
Nash
rated it
Recommends it for:
Martial artists and those interested in mind training.
Shelves:
already-read
May be this book is for the hard-core martial artists only. I would not recommend it for the faint-hearted. Well, may be for someone who is very interested in Zen and Vipassana (mindfulness) meditation, this will also be a great, eye-opening book. And may be some history buff. To be read together with The Unfettered Mind and other books by Musashi because they are all contemporaries and you'll get a better picture that way. One other great point about this book is it provides you with Kanji char...more
Hey I found this book is very useful for additional training. It's like cuts people in two pieces!!! I really love this book its explains more than just slice enemies but also teach us that sword is not only tools that we can depend on againts enemies. You can use another for it.
A little strange at points (the hidden is manifest and the manifest is hidden; existance is non-existance and non-existance is existance) but it's very good.
Arianna
marked it as to-read
Charlie
marked it as to-read
Alma A.
marked it as to-read
Jimmy
marked it as to-read
Rodrigo
marked it as to-read
Lady Entropy
marked it as to-read
Dylan Palmer
marked it as to-read
Talbott Rage
marked it as to-read
Rodney
marked it as to-read
Greg
marked it as to-read
Aram
marked it as to-read
Gunter
marked it as to-read
Dave Menace
marked it as to-read
Russ
marked it as to-read
Rion
marked it as to-read
Chris
marked it as to-read
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
