By age thirteen, Miyamoto Musashi had killed his opponent in what would become the first of many celebrated swordfights. By thirty, he had fought more than sixty matches, losing none. He would live another thirty years but kill no one else. He continued to engage in swordfights but now began to show his skill simply by thwarting his opponents' every attack until they acknowledged Musashi's all-encompassing ability. At the same time, the master swordsman began to expand his horizons, exploring Zen Buddhism and its related arts, particularly ink painting, in a search for a truer Way.

Musashi was a legend in his own time. As a swordsman, he preferred the wooden sword and in later years almost never fought with a real weapon. He outfoxed his opponents or turned their own strength against them. At the height ofhis powers, he began to evolve artistically and spirituallly, becoming one of the country's most highly regarded ink painters and calligraphers, while deepening his practice of Zen Buddhism. He funneled his hard-earned insights about the warrior arts into his spiritual goals. Ever the solitary wanderer, Musashi shunned power, riches,and the comforts of a home or fixed position with a feudal lord in favor of a constant search for truth, perfection, and a better Way. Eventually, he came to the realization that perfecton in one art, whether peaceful or robust, could offer entry to a deeper, spiritual understanding. His philosophy, along with his warrior strategies, is distilled in his renowned work, The Book of Five Rings, written near the end of his life.

Working from original Japanese source materials, author William Scott Wilson paints an unforgettable protrait. Wilson, of course, is also the translator who brought the English-speaking world the authoritative versions of Hagakure, Musashi's Book of Five Rings, and other classics of martial arts philosophy.

Musashi remains a source of fascination for the Japanese, as well as for those in the West who have more recently discovered the ideals of the samurai and Zen Buddhism. The Lone Samurai is the first biography ever to appear in English of this richly layered, complex seventeenth-century swordsman and seeker, whose legacy has lived on far beyond his own time and place.

William Scott Wilson was born in 1944 and grew up in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. As an undergraduate student at Dartmouth College in 1966, he was invited by a friend to join a three-month kayak trip up the coast of Japan from Shimonoseki to Tokyo. This eye-opening journey, beautifully documented in National Geographic Magazine, spurred Wilson's fascination with the culture and history of Japan.

After receiving a B.A. degree in political science from Dartmouth, Wilson earned a second B.A. in Japanese language and literature from the Monterey Institute of Foreign Studies, then undertook extensive research on Edo-period (1603-1868) philosophy at the Aichi Prefectural University in Nagoya, Japan.

Wilson completed his first translation, Hagakure, while living in an old farmhouse deep in the Japanese countryside. Hagakure saw publication in 1979, the same year Wilson completed an M.A. in Japanese language and literature at the University of Washington. Wilson's other translations include The Book of Five Rings, The Life-Giving Sword, The Unfettered Mind, the Eiji Yoshikawa novel Taiko, and Ideals of the Samurai, which has been used as a college textbook on Japanese history and thought. Two decades after its initial publication in English, Hagakure was prominently featured in the Jim Jarmusch film Ghost Dog. Traveling frequently to Japan for research and pleasure, Wlilson currently lives in Miami, Florida.

The Lone Samurai is a landmark biography of Miyamoto Musashi, the legendary Japanese figure known throughout the world as a master swordsman, spiritual seeker, and author of the Book of Five Rings. A stunning protarit of a courageous and singularly determined man emerges in these pages, the first biography of Musashi to appear in English. With a compassionate yet critical eye, William Scott Wilson delves into the workings of Musashi's mind as the iconoclastic samurai wrestled with philosphical and spiritual ideas that are as relevant today as they were in his times. The Lone Samurai is far more than a vivid account of a fasinating period in feudal Japan. It is the story of one man's quest for the right path in life, and the reward it eventually led to.

Contents

Preface
Maps
Prologue
Chapter One The way of the sword: Banshu to Ganryu Island
First strike
Origins
Finding his strength
Kyoto and matches with the masters
Sharpeneing his tools
Demon of the Western Provinces
Chapter Two The way of the sword and the way of the brush: Osaka Castle to Kokura
The fire of battle
Arts of peace, arts of war
The Kyoto renaissance
Family name
A real live human being
On to Kokura
Kumoi
Shimabara
Chapter Three The way of the brush: Kumamoto
Connections
The way of the warrior
A place in the seating order
Last bouts
The thirty-five articles
An end and a beginning
The brush and the mind
Painting with the mind of the sword
The paintings
Calligraphy
Fudo Myo-o
Chapter Four The way of life and death: Reigan Cave
Old age
The five-storied pagoda
The concept of the five rings in esoteric Buddhism
Basic principles
The way of the martial arts is to win
Discipline
Real knowledge
Everldya mind
Fluidity
Psychology
Final days
Musashi's character
Afterword
Appendix I- LIfe after death
Appendix 2-Influences on and parallels to The Book of Five Rings
Appendix 3-A Mkusashi Filmgraphy
Notes
Glossary-Terms; Historical figures; Clans; Events; Fighting styles; Writings; Others
Bibliography