In the early 1600's, a samurai named Miyamoto Musashi (
), emerged from obscurity to mixing with
the ruling class based solely on his undeniable skill in man to man combat.
In a series of duels, he won against people that were thought unbeatable.
At one time, using his two sword technique, he single-handedly beat over 30
samurai simultaneously attacking him with guns, arrows and swords.
He wrote an analysis of his style in a book, The Book of Five Rings (
).
Recently, the book has remerged as a reference and conversation point for modern
Japanese and Western businessmen. It's strategies can be applied wherever there is
conflict and competition occur. Like Sun Tzu's Art of War, it is
written by someone with direct experience. Here's some details:
A deeper analysis of the book itself:
Book of Five Rings - One ring at a time
Here's the whole thing in the original Japanese