Musashi

This one took a while!
It is the first samurai novel I have read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The story provides a very rich view of life in Japan in the early 1600s. It is epic, sad, adventurous, beautiful and most of the time, fun as well.
At some points it felt like watching anime, in written form. The settings and the reactions, the huge fights where adversaries just stare each other out and that's the main point of the whole confrontation. The descriptions of the settings and the little details of japanese tradition and culture. It really adds to what is also a hero's journey of self discovery and growth, which takes Musashi from rebel misbehaved teenager to wise samurai master.
It is true that a lot of the characters can feel a bit one dimensional or predictable at some points. I would have personally loved to see a bit more of focus on the female characters, for example. And at some points it can get really confusing to follow along the names, families, houses, regions and lineages of samurais and bandits and shoguns. But that always happens in stories of these epic scope, it is not a major flaw.
What the book does in a fantastic fashion though, is present the spiritual and essential questions of the Way of the Sword. What it is to be a warrior? A lot of the philosophical nuance that goes into self improvement by the way of learning, training and constantly questioning oneself is the main feature of Musashi's journey. I loved the way the book brought home those insights, and exemplified them without being preachy or extremely obvious.
This is probably a book I will be returning to in the future, because I am sure I missed lots of lessons included in it. I am also very curious of all the adaptations that have sprung out of it and would reccommend it as it is not only fun, but also insightful and a provides a glimpse into the japanese heroic mindset.

Liked it the first time I read it, and liked it even more the second. This is a largely fictional account of the early life of one of Japan's greatest historical heroes: Miyamoto Musashi, a renowned swordsman of the early Tokugawa period.

How fictional is it? Well, what we actually know of Musashi's life during the period described could probably be summed up in less than a thousand words, and this book is nearly a thousand pages long.

From what I can tell, the book does incorporate what history is known in a reasonably accurate manner, but then goes on to weave an elaborate tapestry around those few facts, intermingling historical figures and events with completely fictional ones. The result is an entertaining story, but one that has its idiosyncrasies and that sometimes shows its origin as a long running serial.

One of the most glaring idiosyncrasies that runs throughout the book is the number of unlikely meetings and near-meetings. Characters are always running into each other at the most unlikely of times and places, or just failing to meet due to equally unlikely circumstances. The latter at times approaches the level of a comedy of errors.

Still, the end result is entertaining.

At some point in our lives, we all wanted to act like Musashi. To completely and relentlessly pursue an objective, to grow technically and spiritually. But as time goes by and opportunities change, we make small decisions that compound on a different lifestyle. Musashi is the archetype of effort and perseverance, but with a major difference: By choosing to live the samurai life, his decisions are always of life and death.

On a duel, Musashi tells about the way he uses the sword. There's no 50% or 80% strike. Not because he does not want to, but instead the swordsmanship does not allow. It doesn't matter what the samurai want, it's just the way of the sword.

The only bad part of the book are the extensive mentions of Japan geography. Characters go from mountain Khajiin to valley Sepukawa to walk the road Garafune, and there's a footnote saying how Garafune is the old name for Kogunake, north of Kyoto, east of Fukushima. I guess if you're familiar with Japan, you can understand all these references, but for everyone else, too much unknowns, and since they are so constant, sometimes you skip or consciously ignore a name.