The earliest extant martial art treatises are Heihô kadensho [56] (Our Fam-
ily’s Tradition of Swordsmanship, 1632) by Yagyû Munenori [57] (1571–
1646) and Gorin no sho[58] (Five Elemental Spheres, 1643) by Miyamoto
Musashi (both reprinted in Watanabe et al. 1972). Both texts were written
by elderly men who in the final years of their lives sought to present their
disciples with a concluding summation of their teachings. Until modern
times both texts were secret initiation documents. Like other initiation doc-
uments they contain vocabulary that cannot be fathomed by outsiders who
lack training in their respective martial styles. For this reason, the modern
interpretations and translations that have appeared thus far in publications
intended for a general audience have failed to do them justice. In some cases,
the specialized martial art terminology in these works has been interpreted
and translated into English in the most fanciful ways (e.g., Suzuki 1959).
Heihô kadenshobegins by listing the elements (i.e., names of kata) in
the martial art curriculum that Munenori had learned from his father. This
list is followed by a random collection of short essays in which Munenori
records his own insights into the meaning of old sayings or concepts that are
applicable to martial art training. In this section he cites the teachings of the
Zen monk Takuan Sôhô [59] (1573–1643), Chinese military manuals, neo-
Confucian tenets, and doctrines of the Konparu [60] school of Nô [61] the-
ater. Munenori asserts that real martial art is not about personal duels, but
rather lies in establishing peace and preventing war by serving one’s lord and
protecting him from self-serving advisers. He emphasizes that one must
practice neo-Confucian investigation of things (kakubutsu [62]; in Chinese,
gewu) and that for success in any aspect of life, and especially in martial
arts, one must maintain an everyday state of mind (byôjôshin [63]).
Gorin no shoeschews the philosophical reflection found in Heihô
kadenshoand concentrates almost exclusively on fighting techniques. It ba-
sically expands Musashi’s earlier Heihô sanjûgoka jô [64] (Thirty-Five Ini-
tiations into Swordsmanship, 1640; reprinted in Watanabe et al. 1972) by
organizing his teachings into five sections according to the Buddhist scheme
of five elements: Earth concerns key points for studying swordsmanship;
Water concerns Musashi’s sword techniques; Fire concerns battlefield tech-
niques; Wind concerns the techniques of other styles; and Space (i.e., empti-
ness) encourages his disciples to avoid delusion by perfecting their skills,
tempering their spirits, and developing insight. Throughout the work,
Musashi’s style is terse to the point of incomprehensibility. In spite of his
use of the elemental scheme to give his work some semblance of structure,
the individual sections lack any internal organization whatsoever. Some as-
sertions reappear in several different contexts without adding any new in-
formation. Much of what can be understood appears self-contradictory.
This unintelligibility, however, allows the text to function as Rorschach
Written Texts: Japan 765