“In fighting and in everyday life you should be determined though calm. Meet the situation without tenseness yet not recklessly, your spirit settled yet unbiased. An elevated spirit is weak and a low spirit is weak. Do not let the enemy see your spirit.”
“In single combat, if the enemy is less skilful than ourself, if his rhythm is disorganized, or if he has fallen into evasive or retreating attitudes, we must crush him straightaway, with no concern for his presence and without allowing him space for breath. It is essential to crush him all at once. The primary thing is not to let him recover his position even a little.”
FUCKIN A!! i never thought i’d find a thread on here about the illest mofo Toshiro Mifune!
i dont remember any quotes, but the first battle in Miyamoto Musashi: Duel at Ichijoji Temple and the last battle in Miyamoto Musashi: Duel at Ganryu Island are WAY TOO DAMN SWEET!!!
imo, despite Fistful of Dollars being a spagetti western it was a great remake of Yojimbo.
check out Sword of Doom starring Tatsuya Nakadai. one of its fight scenes featuring Mifune is cinematographically out of this world for a 1966 movie.
[quote]wufwugy wrote:
FUCKIN A!! i never thought i’d find a thread on here about the illest mofo Toshiro Mifune!
i dont remember any quotes, but the first battle in Miyamoto Musashi: Duel at Ichijoji Temple and the last battle in Miyamoto Musashi: Duel at Ganryu Island are WAY TOO DAMN SWEET!!!
imo, despite Fistful of Dollars being a spagetti western it was a great remake of Yojimbo.
check out Sword of Doom starring Tatsuya Nakadai. one of its fight scenes featuring Mifune is cinematographically out of this world for a 1966 movie.[/quote]
yeah bro ! i only know him from seven samurai and rashomon but i’m ordering sword of doom right frickn now and a couple others. mifune is awesome !
[quote]swivel wrote:
wufwugy wrote:
FUCKIN A!! i never thought i’d find a thread on here about the illest mofo Toshiro Mifune!
i dont remember any quotes, but the first battle in Miyamoto Musashi: Duel at Ichijoji Temple and the last battle in Miyamoto Musashi: Duel at Ganryu Island are WAY TOO DAMN SWEET!!!
imo, despite Fistful of Dollars being a spagetti western it was a great remake of Yojimbo.
check out Sword of Doom starring Tatsuya Nakadai. one of its fight scenes featuring Mifune is cinematographically out of this world for a 1966 movie.
yeah bro ! i only know him from seven samurai and rashomon but i’m ordering sword of doom right frickn now and a couple others. mifune is awesome ![/quote]
check out sanjuro. the sequel (some say prequel) to yojimbo.
there’re a bunch of japanese samurai movies that look frickin sweet but aren’t available on dvd. big bummer!
P.S. i feel like a dork not even realizing that miyamoto musashi was a real dude before reading bigflamer’s post.
Hi
remember the Book of Five Rings was authored a good 500 yrs after the Art of War by Sun Tzu.
concepts such as “know yourself and your enemy and you will not fear the outcome of 100 battles” - is similar to knowing when your enemy is weak, unsettled, distracted, etc.
Did you also know that Hagakure was incorporated (in hollywood fashion) into the movie Ghost Dog?
Hagakure (or “Under the leaves”)is a great read. it, the five rings, and The Art of War sould be required reading for T-Nation members.
When I trained Kendo we had some long discussions on Mu’s theories and tactics. it’s amazing how many of his ideas can be used efectivly in modern combat situations.
[quote]ShaunW wrote:
Hi
remember the Book of Five Rings was authored a good 500 yrs after the Art of War by Sun Tzu.
concepts such as “know yourself and your enemy and you will not fear the outcome of 100 battles” - is similar to knowing when your enemy is weak, unsettled, distracted, etc.
Did you also know that Hagakure was incorporated (in hollywood fashion) into the movie Ghost Dog?[/quote]
yeah bro that’s the movie that set me off ! i got the book right after i saw it. also got rashomon which is what the chick is reading in the first hit scene. then i became a kurosawa freak ! didja see rza in the movie ? he did the soundtrack too . frickn awesome !
here’s a couple of favorites i’ve highlighted from hagakure :
"the resolution of the men of former times was deep. those between the ages of 13 and 60 went to the front lines. for this reason men of advanced years hid their age. "
when i was young i kept a “diary of regret” and tried to record my mistakes day by day. but there was never a day when i didn’t have 20 or 30 entries. as there was no end to it, i gave up. even today, when i think about the day’s affairs after going to bed, there is never a day when i did not make some blunder in speaking or in some activity . living without mistakes is truly impossible. but this is something that people who live by cleverness have no inclination to think about."
“A person who does not want to be struck by the enemy’s arrows will have no divine protection. For a man who does not wish to be hit by the arrows of a common soldier, but rather by those of a warrior of fame, there will be the protection for which he has asked.”
i like that last one alot. the idea of jumping in headfirst and pulling through. take the initiative and you won’t get hit by the cheap shot. that must suck. i got a live version of henry rollins doing his tune “civilized” in the middle he says something like " i’m 33 and i wannna live 'til i’m 1 hundred. i don’t want to get shot down by a hundred lb. boy with a gun …"
[quote]rocker75 wrote:
Iron Maiden’s song “Sun and Steel” from the album Piece of Mind was in direct reference to Musashi.[/quote]
Actually, it’s a reference to an essay by Japanese author Yukio Mishima.
Yukio Mishima was hardcore into the ancient samurai mythology and exalted Musashi as the exemplar of Japanese manhood.
I highly recommend “Sun and Steel” to the T-Nation brotherhood. That book is cool because he talks about the “steel” as a metaphor for two things. The Sword and the Iron - forge the body with the Iron and the sword becomes an extension of that body. Without strength there could be no mastery of the sword. It’s a really fucking cool meditation into why he loved to train.
Check out this movie called: “Mishima: A life in four parts” Or just pick up any of his books - he along with Kenzaburo Oe or Kazuo Ishiguro is among the titans of Modern Japanese Literature.
Zatoichi is probably the best samurai movie I’ve ever seen - outside of the Kurosawa canon. Beat Takeshi is the fucking man!
However, if you want to see some crazy Samurai shit, check out the “Shogun Assasin” series. (It inspired the “Lone Wolf and Cub” comics of the '80’s) Absolute mayhem. You’ll see where Tarantino got the idea for the final fight scene in Kill Bill Vol.1
Immortalized by the RZA on the epic and now classic hip-hop masterpiece “GZA:Liquid Swords” album
[quote]OARSMAN wrote:
rocker75 wrote:
Iron Maiden’s song “Sun and Steel” from the album Piece of Mind was in direct reference to Musashi.
Actually, it’s a reference to an essay by Japanese author Yukio Mishima.
Yukio Mishima was hardcore into the ancient samurai mythology and exalted Musashi as the exemplar of Japanese manhood.
I highly recommend “Sun and Steel” to the T-Nation brotherhood. That book is cool because he talks about the “steel” as a metaphor for two things. The Sword and the Iron - forge the body with the Iron and the sword becomes an extension of that body. Without strength there could be no mastery of the sword. It’s a really fucking cool meditation into why he loved to train.
Check out this movie called: “Mishima: A life in four parts” Or just pick up any of his books - he along with Kenzaburo Oe or Kazuo Ishiguro is among the titans of Modern Japanese Literature. [/quote]
Excellent quote catch,oarsman!,Mishima’s life was an interesting one,but I believe ended sadly with his death by seppuku. i also think I remember reading that his second,the person who was supposed to cut his head off at the end,botched the job horribly. But in agreement with Redsol,there are still some very useful combat applications to Musashi’s thoughts,especially one on one combat and strategy.
I’m not surprised I need hip boots to wade through this thread. Japanese nerdness to follow:
Miyamoto wrote the Gorin Sho approximately 2200 years after the Art of War was compiled.
Kazuo Koike wrote the first Lone Wolf and Cub stories in 1970, a decade before the film Shogun Assassin was released. The comics inspired the film and television series.
Yojimbo is essentially a feudal Japanese adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s novel Red Harvest, a noir detective story, and wasn’t in any way related to Miyamoto Musashi.
This will paint me as a philosophy snob I expect, but memorizing quotes from the Gorin Sho or randomly dropping them into a forum discussion is so missing the point I’m almost beside myself with regards to explaining how far off the mark that goes. It’s not a phrasebook of fortune cookie proverbs or a manual on how to whup ass; in absolute simplification, it’s explaining a way to live every facet of your life.
Seeing people describing Miyamoto as the “illest warrior mofo” looks about the same to me as some noob coming into T-Nation and bragging about the sets of 50 barbell curls he’s doing in the squat rack would look to everyone else here. Please, guys - don’t do your curls in the squat rack.
[quote]vermilion wrote:
I’m not surprised I need hip boots to wade through this thread. Japanese nerdness to follow:
Miyamoto wrote the Gorin Sho approximately 2200 years after the Art of War was compiled.
Kazuo Koike wrote the first Lone Wolf and Cub stories in 1970, a decade before the film Shogun Assassin was released. The comics inspired the film and television series.
Yojimbo is essentially a feudal Japanese adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s novel Red Harvest, a noir detective story, and wasn’t in any way related to Miyamoto Musashi.
This will paint me as a philosophy snob I expect, but memorizing quotes from the Gorin Sho or randomly dropping them into a forum discussion is so missing the point I’m almost beside myself with regards to explaining how far off the mark that goes. It’s not a phrasebook of fortune cookie proverbs or a manual on how to whup ass; in absolute simplification, it’s explaining a way to live every facet of your life.
Seeing people describing Miyamoto as the “illest warrior mofo” looks about the same to me as some noob coming into T-Nation and bragging about the sets of 50 barbell curls he’s doing in the squat rack would look to everyone else here. Please, guys - don’t do your curls in the squat rack. [/quote]
bro i read that book all the time and i do read it like a “phrasebook” because that’s how it was fricken written- in phrases. not too mention you can only digest like one or two of those beauty’s at a time. i might read a couple pages but there’s always one or two that speak to me about what’s going on in my life.and i highlight 'em. so i’m kinda wicked happy redsol 1 started this thread 'cause you never know what’s gonna speak to you or when . and myself or some of the other guys might get something out of it you know ? maybe life changing , maybe just another cool movie to watch. what the frick’s it to you anyway spanky ? your post was interesting ‘til the last paragraph when ya started pissin’ on the fire with your frickn god awful stinky white asparagus and truffle pee. enjoy your reading anyway you want but go shit in your own yard.
more from hagakure:
“Human life is truly a short affair. It is better to live doing the things that you like. It is foolish to live within this dream of a world seeing unpleasantness and doing only things that you do not like. But it is important never to tell this to young people as it is something that would be harmful if incorrectly understood.
Personally, I like to sleep. And I intend to appropriately confine myself more and more to my living quarters and pass my life away sleeping.”
Uesugi Kenshin said, “I never knew about winning from beginning to end, but only about not being behind in a situation.” This is interesting. A retainer will be dumbfounded if he is behind in a situation. In each and every instance one’s function or responsiveness will not be shallow if he is not behind ."
[quote]swivel wrote:
what the frick’s it to you anyway spanky ?[/quote]
Since you’re a Miyamoto buff, what it is to me is the last paragraph before the epilogue of the wind volume. Look it up and we can discuss it. It’s what T-Nation is all about, really.