Review: Musashi: Book One – Earth, Water And Fire

Japanese folk hero Musashi gets a modern translation

Is book one worth checking out?

Musashi: Book One – Earth, Water And Fire
Written By Eiji Yoshikawa
Translation by Alexander Bennett
Tuttle Publishing
$19.99 SRP
Amazon
Historical Fiction

Musashi is one of the best known stories in Japan, and it’s recently been fully translated for English audiences.

The story follows Miyamoto Musashi, a ronin looking for his purpose, as he traverses Japan to learn about sword fighting and himself. Musashi begins his journey a brash young man seeking glory, but after a 3-year imprisonment, he discovers there is more to life than glory. After his release, he begins his journey to be the best sword fighter in Japan.

The book is a good introduction to the Edo period of Japan; while it’s not completely historically accurate, it does get the culture and themes pretty close. It’s also a good companion piece to Shogun, which ends right where Musashi begins (but not directly connected).

The book also works because it integrates a variety of styles; there are comedic aspects of the story, romance, action. As a historical fiction book, it’s got a little bit of everything.

If there is one thing that could have been improved on, it’s the characterizations of the supporting cast; a majority of the characters don’t feel fleshed out and are very one-dimensional. It’s especially frustrating because many of the characters continue to pop up throughout the book and a little depth would make them stand out more and bring joy to the reader when they return.

Some might also complain about the story being cliche, but this story is very old and the inspiration for many other ronin-based stories since then; Usagi Yojimbo is heavily influenced by the Musashi and it was one of the first things I thought of while reading the novel. This book doesn’t use cliches, it created them.

Again, I’ve read complaints about sexism in the book, but this is a piece of fiction from a different time; it wasn’t overtly sexist, but I can see where that idea could come from. Like slavery in 18-19th century American culture, the idea of men being superior was pretty common in 1600s Japan and depicted in the book as part of the norm.

Musashi was a real person, but the book is a fictionalized version of his life; the details are different, but the general idea matches. Yoshikawa also wrote this as a series of serial stories, with each chapter an individual story released in a Japanese newspaper.

It’s a chunker at 576 pages, but the story is pretty straight forward and is fast paced, making it a quick read. Some readers might be jolted by continual recaps, but that’s due to the original serial format.

This new version of the story is broken into 3 parts (I have only read book 1), but I’m ready to pick up the rest of it for the full story. It’s also been translated into Manga as Vagabond, but it’s not a complete story and probably won’t be. There is also the Samurai trilogy on film by Hiroshi Inagaki, which is loosely based on the books. Really, there are countless versions of the story across every medium.

I will say the book is not for everyone; the writing style will turn some people off (especially if they are unaware it was written as a serial), and the themes are more for those who enjoy ancient Japanese culture.

Rating: 4.50 out of 5.00; this is something I want to continue on and see how Musashi ends his journey.

Thanks to Tuttle Publishing for the ARC. All opinions are my own.