stirling, scotland. theres some koryu iaido in glasgow and edinburgh but nothing in stirlingshire that i know of. trying to find weapons stuff in general is pretty hard. except glasgow of course! they have great knife skills!
Ok well I've just leafed through my copy of A book of five rings translated by Victor Harris. Firstly somebody said he was taught by his father from page 10 of the foreword quote"When Musashi was seven, his father Munisai, either died or abandond the child" And from the same introduction Quote "Concerned only with perfecting his skill, he lived as men need not live, wandering over Japan soaked by the cold winds of winter,not dressing his hair, nor taking a wife, nor following any profession save his study. It is said he never entered a bathtub lest he was caught unawares without a weapon, and his appearance was uncouth and wretched" I would strongly recommend that before commenting on Yoshikawa'swork "Musashi " they actually read it. From the comments I have seen here it is quite apparant that they have not. Yoshikawa paints Musashi as a romantic figure...indeed the book is described as the "gone with the wind " of Japan..not a bad read.just a bit harder than a harry potter ( not a compliment)
Scott will correct me if I'm wrong but IIRC Mr Harris's book has a number of errors in it, so it probably isn't the best place to start.
Quote from my discussion with Mr Harris: "There are a few translation errors, but the publisher's deadline didn't allow me to correct them." Add to that there is some belief by martial scholars that Musashi studied his father's art, Tori-ryu, extensively.
Oh, and I have read (and compared with historical texts) Yoshikawa's story a number of times. Very cool, but not much more than that.
I Read Musashi a long time before I read Yoshikawa. so if anything mr.Harris's book influenced me regarding Yoshikawas book and not the other way around. But you are basically saying that Harrison is lying or pssibly poet's licence
Nowhere did I accuse my fellow BKA member of lying. Please re-read before making erroneous statements. I am saying that I am sure that Mr Harris took some of Yoshikawa's book as factual when writing his mini-bio of Musashi. When VH's translation of Go Rin no Sho was written, there was probably very little other MM history available.
My memory of Yoshikawas book paints an entirly different picture of Musashi than the one painted by Mr.Harrison in his translation of 5 rings. The Musashi in Yoshikawas book would not be described as unkempt, in fact he seems a rather heroic, romantic figure
When I get a chance, I will look my notes up of the inaccuracies and 'in-fill' that Yoshikawa provided to flesh out MM's history. As for the bathing thing, that was developed from an old 1700's play where MM was caught in a trap in a bath-house and afterwards swore never to enter a bath again. This is repeated by Yoshikawa if I remember correctly. Oh, and it is 'Harris', not 'Harrison'.
It could be the Title of an interesting Article Scott, something along the lines of:- "Miyamoto Musashi and Koryo: myths, interpretations and realities" - just my 2pence worth.
There was a lot of this on the old HNIR-UK page - it will return once I have finished off the new website. If I get the time to generate an article, I will do so.