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Post by 547beast on Feb 3, 2018 8:37:26 GMT
There are so many different editions I don't know which one to buy. I'm looking to get a nice hardcover with illustrations to read then put on display with my swords. Which one do you guys think would be best?
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LH
Member
Posts: 205
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Post by LH on Feb 3, 2018 12:48:08 GMT
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Post by will howe on Feb 3, 2018 18:00:52 GMT
I have owned and read several, most have a directional bent on how the interpretation is meant to be applied to life in one way or the other. The one that i liked best and the only one that I have kept is the William Scott Wilson edition. It is a clean and relatively unslanted translation, with a well written forward giving some historical context and a helpful appendix containing some notes for further understanding in the back It also goes well with Wilsons other book on the subject "The Lone Samurai" a biography of Musashi. Not to mention all of the other great translations that Wilson has produced from Japanese treatises on subjects from swordsmanship to the tea ceremony, are well done and bring accessibility without a whole mess of rhetorical bias. Another of his works, a translation of Eiji Yoshikawa's work of historical fiction "Musashi" is among my favorite ever reads.
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Post by treeslicer on Feb 3, 2018 18:24:23 GMT
Musashi's available in all manner of editions, new and used. For display, I'd look through Amazon and eBay for a "coffee-table" edition. Another koryu manual I'd recommend, for diversifying your sources, is Hiroaki Sato's translation of the Heiho Kaden Sho, along with some related material, published by Barnes & Noble as The Sword & the Mind.
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Post by Timo Nieminen on Feb 3, 2018 21:13:02 GMT
The most common opinion here on translations of Five Rings is that Tokitsu is better than Wilson is better than Cleary: The Cleary translation is ok, the Wilson translation is good, but my favorite is the one by Kenji Tokitsu. Cleary is always a solid translator, although sometimes he is a little too matter-of-fact with his translation and loses some of the nuances of the language (an example would be comparing his translation of Musashi's Five Rings to that of William Scott Wilson's or Kenji Tokitsu's, the latter of which especially expands on the linguistic components). Not a universal opinion here; some prefer Cleary, and some prefer Wilson. There are also other translations, usually worse than these 3. At least some editions of the Cleary translation come with a section on the life of Musashi and photos showing some artwork by Musashi. So more illustrated than many editions, which are just the text. There's a graphic novel version out there. AFAIK, a shortened text, but certainly the most illustrated edition.
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Post by zabazagobo on Feb 4, 2018 7:19:32 GMT
Kenji Tokitsu's book on Musashi is the best in my opinion. He has tons of supplementary material that makes it a great resource (everything from a biography to other essays and close to a hundred pages of notes and annotations on the translation, really an invaluable source for studying Musashi in english)
Wilson's translation is also pretty great. I recommend you pick them both up, as Wilson articulates some things differently than Tokitsu and vice versa, and you can gain useful insights from this.
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Post by 547beast on Feb 4, 2018 10:20:09 GMT
Thanks guys.
Good info.
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Post by RaylonTheDemented on Feb 8, 2018 1:23:30 GMT
Just received my hardcover William Scott Wilson edition, will start to read soon. o7
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Post by ambulocetus on Apr 8, 2018 18:17:20 GMT
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Post by 547beast on Apr 13, 2018 9:11:39 GMT
Very interesting.
Thanks.
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