I'll need to be on my Chromebook to start the new thread, so I can copy-paste from my files.
Miyamoto Musashi was kind of an anomaly from his era. If you want to know just how much, compare his Dokkodo to Hagakure (quotes from this were used in the movie "Ghost Dog - the Way of the Samurai." One of my favorite - if violebt - movies.) Hagakure was much more the traditional mindset of the Samurai; and a strong reflextion of Japanese culture of the era. Musashi was not a blind follower in the way taught by the culture of his times, and this got him into trouble quite a lot - he was moat definitely a Difficult Child!
Both Tokitsu's and Wilson's biographies are worth reading. Wilson is more well-versed in the scholarly approach to translating a large number of Asian Writings; Tokitsu is from Japan, teaches Musashi's developed two-sword art, but lives in France. His manuscript was translated from French if I remember right.
There is a translation by Cleary too of Musashi's Writings and they are quite good - but Cleary is a Jesuit and this does shape the filter he translates through.
