Zen and Swordsmanship

Here is a blog entry that has to do with Zen, Kendo, and Musashi. Below are a few lines as a teaser, into which I've taken the liberty of inserting a few links.

Great Rivals, Great Treasures for Kendo

Yagyu Munenori was known to be a great rival of Miyamoto Musashi. Yagyu Munenori was the kendo teacher to the shogun, a great and gifted swordsman who was the founder of the “No Sword” school of kendo and just as famous as Musashi. Munenori was known to have favored using an early form of kendo bogu for the safe practicing of kendo. His mentor the the zen priest Takuan Soho was instrumental in forming his ideas for his kendo style and his book that he wrote “The book of the Shinkage-Ryu Martial Arts”. It is unclear how much he knew or if Musashi read Munenori’s insightful book. But it was clearly on his mind since soon after the book was released Musashi wrote his own book on kendo “a book of five rings” the most famous of all kendo books and unmatched in its wisdom.