There are a variety of sites with information related to samurai,
swords and other things about the time in which Musashi lived. To
list a few, for information on samurai, the samurai
achives has an extensive and impressive amount of resources
and links. Related to japanese swords, a good general resource can
be found here,
and for pictures and explanations about the parts of the swords,
try this
link. There is an interesting site that has a tour of the Edo
time period when Musashi lived.
There are two main movies on Musashi. Both are good and have their
own approaches to the basic story, as influenced by the book "Musashi"
by Yoshikawa Eiji. The Classic, Musashi Miyamoto, is the
first of a three part series and won an Honorary Academy Award for
Best Foreign Language Film first released in the United States during
1955. The other two parts of the story are told in movies titled
Duel at Ichijoji Temple and Duel at Ganryu Island.
The other movie on Musashi was put out as a TV series by NHK in
2003. The 49 one-hour episodes provide a pretty comprehensive telling
of the tale.
Musashi's book, The Book of Five rings has been translated by various
publishers. The one by Victor Harris is probably the best from a
philosophical perspective. For ones that explain the words better
in terms of understanding specific martial arts moves and strategies,
the translation by Thomas Cleary is one of the better choices.
|