Thursday 2 October 2014

Assembly 3 - Miyamoto Musashi and the Science of Strategy

I have recently become interested in the character of Miyamoto Musashi.
This follows a friend of mine lending me his "Book or Five Rings" over the summer. The book is a sort of manual, written four hundred years ago, by Musashi. It is partly a book of philosophy and partly a manual to a young swordsman explaining to him how to win.

Miyamoto Musashi by eijiokabayashi (source: deviantart)

Now, there has always been an interest in this sort of thing. Sun Tzu's "Art of War" was very popular a few years ago. But Musashi is different, because he is interested in practicalities all the way.

Musashi became interesting to me just because of this passage,which grabbed me right away. In it he describes the battles he has won. It really is very impressive:

"I have trained in the way of strategy since my youth, and at the age of thirteen I fought a duel for the first time. My opponent was called Arima Kihei, a sword adept of the Shinto ryū, and I defeated him. At the age of sixteen I defeated a powerful adept by the name of Akiyama, who came from Tajima Province. At the age of twenty-one I went up to Kyōtō and fought duels with several adepts of the sword from famous schools, but I never lost."

Now you can say this sounds arrogant, but if it is true this is very impressive. I looked into what a duel meant at this time and it seems that in at least some cases these were to the death.

Still, what makes it even more impressive is that Musashi usually only fought duels with a Bokken, which is a kind of club.

So the question is how he did it. From my reading I have discovered two important ideas. He comes back to these ideas again and again in his "Book of Five Rings".

First, study the trades.

The first task he sets students is to pay attention to everything that is going on around you.

He describes watching master builders and carpenters and learning from their skill how to improve his own technique. The way they raise a roof can teach you to raise a defence, and so on.

So firstly, take an interest in everything.

Secondly, Musashi talks about being in the right place at the right time. According to one story, Musashi fought a duel with Sasaki Kojirō  who was called ""The Demon of the Western Provinces" and who wielded a "nodachi."

Now, a nodachi is a sword as tall as a man. Yet Musashi is meant to have defeated him with his Bokken.

The battle took place on an island in the middle of a lake. Musashi arrived by boat and, according to one legend, he had carved his Bokken out of an oar on his way across.

Yet he defeated this giant with his huge sword. How? Well, one theory has it that he had waited until the sun was in the right place in the sky to dazzle him.

This fits with what we know about Musashi, that he was a master of strategy. One key part of strategy was to wait for the right time.

So what can we learn from Musashi?

Firstly we can learn to take an interest in things. Interesting people are interested in everything. Not only that, we can learn from everyone. You don't need to restrict yourself, and you can never know where the missing piece of the puzzle will come from. Whatever you're working on, you should take the concerns of others seriously.

Secondly, pick your moment! So many problems students have come from not choosing their moment. They try and have a discussion with a teacher at the wrong moment. They want to explain themselves right now and so they get sent out of the detention because they make themselves a nuisance.

And so on.

We don't have to do everything now! Be like Musashi and wait for the right moment: you'll be surprised how much easier you find things if you ask yourself that question. Is this the moment, or is it not?

References

Musashi - The Book of Five Rings