A case of relationship between Eastern and Western philosophy:

concepts of rhythm and habit in Miyamoto Musashi’s Gorin no Sho

Gauvain Leconte

ABSTRACT

The goal of this paper is to present the philosophical issues of the Japanese
classic Gorin no Sho 五輪書 (Book of Five Rings, 1645) written by the bushi (武士,
warrior) Miyamoto Musashi. In a first part I argue that this treaty on the Way of
Combat can be interpreted as a text dealing with problem regarding philosophy of
action and technique. In a second part I show that Musashi’s main theses are based
on two central concepts: “habit” and “rhythm”. These two concepts are not
unfamiliar to Western philosophy, and I argue that it is possible to study
convergences with several philosophers from this tradition.

INTRODUCTION

Can we use the works of Eastern thinkers to solve Western philosophical problems and
reciprocally? The traditional answer to that question is “no”. At the sight of a book like the Gorin
no Sho this answer seems justified. Written by Miyamoto Musashi, a bushi of the seventeenth
century, this treaty on the art of war focuses on kenjutsu 剣術 (techniques for Japanese fencing)
and heihō no michi 兵法の道 (The Way of Combat 1 ). Those two notions seem specific to
Japanese culture.

The very words and style of Musashi would then be highly dependent of their sociological and
historical context, and only applicable to Eastern philosophical problems. The first half of the

1
I will not comment here the word “michi” or “dō” ( 道) but simply translate it by ”Way”. Michi has a rather broad
and vague meaning in Japanese: it can mean “road”, “method”, “profession”, “vocation” or “principles”. But the
meaning of “Way” has a comparable vagueness and extension. Following Uozumi (2000) I do not translate 兵法の道
by the “Way of Martial Arts”, but by the “Way of Combat”, because “Martial Arts” is probably evocating, for modern
readers, different sports included in Budō 武道 (karate, kendō, judō, etc.) a concept which only appeared at the end of
the nineteenth century. (Tokitsu 1998, 25)
 Rhythm and Habits in the Gorin no Sho 2

seventeenth century coincides with the beginning of the Edo period and the instauration of the
Tokugawa shogunate. It is a period often characterized by a strict social order and isolationist
foreign policies. If the real effects of such policies are still debated among historians, it is clear
that they reinforced sharp social differences between Japan and the rest of the world. It would
seem difficult to anybody to explain the role of bushi in the Edo society by comparing it to the
role of European knights during Middle-Age or the structure and dogmas of Zen Buddhism by
comparing it to Christianity. Now, with the instauration of peace at the beginning of the
seventeenth century, kendō (剣 道, Japanese fencing) evolved into a practice combining both
fighting techniques inherited from warriors of the sixteenth century’s civil wars and spiritual
practices coming from Zen Buddhism. The Buddhist monk Takuan Sōhō and Yagyū Munenori,
head of the Yagyū Shinkage-ryū (柳生新陰流, school Yagyū-Shinkage) lived at the same period
than Musashi and both professed the doctrine of ken-zen-ichi (剣禅一, Sword and Zen as one)2.
From a Western perspective, the difficulties to understand the role and culture of bushi and kendō
are then intensified by the difficulties to understand Zen Buddhism.

How could one, then, without oversimplifications, think that the Gorin no Sho could fit into
Western philosophical debates which have emerged in completely different contexts?

However, modern Japanese philosophers are not so reluctant to mix references to both
“Western” and “Eastern” thinkers on specific problems. Yoneyama Masaru (1999) for example,
professor in Nagoya University, fruitfully combine Leibniz and Nishida to handle classic
aesthetical questions.

My thesis is that European thinkers should do the same, because nothing in a book like the
Gorin no Sho prevents it from a philosophical interpretation. It can throw some light on one of the
most important question in the field of philosophy of action: how is it possible to articulate the
principles of action if the only effective actions are those that must always be adapted to changing
circumstances?

I sketch here such a philosophical interpretation of the Gorin no Sho and argue that Musashi
can and should be compared with Western thinkers like Aristotle not only because one mirrors the
other but also because they complete each other.

2
Yagyū Munenori, 兵法家伝書 (A hereditary book on the Art of War, 1632). He was also the instructor of the shogun Tokugawa
Iemitsu. Takuan Sōhō, 不動智神妙録 (The Unfettered Mind, 1632). Cf. Sato 1986 for modern edition of both references.

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 Rhythm and Habits in the Gorin no Sho 3

1. FOR A PHILOSOPHICAL INTERPRETATION OF THE GORIN NO SHO

1.1 Musashi’s life and the Gorin no Sho

Little is known for sure about Musashi’s life, but little is needed here. We know that he was
born in the country of Harima, probably around 1582. (Toshinobu and Bennett 2010, 103) From
the age of twenty-one to thirty, he fought more than sixty duels. From thirty to fifty Musashi
stopped fighting in duels, but took part in several battles as a commander and practiced other arts
like Nō recitation (能), ceremony of tea (茶の湯, chanoyu), wood sculpture and sumi-e (墨絵, ink
wash painting). As we will see, this eclecticism does have some conceptual importance. At the age
of sixty, Musashi retired in a cave near Kumamoto and wrote the Gorin no Sho.

The treaty itself is composed of five scrolls corresponding the five elements of Godai (五大,
the five elements of Japanese Buddhism): Ground or Earth (地, chi), Water (水, sui), Fire (火, ka ),
Wind (風, kaze) and Void or Sky (空, kū).

The Earth chapter exposes the different Ways in the world and defines the Way of Combat in
relations with them. The Water chapter depicts the techniques to hold the swords (the big sword,
katana 太刀 and the short sword, wakizashi 脇差), the five kamae (構え, stances, or in-guard
positions) and the kata (型, sequence of movements) of Musashi’s two swords school (二天一流,
Niten ichi ryū). The Fire chapter exposes different principles of tactics and strategy applying
during fights. The Wind chapter makes a review of the doctrine of other ryūha (流派, schools) and
contains the pedagogical theory of Musashi. At last, the short Void chapter is a summary of all the
principles taught in the previous chapters and exposes the final principle: “the mind is Void”
(Musashi 1645, 137).

1.2 Is a philosophical interpretation of the Gorin no Sho possible?

Some authors seem to think that the organization of the Gorin no Sho and formulas like “the
Mind is Void” must be interpreted as mystical and esoteric teachings. Esoteric teachings are
secrets restricted to the members of a school and hided under metaphors and apparent
contradictions. Michel Random, for example, in an essay named “The Sword, The Centre and The
Spontaneity” considered that:

The schools [of kendō] are by definition secrets. The Art of the Sword is before
everything an esoteric art including a true initiation. […] Tactics is the art to bring the

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 Rhythm and Habits in the Gorin no Sho 4

center in a multitude of different points almost at the same time. Here is a great and true
secret which is no other than the secret of Universe itself. (Random 1982, 10-11)
If it was true, it would forbid any philosophical interpretation of the Gorin no Sho, because the
true meaning of the Musashi’s writing would be sealed to the non-initiated ones.

But I think that the seemingly metaphorical or contradictory sentences of the Gorin no Sho do
not hide any secret of the Universe but should be interpreted in a practical way. For example, the
“stance-no-stance” (komae) could appear as a contradiction, but in fact depicts a physical stance:

At the heart of this principle this is first taking up the sword and then cutting down your
opponent, no matter what is done or how it happens. (Musashi 1645, 57, Water)
The stance-no-stance only means that the five komae are very close and that none of them is
especially fit to defend. Consequently, one should not think about which stance is the safest, but
only about her or his goal. These sentences are not mystical sayings but practical advices.

Nevertheless, even if Musashi’s writings are not mystical, the use of religious concepts like the
one of “Void” could prevent us from a philosophical interpretation of the Gorin no Sho. If the
Gorin no Sho was only a catalogue of dogmas, it wouldn’t be a rational investigation relevant in
the field of philosophy of action or technique.

The relationship of Miyamoto Musashi with Buddhism and Shinto is a complicated one: he
begins the Earth scroll by “prostrating before Kannon and facing Buddha.”
(Musashi 1645, 9, Earth) But soon after, he makes a rather bold declaration of rupture with
tradition: “to write this book, I’m not borrowing the ancient words of Buddhism or
Confucianism.” (Musashi 1645, 11, Earth)

These ambiguities led to several discordant interpretations. For example, the writer Takayanagi
Mitsutoshi considers that:

There was no necessity [for Miyamoto Musashi] to organize his thought in five chapter
and to name them Gorin. This is a typical religious practice. The name of Gorin carries
with itself a religious posture. The text of the Sky roll, the fifth one, is completely
religious and has no rationality. (Takayanagi 1941, 99)
Others, like the specialist in Budō studies Uozumi Takashi, consider that Musashi, especially in
this final chapter, shift away from Buddhist’s concepts:

“Void” is a Buddhist philosophical term but Musashi conceptualizes it in terms of his

own path, the Way of Combat. […] Musashi writes not of “Sword and Zen as one”,
rather he persistently refers to the Void as a state you reach during thorough training in
the Way of Combat. (Uozumi 2000, 28-29)
If this relationship with religion – and Buddhism in particular – is still vividly debated, it seems
however that Musashi’s writings are not subordinated to any dogma, but rather in a continuous
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 Rhythm and Habits in the Gorin no Sho 5

dialog with other philosophical and religious system of thought. How could this dialog prevents
from a philosophical interpretation of the Gorin no Sho, when most of the Western authors
considered as philosophers have borrowed and conceptualized religious concepts in a very similar
manner?

It seems then possible to make a philosophical interpretation of the Gorin no Sho. Such an
interpretation must be based on the assumption that this treaty deals not only with kenjutsu and the
Way of Combat, but rather with a common aspect of a large variety of actions such as
commanding troops, building a strategy, working as a carpenter, painting, singing, playing Nō
theater or even playing kemari (蹴鞠, traditional Japanese ball game3).

All these actions are mentioned in the Gorin no Sho, but it is often assumed that they serve only
as paradigms and example to clarify the meaning of Musashi’s principles. On the contrary, I
maintain that this variety of action is no accident. It is symptomatic of one of Musashi’s most
central thesis: one must always practice different Ways.

As it has been referred to the Way of Combat by the name “means to get advantage” (利
方 , rikata), it cannot be known only by swordsmanship. If we restrict it to
swordsmanship, swordsmanship itself cannot be known. (Musashi 1645, 12, Earth)
Two of the nine rules to practice the Way at the end of the Earth scroll are even more explicit:

3. Show interest in all the other arts

4. Learn the Way of all professions (Musashi 1645, 36, Earth)
Then, when Musashi enjoins his disciples to “consider” the works of carpenters (Musashi 2002,
46, Earth), he enjoins them not only to consider it theoretically, but also to actually work as
carpenters with their own hands. Such training can be relevant for the Way of Combat if and only
if there is something common to the techniques of the carpenter and to the techniques of the bushi.

If one Way cannot be mastered by a specialization in one field, in return mastering a Way also
means mastering other fields. By excelling in the Way of Combat “you will know how not to fall
behind others in any of the other Ways.” (Musashi 1645, 10, Earth)

This clearly means that the bushi has to go back and forth between his Way and the other ones.
How is it possible if there are no transversal aspects of the Way of Combat that are not restricted
to this Way but common to all the Ways? The principles applied in the Way of Combat must have
some similarities with the principles applied in other Way, otherwise this transfer of competences

3
Kemari appeared in the Heian Period. It’s a cooperative game, and the goal is to keep the ball (mari) as long as
possible in the air without using the hands.

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 Rhythm and Habits in the Gorin no Sho 6

from one Way to another would not be possible. Even when Musashi depicts some very concrete
details about how to hold a sword, he considers a possible generalization of this advice to other
kinds of actions, for example military strategy. But, it is not because Musashi writes about the
Way of Combat that one cannot access these transversal principles of action from another Way.

What is this general aspect of the principles of kendō which can be applied to other fields? It is
the “means to get advantage” based on the capacity to grasp the natural rhythms of all activity.

2. CENTRAL CONCEPTS OF THE GORIN NO SHO: RHYTHM AND HABITS

2.1 “Rhythm” as a concept symptomatic of the metaphysical basis of the Gorin no Sho

Like Tokitsu Kenji, specialist of Miyamoto Musashi, I consider that actions are viewed by
Musashi from the angle of technique. (Tokitsu 1998, 383) I use this word with same meaning than
the Japanese word waza (技) which refers “inseparably to the thought, the posture, the breath and
the gesture.” (Tokitsu 1998, 384) It is this kind of technique that Musashi learned from the
teachings of other Ways and that he wants to hand over to his pupils. That is why his philosophy
of action is also a philosophy of technique.

One of the specificities of Musashi’s philosophy of technique is that it does not focus only on
the principles to guide action toward a certain goal, but it also considers very closely the
conditions of application of these principles. In the Water and Wind chapters, Musashi vividly
criticizes the ryūha giving absolute pieces of advices regarding speed, position of the feet and eyes,
and length a sword in kendō:

Would you be sure to lose if you did not carry a long sword? Or according to the
situation, what if you were in a place closed in at the top, bottom and side? […] In my
martial art, we dislike such one-sidedness and narrowness of mind. (Musashi 1645, 116-
117, Wind).
In this text, Musashi clearly identifies the main problem of philosophy of technique: how to
guide action with general principles if action always depends on the situation and circumstances?
That is why all the principles – for preparation of fighting as well as for the mist of battle or other
Ways than the Way of Combat – displayed in the Gorin no Sho are relative to what Musashi calls
“the rhythm.” Musashi warns his reader at the end of Earth chapter that “in each roll, I write most
principally about rhythm” (Musashi 1645, 38, Earth), but this concept is a hard one to explicate.
Musashi uses a comparison with musicians (Musashi 1645, 34, Earth) and Nō singers
(Musashi 1645, 129, Wind) to define what he calls rhythm. But for the modern reader, these

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 Rhythm and Habits in the Gorin no Sho 7

examples can be misleading. They seem to indicate some correspondence with musical rhythm.
Musical rhythm is the fact that an entity of time (the bar) is sequenced by a series of sounds4,
which supposes a certain kind of regular interval (the beat). Applied to combat and action, the
notion of “rhythm” seems only to recommend acting in an even and steady way.

But that is precisely not the Musashi’s conception of rhythm. Tokitsu remarks that the word
hyōshi (拍子) translated by “rhythm” can also refer to the natural evolution of a process or to a
chance, an opportunity (Tokitsu 1998, 486). Unlike musicians of an orchestra, all the opponents in
a fight have their own specific rhythm, and they are not regular: it is a changing and continuous
sequence of moments. As Tokitsu explains:

The Japanese notion of hyōshi refers to a succession of spatiotemporal intervals

produced by the reciprocal relation of two opponents. But it also refers, in the same time,
to the own rhythm of each fighter linked to his respiration and psychical condition.
(Tokitsu 1979, 87)
For example, the “strike in only one hyōshi” (一拍子, hitotsu hyōshi) in the Water chapter
(Musashi 1645, 57) Hyōshi is not referring to an interval as a musical rhythm, but means that the
sword must be lifted and brought down in one single movement (and not two). And Musashi adds
that in order to be efficient, this blow must be struck when the opponent is in the “hyōshi between
two gestures”. (間の拍子, ma no hyōshi. Musashi 1645, 58) In that case, hyōshi is referring to an
interval, as in music, different in nature and in period from the hyōshi from the attacker. But each
of these two hyōshi are relative to the other: “in Japanese it is only one hyōshi, but it is not only
one rhythm because it is the conjunction of two rhythms, yours and the one of your opponent.”
(Tokitsu 1998, 81)

Musashi’s concept of rhythm is then not only the succession of actions of each one of the
participant of this action. It is first the general process of this action, in which each participant is
involved. In the case of a fight, one should not try to harmonize its own rhythm with the rhythm of
the opponent, but rather try to use its intervals, opening and weaknesses to destroy it.

This importance of “rhythm” in the Gorin no Sho could be symptomatic of different ontology5
between Musashi and most of the Western thinkers. It seems that for Musashi processes come first,

4
Among Nō theatre’s songs for example, hayabushi is said to have a fast rhythm because there’s at least two
syllables per beat, where kiribyoshi has only one syllable per beat. (Harris 2006)
5
By “ontology” I only refer to those fundamental concepts that help us, almost unconsciously, to determine what the world is
made of, what is the furniture of reality. If ontology is the product of a society, its cultures and its language, the metaphysical gap
between Europe and Asia must be approximately the same size that the difference between European and Asian languages

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 Rhythm and Habits in the Gorin no Sho 8

and the substances – the participants in these processes – come after, whereas substances were
considered as the first component of reality in most of Western metaphysical system.

The French sinologist François Jullien exposes a very similar thesis in an essay named Traité
de l’efficacité. (Treaty of the efficacy, 1996) For him, the Chinese thinkers of Antiquity conceive
the world as the combination of opposite and balanced processes (Jullien 1996, 31). This
conception of the world would have led Chinese thinkers to theorize action, and especially war, in
a very different way than Europeans. For Sun-Tzu and Lao-Tzu for example, action is not to be
thought on the model of means toward a goal (Jullien 1996, 34). For if one tries to act like that,
there will always be some circumstances threatening his or her action. It is wiser to rely on the
circumstances themselves. If the word is conceived as the result of different processes, it is
possible to evaluate the possible evolutions of processes sealed in each situation and to try to be
carried by them toward victory (Jullien 1996, 36). This ontological difference in the conception of
the world and action represents for Jullien a deep and insurmountable gap between Western and
Eastern philosophy, resulting in an incommensurability of these two traditions of thought.

Could the concept of rhythm be symptomatic of such an insurmountable gap, making our
project to apply the philosophical content of the Gorin no Sho to Western philosophical problems
incoherent? Like Lao-Tzu, Musashi does seem to emphasize the importance of evaluation of
situations to grasp the rhythm of the opponent:

Knowing condition (けいきを知る) means, in large scale strategy, knowing where

your opponents flourish or fall, knowing the number of their allies, taking in the lay of
the land, clearly observing your opponent’s conditions and […] grasping the way of
victory with certainty, understanding the degree of initiative to be taken and going into
battle. (Musashi 1645, 88, Fire)
It’s impossible to find such confidence in Western treaty on war, because actions are always
threaten by the circumstances and actions of the opponents, instead of relying on them. And
precisely, the final stage in the art of strategy for Miyamoto Musashi is not to overwhelm your
opponents but to understand so deeply their rhythm that you can consider them as your allies:

Take your strength from the Way of Combat and you could then consider your
opponents as your own soldiers. You will make them follow your own intentions and
move them around freely. When you think in these terms, you become the general and
your opponents become you soldier. (Musashi 1645, 109, Fire)
But if we can concede Jullien that such advice involves a specific metaphysical conception of
the world uncommon in Europe, I think that it is possible to identify real convergences between
the two philosophical cultures, if we pay attention not to draw hasty parallels with Western
philosophy. This implies a serious work of adaptation to the Japanese culture using tools of

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 Rhythm and Habits in the Gorin no Sho 9

cultural, historical and sociological disciplines. But if we distinguish Musashi from other Japanese
thinkers by identifying the place he has chosen in the space of conceptual possibilities of his time,
we can connect his choice to the choices of Western thinkers that may have been confronted to
similar conceptual possibilities. I will now show how is it possible to do so by introducing another
central concept of Musashi’s philosophy of technique: the concept of habit.

2.2 “Habit” as a convergent concept between the Gorin no Sho and Western philosophy

Teachings about rhythm alone would be ineffective, without a study of how we can acquire and
perceive these rhythms. That is why, in the Gorin no Sho, this concept cooperates with another
one: the concept of habits.

In one of the section of the Wind chapter, Musashi considers the position of the eyes in
different ryūha. He defends his own thesis on the subject: “the eye of looking (観る miru) is
strong. The eye of seeing (見る miru) is weak.” To grasp the rhythm of opponents without being
disturbed in our own rhythm, this is one of the most important principles. Musashi takes the
example of the ball game kemari to show how to acquire this capacity:

Although those who play kemari do not fix their eyes on the ball, they are able to
execute the difficult techniques of the game. Because they have become accustomed to
it, it is not a matter of a certain place to look. (Musashi 1645, 126, Wind)
The most important word in this quote is “accustomed”. The most frequent sentence in the
Gorin no Sho is “You should practice/investigate this thoroughly” which concludes nearly each
section of the Water and Fire chapters. It is not a ritual saying but a true piece of advice to
experiment several times with our own body and mind what have just been described. A lot of
competences cannot be acquired without experimenting and exercising: nobody can learn how to
swim without entering water. Musashi is well aware of that, and knows that his teachings will
remain ineffective as long as his pupils or readers do not have practice them repeatedly.

Why? Because accustomed actions have powers that well-thought-out actions have not: they
are quicker and more easily combinable with others actions. When you get accustomed to driving,
you do not even notice all the movements you actually do: looking in the mirror, moving your two
feet separately, perceiving potential dangers, etc. You can focus on the road because all these
different movements, which were difficult to combine during your first driving lessons, have now

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 Rhythm and Habits in the Gorin no Sho 10

become transparent to your mind: you do not think about it, your mind is “empty”6. That is exactly
what also happens in sports and that is why Musashi is referring to kemari.

In the case of the strike in one rhythm or of the strike with no thought (Musashi 1645, 57) this
process of habituation is essential to the technique. As Tokitsu points out (1998, 80) there is a
short time between the volition to do something and its realization in a body movement. If one
thinks of a movement after finishing another one, they will be separated in two different hyōshi
and there will be a short delay between them, giving the opponent an opportunity to strike. The
only way to make that short delay – the ma no hyōshi described earlier – disappeared is to repeat
the succession of movements so much times that it will not be necessary to consciously think of it
in order to do it. That is one of the meanings of the final principle of Musashi’s Way of Combat:
“the Mind is Void”.

But “habit” does not mean “automatism”. An automatism is the fact that the same stimulus
causes always the same effect. The habits Musashi is referring to are the one giving the ability to
obtain the same effect in different circumstances, by different ways. That is why the five kata of
the Niten school are named in the Water chapter “itsutsu no omote” (五つおもて). Omote means
technique, but also “surface”, and is opposed to ura (裏): “behind”, “bottom” or “hidden”.
(Tokitsu, 1998, 448) Tokitsu stresses that it means that those five kata are public exercises but at
the highest levels of training they must be forgotten because one knows so much at such deep
level that she or he can let the kata go as forms.

Habituation in the Gorin no Sho is not directed towards the basic repetition of the same action:
in the Earth chapter, Musashi emphasizes the importance of being able to use the two swords
simultaneously not only to repeat the kata of the Niten school but also to get accustomed to
manipulate the big sword with only one hand, because it can be useful in various situation such as
on a horse or while riding (Musashi 1645, 32, Earth). If one get accustomed to this technique, he
or she will be able to keep the same rhythm horseback riding as on feet, because he or she will not
have to focus his or her mind on that specific action and will be able to combine it with other
actions, just like skillful drivers are able to drive and talk simultaneously.

It is because habits are the best way to maintain simultaneously different rhythms that Musashi
asserts that:

6
Cognitive sciences and neurology have shown that this kind of actions rely on a specific memory different from
declarative memory named procedural memory, implying cerebellum and striatum (Squire 2004). Most of the
examples of habits in this paper come from research in these fields.

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 Rhythm and Habits in the Gorin no Sho 11

In the Way of Combat, do not let your frame of mind be any different from your
everyday mind. In both everyday and military events, your mind should not change in
the least, but should be broad and straightforward, neither drawn too tight nor allowed
to slacken even a little. (Musashi 1645, 43, Water)
The “everyday mind” is the one we can reach by the incorporation of habits, and is the highest
stage of swordsmanship, because it gives the possibility to follow a rhythm without being blind to
the evolution of the situation and unable to adapt this rhythm to the changes of this situation.7

The fact is that the role of habit in the conceptual network of the Gorin no Sho is similar to the
one it plays in different Western philosophy treaties, beginning with the famous Nichomachean
Ethics of Aristotle. The global theme of this work, as it is presented in its first book, could not be
further away from the preoccupations of Miyamoto Musashi: it is to identify the highest good and
to define virtue. But in the second book, Aristotle has to find an answer to a local problem very
similar to the one Musashi is confronted to: “are virtues acquired naturally or conventionally?”

Of all the things that come to us by nature we first acquire the potentiality and later
exhibit the activity; but the virtues we get by first exercising them, as also happens in
the case of the arts as well. For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we
learn by doing them, e.g. men become builders by building and lyre players by playing
the lyre; so too we become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts,
brave by doing brave acts. (Aristotle 1998, 22)
To get accustomed of doing something is to acquire the potentiality to realize it whenever we
want by doing it several times. This kind of middle between actuality and potentiality is called a
hexis, i.e. habit. And Aristotle makes the same observation than Musashi: the woman or man who
acts by hexis is ensured of his success because it results from his character, or personal nature
(ethos) and not only from his will. The specific subject of Aristotle in this book is a problem of
philosophy of technique (“art” translates here techne): how can we apply and teach principles for
actions? This is exactly the problem we identified at the root of Musashi’s concept of action. Here,
morality is of secondary importance. The problem is that action does not only require a method
like sciences or philosophy, it also requires a medium to apply its principles in the concrete world
despite changing circumstances. And both authors find the same answer: this medium is the
incorporated hexis.

But we should not stop to that comparison with Aristotle. In my opinion, a fruitful way to mix
Eastern and Western philosophy would be to use the convergence we noticed to give new answers

7
For example, one of the greatest masters of kendō, Morita Monjurō, describes in details how he struggled to learn the strike in
one hyōshi. He realized that holding the sword with only one hand makes it possible to bring forward the opposite leg when he
struck, like in daily walk. It’s only when he struck with its daily habits of simply walking that he mastered this technique.
(Morita 1987, 21)

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 Rhythm and Habits in the Gorin no Sho 12

to old problems. To do so, it is necessary to identify not only the specificity of Musashi for other
cultures but also his specificity in his own culture.

For example, Aristotle attributes habits to the mind and not to the body, for it is the soul, i.e. the
form of the body, which acquires new potentialities. It is also the mind that must be educated
through spiritual exercises for the Stoics, and it is the habituation of the mind to the conjunction of
two events that gives birth to the relation of necessity in Hume’s philosophy. This thesis leads to a
serious problem we could name the “bodily habits problem”: how can we say that we acquire
habits through physical exercise? How can we say that habits are recorded in the memory of the
body and affect the perceptions and faculties of this body? Should we separate the habits in two:
the physical ones and the spiritual ones?

Musashi gives a way to answer, or maybe to circumvent these problems. In the Gorin no Sho,
Musashi often uses the terms of mind and body, but never says what they are – only what they do8.
They can act in independently from each other – “the mind should not be distracted by the body
nor the body distracted by the mind” (Musashi 1645, 46, Water) – or in the same direction – “your
body become a striking body; your mind becomes a striking mind” (Musashi 1645, 57, Water).

This feature of Musashi’s thought relies not only on the ontology he shares with his
countrymen, but also on the specificity of his own thesis. In Munenori’s Heihō Kaden Sho for
example, we find an analysis of the difference of the mind (神) and spirit (心) in terms of their
nature and function: “The part of the mental makeup positioned inside to develop detailed plans is
called the mind and that part that carries out those plans, the spirit” (Sato 1986, 61). This hierarchy
between the mind, the spirit, and finally the body, is a very interesting feature of Munenori’s
thought, but it leads to the problem of bodily habits we encountered before .

It is sometimes said that Musashi’s writings are less philosophical than Munenori’s one:

[Musashi] does not divulge many philosophical principles. On the whole the text is
somewhat lucid and practical in nature. (Toshinobu & Bennett 2010, 143)
But the pragmatic aspect of Musashi’s writing must not be considered as lack of philosophical
principles. In fact, we could say that Musashi is indeed comparable with the pragmatist
philosophical movement in the Western world. Philosophers as Peirce insisted on the importance

8
Only in the Emptiness chapter can be found an assertion on the nature of mind: “the mind is void” (Musashi 2002,
148, Emptiness). But as I already shown, Void is more a state of mind than the mind itself.

G.Leconte
 Rhythm and Habits in the Gorin no Sho 13

of those bodily habits to understand the behavior and morality of people. Like Musashi in front
Munenori, they were trying to show the intellectual impact of our body condition.

The fundamental role of habits for a theory of action was then pointed out in the Western world
by the sociologist and philosopher Pierre Bourdieu, who explicitly claim to follow the American
Pragmatists. In Raisons pratiques, sur la théorie de l’action (Practical reasons, on the theory of
action) he gives a characterization of what he calls “habitus” very similar from Musashi’s concept
of habits:

Each producer, writer, arstist, scientist, builds his own creative project according to the
perception of available possibilities, provided by the category of perception and
appreciations registered in his habitus. (Bourdieu 1994, 71)
I only sketch here convergences between Musashi and pragmatists. A deeper analysis would
reveal how Musashi’s position could clarify Bourdieu’s concept of habitus, which is often
understood as a deterministic expression of the pressure of society on individuals. But Bourdieu
stress that habitus is also an active and creative disposition and is the only way for us to really act.
Yet Musashi’s conception of habits has something more: if it lacks the Bourdieu’s sociological
analysis, it is a true pedagogical theory on how to acquire habits and deliberately transform our
own perception of the world.

Indeed, Musashi has no problem thinking the evolution of a body’s habit in a mind’s habit. For
example, the first occurrence of the teaching to “see (見る) without looking (観る)” is related to
the body: the pupils should learn “to see on both sides without moving the eyes” (Musashi 1645,
46, Water). The second occurrence of this advice, in the Wind chapter, concerns mind as well as
body: by imitating the habits of the kemari players we learn how to look without seeing, and it
essential to perceive not only the movements but also the mind of an opponent:

Fixing the eyes in the Combat is looking into the large picture of a man’s mind. […] Of
the two ways of seeing and looking, the eye of looking is the strongest. It is essential
that you take the victory straightaway by seeing the mind of your opponent and the
condition of the place, by fixing your eyes broadly and by seeing the condition of the
battlefield and its different possible strengths and weaknesses.
(Musashi 1645, 125, Wind)
In this text, the habit of seeing refers as much to the physical eye as the eye of the mind. It is a
habit of both mind and body which is taught by Musashi in the same exercise. And the final
occurrence of the verbs to see and to look is restricted to the mind: “[a warrior] polishes the two
hearts of his mind and will, and sharpens the two eyes of broad observation and focused vision”
(Musashi 1645, 138, Emptiness). The habituation of the body has led to a habituation of the mind.

G.Leconte
 Rhythm and Habits in the Gorin no Sho 14

That is why, in my opinion, the most important sentence of the Gorin no Sho is this one: “you
should consider these principles as though they were discovered from your own mind, and
continually think with your own body.” (Musashi 1645, 47, Water)

CONCLUSION

To approach a text from our own culture but from a different historical period is already a
challenge. This challenge grows when time distance is multiplied by cultural distance. But I will
summarize the method I’ve used here to overcome those obstacles in three steps:

- At first, it is necessary to use the tools of different fields to grasp the difference
between the two cultures (stopping at this point, as it is often done, would lead to enclose the
foreign culture in its otherness)

- In a second time, it is necessary to be able to specify the position of the author in

his own culture, and to identify his place in the logical field of conceptual possibilities
opened by the problems of his time

- Finally, if it is possible to see similar problems and similar fields of possibility in

another culture, we can draw a convergence between different concepts (it seems difficult to
draw convergences between two complete philosophical thought)

The effectiveness of such method lie in its capacity to draw attention on philosophical materials
like the Gorin no Sho forgotten by both Japanese and Westerner, in order to give new answers and
new problems to the modern philosophical research’s fields.

But it would seem that with the apparition of new technologies, a lot of our actions are not
manual ones anymore. Today, our daily actions do not seem to involve so much physical
activities: we write reports, have meetings, make phone calls, surf on the internet, etc. Does it
mean that all the conception of action based on natural rhythms and bodily habits are obsolete?

I do not think so: Musashi always stress that all natural and human processes have rhythms and
that even if one is not directly acting with his or her own body, he or she cannot act efficiently
without perceiving these rhythms. Moreover, Musashi shows the way to learn new knowledge and
competences and to transform our perceptions of the world from bodily habits. I think that
Musashi’s point of view on action is especially relevant today, for people engaged in a specific
field or Way who desire to specialize themselves while broadening their scope of competences.

G.Leconte
 Rhythm and Habits in the Gorin no Sho 15

He’s a reminder that even in our modern societies we still are a body that is our one and only way
to think and act.

G.Leconte
Rhythm and Habits in the Gorin no Sho 16

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G.Leconte