I finally got around to reading this the other day and I was absolutely floored by the wisdom of this book. Obviously it is a bit outdated and I don’t agree with everything but I feel like I’ve glimpsed into the mind of a warrior who truly understood combat. Did anyone else have a similar reaction?
Seriously looking at his life i would say he bullshited that book for posterity to look upon him favourably, while his motto was “Do upon others what they would do upon you, but faster and harder”. Kinda japanese Machiavelli of a sword.
All warfare kinda boils down to that. But now that you mention it: Machiavelli is also very interesting to read. Great political insight, and comical lack of military insight.
How did you reach those conclusions? I didn’t get anything like that from the book.
That’s my point. Look behind the book.
Then we have a dude who wanted to be a Daimjo during the cvil war times but was born too late, so he beat up anyone that could provide a challenge, only really caring about strategies, then studdied Buddhism, art and tried to teach some pupils not to be idiots.
But that doesn’t answer my question. I’m no expert on his life but those are some pretty big claims so I’m just wondering if there’s any truth to them.
Sigh. Ok, so to answer your question: Yes, he did really understood combat.