The Path Walked Alone

One of Musashi's last pages: a private code of refusals — no regret, no envy, no possessions — dated a week before he died.

by Miyamoto Musashi1 passages held

Japanese, the original language

Original title: 獨行道
First published: 1645(aged 61)
Original language: Japanese

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Overview

Twenty-one lines, most of them a refusal, make up the whole of this text, dated the twelfth day of the fifth month of 1645. That date, set down in a different hand from the precepts, falls seven days before Miyamoto Musashi's death, and tradition has him give the sheet to his pupil Terao Magonojō on the same day as the Five Rings. Where the longer book teaches how to win, this list sets out how he meant to live: not to go against the ways of the world, not to seek pleasure, to regret nothing he had done, to envy no one, to grieve at no parting, to keep no prized antiques, to want no fine food, to hold no property in old age, to revere the Buddhas and the gods without relying on them, and never to leave the way of strategy. The title, which he gave it himself, means the way of walking alone. The precepts survive in his own hand, ink on paper mounted as a hanging scroll. It passed from the Terao family to the Toyoda family, whose Toyoda Masatake gathered the material for an early account of Musashi's life, and through later owners to the Kumamoto Prefectural Museum of Art, which lists it as an Important Cultural Property of Kumamoto Prefecture. In the last decade the precepts have been published on their own in English, dressed in modern commentary.

Key concepts

What is the way of walking alone?

The title Musashi gave these precepts, and their subject: a way of living that leans on nothing that can be lost. Pleasure, possessions, attachments, even the help of the gods are refused as supports, while reverence, the world's customs and the way of strategy are kept. Walking alone names independence from what can be taken away, not a withdrawal from other people.

Why are almost all the precepts written as refusals?

Because the discipline works by subtraction. Most lines name a desire and deny it a place: pleasure, envy, regret, grief at partings, romantic longing, fine food, prized antiques, property in old age. What remains once these are removed is the positive content, and it is short: reverence without dependence, readiness for death on the way, and the way of strategy itself.

Does walking alone mean breaking with the ways of the world?

No. The first precept is not to go against the ways of the world, and nothing in the list recommends rebellion or retreat. The independence it describes is inward: what a man wants, fears and depends on. Outwardly he keeps to the customs around him; he simply refuses to let pleasure, possessions or envy of others govern him.

Why are weapons the one possession the precepts allow?

Because they belong to the way he will not leave. One precept sets weapons apart and cultivates no fondness for other implements; another refuses to keep antiques meant to be handed down. What survives the general stripping of possessions is only what the way of strategy requires, so the list of refusals doubles as a definition of what that way needs.

How does the Dokkōdō treat death?

As something not to shrink from on the way, and not to fuss over. One precept holds that on the way he will not be averse to death; another refuses the ritual avoidances a person might observe for his own sake. Death is neither glorified nor sought. It is simply denied any power to bend the course he has chosen.

Themes of the book

What this book returns to, gathered into themes and ordered by how much of the text each one occupies.

The Way of Walking Alone

What does a man keep once he has decided to want almost nothing? Twenty-one lines, most of them refusals, set down how Musashi meant to live, dated a week before he died.

The refusals are ordinary and exact: no regret for what he has done, no envy, no grief at any parting, no longing for love, no fine food, no prized antiques, no property in old age. Against them stand a few holdings. He will not go against the ways of the world; he reveres the Buddhas and the gods without relying on them; he keeps no tools but weapons; he does not shrink from death on the way, and would give up his body sooner than his name. The last line commands only this: never leave the way of strategy.

mortality
detachment
self-reliance
martial ethics
self-discipline

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Within this work

passages held: 1
distinct concepts: 5
by passages held, corpus-wide: #843

Works held

The author's work in order, this book marked in place. Your-language title first, the original beneath it where the two differ; side chips show which full texts are held.

1641 Combat Strategy in 35 Articles (兵法三十五箇條)
Where the Five Rings began: its articles on grip, footing, distance and timing return two years later, reordered, in that book's Water and Fire scrolls.
JA
1642 The Five-Direction Sword Pathways (二天一流兵法序論)
Classical Chinese, not Japanese, sets this apart from the treatises under Musashi's name; Uozumi dates it between 1642 and 1643, after the Thirty-Five Articles and before the Five Rings.
JA
1645 The Book of Five Rings (五輪書)
The longest of Musashi's writings and the one the world reads him by, composed over the last two years of his life and never finished to a fair copy.
JA
1645 The Path Walked Alone (獨行道) you are here JA

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