Musashi pt 1
So far, I have read through Eiji Yoshikawa's "Musashi" to page 98. It is a riveting tale that has taken me many places since starting our with Shimmen Takedo laying on his back at the battlefield of Segikahara. I smiled at his friend Matahachi's survival, and snuck with them as they searched for safety. I stood witness through their hiding with Oko and Akemi, the widow and daughter of a powerful freebooter, and Takedo's rebuffs as Oko tried to seduce him... and to her anger at that. I railed at Matahachi when he abandoned his fiance Ostu and took instead the woman that had gotten him drunk, and presumably into his hakama, and the abandonment of the ungrateful worm Matahachi that Takedo had to bear.
The images continued as he trekked home to Miyamoto to tell Osugi, mother of Matahachi, of her son's state of living and that he had abandoned the temple-child Otsu, and his request that Osugi break the news gently to Otsu. I shook my head as Osugi, having always hated Takedo, lured him into a bath and sent word for soldiers to come apprehend the man... and his amazing battle, completely nude and only with a spear that he had taken from an enemy soldier to retain his freedom...
And busted up laughing at the apparently sucky soldiers since Takedo unhurriedly redressed himself on top of a roof and got away.
And with Otsu, at the temple where she waited so patiently for her love and his best friend to return, I railed with her at the receipt of letters from Oko, who told her that Matahachi was marrying her and being adopted into her family (and that Oko had no idea why Matahachi still worried about her), and one from the weak scumbag Matahachi that detailed it was too hard for him to return to her and that she should forget him. And with her, I tore apart the fine silk kimono that she had been weaving her soul into so painstakingly for the day of her wedding to him.
Takuan, an itinerant monk that had turned down many a fine post and prefers to wander, discovered her heartbroken and half dead in her loom shed...
I flowed through the story, so skillfully woven that I surely would have gone insane having to wait for the next chapter in the newspaper, and marvelled at how Takedo was captured, escaped, and eventually reunifed with his sister.
Three years until the change of his name, and Ikeda Terumasa and Takuan rename the man Musashi, and Musashi is offered a position of vassal. He turns down the job offer, on the grounds that he did not want to tempt the ghosts of his ancestors, who had once been the rulers of Himeji Castle, to instigate an uprising.
I leave off my reading, for now, just before Musashi gets to see his sister's face for the first time in three years of study of Chinese and Japanese classics... Ikeda-sama had allowed him to study as much as he desired during his incarceration, so that he would be fit for title of samurai.
I must feed the children. And to see the level that this is written at, one must read it themselves, no quick rehashing and jotting down of thoughts can do this book justice. I aspire to one day develop my own storytelling to this level of richness.
The images continued as he trekked home to Miyamoto to tell Osugi, mother of Matahachi, of her son's state of living and that he had abandoned the temple-child Otsu, and his request that Osugi break the news gently to Otsu. I shook my head as Osugi, having always hated Takedo, lured him into a bath and sent word for soldiers to come apprehend the man... and his amazing battle, completely nude and only with a spear that he had taken from an enemy soldier to retain his freedom...
And busted up laughing at the apparently sucky soldiers since Takedo unhurriedly redressed himself on top of a roof and got away.
And with Otsu, at the temple where she waited so patiently for her love and his best friend to return, I railed with her at the receipt of letters from Oko, who told her that Matahachi was marrying her and being adopted into her family (and that Oko had no idea why Matahachi still worried about her), and one from the weak scumbag Matahachi that detailed it was too hard for him to return to her and that she should forget him. And with her, I tore apart the fine silk kimono that she had been weaving her soul into so painstakingly for the day of her wedding to him.
Takuan, an itinerant monk that had turned down many a fine post and prefers to wander, discovered her heartbroken and half dead in her loom shed...
I flowed through the story, so skillfully woven that I surely would have gone insane having to wait for the next chapter in the newspaper, and marvelled at how Takedo was captured, escaped, and eventually reunifed with his sister.
Three years until the change of his name, and Ikeda Terumasa and Takuan rename the man Musashi, and Musashi is offered a position of vassal. He turns down the job offer, on the grounds that he did not want to tempt the ghosts of his ancestors, who had once been the rulers of Himeji Castle, to instigate an uprising.
I leave off my reading, for now, just before Musashi gets to see his sister's face for the first time in three years of study of Chinese and Japanese classics... Ikeda-sama had allowed him to study as much as he desired during his incarceration, so that he would be fit for title of samurai.
I must feed the children. And to see the level that this is written at, one must read it themselves, no quick rehashing and jotting down of thoughts can do this book justice. I aspire to one day develop my own storytelling to this level of richness.