Samurai Strategies Previous | Books | Films | Index | 日本語 | Training | Next

23 February 2026 - Adetswil

Boyé Lafayette de Menthe has written many books on Japan. This particular one, Samurai Strategies, is a dual commentary on a 17th century samurai text, Musashi Miyamoto's The Book of Five Rings (五輪書). And I say dual commentary because although he is not on the cover, Michihiro Matsumoto contributes a commentary on every chapter of the book. As fitting with de Menthe's typical style though, the chapters are short essays around a particular principal ("martial secret") from Musashi's book.

The introduction starts off with explications of the seven virtues (七徳) of the samurai way, although Musashi apparently never explicitly listed them in his book. And, as with many books expounding "secret" eastern wisdom, there is a bunch of foreign vocabulary to learn right away. By de Menthe the virtues are

• kennin (堅忍) - perseverance, fortitude
• shinnen (信念) - belief, faith, conviction
• shinchō (慎重) - prudent, careful, cautious
• seigi (正義) - justice, righteousness
• sessei (節制) - moderation, self-restraint, temperance
• jizen (慈善) - charity, philanthropy
• kibō (希望) - hope, wish, aspiration

The 42 "secrets" de Menthe outlines in this relatively short book are fairly timeless and cross-cultural:

1. Set goals
2. Have life-or-death discipline
3. Train to win
4. Be prepared
5. Dismiss the illusion of form
6. Have absolute integrity
7. Train the mind
8. Clear the mind
9. Know the power of emptiness
10. Learn from your opponents
11. Pay attention to details
12. Use the power of silence
13. Change the rules of engagement
14. Use the power of fear
15. Confuse your opponent
16. The mind is a weapon
17. See what cannot be seen
18. Don't get stuck in one style
19. Know the importance of flexibility
20. Make sure you see the big picture
21. Use time as a weapon
22. Never stop learning
23. Hit first; hit hard!
24. Use all your weapons
25. The samurai should think like a carpenter
26. Take the initiative
27. Know your environment
28. Watch for a collapse
29. Become your opponent
30. Draw your opponent in
31. Never use the same tactic more than twice
32. Make your opponent change his style of fighting
33. Behave as if you were already dead
34. Avoid stalemates
35. Never give your opponent a second chance
36. Pierce the bottom
37. Art is important in life
38. A strong spirit is like a sword
39. Focus on winning
40. Have the head of a rat and the neck of a bull
41. Surpass today what you were yesterday
42. Have perseverance and diligence

It is also significant that most of this advice only applies to competitive finite games where there is a winner and a loser. In cooperative games (where you must work together to achieve a common goal) and infinite games (where the goal is to just keep playing the game) a lot of the above advice is just downright self-defeating. Matsumoto, however, seems to think that all Japanese would benefit from going back to training children the samurai way, while de Menthe is more circumspect in his conclusion. Definitely a more polemic book than I was expecting!