Rating: 
Summary: deep, requires parallels
Review: Try to reflect some of the ideas expressed by the author, and you'll find them applicable not only in business but also in attaining self discipline.
Rating:
Summary: A great book about strategy
Review: Musashi explains through the book the way of the strategy. Thoght the book is short it does not lack information, the explanation are brief but very good and very complete. Every one who wants to study strategy should read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Recommended, but poor editing.....
Review: This was a pretty decent read and I am happy to include it in my library. While I rate the 'Code of the Samurai' and the 'Art of War' on a much higher level, this book is not without it's merits.I haven't read other translations, so I can't really comment on the quality of this one. However, the introductory material suffered from quite a few mistakes. Commas were missed, the improper use of a/an was found at least once and even the word 'then' was misspelled. This wouldn't be allowed in a college term paper; it should have been caught in a mass market publication. As to the quality of the book for it's knowledge alone, I would break it down by who the prospective reader is: Kendo Artist: This is a must. No ifs, ands or buts.
Other Martial Artist: Highly recommended, but not necessary.
Soldier: Recommended, but take it with a grain of salt.
Businessperson: Read it only if you are curious.
Rating:
Summary: Advice, not a textbook
Review: It's important to approach this book as the advice from someone who is very good at something to a favored student. It is not a masterpiece of writing. Nor is it a technical explication of strategy that can also be applied to business. If you want a rigorous examination of business strategy by a professional academic then read (and reread and practice) Michael Porter. Five Rings is the rarest of books: honest practical advice from someone who knows what he's doing. Like a father or a some sort of mentor, Musashi continually exhorts the reader to practice and to think about what has been written. His tells the reader what he should be thinking about in order to be victorious, not what to do. This absence of technical information makes sense. Come on, does anyone think that Jack Welch proved finance theorems with Immelt all these years? He probably kicked Immelt's ... and taught him some lessons and attitudes about competition. If you want to know how an expert views his profession and the world and your company CEO already has a favorite underling, then read Five Rings and get some good advice.
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Summary: Master of single combats
Review: I am a Japanese and I read this book in Japanese. Hmmm. To read this book for doing business? Well, it's your choice. Musashi, the sword-saint, was a talented person and his excellent paintings show his deep understandings of Zen. This book is a must-read if you want to understand samurai. But I must mention that he was a soldier, not a commander. His track record in single combats is a miracle, but not very good in large-scale battles.
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Summary: Compelling and relevant
Review: Today's business people will find Thomas Cleary's new translation of THE BOOK OF FIVE RINGS -- Miyamoto Musashi's 350-year-old martial arts classic -- compelling and tantalizingly relevant. Perserverance, insight, self-understanding, inward calm even in the midst of chaos, the importance of swift but unhurried action: Musashi's teachings read like lessons from the latest business management gurus. Who couldn't succeed in business by applying Musashi's insights on conflict and strategy.
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Summary: Musashi: Master Swordsman
Review: This book was originally written many centuries ago, in feudal Japan, a period of "great social change." The country was united, and many samurai were out of work. Therefore, master-less samurai roamed across Japan looking for other samurai, against whom to test their blades (swords). Miyamoto Musashi was one of these master-less samurai. However, Musashi was also a philosopher, a sumi-e painter, and a sculptor. Sumi-e, for those who are unfamiliar, is a form of Japanese painting, that emphasizes the white space in the painting, as well as the lines painted. When Musashi was an old man, he was able to write down coherently, the philosophy that had determined the course of his life path. This writing is the Book of Five Rings. Reader's knowledgeable about Zen thinking will find Musashi's philosophy to be familiar. For those don't know, Zen is a philosophy, that focuses on being aware of one's surroundings, and of knowing intuitively how to respond to events. Zen, unlike Buddhism, is a philosophy that believes you can achieve enlightenment in the present lifetime. Heiho, Musashi's philosophy, is predicated on this belief. It is also, as Musashi explains, "necessary to keep in mind that the essence of Heiho is to build an indomitable spirit and an iron will; to believe that you cannot fail in doing anything." It is a demanding but optimistic philosophy. The Book of Five Rings is a short, but challenging read. It will probably be most appreciated by practitioners of the martial arts, and others who want to learn a specific method of applying Zen-like principles to their everyday existence. I doubt that anyone will be able to fully grasp the meanings and intricacies of this book after one reading. Small matter though, because it's about the size of a back-pants pocket and is great reading material on the bus, the subway, or elsewhere.
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Summary: It's a guide to strategy, not some guide to eastern culture
Review: The previous reviewers are misguided. This is an essential guide to strategy that must be learned in the context of action and practice. The Art of War is the high school text book, this is the graduate degree version. In the end, after you have read the passages many times and practiced often, you may be lucky enough to realize you didn't need to read the book at all. That's shibumi. If you're reading it for any other reason, you're only seeing what you always see. If you're reading it without practice, you're wasting your time. This is one of the top 10 books written by man.
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Summary: Master Miyamoto's classic work
Review: The Book of Five Rings is an essential to serious martial artists and swordsmen everywhere, Master Miyamoto outlines his school of two skies, and breaks down other swordforms and why they failed against him, in his many years as a duelist and warrior, he never failed to down an opponent.
This book can be used for buisnessmen, however, you have to inference how yourself, there is a buisness version of this book,
written by Donald G. Krause, that directly relates Master Miyamoto's principles to buisness.
Whether yopu are martial artist, swordsmen, or buisnessman, this book is a usefull tool and represents a man who understood a great deal about the human psyche when the term was not even heard of.
Rating:
Summary: Aweseome book regarding strategy and strategical thought!
Review: As much as an classic as Sun Tzu's The art of War, this book in question, i.e., A Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi, Victor Harris (Translator) is also a classic when it comes to strategy and strategical thought and practice. The amazing thing is that the advice given by the author can be used in many different areas of life and is not exclusively a book about military strategy. Highly Recommended.
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