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万理一空 banri ikkū Ten Thousand Principles, One Emptiness

万理一空, banri ikkū, the last heading of the sword articles Miyamoto Musashi sent his lord in 1641, under which he wrote only that it could not be written; followed from the school's own colophon of 1666 to a novelist's misquotation of 1936 that gave it to the Book of Five Rings, and to a sumo promotion speech of 2011.

Japanese Scroll of Ten Thousand Principles, One Emptiness (banri ikkū) — Calligraphy by Eri Takase
Ten Thousand Principles, One Emptiness (banri ikkū)

万理一空 (banri ikkū): a mind without wavering, reached by carrying the training of the spirit and the body to their limit. A hand-brushed hanging scroll by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase on traditional Japanese paper.

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Abstract

万理一空, read banri ikkū and written 萬理一空 in the older form, is in its one dictionary entry a mind without wavering, reached by carrying the training of the spirit and the body to their limit, and the dictionary gives it to Miyamoto Musashi's 五輪書, the Book of Five Rings [1]. The four characters are not in the 五輪書: they are the last heading of the 兵法三十五箇条, the articles on the sword dated the second month of 1641 and sent to his lord 細川忠利, thirty-six headings under a closing that counts thirty-five, and the one sentence under this heading says only that it cannot be put into writing and is to be worked out [2][3][4]. In 1666 寺尾求馬信行, to whom the 二天記's account has Musashi leave the articles, gave the phrase as the reason for the school's name, a late-Edo Kumamoto reader called the 五輪書's 空の巻 its ground, and in April 1936 the novelist 吉川英治 quoted the 五輪書 for a closing line no witness of it read here carries, the earliest witness the National Diet Library's full text gives for the dictionary's attribution [5][6][7][8]. No Chinese or Buddhist text searched carries the four characters, every witness of the article read writes 理, principle, and not 里, league, and the English has no settled verb; my reading, signed below, keeps the Japanese apposition: the ten thousand principles the articles teach, and one emptiness that cannot be written [9][10][11].

Overview

The sense. The デジタル大辞泉 is the one dictionary read for this history with a headword: ばんり‐いっくう【万理一空】《宮本武蔵「五輪書」から》精神の修養、身体の鍛錬を極めて、心に迷いのないこと, from Miyamoto Musashi's 五輪書: carrying the cultivation of the spirit and the training of the body to their limit, and having no wavering in the heart [1]. The 日本国語大辞典 has no headword for the phrase under 万理一空, 万里一空 or 萬理一空, and JMdict has none [1][12]. So the words are read in their own entries. 理 is in the 日本国語大辞典 the way things run, an unchanging law, reason (sense ①), in Buddhist use the universal truth behind appearances, set against 事, the things themselves (④), and in the Song Confucians the root principle of the universe (⑤) [13]. 一空, with 一 meaning all, is the whole sky (①), and in Buddhist use the emptiness of all things, with emptiness itself empty (③) [14]. 万里, ten thousand ri, is a very great distance [15]. The two spellings of the first pair pull the phrase in two directions: 萬理 is ten thousand principles, 萬里 ten thousand leagues of sky.

What follows. The historical record reads the article in the text sent to 忠利 and in two other recensions, the school's own use in 1666, the 五輪書's 空の巻 to its date line, the late-Edo reading that joined the two, the phrase's life in print from 1895, the 1936 sentence that gave it to the 五輪書, the 1942 metaphysics that set it against the Song learning, and its use in 2011. 万理一空 in English follows the renderings. A reading is mine.

The historical record

1641: the last heading of the articles sent to 忠利

The 1909 volume 『宮本武蔵』, compiled by the 宮本武蔵遺蹟顕彰会, prints the articles under the year 寛永十八年 with the editors' sentence 同十八年二月、命ありて、武藏兵法の書三十五箇條の覺書を奉る、これ實に二天一流の事を、筆にせる始なり, in the second month of the eighteenth year, at his lord's order, Musashi presented a memorandum of thirty-five articles on his art: this was truly the first time the matters of the 二天一流 were put into writing [16]. The articles follow, a heading set on its own line with the sign 一 and a short paragraph under each: thirty-six headings, from 此道二刀と名付事, why this way is called "two swords", to the last [17]. The last three read [2]:

一いはをの身と云事 / 岩尾の身と云は、うごく事なくして、つよく大なる心なり、身におのづから萬理を得て、つきせぬ處なれば、生有る者は、皆よくる心有る也 … / 一期をしる事 … / 一萬理一空の事 / 萬理一空の所、書あらはしがたく候へば、おのづから御工夫なさるべきものなり、

The body of a rock. The body of a rock is a mind unmoving, strong and great; the body takes in the ten thousand principles of itself and is not exhausted, so every living thing shies from it … Knowing the moment … 萬理一空. The point of 萬理一空 is hard to put into writing, so you will please work it out for yourself. Then the closing: 右三十五箇條は兵法之見立心持に至るまで大概書記申候, the thirty-five articles above set down, in outline, my view of the art down to the frame of mind, and the date line 寬永十八年二月吉日 新免武藏 玄信判 [2]. So the text counts thirty-five and carries thirty-six, and 萬理一空 is the one heading past the count, with no teaching under it, only the courteous refusal to write one. The word 萬理 is already in the article before it, as what the body of a rock takes in. The editors add that their text is from Musashi's own hand: 按に本文三十五箇條武藏の自筆今熊本の人山尾左文太氏(舊藩二天一流師範家)故ありて所藏す, the text of the thirty-five articles is in Musashi's own hand, now held by 山尾左文太 of Kumamoto, of the domain's 二天一流 teaching house [2]. The autograph was not seen for this history.

The 1915 『武術叢書』 of the 国書刊行会, which says it collated a manuscript in the Imperial Library with the 1909 text, carries the same thirty-six headings in the same order, the last 萬理一空の所、書きあらはしがたく候へば、おのづから御工夫なさるべきものなり, and the same date line [3]. Because the 1915 editors used the 1909 text, the agreement of the two prints is one line of transmission seen twice. 忠利 died on the seventeenth day of the third month of 1641 [4].

空 before the last heading. The word 空 is at work in the articles before the phrase, as a word of the fight rather than of doctrine. Of the body that moves before the sword: 太刀は迹より打心也、是空の心也, the sword strikes after; this is the mind of 空 [18]. Of the shadow: 身を空にして, making the body empty [19]. Of rhythm: 太刀は殘し、敵の氣のあひを、空よりつよくうつ、是無念無想也, keep the sword back, and strike hard out of 空 into the gap in the opponent's attention; this is no-thought, no-design [20]; and of pressing the pillow, 空よりおさゆる, pressing it down out of 空 [20]. The last heading names a word the articles have already been using.

Two other recensions, and where the phrase sits in them

The forty-two articles. 『二刀一流剣道秘要』 (1909) prints a longer text in which the article reads 一萬理一空ノ事 萬理一空ノ處、書顯ハシガタシ自ラ工夫可有者也、書付ル處一流ノ劍術大形此ノ書ニ記シ置クコトナリ, 萬理一空: the point of 萬理一空 is hard to set down in writing; it is for one to work out oneself. What is written here sets down the sword of the school in outline [21]. The courteous address (候へば, 御工夫なさるべき) is gone, and a sentence is added. After it, without a heading, comes the close of the 五輪書's water scroll (千里ノ道モ一足ヅヽ運ブ, a journey of a thousand ri goes one step at a time), then 右四十二ヶ條 and the date 寛永十八年二月朔日 [21].

The 円明流 copies. Two manuscripts of a 円明流 version are imaged by the National Institute of Japanese Literature, both held by the 日本体育大学: a booklet copied in 天和2, 1682, and a scroll whose signatures run from 新免武藏守玄信 to 竹村與右衛門玄利 [22][23]. Both carry a short form with no address to a lord, in a cursive hand: 萬理一空之事 / 万理一空ハ書ニあらハし難し / 自身工夫…, 萬理一空 is hard to put in writing; it is one's own working out [22][23]. In the 1682 copy the phrase is not last: 期を知る事 follows it; on the scroll it is last. Both write 理.

So the last heading is true of the text sent to 忠利 and of the scroll, and not of the 1682 copy. Of the three, only the text sent to 忠利 carries おのづから御工夫なさるべきものなり.

1666: the reason for the school's name

The forty-two-article text in the 1909 『二刀一流剣道秘要』 ends with a colophon by 寺尾求馬信行, the disciple to whom, in the account the same book reprints from the 二天記, Musashi left the articles (read only in the library's full text) [24]. The colophon closes [5]:

因茲此師傳ノ書ヲ與フ、世ニ稀ナル所ナリ、萬理一空、非通無應ナレバ名號ケテ實相圓滿之兵法、逝去不絕二天一流矣 / 寛文六丙午歲中秋中旬之日 寺尾求馬信行

So I give him this book of my master's teaching; it is a rare thing. Since all is 萬理一空, and without passing through there is no answering, it is named the art of reality perfect and round, the 二天一流 that does not end with death. The middle of the eighth month, 寛文6 (1666), 寺尾求馬信行. The ruby on 號 gives the reading nazukete, naming it. Tokitsu renders the clause the master gave it this name because "all principles arise from emptiness. If there is no communication, there is no response" [25]. Twenty-five years after the articles, the phrase stands in the school's own hand as the ground of the school's name.

Not in the 五輪書

The 五輪書's fifth scroll, the 空の巻, dated 正保二年五月十二日 (1645) and addressed to 寺尾孫之丞, is printed in the 1909 『宮本武蔵』 from a copy passed on in 寛文七年 (1667) to its date line [26]. It opens 空と云心は物毎のなき所、しれざる事を空と見たつる也、勿論空はなき也、有所を知りて無所を知る是則空也, what is meant by 空 is where there is nothing, what cannot be known, seen as 空; of course 空 is nothing; to know what is and so to know what is not, that is 空; it says that where the clouds of confusion have cleared, 迷ひの雲の晴たる所こそ、實の空と知るべき也, that is to be known as true 空; and it ends 空有善無惡智は有也利は有也道は有也心は空也, in 空 there is good and no evil; wisdom is, profit is, the way is; the mind is 空 [26]. The 二刀一流剣道秘要's own 空ノ卷 ends 空有善無惡。智者有也。理者有也。道者有也。心者空也。, with 理 where the 1909 金港堂 print has 利 [27]. Neither print of the scroll carries 萬理 or 一空.

No Chinese or Buddhist source found

CBETA's full-text search of the Buddhist canon returns no work for 萬理一空 or 萬里一空 [9]. Wikisource's Chinese and Japanese texts return nothing for 萬理一空 or 万理一空, and for 萬里一空 two hits in one Song letter, where the words mean emptying a herd of horses across ten thousand li, a different phrase [28]. Groff calls the phrase a four-character phrase of a type widely imported from Chinese literature [29]; the type is right, and no witness for this one was found. What Chinese and Zen verse has is 萬里空, the sky swept clear for ten thousand leagues, as the library's full text gives it in a Tang poem and in Japanese Zen verse [30][31], and Japanese writers of the twentieth century wrote 萬里一空 for that sky: 加藤咄堂, who wrote 萬理一空 when he quoted Musashi, wrote 萬里一空 for the autumn moon over a clear sky in his lectures on the 碧巌録 in 1939 and 1940, as the National Diet Library's full text gives it [32]. Two phrases, kept apart by a writer who used both.

Late Edo: the 空の巻 as the ground of 萬里一空

The 1909 『宮本武蔵』 prints 熊本藩にて彼の有名なる荻角兵衛昌國の武藏論, the well-known essay on Musashi by 荻角兵衛昌國 of the Kumamoto domain [33]. 荻昌国 lived 1813–1862 and was one of the domain's 実学党, the reform circle of 横井小楠, which grew out of a study group of 1843 (as Wikipedia gives it) [34][35]. The essay says [6]:

五輪ノ首卷、地ノ卷ト申候ハ、卽大ノ兵法 … 空ノ卷ハ萬里一空ノ場ニテ御座候、三十五箇條ハ、大樣五輪書ノ拔ニテ御座候

The first scroll of the five, the earth scroll, is the art of war on the large scale … the 空 scroll is the ground of 萬里一空; the thirty-five articles are, in the main, an extract of the 五輪書. A few lines on, he sets the two books beside Zhu Xi: 朱夫子大學或問ノ已後如斯精密ノ書ハ、見及申タル事ハ無御座候, since Master Zhu's Questions on the Great Learning I have seen no book so precise [6]. The editors add that 横井小楠 read the essay and admired it, 橫井小楠この論を見て古人未發の見識として敬服せりといへり [16]. This is the first witness read for this history that joins the phrase to the 空の巻, and it writes 萬里. It joins them as a reading, the scroll as the ground the phrase names; it does not quote the phrase from the scroll.

A poem handed down as Musashi's

The same 1909 volume prints, among 武藏の歌として傳はれるもの, things handed down as Musashi's poems, one under the heading 敎外 [36]:

山水三千世界を萬理一空に入れ、滿天地をも挈るといふ心を題として / 乾坤を其儘庭に見る時は、我は天地の外にこそ住め

On the theme: putting mountain, water and the three thousand worlds into 萬理一空, and carrying all heaven and earth: when I see heaven and earth just as they are, as my garden, I live outside heaven and earth. The editors name no source [36]. Later Zen writers who reprint the poem differ on the spelling, as the National Diet Library's full text gives them: a 1919 collection writes 萬理 [37], a 1931 book 萬里 [38].

1895–1938: kendo's innermost secret, and the articles named as the source

The oldest dated book the National Diet Library's full text returns for the phrase is 亀山大城's 『撃剣と柔術図解』 (1895), which has the heading 萬理一空は劍道の奧秘, 萬理一空 is the innermost secret of kendo, with the ruby ばんりいつくう, and under it 萬理一空は書に顯し難し自身工夫に有りて一物なきものなりと知るべし, 萬理一空 is hard to show in writing; know that it lies in one's own working out, and is a thing with nothing in it [39]. The entry before it paraphrases the article on the general and his soldiers, so this is the article paraphrased, with a clause of the writer's own (一物なき, nothing in it). Collections of 1899 and 1902 print the article, the second with the heading list and a paraphrase, as the library's full text gives them [40][41].

From 1916 the Zen writers quote it: 加藤咄堂's 『剣客禅話』 (1916) gives it as Musashi's last article and takes it as the measure of his depth, as the full text gives it [42]; 福来友吉's 『心霊の現象』 (1917) says: 宮本武藏先生が細川忠利公に上りたる兵法の三十五箇條覺書の最後に、萬理一空の所、書あらはし難く候へば、自ら御工夫なるべきものなり。とあるが、此の萬理一空とは無所住の境を指したものであらう, at the end of the memorandum of thirty-five articles Musashi presented to Lord 細川忠利 it says … ; this 萬理一空 must point to the state of dwelling nowhere [43]. The thirty-five articles are named as the source, correctly. A 1924 essay, as the full text gives it, takes the 空の巻 as a putting-into-words of what the article said could not be written, a reading and not an attribution [44].

In the National Diet Library's full text the books carrying 萬理一空 rise from two in the 1890s to forty-five in each of the 1930s and the 1940s [45]. The count is of books in one instrument, not of uses in the language.

April 1936: a closing line the 五輪書 does not have

In the April 1936 issue of 『文藝春秋』, in an essay headed 隨筆宮本武藏(承前), Essays on Musashi (continued), the novelist 吉川英治 wrote that the Yagyū school calls its innermost teaching no-sword, and that Musashi closed the innermost line of the 五輪書 with 兵法の事總じて、萬理一空ことばにては云ひ難し, all in all, in the art of war, 萬理一空 is hard to say in words; his next sentence turns to the thirty-five articles as a separate text [7]. The issue was read only in snippets at the National Diet Library. In September 1936 a volume of 雄山閣's 『類聚伝記大日本史』 repeats the sentence with his pairing of no-sword and 萬理一空: 武藏も又『五輪書』空の卷に『兵法の事總じて、萬理一空、ことばにては云ひ難し』と述べてゐる, Musashi too says in the 空 scroll of the 五輪書, "all in all, in the art of war, 萬理一空 is hard to say in words"; its colophon is dated 昭和十一年九月七日 [8]. The sentence is in no witness of the 五輪書 or of the articles read for this history. Searched oldest first, the National Diet Library's full text returns nothing earlier for it; the word 承前 means an earlier installment exists, and that was not seen. Later books carry the sentence: 吉川's own essays, reprinted from 1950, and judo and Buddhist books citing the 五輪書 for it [46]. In 1947 高神覚昇 gave a second phrase to the 五輪書, 萬理一空、一空萬理, which the scroll also does not carry, as the full text gives it [47].

1940–1942: a maxim posted on a wall, and the Song learning

A 1940 book says that Musashi 深く禪に參じて劍禪一致の妙諦を體得し、數十回の眞劍勝負に全勝を博した後にも慢心せず、萬理一空の箴言を貼したと傳へられる, practiced Zen deeply and grasped the oneness of sword and Zen, and after winning some tens of bouts with live blades did not grow proud, and is said to have posted the maxim 萬理一空 [48]. No source is named; it is a legend, and this is its earliest attestation found for this history.

In 1942 藤平武雄's 『形而上学』, in a note to its account of the Song Confucians, says: 萬物一理は萬理一理とも言はれる。宮本武藏は「萬理一空」と言つてゐる。空の字が重大性を持つことに注意すべし。, "the ten thousand things, one principle" is also said "the ten thousand principles, one principle." Miyamoto Musashi says 萬理一空. Note that the character 空 carries weight [49]. This is the one witness read for this history that sets the phrase against the Song learning's own formula. The formula he names is Zhu Xi's school's: Zhu Xi's address to the former sage at the 滄洲精舍, dated the twelfth month of 紹熙五年, says 周程授受，萬理一原, what Zhou and the Chengs handed down: the ten thousand principles, one source [50]; and the 朱子語類 records him saying 吾儒萬理皆實，釋氏萬理皆空。, for us Confucians the ten thousand principles are all real; for the Buddhists they are all empty [51].

2011: a promotion speech, and the dictionary

On 28 September 2011 the sumo wrestler 琴奨菊, accepting promotion to 大関, said: 大関の地位を汚さぬよう、万理一空（ばんりいっくう）の境地を求めて、日々努力、精進いたします, so as not to shame the rank of 大関, I will strive and train every day, seeking the state of 万理一空 [52]. A library reference record of 2012 cites the papers of that week: the 毎日 gave the phrase to Musashi as said to be his words, and the 朝日 gave it to the 五輪書 [53]. The デジタル大辞泉's entry gives it to the 五輪書 [1]. When the entry was first printed was not established.

The spelling: 萬理 and 萬里

Every witness of the article read here writes 理: both prints of the text sent to 忠利 [2][3], the forty-two-article text and its 1666 colophon [21][5], the 1682 copy, whose heading has 萬 and body 万, both with 理 [22], the scroll [23], and the 1895 paraphrase with its ruby [39]. 荻's essay writes 萬里 [6]. In 2016 町田輝雄's reconstructed text of the articles, built on the 1909 print, numbers the heading as the thirty-sixth and prints 万里一空 in the heading and 身におのづから万里を得て in the article before it, with no mark of a change, though his base text reads 萬理 in both places; his headnote takes the articles to be based on a 円明流 transmission Musashi had written down in Nagoya about ten years before [10]. His source for 里 was not seen.

万理一空 in English

Dürckheim, 1960. Karlfried Graf von Dürckheim's The Japanese Cult of Tranquillity, translated from his German, says The saying is to be found in Miyamoto Musashi: Banri ikku, i.e. "one leads to ten thousand", and goes on, in connection with banri, Ku then means emptiness in general and ikku signifies one particular …, as the Internet Archive's full-text index of the 1974 reprint gives it, at the page marked 81 [54]. The direction is reversed: the article has no verb, and no witness read here has the one going out to the ten thousand.

Tokitsu, 2004. Kenji Tokitsu's Miyamoto Musashi: His Life and Writings gives no heading: All reasons and principles come from emptiness is folded into the thirty-fifth article, Spotting Opportunities, and the closing in thirty-five articles keeps the count [25]. The phrase becomes an origin, come from.

Wilson, 2004. William Scott Wilson's The Lone Samurai says the work actually contains thirty-six articles, and his list of headings ends Ten Thousand Principles/One Void [11]: the apposition, with no verb, as in the Japanese.

Groff, 2016. David K. Groff's The Five Rings has On myriad Principles, a single Emptiness … I humbly submit that the point of myriad Principles but a single Emptiness is impossible to write about; his notes say Literally "ten thousand principles", and if one counts, there appear to be thirty-six rather than thirty-five articles, but it may be that "On myriad Principles, a single Emptiness" is not meant to be considered as one of the "articles" [29].

Bennett, 2018. Alexander Bennett's The Complete Musashi has (36) About "Myriad Principles, One Void" (一、万理一空の事) Although myriad principles return to the Ether, this is all but impossible to explain in writing, and in the article before it You come to embody myriad principles through your training; his note says Musashi may have miscounted, or the title "Myriad Principles, One Void" is meant as a conclusion [55]. Return to is a verb the article does not have.

So the English splits on the count, thirty-six with the heading kept (Wilson, Groff, Bennett) or thirty-five with the phrase folded in (Tokitsu), and on the verb: leads to, come from, return to, or none.

A reading

I read 萬理一空 as the ten thousand principles, one emptiness, two nouns set side by side, as the article sets them, with no verb. Three things in the articles carry this reading. The first is 萬理 in the article before it: the body of a rock takes in the ten thousand principles of the art until nothing can move it, so the last heading names where those principles end. The second is 空, which the articles have used four times as a word of the fight, the empty moment the sword strikes from; the phrase lands on ground the articles prepared, and is not a motto set on top of them. The third is the sentence under the heading, which refuses to write: what is given is a direction to work it out, which is itself the teaching, and why it stands one past the count.

The four characters sit where the Song learning put its argument. Zhu Xi said the ten thousand principles have one source, and that the Buddhists hold them all empty; 萬理一空 says in four characters what he said the Buddhists hold. Nothing read here says Musashi read Zhu Xi. The nearest witnesses are readers: 荻昌国, a Kumamoto samurai of 横井小楠's circle, who praised Musashi's two books as the most precise since Zhu Xi's Questions on the Great Learning, and 藤平武雄, who set the phrase against 萬理一理 in 1942. I offer the Song vocabulary as the frame the phrase speaks into, not as its source.

I sign 理, principles, and not 里, leagues: every witness of the article read here writes 理, and the article before it uses 萬理 as a word. 萬里一空, the clear sky, is a fine phrase of its own, and the writers who used both kept them apart. And I read the phrase as the last heading of the articles sent to 忠利, the one place its witnesses put it, and not as a line of the 五輪書, where no witness read here puts it.

Notes

The count. Thirty-six headings were counted in both the 1909 and the 1915 prints; the 1909 editors' autograph and the Imperial Library manuscript the 1915 editors used were not seen. The 1682 円明流 copy's headings were not counted.

Open, not pursued: the earlier installment of 吉川英治's essay that 承前 implies, and whether he had the sentence from anyone (the 文藝春秋 issues are read only in snippets at the National Diet Library, which cannot be reached from outside Japan); the year and page of Dürckheim's German original, and the English at the page (the Internet Archive copies are restricted; p. 81 is the full-text index's page); when the デジタル大辞泉's entry and its attribution to the 五輪書 were first printed (no printed edition of the dictionary was at hand); a Japanese reader before 1942 setting the phrase against 萬理一原 or 萬理皆空 (none found among the books read; 荻's comparison to Zhu Xi is about precision, not the phrase); 町田's source for 里 (魚住 2005 and 赤羽 2010 were not at hand); the 永青文庫 and Kumamoto copies of the articles (by catalogue only); the 1755 copy in Kanazawa (no images served); the source of the poem 山水三千世界を萬理一空に入れ before 1909.

References

  1. 「万理一空」, デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank; the 日本国語大辞典 has no entry under 万理一空, 万里一空 or 萬理一空. https://kotobank.jp/word/万理一空-673113
  2. 宮本武蔵遺蹟顕彰会, editor, 『宮本武蔵』, 金港堂, 1909, scan 70, pp. 92–93: the last three articles, the closing, the date line and the editors' note. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/992019/1/70
  3. 国書刊行会, editor, 『武術叢書』, 1915, scans 123–126, pp. 227–233, 「兵法三十五箇條」. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/945805/1/126
  4. 「細川忠利」, デジタル版 日本人名大辞典+Plus, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/細川忠利-14969
  5. 『二刀一流剣道秘要』, 1909, read in the National Diet Library's viewer, scan 80: the colophon of 寺尾求馬信行. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/860425/1/80
  6. 宮本武蔵遺蹟顕彰会, editor, 『宮本武蔵』, 金港堂, 1909, scan 62, pp. 76–77, 荻角兵衛昌國's 武藏論. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/992019/1/62
  7. 吉川英治, 「隨筆宮本武藏(承前)」, 『文藝春秋』, April 1936, a book in copyright, read only in snippets at the National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/3197672
  8. 雄山閣, editor, 『類聚伝記大日本史』 第十卷 義人武俠篇, 1936, scan 35, pp. 54–55; the colophon at scan 166. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1879850/1/35
  9. CBETA Online, full-text search of the canon for 萬理一空 and 萬里一空; no work, October 2026. https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/search/?q=萬理一空
  10. 町田輝雄, 「宮本武蔵筆『兵法三十五箇条』再現テクスト」, 『日本体育大学紀要』 46(1), 2016, pp. 45–50, the headnote and article ㊱; read in the text layer, pp. 49–50 at the page image. https://nittaidai.repo.nii.ac.jp/records/1356
  11. William Scott Wilson, The Lone Samurai: The Life of Miyamoto Musashi, Kodansha International, Tokyo, 2004, p. 109 and the notes to chapter three, pp. 257–258, read in the text layer.
  12. JMdict, release 3.6.2, no entry for 万理一空, 萬理一空, 万里一空 or 萬里一空 (the release file, searched October 2026).
  13. 「理」, デジタル大辞泉 and 精選版 日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/理-148286
  14. 「一空」, 精選版 日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/一空-204717
  15. 「万里」, デジタル大辞泉 and 精選版 日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/万里-607428
  16. 宮本武蔵遺蹟顕彰会, editor, 『宮本武蔵』, 金港堂, 1909, scan 63, pp. 78–79. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/992019/1/63
  17. 宮本武蔵遺蹟顕彰会, editor, 『宮本武蔵』, 金港堂, 1909, scans 64–70, pp. 80–92, the thirty-six headings. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/992019/1/64
  18. 宮本武蔵遺蹟顕彰会, editor, 『宮本武蔵』, 金港堂, 1909, scan 66, p. 85, 太刀にかはる身の事. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/992019/1/66
  19. 宮本武蔵遺蹟顕彰会, editor, 『宮本武蔵』, 金港堂, 1909, scan 67, p. 87, 影を動かすと云事. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/992019/1/67
  20. 宮本武蔵遺蹟顕彰会, editor, 『宮本武蔵』, 金港堂, 1909, scan 68, p. 88, 拍子の間を知ると云事 and 枕のおさへと云事. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/992019/1/68
  21. 『二刀一流剣道秘要』, 1909, read in the National Diet Library's viewer, scan 79: the last article, the closing 右四十二ヶ條 and the date line. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/860425/1/79
  22. 『圓明流兵法三十五ケ條』, manuscript copied 天和2 (1682), 日本体育大学 民和文庫, imaged by the National Institute of Japanese Literature, canvases 29–30. https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/100338139/29
  23. 『兵法三十五ケ条』, catalogued as 円明流, manuscript scroll, 日本体育大学 図書館, imaged by the National Institute of Japanese Literature, canvases 24–25. https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/100375745/25
  24. 『二刀一流剣道秘要』, 1909, the 二天記's bequest 寺尾勝信ニ五輪ノ卷同信行ニ三十五ケ條ノ書, as the National Diet Library's full text gives it. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/860425
  25. Kenji Tokitsu, Miyamoto Musashi: His Life and Writings, translated by Sherab Chodzin Kohn from the French of 2000, Shambhala, Boston, 2004, The Thirty-five Articles on Strategy, articles 34–35 and the closing, and the 1666 colophon, read in the text layer.
  26. 宮本武蔵遺蹟顕彰会, editor, 『宮本武蔵』, 金港堂, 1909, scan 141, pp. 234–235: the end of the 空の巻, its date line and the 寛文七年 transmission. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/992019/1/141
  27. 『二刀一流剣道秘要』, 1909, read in the National Diet Library's viewer, scans 68–69: the book's own 空ノ卷 to its date line. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/860425/1/68
  28. Wikisource (Chinese and Japanese), exact-phrase search for 萬理一空, 万理一空, 萬里一空 and 万里一空, October 2026; the one text with 萬里一空 is a letter in 『五百家播芳大全文粹』 卷047. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=%22萬里一空%22
  29. David K. Groff, translator, The Five Rings, Chartwell Books, 2016, The Thirty-five Articles, the last article and the endnotes, p. 262, read in the text layer.
  30. 野口寧斎, 『三体詩評釈』, 1894, scan 97, 張籍's verse with 万里空, as the National Diet Library's full text gives it. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/895020/1/97
  31. 仏書刊行会, editor, 『大日本仏教全書』, 1922, Zen verse with 萬里空, as the National Diet Library's full text gives it. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/952800
  32. 加藤咄堂, 『碧巌録大講座』, 1940, scan 185, 萬里一空 of the autumn sky (the 1939 volume, scan 161, of the moon), as the National Diet Library's full text gives it. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1246929/1/185
  33. 宮本武蔵遺蹟顕彰会, editor, 『宮本武蔵』, 金港堂, 1909, scan 61, p. 75, the editors' introduction of 荻角兵衛昌國's 武藏論. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/992019/1/61
  34. 「荻昌弘」, Japanese Wikipedia, the family section: 荻昌国 (1813–1862), 通称 角兵衛, 実学党. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/荻昌弘
  35. 「実学党」, Japanese Wikipedia. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/実学党
  36. 宮本武蔵遺蹟顕彰会, editor, 『宮本武蔵』, 金港堂, 1909, scan 85, p. 122, 武藏の歌として傳はれるもの. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/992019/1/85
  37. 森大狂, 『近古禅林叢談』, 1919, scan 41, as the National Diet Library's full text gives it. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/963150/1/41
  38. 釈宗演, 『達磨の足跡』, 1931, scan 87, as the National Diet Library's full text gives it. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1175460/1/87
  39. 亀山大城, 『撃剣と柔術図解』, 1895, scan 50, p. 77, read in the National Diet Library's viewer. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/859930/1/50
  40. 川那辺貞太郎, editor, 『自恃言行録』, 1899, as the National Diet Library's full text gives it (the scans are not open outside the library). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/781624
  41. 飯島唯一, editor, 『日本武術名家伝』, 1902, as the National Diet Library's full text gives it (the scans are not open outside the library). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/860435
  42. 加藤咄堂, 『剣客禅話』, 1916, scan 35, as the National Diet Library's full text gives it. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/944046/1/35
  43. 福来友吉, 『心霊の現象』, 1917, scan 198, pp. 362–363. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/955230/1/198
  44. 『日本精神研究』 第5, 1924, scan 15, as the National Diet Library's full text gives it. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/978804/1/15
  45. National Diet Library Digital Collections, full-text search for 万理一空 (萬理一空 folds to the same results), oldest first, October 2026: 356 books, by decade 1890s 2, 1900s 3, 1910s 9, 1920s 13, 1930s 45, 1940s 45. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/search/searchResult?keyword=万理一空
  46. National Diet Library Digital Collections, full-text search for 總じて萬理一空 and 萬理一空、ことばにては, October 2026: 17 and 12 books, the oldest the April 1936 『文藝春秋』. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/search/searchResult?keyword=總じて萬理一空
  47. 高神覚昇, 『心に拠点を求めよ』, 1947, scan 57, as the National Diet Library's full text gives it. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1040543/1/57
  48. 香椎浩平, 『英雄日本民族の自覚』, 1940, scan 44, p. 83. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1046701/1/44
  49. 藤平武雄, 『形而上学』, 1942, scan 61, p. 109, note (三). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1037962/1/61
  50. 朱熹, 「滄洲精舍告先聖文」, 『晦菴集』 卷八十六, at Wikisource (四庫全書本). https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/晦菴集_(四庫全書本)/卷086
  51. 『朱子語類』 卷一百二十四, at Wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/朱子語類/124
  52. 「琴奨菊、大関に昇進　「万理一空の境地めざす」」, 日本経済新聞, 28 September 2011. https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXNASDH27012_Y1A920C1US0001/
  53. レファレンス協同データベース, 京都市図書館, record 1000112579 (registered 17 October 2012), on 琴奨菊's 万理一空, citing 毎日新聞 and 朝日新聞 of 28 and 29 September 2011. https://crd.ndl.go.jp/reference/detail?page=ref_view&id=1000112579
  54. Karlfried Graf von Dürckheim, The Japanese Cult of Tranquillity, translated by Eda O'Shiel from Japan und die Kultur der Stille, Rider, London, 1960; Samuel Weiser reprint, 1974, at the page marked 81, as the Internet Archive's full-text index gives it (the scans are restricted). https://archive.org/details/japanesecultoftr0000karl
  55. Alexander Bennett, translator, The Complete Musashi: The Book of Five Rings and Other Works, Tuttle, 2018, Combat Strategy in 35 Articles, articles 34–36 and notes 50–51, read in the text layer.

Authors

Tim Jackowski (Systems Architect, Takase Studios, LLC) · 典 Ten (Anthropic Claude Opus 5.5, Takase Studios LLC)

AI written · Ten wrote the history. Tim Jackowski commissioned it and answers for it.

Not yet reviewed.