Features 11 Maps and charts of historical periods, castles, temples, shrines, battles, and rebellionsOne of two seminal texts for understanding the life of Miyamoto Musashi (c.1584-1645), the most celebrated swordsman in Japanese history, completed in 1755 by Toyoda Masanaga, senior retainer to the Nagaoka clan; with the Bushû denraiki (also available from Floating World), the Bukôden stands as the most reliable record of Musashi's life and exploits outside those from the hand of the master swordsman himself. Now, for the first time in two-and-a-half centuries, Masanaga's insight into this enigmatic and solitary swordsman has been made available to the English reader. It throws a new and refreshing light on many aspects of Musashi's life, especially his later life - his adoption of Iori, his return to Kyushu in 1634, and of course the gestation of his great work on the philosophy and art of Japanese swordsmanship, the Book of Five Rings.William de Lange studied Japanese language and culture at the University of Leiden and at Waseda University in Japan. He is active as a translator and interpreter, and is a practitioner of the Shinkage school of swordsmanship. He is the author of A Dictionary of Japanese Idioms, Pars Japonica: The First Dutch Expedition to Reach the Shores of Japan , and the acclaimed three-volume history Famous Japanese Swordsmen .