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Sadly, the original manuscript of Gorin-no-sho no longer exists. According to Terao Magonojō, it was destroyed in a castle fire, possibly the Edo Castle fire of 1657 or the Yashiro Castle fire in Kyushu in 1672. Musashi never titled the five scrolls Gorin-no-sho. He named each individual scroll as one of the five elements. It was Nagaoka Naoyuki and Toyota Masakata who conceived Gorin-no-sho as a shorthand title in their notes, and this designation stuck. As for the use of the “five elements” (gorin), it was not Musashi’s intention to appropriate the idea from Buddhist philosophy. In Heihō Sanjūgo-kajō, he had already referred to the heart or mind of the warrior as being comparable to the properties of “Water.” He also wrote briefly of the “Ether” as a state of high attainment and clarity, but not in the Buddhist sense of Nirvana. It was more like figuratively piercing through the clouds of confusion and being exposed to the boundless clear sky.46 Moreover, he had discussed the “Wind” of other schools in previous texts. Wind is a term in Japanese indicating “type” or “appearance.” Adopting “Earth” to explain the basis of his school, and “Fire” to represent what happens in the heat of battle and dueling, probably seemed convenient and oddly prophetic.
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Alexander Bennett (The Complete Musashi: The Book of Five Rings and Other Works)