The Book of Five Rings in business: Musashi's wide gaze, step by step

What Musashi wrote

The Water scroll has a short section on where a fighter's eyes should go. Musashi says the gaze should be large and wide, and that there are two ways of seeing, kan and ken. In our rendering: make the eye that takes in the whole strong and the eye that fixes on things weak, and see what is far as if it were near and what is near as if it were far. He adds that you should know the opponent's sword without staring at it, and that this gaze is the same in a duel and in a battle between armies.

Then comes a practical warning. In our rendering: when things are hectic, you can't suddenly learn to see this way, so make it your everyday gaze. The Wind scroll returns to the theme when it criticizes schools that fix their eyes on the opponent's sword, hands, face, or feet. Musashi says the gaze in strategy is set, broadly, on the other person's mind, and in large-scale strategy on the state of the enemy's forces.

One caution before borrowing it. Musashi was describing how a swordsman uses his eyes. Some modern books turn kan and ken into "essence" and "appearance"; the study group whose edition we read argues against that, and the text itself is concrete. The business procedure below is our analogy, built from the shape of his advice: wide before narrow, the other side's intent before their move, and a habit rather than a reaction.

The core ideas, for a business review

Who should use it

Founders and managers whose teams are reacting: a metric fell overnight, a large customer escalated, or a competitor launched something and someone wants an answer by Friday. It's also a good opening for a weekly or monthly decision meeting.

It isn't a full competitor analysis; for a head-to-head comparison, use Sun Tzu's know the enemy and yourself. For uncertainty measured in years, scenario planning fits better.

How to run the review

1. Name the pull. Write the event pulling everyone's attention and the decision people want to make about it, and note how old the event is.
2. List what you see without explaining it. Write each surface event with its date, size, and source. Hold back causes for now.
3. Take in the whole. Compare each event with the usual range over the last 8 to 12 periods and with the same period last year. Mark it inside the range, outside it, or no history.
4. See the far as if near. List the slow changes that don't show in a single day, and write what each means for this week's decision.
5. See the near as if far. For each urgent event, ask whether it will matter in 90 days and to whom.
6. Read the other side. For each customer, rival, partner, or team involved, write what they did, what it suggests about their intent (marked as inference), and what state they're in.
7. Sort and decide. Label each event signal, noise, or unknown, then act now, watch with a named trigger, or let go. Give each action one owner.
8. Set the standing gaze. Choose 3 to 5 signals to review on a fixed rhythm, each with its usual range, so the next spike is read against the whole.

A worked mini example

An illustration, not a real company. Hikari Forms sells a form builder to clinics. One morning the team panics: daily sign-ups fell from 52 to 31, the second-largest customer (7% of revenue) emailed the CEO about a slow export, and a rival announced a free plan. The CEO wants to launch a free plan this week.

The review lists the three events first, then sets them against history. Weekly sign-ups sat between 270 and 320 for 12 weeks, and the drop happened on a public holiday, so it's probably noise. Trial-to-paid held at 21% for three months. The far view adds something nobody raised: sign-ups have been flat for a quarter, which is the real growth question. The complaint passes the 90-day test, so the CEO calls the customer today with the fix date. The rival's free plan is unknown until someone reads its limits, so it goes on watch with a trigger. The free plan waits four weeks for data.

Common mistakes

• Explaining before listing. The first cause someone names becomes the story.
• Calling a trend from two points. Without history, write "no history" and go get it.
• Watching the move, not the mind. A rival's free plan aimed at another segment may need no answer.
• Turning "step back" into "do nothing". Most reviews end with at least one small, fast action.

Where it comes from

Miyamoto Musashi (1584–1645) began the work in 1643 in Kumamoto, under the patronage of the Hosokawa family, and entrusted it to his student Terao Magonojō shortly before his death. He named the five scrolls Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, and Void; the title "Book of Five Rings" came into common use later. No copy in Musashi's hand survives, and the text comes down through manuscript copies whose wording differs in places. The original is public domain. The English renderings here are ours, and this page is an independent summary, not a translation of any edition. See the other strategy books for more methods.

Questions

What does "kan no me" mean in the Book of Five Rings?

Musashi names two ways of seeing: kan (観), taking in the whole, and ken (見), fixing on what is in front of you. He says to make kan strong and ken weak, and to see the far as if near and the near as if far.

Is the Book of Five Rings about business?

No. It's a text on sword fighting and strategy written in the 1640s. Using its teaching on the gaze for business reviews is an analogy, and a useful one, but it isn't something Musashi claimed.

What are the five scrolls?

Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, and Void (地・水・火・風・空). The passage on the gaze is in the Water scroll, and the Wind scroll returns to it when criticizing other schools.