Where in the West "the Way of the Sword" is oriented around courtesy, charity, and deeds of courage, "Way of the Sword" described here is primarily an inner journey, a fight with self. While one might expect a rise and growing influence in the novel Musashi, it seeks only to perfect internally, by tirelessly working to improve its deficiency points. And even if we see that he reached a stage of mastery of combat, management and policy that would allow it to govern a country, he sees beyond that and realizes that what is The most important thing is not to become better than others, but better than himself.
And this is basically an apology for continuous improvement, the pursuit of total quality found there. It is commonly accepted that the extraordinary economic rise of Japan between the 1950s and 1980s is largely due to the theories of Deming, an American engineer who sold his ideas on the process of continuous improvement of quality to Japanese manufacturers. This novel shows us that in reality, this sense of continuous improvement, and the search for perfection in everything, is anchored much longer for the heart of the Japanese ideals. And that is a very powerful invitation to make ours these principles, which clearly put us in control of our own destiny.
