What’s up with this blog?
Of all the domain names I’ve owned and done nothing with, threeshouts.com remains my favorite. So, here I am, giving the URL another chance to showcase things that interest me — things which may or may not interest anyone else. But ain’t that what the web is all about? For anyone who would do something much more productive with the domain name, please accept my half-hearted apologies. Maybe threeshouts.us is still available.
So why the name? A long time ago, I stumbled upon text from The Book of Five Rings, written by the samurai warrior Miyamoto Musashi circa 1645. In it, he reviews “The Three Shouts.”
The three shouts are divided thus: before, during and after. Shout according to the situation. The voice is a thing of life. We shout against fires and so on, against the wind and the waves. The voice shows energy.
In large-scale strategy, at the start of battle we shout as loudly as possible. During the fight, the voice is low-pitched, shouting out as we attack. After the contest, we shout in the wake of our victory. These are the three shouts.
In single combat, we make as if to cut and shout “Ei!” at the same time to disturb the enemy, then in the wake of our shout we cut with the long sword. We shout after we have cut down the enemy – this is to announce victory. This is called “sen go no koe” (before and after voice). We do not shout simultaneously with flourishing the long sword. We shout during the fight to get into rhythm. Research this deeply.
So anyway; it was an interesting passage, three is a relevant number in my life, and “three shouts” makes for some good analogies. None of that matters, of course. It’s just a cool name. Thanks for stopping by.
Best regards,
Me
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