Kenshi, Miyamoto Musashi

Miyamoto Musashi was a great figure in Japanese history. He was an effective military leader, for his great strategies. Musashi was also a great artist, being able to produce paintings, sculptures, and calligraphy which have become one of the finest among others in Japanese history.

Musashi however, is best known for his great skill as a swordsman. Today, he is remembered as a kenshi, or "sword saint" for his supreme skill with a sword.

Musashi's full name was Shinmen Musashi no Kami Fujiwara no Genshin. He eventually took the name Miyamoto to honour his birthplace, a village named Miyamoto in Mimasaka Province of the vast archipelago of Japan. Musashi was born roughly around 1584.

At the age of seven, the father of Musashi died. Later on during his childhood, his mother eventually passed he was raised by his uncle, a Buddhist priest. At this time, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a great noblemen was warring against other clans for the unity of Japan and the title of shogun. Eventually, Musashi would enlist in Hideyoshi's army. The Japanese emperor was suppose to be the supreme ruler of Japan. Yet for several hundred years, the shoguns (military rulers) ruled in his name.

The competing warrior clans were Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Nobunaga Ida, Takeda Shingen, and one of the smartest and most ruthless military leader the world has known, Ieyasu Tokugawa, who eventually became shogun and established the Tokugawa Dynasty lasting for more than 250 years.

At the age of thirteen, Musashi was of great size. It is believed that at this age, he slew a man in combat. His opponent was of the Shinto Ryu school of military arts, Arima Kigei. Kigei died vomiting blood when the strong Musashi had thrown him to the ground and beat him with a stick.

At the age of sixteen, Musashi decided to leave his home village to make a name for himself as a warrior. He embarked on journeys seeking duels and contests. One such warrior he defeated was Tadashima Akiyama. Around this time, he enlisted in Hideyoshi's army. By 1600, Hideyoshi was dead, and Mitsunari Ishida succeeded his position ruling for Hideyoshi's son, Hideyori. Tokugawa forced Ishida in a decisive battle at Seki ga Hara, where Tokugawa and his allies battled against Ishida and his allies for three days resulting in 70,000 warrior lives lost. The survivors in Ishida's routed force were hunted down by Tokugawa. Musashi was able to escape by crawling among corpses for days hiding from Tokugawa's patrol. He would drink water from muddy puddles to survive.

With the war behind Musashi, he roamed Japan for nearly a decade fighting duels and perfecting his skills. He went up to Kyoto, the capital, when he was twenty-one. This was the scene of his vendetta agains the Yoshioka family. The Yoshiokas had been fencing instructors to the Ashikaga house for generations. Later forbidden to teach Kendo by lord Tokugawa, the family became dyers, and are dyers today. Munisai, Musashi's father, had been invited to Kyoto some years before by the Shogun Ashikaga Yoshiaka. Munisai was a competent swordsman, and an expert with the "jitte", a kind of iron truncheon with a tongue for catching sword blades. The story has it that Munisai fought three of the Yoshiokas, winning two of the duels, and perhaps this has some bearing on Musashi's behavior towards the family.

Yoshioka Seijiro, the head of the family, was the first to fight Musashi, on the moor outside the city. Seijiro was armed with a real sword, and Musashi with a wooden sword. Musashi laid Seijiro out with a fierce attack and beat him savagely as he lay on the ground. The retainers carried their lord home on a rain-shutter, where for shame he cut off his samurai topknot.

Musashi longered on in the capital, and his continued presence further irked the Yoshiokas. The second brother, Denshichiro, applied to Musashi for a duel. As a military ploy, Musashi arrived late on the appointed day, and seconds after the start of the fight he broke his opponent's skull with one blow of his wooden sword. Denshichiro was dead. The house issued yet another challenge with Hanshichiro, the young son of Seijiro, as champion. Hanshichiro was a mere boy, not yet in his teens. The contest was to be held by a pine tree adjacent to ricefields. Musashi arrived at the meeting place well before the appointed time and waited in hiding for his enemy to come. The child arrived dressed formally in war gear, with a party of well-armed retainers, determined to do away with Musashi. Musashi waited concealed in the shadows, and just as they were thinking that he had thought better of it and had decided to leave Kyoto, he suddenly appeared in the midst of them, and cut the boy down. Then, drawing both swords, he cut a path through them and made his escape.

The use of two swords was totally opposite of tradition. The regular samurai was armed with a katana and wakizashi (a shorted sword). Only the katana was used in battle while the wakizashi was to signify rank. But innovative as Musashi was, he was always striving to confuse his opponents, fighting with a sword in each hand. His two-weapon method of swordsmanship became known as the nito-ryu style.

Musashi had fought in more than 60 duels by the age of 29 and was victorious in all. On some occasions, he even fought whole kenjutsu schools. Sometimes, he received requests for duels since his popularity had spread. Other times, it was just because he had provoked or angered them. Travelling from province to province, Musashi made a name for himself striking down his opponents using a wooden bokken (wooden sword) while his opponents used katanas, chain and sickle fighters, and even spears. The name he made for himself was not just as a skilled swordsman, but a rather strange oddball. His appearance was wild and unkempt. He would often sleep in caves afraid of being ambushed rather than staying in a comfortable inn. All this was for a purpose though, for he was a master strategist. His bizarre behaviour may have been planned to frighten and confuse his rivals.

This picture displays Musashi on Ganryu Island, where his last duel took place. Above is legendary Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune portraying him in the 1954 epic Samurai Trilogy