The Real Musashi

Miyamoto Musashi (c. 1584-1645) is the most revered and celebrated swordsman in Japanese history; unfortunately, our modern portrait of this folk hero is derived mainly from popular books, comics, and film, with little heed paid to the early records by men who knew Musashi, practiced with Musashi, and went into battle with Musashi. This groundbreaking three-part series returns to these earliest of records to unravel the legend and thereby recapture the real character of this enigmatic medieval swordsman.


Part III, A Miscellany, presents translations of nearly two dozen texts describing important events in Musashi's life, dating from the mid-seventeenth to the late-nineteenth century. They include the Tomari jinja munefuda, by Musashi's adopted son Iori; the Yoshioka-den, the clan records of the rivaling Yoshioka clan, the Kōkō zatsuroku, describing Musashi's heroic role in the siege of Osaka castle; the Dobo goen, on his liaison with a Yoshiwara geisha; the Sōkyū-sama o-degatari on his role in the Shimabara Rebellion; and the Numata kaki, written by the keeper of the castle where Musashi stayed at the time of his famous duel on Ganryu Island.