After Baki Dou: A History Reader's Guide to Miyamoto Musashi

An introduction to the historical Miyamoto Musashi (1584-1645), by the shortest route, for readers who came to him through Baki Dou or Vagabond. The principal events of his life, the actual nature of the Niten Ichi-ryū, the structure of the Book of Five Rings, the historical record on the Kojirō duel, and the state of contemporary scholarship — examined in order.

The Life — Sixty-Two Years in Outline

Miyamoto Musashi was born in 1584 (Tenshō 12) in Harima Province (modern Hyōgo Prefecture) or Mimasaka Province (modern Okayama Prefecture); the birthplace is disputed. He won his first serious duel at thirteen, and thereafter traveled the provinces, experiencing more than sixty serious duels in total. In 1612 (Keichō 17), at twenty-nine, he is said to have fought Sasaki Kojirō in the duel at Ganryū-jima. In 1640 (Kan'ei 17), he was received as a guest of the Kumamoto domain by its lord Hosokawa Tadatoshi, and spent his late years in Kumamoto. In May 1645 (Shōhō 2), he completed the Book of Five Rings on Mt. Iwato in Kumamoto and died shortly thereafter. He was sixty-two.

What the Niten Ichi-ryū Is

The school of swordsmanship Musashi established is the Niten Ichi-ryū — 'the school of two heavens, one style.' 'Two heavens' refers to the two swords, the long sword and the wakizashi; 'one style' means a single school. Its largest distinctive feature is the technique of using both swords in concert, but this is not a flashy show technique — it is a system of combat rationality that uses the two swords according to the situation. Musashi himself writes in the Book of Five Rings: 'Take the use of both hands as the basic, and train yourself so you can also wield the sword with either hand alone.' The Niten Ichi-ryū continues in transmission today, with a head master in the line of more than ten generations from Musashi.

The Structure of the Book of Five Rings

The Book of Five Rings (1645) is the treatise on strategy that Musashi wrote in his late years. It consists of five scrolls — Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, and Void. The Earth scroll is the general theory of the way of strategy. The Water scroll covers the basic technique of the Niten Ichi-ryū. The Fire scroll covers the heart of actual combat. The Wind scroll is a critical examination of other schools. The Void scroll covers the final state of 'emptiness' as the highest reach of the sword. With its distinctive composition as both a technical book and a work of philosophy, it has, from the modern era forward, also been widely read in the West as a business book under the title The Book of Five Rings. It is the only primary source through which Musashi's thought can be known directly.

The Sasaki Kojirō Duel — the Historical Record

The Musashi-Kojirō duel at Ganryū-jima is said to have taken place on April 13, 1612 (Keichō 17), at Funa-shima (the modern Ganryū-jima in Shimonoseki City, Yamaguchi Prefecture) in Buzen Province. But, strikingly, Musashi himself does not describe this fight in the Book of Five Rings. The oldest record is the Kokura inscription erected in 1654 by Musashi's adopted son Miyamoto Iori, but this too contains traditions arising after Musashi's death. Many of the famous anecdotes — that Musashi won with a wooden sword, that he was late by boat, the details of the duel — were inflated in late-Edo fiction such as Niten-ki (1776). What actually happened has not been fully clarified even in contemporary scholarship.

The Yoshioka Clan Battles — Ambiguous Transmission

The fight with the Yoshioka school — the famous sword dōjō of Kyoto — is also one of the principal episodes of Musashi's life. Around 1604 (Keichō 9), serious duels with the brothers Yoshioka Seijūrō and Yoshioka Denshichirō are said to have taken place. That Musashi won against both is supported in multiple sources, but the historicity of the subsequent group combat (the fight with dozens of the Yoshioka disciples) is debated in recent scholarship. It is regarded as likely exaggerated and may differ substantially from the way the scene is rendered in fiction.

The State of Contemporary Musashi Scholarship

Twenty-first-century Musashi scholarship has proceeded in the direction of peeling away the traditions transmitted through Edo-period fiction and reconstructing the historical figure from contemporary materials — Musashi's own autograph letters, the Kokura inscription, the Hosokawa family documents. Uozumi Takashi's Standard Edition of the Book of Five Rings (Shin-Jinbutsuōraisha) and Fukuda Masahide's Studies in Miyamoto Musashi (Rekiken) are among the representative contemporary works since the early 2000s. Distinguishing the fictional Musashi from the historical Musashi while enjoying both is the richest reading available to the contemporary reader.

"In the conduct of strategy there is nothing other than to win."