The Real Musashi vs. The Manga Musashi: Five Points of Difference

Miyamoto Musashi is a swordsman depicted repeatedly in modern manga and anime, but there is a large gap between the fictional image of Musashi and the historical Musashi. For readers who came to Musashi through Baki Dou or other contemporary works, here is a five-point comparison drawing the 'real figure' from the Book of Five Rings and contemporary historical materials.

1. Two Swords — Spectacle vs. Reality

In manga Musashi is often depicted in the flashy two-sword form in which he wields a long sword in each hand. But the 'two swords' of the Niten Ichi-ryū that Musashi himself describes in the Book of Five Rings are by basis a combination of a long sword and a wakizashi (short sword). He did not always hold a long sword in each hand; the technique is tactical, used according to the situation. Musashi gives as his reason for two swords the practical thought: 'The hands that wield the sword are two — do not let either hand idle.' The origin is combat rationality, not visual spectacle.

2. Height and Build — Musashi Was Not a Giant

In contemporary manga, Musashi is often depicted as a giant over six shaku (about 180 cm). But the actual height estimated from the Musashi self-portrait held by the Kumamoto Prefectural Museum of Art and from the testimony of contemporaries who saw Musashi directly is, somewhat tall for the Japanese of the period, around five shaku six sun (about 170 cm). He was by no means a giant. He was, more likely, somewhat above average — a man of middling-to-substantial build but not larger than life. The enlargement in manga is a device of combat representation.

3. Personality — Not a Combat Maniac but a Zen-Minded Thinker

The Musashi of fiction is often depicted as a 'combat maniac who enjoys killing.' The Musashi of Baki Dou, even after a four-hundred-year resurrection, appears as a pure warrior who seeks combat. But the historical Musashi was the thinker who wrote the Book of Five Rings on Mt. Iwato in Kumamoto in his late years, a many-talented figure who excelled at painting and calligraphy as well (works such as the Daruma portrait and the Withered Tree and Shrike). He is sometimes praised as 'a man yet not a man, close to the divine,' but this refers to a Zen-like spiritual character — not to the meaning of a combat maniac.

4. The Sasaki Kojirō Duel — the Historical Record Is Thin

The duel between Musashi and Kojirō at Ganryū-jima has been depicted in fiction many times as the largest set piece. But the historical record on it is surprisingly thin. Musashi himself does not directly describe the duel with Kojirō 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 switched to a wooden sword, that he arrived late by boat, and so on — were inflated in fictional works of the late Edo period.

5. The Yoshioka Clan Battles — Probably Not a Mass Slaughter

The Musashi of fiction is often depicted in the great-slaughter scene in which 'he cut down dozens of the Yoshioka clan single-handedly.' There is a large-scale group combat scene in Vagabond as well. But the historical record indicates that the duels with Yoshioka Seijūrō and Yoshioka Denshichirō were most likely individual serious duels, and whether the group combat with the Yoshioka disciples actually took place at all is in active dispute in recent scholarship. The fight with more than seventy men described in the late-Edo novel Niten-ki (1776) is regarded as likely exaggerated beyond what occurred.

Why the Gap

The gap between historical fact and fiction is not because fiction is 'bad' — it arises because the two have different purposes in the first place. The historical Musashi aimed to leave a teaching as a thinker and swordsman. The Musashi of manga and anime is designed as the protagonist of a story intended to entertain readers. The two depart from the same historical figure but are distinct entities read in different ways. When a reader who came to Musashi through Baki Dou also encounters the historical Musashi, recognizing the gap between the two and enjoying both is the richest way to take in the figure who is Musashi.

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