Miyamoto Musashi - a Legend of the Samurai

Are you attracted by everything related to the samurai, their way of life and philosophy and dream about becoming a master - swordsman performing wonders with one's samurai sword? In order to understand better the way the samurai treated their samurai swords and acquired their remarkable skills in sword fighting, find out more about the most prominent Japanese swordsmaster, Miyamoto Musashi.

The warrior's height well exceeded the average mark and his Daito, the long sword, was made particularly to correspond to his size. It is believed that Miyamoto Musashi developed the two-sword style of swordplay that gave a warrior the ability to fight while using both the Daito and the Wakizashi. A real wonder of the art of sword-making, the famous warrior's Dai-sho is a great item to be included in the collection of martial arts and swords.

The legend of Japanese history was born in a samurai family in the region of Mimasaka. Miyamoto's first victorious duel took place at the age of 13, and Miyamoto's life was marked by more than 60 brilliant duels. Miyamoto Musashi became the unsurpassed genius of Niten Ichi Ryu - a sophisticated method of fighting with two swords at once and the strategy of the Long Sword. The samurai took care of finding the Individual School of Two Skies in order to pass these remarkable skills and knowledge to others and shared his experience for many years. His greatest contribution into the filed of sword-fighting is represented by the most glorified book -Go Rin No Sho- the Book of Five Rings.

The legends were composed about Miyamoto Musashi's feats and inspired numerous novelists and screenplays for writing about the samurai. It is a wide spread belief that Miyamoto was reluctant to take a bath as he was afraid to be caught off guard. However, when the samurai was really attacked by some hired warriors who had set his bathroom on fire, he beat everyone.

Miyamoto Musashi was credited with the following famous saying that should be considered by anyone related to swordsmanship - if I have defeated one person - I have defeated one hundred, meaning the warrior will be able to fight other warriors with the same fighting style. The sword-master also developed the eight-point position which gave the warrior the opportunity to be protected from every side, being ready for breaking up an attack.

Miyamoto Musashi carved out a distinguished career of a martial arts warrior and great strategist, but during the last stage of his life, Miyamoto secluded oneself from vanity of outer life, having settled in the mountains and devoted oneself to perfecting one's skills in calligraphy, jade-carving, and poetry. Then he wrote his famous book very short time before his death.
Having become a loner, Musashi spent a lot of time studying Buddhism and swordsmanship. He was an experienced artist, sculptor, calligrapher and possessed architectural skills. His perception of combat was rather straightforward, with no frills or aesthetic regards, the fact probably explained by his real-life combat experience.

Miyamoto's Book

The Book of Five Rings represents a rather unusual work for its time - Musashi wrote it in katakana (a Japanese phonetic syllabary) rather than kanji (the Chinese characters presently used in Japanese logographic writing system.) The book did not contain many religious references in comparison to similar books which appeared in that time.

This 17th century Japanese treatise introduces the readers into the martial arts strategies that will help anyone become an invincible warrior. It is not a book of certain rules. The major principle of the book may be described as the victory of one's spirit over the list of rules and acting more by intuition. The book continues to inspire a lot of Japanese and foreign businessman and just anyone seeking for success. It consists of five parts, with every part being concentrated upon certain element - for example, the books of water and fire are devoted to the practical principles of dueling. Miyamoto Musashi believed that the real samurai had to pass the way of many professions and master numerous art forms (tea drinking, manual labor, etc) - not just the one of sword fighting.