52 #232 Miyamoto Musashi (1584–1645) “The Legendary Swordsman” by Lt. Col. Alistair Pope, psc (Retired)
The Early Years In 1584, Miyamoto Musashi was born into a minor branch of the samurai nobility. He was orphaned at an early age and brought up by his uncle, a priest and samurai. Little is known of his early years, but Musashi himself has written he fought his first duel when he was only 13 years old. Since he was the son of a low ranked samurai, it is probable his uncle had schooled him in kendo (or kenjutsu), sword-fighting technique. The duel is mentioned in the Introduction to Musashi’s book on strategy and life, The Book of the Five Rings, his great legacy to Japan. In it he sets out the story of his life and the philosophy of his warrior code: the way of the sword. The book was written by Musashi late in life, as a series of letters to one of his students, but was not compiled until long after his death when his students collated the stories of his duels and preserved his philosophy. Musashi was an exceptional warrior who combined the great natural abilities of a prodigy with thorough training. His skill, courage and focused ruthlessness made him a formidable warrior with his chosen weapon, the sword. At 16 he fought and won another single-handed, mortal-combat duel against a samurai. As the samurai class lived and trained constantly for just such professional duels, those two victories at such a young age marked Musashi as having the potential to be as a legendary swordsman. And such legends were common in Japan. For example, there was Tsukahara Bokuden who, a century before, had traveled the land as a wandering ronin. The ronin were unattached samurai without mentors or allegiances to specific lords. They sometimes sought employment as teachers of martial skills or mercenaries. Soon after his second duel, Musashi began his own pilgrimage as a ronin in search of enlightenment. For the next three years his life was solely focused on developing his martial skills and seeking enlightenment through the way of the sword. His dedication was such that he did not wash, was unkempt and wandered Japan in poverty until he joined in the fight for the Shogunate as a samurai in the pay of Hideyori, the son of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Japan in the Age of the Warlords For many centuries Japan had been a land of constant warfare among local warlords. Changing alliances, assassination and a web of intrigue prevented any single family or alliance of families from gaining dominance. Each warlord feared if a rival, or even an ally, became too powerful, his own power and position would be lost. Between 1573 and 1582, the Shogun Oda Nobunaga almost succeeded in uniting the country before he too was assassinated. His successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, continued consolidating the gains made and in the end succeeded. With Hideyo- Spear fighting in the mountains from the Wars of the Nambokucho period. shi’s death in 1598, new wars of succession broke out, ending with the defeat and death of Hideyoshi’s son Hideyori at the decisive battle of Seki ga Hara in 1603. Tokugawa Ieyasu became shogun. He ushered in the era of his Tokugawa clan, which maintained control of the country well into the 19th century. Musashi, age 19, fought at Sekigahara on Hideyori’s side, and barely escaped with his life from the merciless slaughter that took place afterward. The Tokugawas influenced every part of Japanese society. They established rules of behaviour that affected education, law and government, creating a rigid structure of four classes: samurai (including the ruling elite), farmers, artisans and merchants. Under the Tokugawa dynasty’s laws, only a samurai could wear the long sword. strategy & tactics 53
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