Wisdom Vault — onlinknow.co.za

preceded the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate, but there are no documents proving he was there. A more likely hypothesis is that he was stationed on the island of Kyushu fighting as an ally of Tokugawa Ieyasu under Kuroda Yoshitaka JOsui at the Battle of Ishigakibaru on September 13, 1600.

Musashi was linked to the Kuroda clan through his biological birth family (Tabaru). The Kuroda family were formerly provincial barons of Harima in the service of the Kodera clan before Harima fell to Hideyoshi. Linked by their Akamatsu ancestry, Munisai later became a vassal of the Kuroda family along with the Shinmen family.7+ In the aftermath of Sekigahara, Japan was teeming with unemployed warriors (ronin).

There are estimates that up to 500,000 masterless samurai roamed the countryside. Peace was tenuous and warlords sought out skilled instructors in the arts of war. The fifteen years between Sekigahara and the first siege of Osaka Castle in 1615*° was a golden age for musha-shugyo, the samurai warrior’s ascetic walkabout, but a perilous time to trek the country roads.

Some found employment as retainers under new masters, some hung up their swords altogether, but many more roved the provinces looking for opportunities to make a name for themselves, which often meant trouble. It was at this point that Musashi embarked on his “warrior pilgrimage” and made his way to Kyoto.

Two years after arriving in Kyoto, Musashi challenged the very same Yoshioka family that Munisai had bettered years before. In 1604, he defeated the head of the family, Yoshioka Seijiird. In a second encounter, he successfully overpowered Seijūrō’s younger brother, Denshichiro.

His third and last duel was against Seijūrō’s son, Matashichiro, who was accompanied by followers of the Yoshioka-ryū school. Again, Musashi was victorious, and this is where his legend really starts to escalate. Such exploits against a celebrated house of martial artists did not go unnoticed.

Musashi declared himself Tenka Ichi (“Champion of the Realm”) and must have felt he no longer needed to dwell in the shadow of his father. Tested and triumphant, Musashi was now confident enough to start his own school. He called it Enmei-ryi.

He also wrote his first treatise, Heidokyo (1605), to record the techniques and rationale behind them. Consisting of 28 articles,” the philosophy and nine techniques outlined in Heidokyo were very much centered on those Munisai had catalogued for his Tori-ryu.

While his father’s influence was a clear factor in Musashi’s outlook and motivations, Heidokyo was indisputably a product of his own combat experiences. On the Kokura Monument, Iori wrote that the Yoshioka disciples conspired to ambush Musashi with “several hundred men.”

When confronted, Musashi dealt with them with ruthless resolve, one man against many. Although this representation is thought to be relatively accurate, the idea of hundreds of men lying in wait was obviously an exaggeration. Several men, however, would not be hard to believe.2”