The Book Of 5 Rings
Miyamoto Musashi
I. Introduction
During the ancient period of Japan there existed a time of war and power struggles. There were many people who followed the Bushido code or way of the warrior. These people were called samurai. Of the countless men who devoted their lives to the Bushido code there were none greater than Miyamoto Musashi. Musashi was one of if not the most famous samurai to ever walk the lands of medieval Japan. He was a legend in his own time.
II. The Life and History of Musashi
Miyamoto Musashi was born in 1584 in the village of Miyamoto in the province of Mimasake. Musashi's full name was Ben no suke Shimmen Genshin no Fujiwara no Kami Miyamoto Musashi Masana no Kensei. When Musashi was a child his mother died when he was six years old and his father abandoned the family a year after her death.
Musashi was raised by a number of family members and started to train in the ways of Kendo (fencing) under his uncle's guidance. Musashi proved to have tremendous talent with a blade. He was also very big and strong for a boy of his age. But with this strength and size came aggression. Musashi was not known a calm and mannerly youth. Rather he was considered a troublemaker and a uncontrollable child by the town elders.
Musashi used his strength and demeanor in his first real duel with a known samurai when he was thirteen years of age. He fought against Arima Kigei from the Shinto Ryu school of Military Arts. Unarmed, Musashi threw the samurai to the ground and beat him savagely with a stick until Arima died vomiting his own blood. Musashi's next duel came when he was age sixteen. He fought Tadashima Akiyama. Tadashima was challenging anyone who would accept his challenge to a duel. Musashi accepted and killed Tadashima with just one swing of his sword.
During this time period Japan was in a bloody civil war to unite the country. The two sides were Shogun...
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