Miyamoto Musashi is Japan's great swordsman of the 17th century was a guy who used the two sword streams, and flush with fame there was Sasaki Kojiro. They became famous after a duel on Itsukuru Island, where they beat Kojiro.
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Miyamoto Musashi was a Japanese swordsman from the late Warring States period and the pre-Tokugawa Shogunate period, whose influence in Japan was so great that he was known by the phrase "Sanada's (Yukimura's) gun, Miyamoto's sword". He claimed: "Yu since childhood to study the sword, traveled all over the world, met various schools of swordsmen, more than 60 times than the test, never lost." Japan is an advocate of force, advocate the sword of the nation, the Ming dynasty, despite the friction with the Japanese dynasty and field, or a large number of imported swords to Japan, from a commercial point of view, Japan's sword is equivalent to China's opium wars before the silk, tea, in foreign trade has a considerable proportion. Still preserved in Japan's grass shaving sword, the Japanese people respected as a national treasure, such national treasures in Japan, there are many, in Japan not only has cultural relics value, but also as a sacred object or sacred objects to worship, "Japan Book of Chronicles" is also recorded in the grass shaving sword manifestation of the story. Among the three treasures that were used as tokens (equivalent to jade seals) by successive emperors of Japan upon their accession to the throne, there was also the sword Tenshouun - of course, as Rune Benedict, author of The Chrysanthemums and the Sword, says, the original of this sword had sunk to the bottom of the sea during a turmoil, and what the royals now use is only a replica. Until the Meiji period, swords were considered part of a samurai's body, and the book "Bushido" by Inazo Shindo says that even unintentionally straddling an opponent's sword was seen as a great disrespect and insult to the master. In the TV series "Rikiya and Matsu", Oda Nobunaga inadvertently passes over the sword offered by Sasa Narimasa, and Sasa Narimasa becomes quite disillusioned and alarmed.
The end of the Warring States period was undoubtedly an era of swordsmen, with famous swordsmen of the time including Uesumi Nobutsugu, Yanagi Sounen, Marume Nagae, and Ito Ichidosai. Even Ashikaga Yoshiteru, the general of the Muromachi Shogunate, was a famous "swordsman general". Miyamoto Musashi lived in such an environment.
Miyamoto Musashi became famous when he fought a duel with Kojiro Sasaki. At the time Kojiro's reputation was skyrocketing and he was known to be undefeated, while Musashi was just a nobody. The duel was held at Itsukuru Island at noon. Kojiro arrived early, but Musashi did not show up until the sun had already set in the west, and then Musashi leisurely appeared in a small boat in front of the crowd. Kojiro, who had been waiting impatiently for a long time, did not care to accuse Musashi of a breach of faith, drew his sword, threw away the sheath, and rushed on foot to the shore. Miyamoto Musashi rose unperturbed and said, "Kojiro shall be defeated!" Jumping onto the bank as well, the result was predictable, with Musashi winning by a comfortable margin. Before the duel Musashi is said to have said, "The sword and the sheath are one and the same, but you threw away the sheath, showing that you are far from the highest state!" Kojiro was momentarily speechless. This seemed a bit strong, since in fact most Japanese swordsmen did not carry sheaths in their bouts, but rather got in the way, and Musashi was the creator of the two-bladed style. After the duel, Kojiro, who was badly injured, struggled and said, "I leave it to you to finish my unfinished business." With that, he hung up. The unfinished business, of course, was the promotion of kendo, and Musashi later traveled around Japan, competing in martial arts and creating the "Book of Five Wheels," which was "worthy of the honor" of being entrusted to him.
Some say that Miyamoto was too deceitful, that Kojiro's physical strength was already past its peak, and that Miyamoto's trickery was such that Kojiro would not have been able to beat Miyamoto in the real world of swordsmanship. In order to support this claim, some people also said, "Look, has Miyamoto Musashi ever defeated a particularly good swordsman! This argument is even more absurd. If Uesumi Nobutsuna had been defeated by Miyamoto, would his name still be so famous? If Kojiro hadn't fought Miyamoto, he might not have been another Sword Saint! And "trickery" is part of the "Way of the Sword". During the Warring States period, the Chinese annotated version of "Sun Tzu" came to Japan, and for a while, the Japanese people learned to utilize it, and at that time, the dragon of Houetsu, Uesugi Kenshin, and the tiger of Kofi, Takeda Shingen, claimed that they knew it well, but there is no doubt that Oda Nobunaga used "Sun Tzu". However, there is no doubt that Oda Nobunaga was the one who utilized Sun Tzu's Art of War the best. While the first dragon and the second tiger were still entangled in the Kawanakajima Island for petty gains, Oda Nobunaga had already expanded from half of Owari Kingdom to almost the entire Gyeonggi region, and had basically established himself as the hegemon. Similarly, the art of war was utilized in kendo, and rather than using swordsmanship to defeat Kojiro, Miyamoto Musashi used the art of war. In addition to the art of war, there is also Zen in kendo. One Yanagi but Mamoru (I think this means Soen), after teaching swordsmanship to his disciples, said, "This is all I can teach you; if you want to make more progress, you must realize it from Zen." In the Book of Five Chakras, which Musashi later devoted himself to writing, Zen is also greatly emphasized, and in this way we can say that Kojiro's swordsmanship had indeed not yet reached the highest state, or he would not have been annoyed, except that Miyamoto's unhesitatingly late tactics to make his opponent disoriented seem to have fallen into the lower ranks of the art of war, and inevitably gave way to verbal ridicule.
But I'm afraid it's also unrealistic to say that Miyamoto's swordsmanship was second-rate, as Watanabe Kouan, a disciple of Ryuusei Sozaku, said, "I was a disciple of Ryuusei but Mamoru Sozaku, and I obtained permission to pass on the secret. However, there is Takemura Musashi (i.e., Miyamoto Musashi), a celebrity who honed his swordsmanship on his own, and compared to Danma, as in the case of Go, letting nine black stones is also stronger for Musashi." Miyamoto had defeated the master of the Okoshi family, a famous swordsmanship family, on two separate occasions, and later, a dozen or so masters of the Okoshi clan ambushed Miyamoto, and on this occasion, Miyamoto Musashi almost slaughtered the Okoshi clan, and it is said that the youngest of those killed was only in his teens. Sword art was originally used to kill, and the purpose of kendo is not in the killing, but Miyamoto had to kill, killed Kojiro some say or Miyamoto Musashi's confidant, this may be Miyamoto's sad, but this is more the sadness of the Japanese swordsmanship. Later, Mr. Gu Long interpreted it as: people in the jianghu, the body can not help. The flavor of the blight is unmistakable.
In those days, it seemed that samurai had to talk politics, and swordsmen were no exception. Uesumi Nobutsuna by the Muromachi shogunate as the "sword saint", and he awarded Ashikaga Yoshihide "sword hero" title, rather like "throw a peach, in return for the plum" flavor, in the middle of the can not help but be suspicious. The middle of the road is suspicious. The sword skills of this "swordsman general" could not save the Muromachi Shogunate and his own life, and he was later murdered by the "Three Good Men" and Matsunaga Hidetoshi. The Yanagio clan was fortunate in that after the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate, the family worked for generations as the Shogun's chief of guards and instructors of swordsmanship for the Shogun. But then there was a mistake, the fourth general Ietsuna learned a few moves from Danmamori, thought he was invincible, one night, he traveled at night dressed up, was Danmamori a sword on the knock away weapons, since then, Yanagio clan was alienated. Miyamoto Musashi is said to have taken part in the Battle of Sekigahara, belonging to Ishida Mitsunari's Western Army, which was defeated so badly that he escaped without being killed by the enemy troops and head-hunting peasants. When Tokugawa Ieyasu finally took the Toyotomi family head-on, he entered Osaka Castle as a ronin and was again defeated, escaping alone (while Sanada Yukimura perished at the foot of Osaka Castle). Later, after being introduced by a friend, Miyamoto Musashi served the daimyo Hosokawa family. And Sasaki Kojiro was a retainer and martial arts instructor of the Hosokawa family during his lifetime. Whether there was some inside story here, one can only guess later.
One story goes that Miyamoto Musashi once went to challenge Marume Nagae, who by this time was in his nineties and living in seclusion in the countryside farming with a few disciples. The two men did not fight directly, and Nagae was able to scare Musashi off with a single draw of his sword - a detail that was later used by Mr. Gu Long in his novels. But Nagae later said to his disciple, "Miyamoto Musashi has a great future ahead of him, and his Futatsu Ryu is the authentic two-handed swordsmanship." I don't know why, but I greatly admire this old man; perhaps he is the only one who has truly searched for the true meaning of kendo!
Miyamoto Musashi He was neither Tokugawa Ieyasu nor Toyotomi Hideyoshi; he was neither a powerful politician nor a famous samurai. He is not a samurai, he is not a politician, he is not a samurai, he is not a samurai, he is not a samurai, he is not a samurai, he is not a samurai, he is not a samurai, he is not a samurai, he is not a samurai, he is not a samurai, he is not a samurai, he is not a samurai, he is not a samurai, he is not a samurai, he is not a samurai, he is not a samurai, he is not a samurai, he is not a samurai, he is not a samurai, he is not a samurai. he is not a samurai, he is not a samurai, he is not a samurai. he is not a samurai, he is not a samurai. he is not a samurai. he is not a samurai. he is not a samurai. he is not a samurai. he is not a samurai. He has won all the competitions with sixty-six masters, but the "Funajima Duel" in which he defeated the famous sword Kojiro Sasaki, was a shock to the past and present! He, a practitioner of life like you, like me, a practitioner of martial arts, a seventeenth-century kendoist, a 400-year-old legend, Miyamoto Musashi, has y influenced writers, artists, and martial artists of the twentieth century that are familiar to you and me: the elite of the times, the followers of countless struggles for life.
Miyamoto Musashi was born in 1584 and died in 1645. Miyamoto Musashi Genshin (known as Shinmu Musashi Genshin in the Hyoudenji school). As a child, he studied Dangri-ryu art of war with his father, Ichitizane Shimbu Mujinosuke, and from the age of thirteen until he was sent off at the age of twenty-nine, he fought more than sixty times in tournaments with other schools, and he was never defeated once. In addition to swordsmanship, he was a master of a wide variety of martial arts, including shuriken and kata (unarmed martial arts). In his early twenties, he had already established a school called "Enmyo Ichiban (Enmyo Ryu)", and in the 10th year of the Keicho era (1605), he wrote "Hyoudoujian" (Mirror of the Way of the Warrior). In the Kan-ei era (1624 1644), he completed the Ninbutsu art of fighting and became known as "Ninbutsu Ichiban" (First Class of Ninbutsu). At the age of 57, in the 17th year of Kan-ei (1640), Musashi was invited by the lord of the Kumamoto domain, Tadatoshi Hosokawa Echinochu, to officially teach the art of war in Kumamoto, and at the same time, he began to write works on the theory of the art of war. It was after Musashi's entry into Kumamoto that he became known as "Nitenryu of the Art of War". In October of the 20th year of Kan-ei (1643), Musashi began to write the "Five Wheeled Book" at Reiwa-dong. In the second year of the Shobo period, he passed on the "Book of Five Wheels" to Katsunobu Terao Sunno-sei, and the "Preface to the Doctrine of the Five Swords of the Five Faces" and the "Twenty-five Articles of the Art of War" to Nobuyuki Terao Kumasuke, and then departed from this world. He died at the age of sixty-two (or sixty-four, according to another theory). Today there is a successor in Kyushu.
The Sword of Miyamoto Musashi
The sword of the Japanese samurai is their soul, and what about the soul of Miyamoto Musashi, the Saint of the Sword? Miyamoto Musashi, the Sword Saint, was not only famous for his sword, but also for his achievements in calligraphy, painting, and sculpture, and his writings, "The Five Wheeled Scrolls" and "The Thirty-Nine Articles," also reflect his depth of thought, richness of realm, and breadth of knowledge. However, Miyamoto Musashi did not learn from any teacher; not only his studies and art, but also his kendo, which is his profession, were all self-taught and summarized through actual practice and careful observation. Miyamoto Musashi was a master of the art of swordsmanship, a master of the ways of heaven and man, a master of both the right and the left, a master of writing, a master of writing, a master of writing, and a master of writing, and a master of writing, a master of writing, a master of writing, a master of writing, a master of writing, a master of writing, a master of writing, a master of writing and a master of writing. Miyamoto Musashi once used the following poem to describe his heart for the Way of the Sword: "The blue pool sinks into the mirror. The clear blue water of the pool is like a mirror reflecting a clear and cold light. This is similar to Liu Zongyuan's "Fishing alone in the cold river snow", the spirit of both is in the realm of "emptiness". The final scroll of Miyamoto Musashi's "Five Wheeled Scrolls" is the "Scroll of Emptiness". Musashi believed that the Sword of Emptiness was the final sword, the essence of the Way of the Sword.
Miyamoto Musashi's Way of Emptiness is not the Way of Gonkou, but the Way of Emptiness. This empty Ming, is after a certain heart, day and night diligently practicing, constantly polishing heart and mind, constantly carry polishing senses and eyes. When your spirit is spotless, when the clouds of confusion are swept away, then there is true emptiness. Emptiness in kendo is a state of mind that is free and unobstructed, clear and lucid; when facing the enemy, one is not blinded by the environment, by the opponent's actions, by one's own feelings, or by one's own thoughts, but one is able to face the true nature of everything and react to it as if it were empty. The meaning of "empty" can also be taken to mean that the mind is empty and clear. The empty state of mind, since the state of truthful reflection of things, direct and local response. A little poem by Rabindranath Tagore says, "When a man puts a lamp on his head, what he sees in front of him is only his own shadow." The man who sees only his own shadow is really in danger and does not know it. If he mistakenly takes his own shadow as his opponent, he will only spin around like a dog chasing its own tail. Action is not the same as effective, meaningful action, and increasing action is not the same as changing circumstances. What you see is your own shadow dancing around you, making you dizzy.
Miyamoto Musashi's emptiness is the ability to see things clearly, to see people clearly, to see everything clearly. However, this state of mind, in which one sees through to the end of everything and reaches the beginning, cannot be achieved overnight. According to Katsumiyoshi Koyama's account, Miyamoto Musashi was around thirty years old when he experienced the realm of Ishibousai's Sword of All Living Things, and then he continued to explore the way of life through the way of the sword in the hope of connecting to the source of life. Katsumiyoshi Koyama wrote of Miyamoto Musashi at the age of 50, "After that, I made Ishibousai's realm my goal of training. At last, when I was recognized as a master of the sword, and confident that I was invincible, my heart was naturally raised, but I could not open the final iron gate." That's why I've suffered so much in the past few years. Late at night, I've thought of suicide, and I've studied painting, Chinese, and various books in order to open this iron door with the power of others." Musashi's sword is the sword of the quest for life, and the essence of all dharma is the "Iwaban body", the embodiment of the immovable mind. How does one become immovable like a mountain? It's just a matter of mind. Like Aikido master Morihei Ueshiba taught Sadaharu Ong, Miyamoto Musashi emphasized the study of "waiting". It is not easy to wait long enough to remain calm. When two men are facing each other with swords in their hands, and victory or defeat is on the line, both are waiting for the perfect moment, the moment when the other man relaxes a little bit, that is, the moment when he strikes with all his strength, and it is difficult to grasp this fleeting moment of lightning without a common sense of mind. The ordinary mind not only regards waiting as ordinary, but also allows us to strike with all our strength in a single moment. This straightforward response, with no thought of life or death, is mindlessness, the ordinary mind. This is how the body of Iwaban is cultivated. If you face everything with a normal mind, there is no waiting or no waiting, and there is no waiting or disappointment. Those who wait are in a passive position and are in a bad situation, but those who are good at keeping watch, or those who deal with things in a normal way, can turn passive into active, or more accurately, there is no passive-active distinction, just a natural reaction.
The better literary works about Miyamoto Musashi are "Japanese swordsman Miyamoto Musashi", "Miyamoto Musashi" and so on.