At the beginning of the Edo period, Japan was moving toward pacification
and stabilization of the political system, under the command of a
central authority, represented by the powerful Tokugawa clan. Some
fundamental turning points in this long process were the clashes between
the Tokugawa and the Toyotomi at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, and
at that of Osaka in 1614-1615. Following the latter conflict, the
Tokugawa, resulting victorious, were able to stabilize and govern the
territory of Japan, after centuries of conflict between countless
war-lords and clans in perennial competition for the conquest of power.
At that precarious time of continuous changes, some of the most famous
swordsmen and warriors of Japanese history emerged (their martial
schools of origin, in the following centuries, were structured, and many
of them still exist today). The battles that were fought were very
bloody, and consequently at the end, only the strongest (and luckiest)
men remained on the battlefield, belonging to those military schools
that taught truly applicable and effective techniques on the use of
weapons. It is evident that the competition to emerge from anonymity was
extremely strong. This element, along with the long periods of fierce
battles that preceded the period of unification of the country (in
particular, we refer here to the historical period called Sengoku jidai,
1467-1603, and in the first decades of the Edo period), helped create
and forge generations of masters who attained the highest levels of
skill in the use of weapons. Many of these bushi of the past, in
addition to war, also ventured into deadly duels with other skilled
fighters. In particular, two of these masters, who went down in history
for their skill, faced each other in a deadly challenge on an island a
short distance from both the Honshu and Kyushu coasts: Miyamoto Musashi
and Kojiro Ganryu. In this historical research documents relating to the
duel between the two masters, the context before and after the fight,
and the causes that led to it are presented and analyzed. In addition, a
final section has been added concerning the hypothesis of the origin of
the mysterious swordsman Ganryu Kojiro, from his early youth until he
decided to abandon his master and go his own way.
