Who is the sword saint? Some say Miyamoto Musashi is a sword saint. He was
born around 1584 in the village of Miyamoto in the Mimisaka province. Many people
know him only by the name of Musashi. His real name however is Shinmen Musashi no
Kami Fujiwara no Genshin. He took the name of Miyamoto to honor the village of his
birthplace. Musashi was a great warrior. No one could match him and no one really ever
got the better part of him. He never lost a duel. He was also an excellent writer and artist
The book "Musashi" written by Eiji Yoshikawa is an excellent book
portraying the life and time of Musashi. "Yoshikawa provides well-developed characters
with the context needed for a modern reader"(Raven Para.2). It is a thorough and
interesting piece of writing. I have read it twice already and watched the movie based on
made from it about five times. Yoshikawa does a great job portraying the achievements
that Musashi accomplished and the feats he overcame as a youth in a warring period of
Japan. He follows his entire life from when he was a young teen until he was about forty-
five and then he goes into meditation.
Musashi was an intense type of warrior and very loyal to his art. He hardly ever
had a girlfriend while he was wandering the countryside and fighting in numerous duels.
He was always trying to improve his skill and create new styles. Therefore he never had
much time to be involved in relationships.He created one of the most difficult sword
techniques of the time called "two-swords". After he used that technique in combat and
the word got it around it put fear into all of his adversaries and opponents.
He killed his first opponent at the age of thirteen. He was being bullied by a
student of the Shinto-Ryu school of military arts and was tired of his harassment. He
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