The Real Musashi II: The Bukōden (Origins of a Legend)

Miyamoto Musashi (c. 1584–1645) is the most revered and celebrated swordsman in Japanese history; unfortunately, our modern portrait of this folk hero is derived mainly from popular books, comics, and film, with little heed paid to the early denki, chronicles that faithfully recorded what was passed down by those who knew Musashi.The Bukôden is one of the earliest such record still in existence. It was completed in 1755 by Toyoda Masanaga, senior retainer to the Nagaoka, a clan closely involved in the events of Musashi’s later life. Masanaga’s work is, after the Bushû denraiki, the most reliable record of Musashi’s life and exploits outside those from the hand of the master swordsman himself. Now, for the first time in two-and-a-half centuries, Masanaga’s insight into this enigmatic and solitary swordsman has been made available to the English reader. It throws a new and refreshing light on many aspects of especially Musashi’s later life—his adoption of Iori, his return to Kyushu in 1634, and of course the gestation of his great work on the philosophy and art of Japanese swordsmanship, the Book of Five Rings. Read more