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Musashi No Koden
 This section is hear to tell you about the musashi i am named after,Miyamoto Musashi.Miyamoto Musashi was an extraordinary man.He was a talented tactician, legendary swordsman,skilled artist,and published author.Miyamoto Musashi was born in 1584 as Shinmen Musashi No Kami Fujiwara No Genshin,but later changed his name to Miyamoto Musashi for the village he was born in.Musashi was a strong man from the very start.At the age of seven,musashi's father had been killed in a duel with one of the Yoshioka Clan,and his mother did soon after,so he was raised by his uncle,a buddhist preist.By 13 musashi had already killed a man in combat.This young man was Arima Kigei of the Shinto Ryu school of martial arts.Musashi had killed him by throwing him down to the ground and beating him until he vomitted blood with his bokken,or bamboo katana.At 17 Musashi enlisted in Toyotomi's army(toyotomi being Oda Nobunaga's most trusted general,and sucessor to his spot,but by now Oda had already comitted Seppuku because one of his generals disgraced him and turned on him). Soon after he enlisted the battle at Sekiga Hara took place,between Hideyoshi Toyotomi and Tadashima Akiyama.Akiyama's force obliterated Toyotomi's force and it was said that no survivors where left of Toyotomi's troop,but there was one,and it was Miyamoto Musashi.After this Musashi gave up on the warring ways and started to roam the land looking for challenges.Later the Yoshioka clan invited Musashi to a duel,hoping he would have the same fate that his father had,but his fathers fate only gave Musashi more reason to win and that he did.Musashi's first fight with the Yoshioka Clan was the head of the household,Seijiro.Child's play Seijiro thought when he noticed Musashi was using a bokken,but a bokken was much more devious than he had thought.Musashi laid Seijiro out with a strong hit to the head and Musashi continued to beat him savagely while Seijiro was laying there,disgraced that he had been beaten by a man using only a bamboo sword.Next was Denshichiro but he only had a worse fate,Musashi hit him with his bokken in the head instantly cracking Denshichiro's skull and killing him.Then the final challenge of the Yoshioka clan was put out.They had planned Hanshichiro,Seijiro's young,not even a teen,son.But the Yoshioka house had something else planned than jsut a duel.They had planned to ambush him when he showed up at the duel,but Musashi,being a good tactician saw this coming and hid in the shadows of the Yoshioka garden waiting for the perfect time.Just as they though Musashi had chicked out he jumped out of the bushes,killed Hanshichiro,and used Hanshichiro's Wakizashi(short sword) with his katana,creating the Nito Ryu style.This confused the Yoshioka clan,which was exactly Musashi's plan,and it had worked because he killed all of the Yoshioka,finally getting revenge for his father.By the age of 29 Musashi had already competed in 60 duels,being victorious in every one of them.His popularity grew quickly and people not only knew of him as a great swordsman,but as a strange contradiction of things.He was a swordsman,but he was unkept and rough looking.He killed many people,yet he strived to teach peace and buddhism.His swordsmanship was unmatched,yet he still used tactical techiniques to win duels. Musashi's final duel took place in 1612,at Ganryu island,off the coast of the Buzen province.His opponent was scheduled to be Sasaki Kojiro,user of the Tsubame Gaeshi,or swallow counter techinque.When Sasaki arrived he was appaled at Musashi's unkept appearence and slashed at a towel on Musashi's head cutting it in half.The Duel was not long,Musashi clocked him in the head with a bokken he had made from an extra oar.Sasaki fell,but tried his hardest to stand up,at this time,it is said,that Musashi felt a spiritual awakening and shed a tear.Musashi left,knowing he had won the fight,and never dueled another again.Instead he used his time to make art and write books,such as the Go Rin No Sho(or book of five rings).Miyamoto Musashi died in 1645 of natural causes,just a month after he wrote the Go Rin No Sho.Everywhere in Japan he was remembered as a Kenshi,or saintly swordsman,because of his struggle for nonviolence in a violent world.
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