Crossing Blades: Miyamoto Musashi's Confrontation with Sasaki Kojiro

It was the most famous thing the two men did in their lives, and it continues to be talked about more than four centuries later. According to the Nitenki biography, published more than 160 years after the fact, the date was May 13, 1612 (April 13 of year 17 of the Keicho period in the old system.) And the life of one of the men ended on that date. But the tale of both continues on to this day.

Sasaki Kojiro was a skilled swordsman. He taught his style of sword-fighting, called "Ganryu" or "large rock style," which was famous throughout the land. Sasaki had developed it on his own, and while he was only in his late twenties (or his fifties, depending on the source), he had a reputation as a fierce warrior. It was rumored that he had fended off three opponents using nothing but a war fan. He served the Hosokawa clan as their chief weapons master. His birth is clouded with mystery. Some sources say he was the child of a single mother in the Sasaki clan. Other sources say that he was conceived before his mother, not knowing she was pregnant, married into the Sasaki clan. Rather than acknowledge that the child wasn't his, the story goes, his mother's husband raised the child as his own and hoped nobody would notice. Sasaki was reportedly very tall for the time, 1.78 meters (about 5 ft. 10 in.), as was his eventual opponent.

His opponent was born Fujiwara Bennosuke, and used many other monickers during his life, including Shinmen Harunobu and Niten Doraku. The name that most would know him by, however, was Miyamoto Musashi. Musashi had been fighting duels since he had defeated Arima Kihei when Musashi was only 13 years old. He continued to fight and continued to win, defeating a fearsome warrior named Akiyama at age 16. His father fought at Sekigahara, and Musashi himself had fought under the leadership of Kuroda Josui in Kyushu as part of the Eastern Army aligned with Tokugawa Ieyasu. Eventually, his sights settled on Sasaki Kojiro, founder and namesake of the Ganryu school.

It is unclear who challenged whom, whether Musashi challenged Sasaki or vice versa. What is known is that the venue was an unoccupied island located in the same strait where the Battle of Dannoura had been fought. (See also "Sea of Sorrows: Emperor Antoku's End at Dannoura". The venue was chosen as Sasaki had many disciples who would, in the event of the loss of their leader, rush Musashi and kill him with superior numbers. The island was chosen to ensure that the two fighters would be alone.

The time was scheduled for the early afternoon, but Musashi showed up two hours late. This was a strategy employed by Musashi. Sasaki waited on the island and fumed in anger as Musashi made him wait. Musashi arrived with no long sword, only a short wakizashi. But during the time he had been making Sasaki wait, he had been whittling down the extra oar in his boat into a bokken, or wooden sword. As soon as Musashi stepped out of the boat and onto the island, the furious Sasaki charged at him, drawing his sword and throwing the scabbard into the sea. At the moment they met on the battlefield, Sasaki's sword landed directly on the knot of Musashi's headband and clove it in two. The sword would have continued downward and buried itself deep in Musashi's skull, except that Musashi had struck Sasaki on the head simultaneously, halting Sasaki's strike mid-stroke and rendering his opponent heavily stunned. Musashi readied his weapon to strike again, but Sasaki deflected Musashi's blow and cut the bottom hem off of Musashi's hakama trousers. Musashi's deflected blow landed on Sasaki's undefended side, breaking his ribs and rendering him unconscious. Sasaki was lying on the ground, bleeding from his mouth and nose. Musashi bowed down to his defeated opponent, asked him if he were still alive, then bowed to Sasaki and jumped back on the boat he had used to reach the island.

As Sasaki watched Musashi row off into the setting sun, he had a slight smile on his face. Then his face lost all expression and he died, watching Musashi row on the glittering sea back to Shimonoseki.

There are a wide range of variations of this story, some including Musashi fighting with two metal swords in his signature "ni-to ryu" or two-sword style, some with a large group of observers, many of whom were Sasaki's supporters whom Musashi had to defeat to escape the island. Which is true? Maybe none of them. Musashi was a rather prolific writer, yet there is no record of the Duel at Ganryu Island in any of his self-published works. He wrote about many of his other duels, but not this one. However when asked who his greatest opponent was in his life of sword fighting, Musashi supposedly answered, "Ganryu."