> Oh! Please Anthony!!!
> "Just because he wrote a book"?!?!
>
> Frantically!!!
>
> Shingen Musashi no Kami Fujiwara no Genshin
> THE Kensei!
>
> He was much more than an master swordsman. He was a Saint of the
sword!
> He does not "just wrote a book". He was a great mikkyo gyoja,
defeated more
> than 200 warriors with metal sword, using just only an bokutô
(bokken), and
> was the patriarch of the Nitten Ryu!
>
> If "just this" would not be enough acomplishments... Ye´re a very
exigent
> person...
>
> Any samurai admirer should at least light an incense in memory of
him.
>
> Octavio Augusto Okimoto Alves de Carvalho
> São Paulo - SP Brazil
This information was taken from:
Cleary, Thomas The Japanese Art of War Shambala 1991
Miyamoto Musashi (trans. Thomas Cleary) The Book of Five Rings
Shambala 1994
Turnbull, Stephen The Lone Samurai and the Martial Arts Arms and
Armour 1990
Yoshikawa Eiji Musashi Kodansha 1981
Much of Musashi's life between 1600 and 1640 is the stuff of legend
and some have postulated that he served at Osaka Castle (1614-1615)
on the defending side, taking quite a few heads in the process. In a
similar vein, he is sometimes said to have helped quell the Shimabara
Rebellion of 1638 - a theory which, as with his glories at Osaka, is
impossible to prove.
On the other hand, many of the important events depicted in Yoshikawa
Eiji's famous novel Musashi have a basis in reality, to include his
battle with the Yoshioka School
Musashi has enjoyed an immense popularity in the 20th Century and
beyond, largely as a result of Yoshikawa's novel (which was
originally published in serialized form in the Asahi Shimbun).
Musashi skillfully weaves fact and fiction together to create an
engrossing tale that has experienced increasing reknown in the West.
Interestingly, the Asahi Shimbun noted in 1988 that at least one Edo
Period source questioned Musashi's duel with Sasaki, stating that
Musashi was not alone at the fight, and that his followers killed
Ganryu when he had been knocked down to the ground