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Musashi

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23.01.2022 "Seishin Chokudo" (earnest heart, straight way) monument dedicated to Miyamoto Musashi, located in Kokura. These characters were engraved by Musashi on his bokken. It stands on the place where Musashi is supposed to have lived, at the foot of the castle. The Hombu dojo of a main branch of Hyoho Niten Ichi-ry is in Kokura and demonstrates every year in front of this monument.

23.01.2022 Came across this interesting episode of Core Kyoto today. https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkwor//corekyoto/20201119/2029144/

20.01.2022 I'm starting up a YouTube channel of my Musashi travels. The plan is to revisit all the places I have discovered and produce a documentary covering the history of Musashi from his birth in Miyamoto to his death in Kumamoto 60-odd years later. I have uploaded the short video I recorded when I first visited Miyamoto last year. This is just a placeholder to get the channel started. ... Once we are past this pandemic I will travel to Japan again and do live broadcasts of my travels. And then I will produce an edited documentary from the footage compiled. If you are interested in following this production please subscribe to the channel. I need 1000 subscribers before Youtube will allow me to live stream.

20.01.2022 Thought it was time to do a review of my recent Kamasaka Pass walk from Miyamoto to Hirafuku. The Kamasaka Touge (mountain pass) was a section of the Inaba Kaido (feudal highway) between Miyamoto and Hirafuku. As mentioned previously, it is supposedly the path a young Bennosuke took when he left his father's home at age 9. It initially starts out climbing over the mountain range southeast of Miyamoto and this is the most arduous part. It then settles in to follow the Egawa Ri...ver before crossing a smaller range and entering Hirafuku. The path from Miyamoto is a small bitumen road up to Ikkan Shimizu (a freshwater spring). From there you turn right onto a little used forest path with a steep gradient. It is apparently used infrequently, but there are signs of parallel tyre tracks so I expect 4WD vehicles ocassionally go there. The path eventually resolves to a metre wide walking track which is fairly easy to discern. There is a resting hut along the way, so I assume at some point it was a known walk. And a bit further on there is the roof of a collapsed building. I saw mention on some maps of a cafe but no one was serving lattes this day. The path progresses down the other side of the mountain. At one point you can see where the tunnel borers ran out of mountain for about 30 metres before diving into the next one. And if you're lucky can occassionally see a train pass. That is the only thing that reminds you you're in the 21st century. At the bottom of the mountain there is a road. From there on in you are either following a modern road on the same course, or diverting slightly off to the left or right of it. You have to keep your eyes open for when the old road and new divert. And you also have to keep in mind that current day farmers have little regard for the old road and will fence their fields right across it. Several of these instances felt like an escape room challenge as I worked out how to untangle the jerry-built gates in my way and one time I had to walk the long way around as the farmer had erected an electric fence. Much of the second half is following a modern road. At least until you get into Hirafuku itself and follow the Sayo river. At one point you have to cross it and this was another case of the Japanese never having heard of OH&S. Two very thin planks held together by iron staples spanning about 15m of river. Fun! Shortly after I arrived at my destination, Tatsumi Manor. This was where young Bennosuke arrived after his arduous walk and today it is a refreshing site. From the street it appears to be a warehouse, but a glimpse over the fence reveals a beautiful garden and tea house. And if the residents in those days were as pleasant as today it would have been a relief to a weary traveller.

19.01.2022 Shorenan. Musashi lived here with his uncle Dorinbo from the age of 9 till about 17.

18.01.2022 Kamasaka Pass images

13.01.2022 Not sure who is aware, but I have a sorta bro-crush on a 16th century samurai by the name of Miyamoto Musashi. Last year a new movie was released based on his l...ife. I wasn't in Japan at the time it was in the cinemas and checked when I was last there if it had been released on DVD but it had not. I have been monitoring it since and it will finally be released on BluRay and DVD (and a book) in September 2020! Stand by for a video night invite.

13.01.2022 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98ShxodeP7U

13.01.2022 I have just been taking tea (and coffee) at the most wonderful place. Tatsumi Manor is an important house in Hirafuku. It is where a young Musashi walked to aft...er leaving his father’s in Miyamoto, and although he didn’t stay there at the time he is rumoured to have spent 10 years there in later life. From the outside the house looks like a warehouse. But a glimpse over the low walls reveals it’s beautiful garden. And it is open for coffee and some food. The host used to work in TV, is as fascinated by Musashi as I am, and was overjoyed to practice his English with me.

07.01.2022 Finally managed to get my hands on some Sun and Steel https://www.beercartel.com.au/robinson-trooper-sun-and-ste/

05.01.2022 Miyamoto Musashi’s duel with Sasaki Kojiro on Ganryujima took place on this day, April 13, 1612. The great duel took place on the morning of April 13, 1612, on ...the island of Ganryujima, then known as Funajima, in the Kanmon Straits of Shimonoseki. Interestingly, the name of the island would be renamed to that of the vanquished, not the victor. Miyamoto Musashi, then aged around 29 or 30, and Sasaki Kojiro, also known as Ganryu and believed to have been 36 or 37 years of age, had agreed to meet on the island at 8am, however Musashi apparently failed to arrive until a little after 10, or even 11 according to some reports. As he was being rowed to the small island, Musashi is said to have fashioned a wooden sword from an oar, with the intention of fighting with that, instead of a real sword. One of the reasons suggested for this is that Sasaki Kojiro was known to have used a nodachi, a longer than usual sword, and Musashi’s use of the 110cm long wooden oar may have been to even out the distance between them. This wooden sword would most likely have been readied well before the boat ride to the designated spot, not on a whim in the boat as often cited. As his boat approached the beach, Musashi nimbly jumped out into the knee-deep water and faced Kojiro. One story mentions that Kojiro, in anger, drew his sword, casting aside his scabbard. Musashi is then claimed to have mentioned that by doing so, Kojiro has knowingly lost, as he would require the scabbard at the end of the duel if he was confident of a win. Other reports state that Kojiro had shouted insults at Musashi for having made him wait. Kojiro is then said to have made the first move, and in an instant Musashi struck him down. Musashi then bowed to the official witnesses (sent by the Hosokawa clan) returned to his boat, and was rowed away. There are a number of controversies regarding the duel. Musashi arriving late is seen by some as a way of psychologically upsetting Kojiro to gain an advantage. It is also possible that the late arrival was so timed as to allow the boat to head towards the island of Ganryujima with the tide, then departing with the change in tides. Other theories claim Musashi timed the bout to have the sun in a position whereby Kojiro was at a disadvantage, being blinded. Possibly, if the original timing of 8am was adhered to, that may have been the case, but at 10 or 11am in April the sun is quite high. Either way, it was the last fatal duel Musashi participated in.