Part 5: CHAPTER 2: The Trap at Sekigahara

Musashi and Majima make their escape and we learn a new combat style.


Some historical notes:

The historical Miyamoto Musashi made famous a dual-wield style of swordsmanship he called Nitenichi-Ryuu (二天一流), or the "Two Heavens as One Style". The practitioner held his katana/tachi in the right hand and his wakizashi/kodachi in the left. As mentioned in the video, Musashi was not the only person to wield two weapons at once, but he was the most famous and successful person to do so and to leave behind his notes. As he writes in The Book of Five Rings, "It is wrong to hold a sword with both hands.... it is not the True Way to take a stance with a single sword with [two] hands."

Sasaki Kojirou is another famous samurai contemporary with Musashi, although so little is known about the actual man that we can't be completely certain he even existed. Those who know even a little about the legends surrounding Miyamoto Musashi will certainly know Sasaki as his foremost rival, and be familiar with their duel as depicted in film and literature. I didn't have time to get into much about him in this video and I won't have that opportunity for awhile yet, so I'll save further detail here for future videos.