Part 7: CHAPTER 4: A New Life - [Part I]

On the run and alone once again, Musashi arrives on the outskirts of Kyoto in search of a safe haven.


Some historical notes:

Kyoto was still the capital of Japan at this point in time (circa 1601AD) and by far the most cosmopolitan part of the country. However, with the new Tokugawa rulers in ascendancy, materiel and funds were beginning to be diverted east toward Edo, later known as Tokyo (a.k.a. the "Eastern Capital"). The Tokugawas used these resources to fortify their lands and the holdings of their allies, while starving the Osakan western powers they had so recently defeated of the materials and labor needed to rebuild and re-arm. In fact, some of the noble lords who had led the opposition at Sekigahara were even ordered to fill in their castle moats so as to decrease the chances of their rebelling - which was, of course, precisely what they were plotting. Spies and recruiters from each side scoured the realms of the other seeking an edge in what both expected to be the eventual final showdown between east and west. Of course, history tells us that showdown, commonly called the Siege of Osaka in 1614, was an even more decisive victory for the Tokugawa clan, but in 1601 that outcome was by no means certain or inevitable.

Although Miyamoto Musashi's flight from the Tokugawa powers following the Battle of Sekigahara is depicted in Yoshikawa's novel and the classic Inagaki film Smaurai I: Miyamoto Musashi, there is no evidence that he was ever a hunted man in reality, and certainly not under suspicion of the peacetime murder of a woman as the game depicts. However, being a westerner and possibly from a family that were traditional retainers to a minor western lord whose clan was destroyed following the battle, he would have been more or less an outcast in the early 17th century.